The Plateau State Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission has launched a Metro Bus Awareness Campaign in the Jos-Bukuru metropolis to sensitise residents on sexual and gender-based violence, human trafficking and other vices.
Chairperson of the Commission, Olivia Dazyam, while flagging off the exercise said, “this Commission is mandated to create awareness, and we thought that one way that we can meet the people of Plateau State is to be in the buses with them.”
She also appreciated governor Caleb Mutfwang for the idea behind the metro buses.
According to her, “It afforded us such an opportunity to meet the people of Plateau State and to share with them our responsibilities, and to call on the people to arise to their responsibilities.
Dazyam listed, “child protection”, as a key focus, noting that, “we are beginning to understand a lot of human rights violations of our children.
“Our children are being exposed to child labour, child abuse, human trafficking, withdrawing them from school and sending them to go and serve as house helps.
“Some of them end up being trafficked within and outside the country. Some that have been exposed to human trafficking have ended up as prostitutes, and so we thought that, you know, the kinds of cases we receive at Plateau State Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission.
“We shouldn’t keep quiet with them; we should come out, meet the people of Plateau State, and tell them that these are the things that are already happening”, she maintained.
She said the Commission, went to meet the general manager of the Plateau Express Services Limited, engaged with him.
“We told him that we would require to use the opportunity of the metro buses, so that we can share with the people of Plateau State. And I bet you, such a huge audience in the buses this morning, as we kick started.
“It will continue, we have an itinerary that will go virtually every other day in order to share with the people that we meet, in the buses what we encounter”, she explained.
Dazyam said the campaign began “from Zawan to Terminus, with another group that is already taking the Zawan to Gada biyu-Farin Gada route, sharing the same message to the people of Plateau, that there’s a call of duty upon us.
“His Excellency would want all of us in Plateau State to be available to be active in taking care of our children, we can no longer afford to expose our children, to the different challenges that they go through.
“Our children need to go to school; we need to protect them, let them learn before they earn. They cannot start earning at the wrong time. Let them go to school, stay in school until they acquire certificates that can empower them to get jobs and begin to do something.
She cited a case where a girl who was about to write her SSCE was withdrawn from school.
“In fact, the mother struggled to register her for the exam. They removed her, took her to Ghana. As it is now, we are still looking for her.”
The Chairperson also spoke on sexual abuse within homes: “We’ve spoken to them about sexual abuses, sexual molestation of our young children around, finding such sexual abuses in the home environment, even as mothers, we have always spoken to them, and we say be very watchful, because your husband may be sleeping with your daughter. These are some of the cases that we have.
Dazyam called on residents to act, saying “the message through the agency from His Excellency is that we need to be on duty, taking care of our families.
She noted that, “There is a law that upholds parental irresponsibility by virtue of section 17 of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law. It is a crime, and once you are arrested and prosecuted, it attracts three years imprisonment.
“And I want to use this opportunity to call on the people of Plateau; nobody needs to tell you to take care of your children, but His Excellency has said, go ahead, tell the people. There are so many people that do not mean well for us around, even in our neighborhoods.
“There are people who serve as agents, to withdraw such children and be taking them to places that they are not supposed to be taken to.
She added: “Challenges of prostitution he wants us to say no to these things that are happening in our environment and our slogan is, ‘see something, say something, do something sorted’.” Authority.
