Gender Commission rescues 8 underage children, detains 3 traffickers in bust of Jos illegal park

The Plateau State Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission, has rescued eight underage children and arrested 3 suspected traffickers following the discovery of an illegal trafficking motor park operating at Zawan Junction, Jos South LGA of the State.

The Chairperson of the Commission made the disclosure while addressing journalists in Jos, the State Capital on Friday.

Dazyam said she was alerted about the existence of the park and wanted to find out about it.

“The reliable informant told us that the park is located at Zawan junction, Jos South LGA of the State, and she gave me the information that the park operates only on Thursdays and Tuesdays.”

“On Thursdays, they would convey passengers to a location called Sapeteri in Ibadan, Oyo State and according to him, after Thursday, the park won’t operate again until Tuesday. 

“They will now bring back some people, to that park from Ibadan, and drop them there, so I actually got worried”, she explained.

“Together with my colleagues from the Commission, we quickly drove to that area, and we actually saw five vehicles there that were loading, getting ready to travel, and apparently a night journey or something, and I quickly wanted to find out about the legitimacy of that park.”

“In the first instance, of course, it didn’t look like a park to start with, only a pack to the extent that there were vehicles there, and there were persons who looked like passengers. 

“Again, I didn’t like the sight of some of the people that I saw there. Some looked like miners, and I also saw young ladies there who were also about to travel.”

“We quickly called on the Commissioner, Ministry of Transport, to find out from him whether he’s aware of that park and whether the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers were also aware of that, and to my amazement, that is an illegal park.

“I’m happy with the kind of working relationship that we have with the Commissioner, Ministry of Transport, and the attention of the security was quickly drawn to it, and you know, as I speak now, the police is investigating.

Dazyam expressed concern over the years of silence on such abuses, saying, “it would appear that probably, as a result of silence, that we have kept about a lot of things, negative things are happening to us, it has been encouraged, in one way or the other, the continuity of the abuses against us.

According to her, “I’m told that this is a park that has been operating for up to almost 10 years in, I mean, in Zawan Junction, Jos South LGA.”

She said preliminary investigation showed the children were being recruited for mining labour. 

“We have discovered that some of them are young children, you know, persons below 18 years who are about to travel.

“We were told that there is a mining pond, where mining activities are going on in some communities, I think about three communities in Ibadan, where these people are being recruited to go and serve as labourers.”

She added that, “this is a journey that some people organised, and they are the ones who are in charge of the transportation. 

“All of them were to be transported, they are not the ones to pay the transport fare, it is when they arrive, probably they are able to deliver them in Ibadan in the mining communities before they pay them.”

“We were able to rescue 8 underage children, 3 young females who are married to some of the miners, two of the women are even pregnant, and three of the traffickers are here with us.”