The chairman of Bassa local government area of Plateau state, Sunday Riti, has received over 20 children trafficked from the area to the eastern, southern and western states of the country.
Riti disclosed this during a media parley with journalists organised at the weekend by the Directorate of Research, Planning, and Media, held at the Council Chambers in Bassa local government secretariat.
He said the council has topped the list of the local government areas in the state faced with the menace of child trafficking, underscoring the need for collaborative efforts to address the challenge.
The council chairman who pointed that the local government has suffered from years of neglect and deprivation, stressed the need for concerted efforts by his administration to rebuild the local council area irrespective of religious, ethnic and political differences.
“Bassa is number 1 or 2 in the list of local governments with the highest cases of child trafficking. Just a few weeks ago, about 14 children were brought back to Bassa, the Council, in collaboration with the Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission, as well as the Ministry of Women Affairs.
Riti lamented that the children trafficked from Bassa had their identity changed by the traffickers, adding that the children were taken to Enugu, Port-Harcourt, Lagos, among other places, where their identities were changed.
He said the council will come up with a task force that will intensify efforts in tracking the harvesting of children by the traffickers as well as addressed the menace of children in mining with the aim of punishing the parents of those school children found at mining site.
While commenting on the bad road leading to the local government area, Riti maintained that contract litigation has affected the completion of the road for over decade putting the people in an unimaginable suffering over the years.