Human Trafficking: Edo Diaspora Community backs  Benin Monarch’s orders, lauds Obaseki’s tough stance

As more Edo people and groups in the country throw their weight behind the orders of the Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo N’ Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, Edo people in the diaspora have expressed their support for the orders and curses of the Monarch and the state government’s tough stance on human trafficking.

President, Edo Global Organisation, Dr. Stephen E.O. Ogbonmwan, a frontline pan-Edo cultural group, with members spread across various countries of the world, said the drastic times the Edo people found themselves called for the drastic measures.

The United Kingdom-based Consultant Obstetrician, said: “What happened in the Palace shows the concern of the Omo N’Oba about the current negative trend in Edo land. We need more of such actions from religious, political and traditional leaders to stop our youths on the sliding slope to self destruction, greed, excessive love for money and the get-rich-quick syndrome, to come back to the straight and narrow path.”

Ogbonmwan decried “the behaviour of the ‘madams’ (traffickers) and the attitude of our young women, which made many of us ashamed in the Diaspora, hence we were working relentlessly to support the young ones on the right path to success to show to the world that Edo People are not bad people.”

He explained that “the love of money, more than the love and care for our fellow brothers and sisters and greed, degenerated to a point where brothers were selling brothers into slavery or ‘grassing on them’ by sending armed robbers and kidnappers on their brother’s trail. It is to reverse these ugly trends that we in Edo Global Organisation support our Oba.

“Drastic issues call for drastic measures in the language our people understand. It shows how very well the Palace understands the current issues affecting our people.”

He noted that “with the Edo State government’s tough stance against illegal migration, the involvement of Omo N’Oba and the event in the Palace a few days ago, we have seen the final nails on the coffin of illegal migration and prostitution which are organised crimes against our young men and women.”

On the efforts by his organisation to check the menace, Ogbonmwan said “in July last year, we organised an international conference to draw attention to it. The effort was lauded by the United Nations and the European Union. We wrote petitions that went viral on the internet.”

He urged Edo youths to embrace the several opportunities in the state, to improve their lives and become respected citizens of the nation.