C'River Declares War Against Syndicate Behind Children-On-The-Streets
By Ekanem ASUQUO
The Cross River State government says it is launching a total onslaught against nefarious activities of powerful syndicates behind the alarming trend of children living on the streets especially in Calabar Metropolis.
The state commissioner for Women Affairs,Edema Irom who made the disclosure in Calabar stressed that drastic measures need to be taken to unmask the cartel foisting vulunrable children on the streets for selfish pecuniary benefits,thereby frustrating government efforts in rehabilitating the kids.
Irom who stated this during a media parley said the Otu-led administration is committed to a comprehensive rehabilitation progrmme for the kids to guarantee a bright future for them away from prevailing dangers pose by living in the streets.
In her words, it's the responsibility of the government to protect these children against all forms of molestations and exploitations carried out by cartel exploiting these children for their selfish motives".
"There is a cartel behind some of these children who derive benefit by keeping them on the streets. This is inhuman.
"They give them different names other then their real names to conceal their true identity as part of the indoctrination process intended to paint the streets as a comfort zone while erasing their roots.
" We will approach the issue headlong with our strategy to crack the cartel and take the children off the streets. It wil be an all inclusive option and we are going to be very deliberate in handling the issue," she said.
On plans by her ministry regarding the forthcoming celebration of the International Day of the Boy Child, National Children's Day and Day of the African child, she described the events as significant milestone intended to highlight and profer solutions to nagging issues affecting the boy child.
She averred that " It is our responsibility to also protect the boy child against all kinds of violence, exploitations and molestations since they are also vulnerable to physical, sexual, emotional violence and others'.
She assured that the present administration will work tenaciously to improve on the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey as released by the National Bureau of Statistics which ranked Cross River as the leading state in child molestation and one of the lowest in early child education.
