The New Apostolic Centre for Development (NCD) has disclosed that 1,079 cases of human trafficking and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) have so far been recorded in 2022 in Edo State.
Speaking during a sensitisation on human trafficking and GBV in Benin, an NCD board member, Victor Oriakhi, said the figure was of cases reported to the Edo State Sexual Assault Referral Centre, also known as Vivian Centre.
He said NCD was implementing its “Agents for Transformation Project” funded by the European Union (EU) aimed at increasing awareness on the dangers of trafficking in persons and improve response to GBV in the state.
He explained that, “Before this programme (Agents for Transformation) in June, 2022, 600 cases were reported to the centre, but as at November 24, the number of cases reported increased to 1,079.”
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He noted that sensitisation had increased the number of people seeking justice against perpetrators of human trafficking and GVB, while pleading with people to summon courage and report cases of human trafficking and GBV so that victims could get justice.