Akwa Ibom State Government has said that the high rate of trafficking of her children for undignified labour outside is portraying the state in bad light
The state’s Deputy Governor, Moses Ekpo, raised the concern when the newly posted Comptroller of Immigration for the state, George Didel, paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Government House, Uyo.
In a statement by his press secretary, Ekikere Umoh which was made available to our correspondent in Uyo on Saturday, the deputy governor expressed the state government’s readiness to collaborate with NIS, in order to stem the tide of illegal migration and acts of unbridled human trafficking along its vast borders.
According to Ekpo, trafficking of innocent Akwa Ibom people out of the state for undignified labor and other criminal purposes was an issue of critical concern to the state government.
“The governor has been very generous and very keen on anything that touches on the fabrics of the lives of the people, and the issue of illegal migration of the people into servitude, does not give us a good image and does not help the young people who at the end of the day maybe victimized or killed,” the statement read in part.
He warned indigenes of the state to “avoid all forms of illegal migration and take due advantage of the new ECOWAS travelling cards provided by the Immigration Service for their cross-border trading”.
While commending NIS for it taking proactive steps towards ensuring that people does not take advantage of the hospitable nature of the state to commit evil, Ekpo charged the agency to do everything within it power to deploy available manpower at it disposal to patrol the waterways as the state is blessed with the longest coastline, in order to rid the state of such illegal movements.
Besides, he urged the NIS to avail the people with adequate information to know that besides International Passport, cross-border movement can still be done within community’s sub region with the use of the new ECOWAS travelling document.
Speaking earlier, Didel, who was accompanied by his management team, said the aim of his visit was to solicit the support and assistance of the government to enable the state Command perform it’s duties effectively in the state .
He disclosed that with the state’s vast coastline, the Service was severely hampered in covering the state with just one patrol boat and appealed to the state government to assist the service with additional boats and other logistics.
He said “there is high level of migration and trafficking of people out of the state within the coastline of the state, and this had informed our decision to tour the entire state and met with the locals and relevant authorities to discourage the trend”
He said the ECOWAS travelling card was an innovation by the service to enable people have valid entry into countries within the West African sub-region noting that the NIS required the cooperation of the state government to enable it carry out its responsibilities in the state effectively.