UPPER EAST POLICE BARE TEETH (PAGE 43, MAY 31, 2010)

THE Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service in the Upper East Region has vowed to ensure that persons who flout the laws are brought before the law courts and dealt with accordingly.
Human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes that can be perpetrated by any person against a fellow human being.
A survey conducted by the police in the region showed that in some cases, parents received payments and other benefits and in return gave their consent for the vulnerable children to be trafficked down south and sometimes across the borders to be used as house helps or engage in prostitution at the expense of their education.
Opening a stakeholders meeting on human trafficking in Bolgatanga, the Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Bright Oduro, said in most cases, the victims were children and women who were the poorest and least educated.
He said the police would not sit idle and allow the perpetrators to have a field day but they would deal drastically with the social menace.
Mr Oduro appealed to the chiefs, opinion leaders, religious groups and child rights organisations to assist the newly-established unit, with jurisdiction over the Northern and Upper West Regions, to ensure that those who engaged in human trafficking were apprehended and prosecuted.