Benue State Action Committee on COVID-19 on Monday busted a camp housing persons believed to have been trafficked into the state from some northern states of the country.
Deputy Governor of the State and Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Benson Abounu led a taskforce of the Committee to the camp located at Nos. 12 and 13 Adikpo Street in what is popularly known as the Hausa Quarters area of Makurdi.
Discovered at the camp were large numbers of youths mostly in their early 20s living in tightly clustered conditions in gross violation of social distancing requirements.
When interviewed, a number of the youths admitted to having been brought into the state from a number of northern states for purpose of seeking work.
Their host (names withheld) admitted that he usually receives the youths from all over the north and houses them to enable them ply such artisan trades as tailoring, shoe-making and the likes in the state.
He, however, claimed he has not received any new influx of the youths since the COVID-19 lockdown on the state was imposed.
READ ALSO: NAPTIP arrests notorious human trafficker, rescues 3 victims
But residents in the area contended that there has been a daily influx of the youths to the camp even after the imposition of the lockdown.
They said that the youths are usually smuggled in late at night on vehicles transporting goods such as food items and other essential consumer items.
An Emergency Response team of the Benue COVID-19 Committee took the vital signs of the youths after which they were taken into Isolation for further evaluation in line with established Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Protocols.
Mr. Abounu also led the Committee to visit other potential camps at the Food Items Loading and Offloading Park on Lagos Close and on Bauchi Street all in the same Hausa Quarters area.
The Deputy Governor further directed that regular security patrols be mounted to police the entire Hausa Quarters area, adding that same measures will be applied to any area where there is violations of the lockdown.
