Crisis Breeding Prostitution, Other Vices In Plateau State – CLAPAI Boss

FRANCIS ACHI/ Jos

The periodic crisis rocking Plateau state for some years now has made the state to be a breeding ground for prostitution, child trafficking and other social vices.

This was the submission of Kyenpiya Jessica Nyabam, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Child Love and Protection Advocacy Initiative (CLAPAI).

Speaking exclusively with PM EXPRESS in Jos, Nyabam said that it is a sad reality that a lot of young girls have been lured into a prostitution venture they never bargained for, as they were deceived to relocate  out of remote villages in Plateau state and some neighbouring states with promises that the city will offer them a better life.

“We can’t say poverty is the only reason, but I will say one of the reasons is the crisis in Plateau state. The crisis has been happening in Plateau state for some years now and a lot of people have been attacked in villages . Sadly, the pimps working for the prostitution cartels go to these villages and tell parents that they want to take their children out of the villages and put them in schools or offer the children a better life in the cities, but at the end of the day, the children end up on the streets, ” Nyabam said.

“If you keenly observed the faces of these children, you will notice that these children are between the ages of 12,13,14 and mostly 15 years old. 16 years are even older . You will notice that these children are very very helpless and vulnerable”, she added.

“We go to the streets and we were able to rescue some of the children from these vices. The children are being trafficked and tricked. These children are not into these vices out of their own will.

“Yes. They want to survive. They want to eat. Unfortunately, they are cartels somewhere unleashing these children to go the streets and hawk their bodies , bringing the cartels cash return daily. It is a wicked world out there”, she lamented.

Nyabam, who resigned from a multinational telecom company to start CLAPAI, which  clocked 12 years recently  on a rescue mission to save the Nigerian children off the streets , prostitution, drugs and other vices said that the way forward is for more Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’S) to deploy their staff to the streets to rescue these endangered children and empower them to be in schools and also learn skills that can give them some income.

“The way forward is for more NGOs to go into the streets just like CLAPAI is doing. It will be better for NGOs to go and find a way of talking to these children in order to bring them out of the streets. This is very important.

” It is not for the police or security agencies to pick them or arrest them. When you pick these children from the streets, you need to take them back to school, train them on some skills that will empower them to start earning money with the skills they learnt.

“You must provide them with training or trade that will empower them to take care of themselves as they become integrated back to the normal society”, she said.