The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has proffered transnational partnerships between state and non-state actors as the only way to end slavery in all its forms.

Obaseki made the proposition on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23, 2017, a day set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to memorialise the Transatlantic slave trade.

Obaseki said that while “the transatlantic trade in human beings ended over 200 years ago, slavery has refused to go away as it still thrives in several other forms, with millions of children, teenagers and even adults, sold daily across the world by human traffickers to greedy masters and mistresses who use them for slave labour and turn them into sex slaves.”

He decried the negative backlash of human trafficking on the society which includes the erosion of age-old progressive values such as hard work, integrity, and self-worth and emphasised that international coalition and partnership is needed to put an end to the dehumanising practice.

“In Edo State, our administration is committed to the fight against human trafficking as many Edo youths have lost their lives to the illicit trade. We have set up an Anti-human Trafficking Task-force, to go after human traffickers in the state,” Obaseki said.

He further said that his administration had thrown its weight behind the federal government’s plan to extend the whistle-blowing policy to human trafficking.

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition had its maiden celebration in Haiti on August 23, 1998.

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