There is an increase in number of cases involving organ harvesting and child exploitation in the country, says Roost Foundation, a counter trafficking and sexual and gender based violence group.

“We have seen a lot of cases that people refer to as ritual murders, but in my opinion, those are cases of organ harvesting. There is a lot of organ harvesting going on now,” Julie Okah-Donli, Executive Chairman of Roost said on Monday.

Speaking in an interview to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the foundation, Mrs Okah-Donli said “I believe these guys are into buying and selling of organs. We need to raise a lot of awareness which is what we are doing in this foundation.”

The onetime Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said her advocacy group has “started raising awareness on organ harvesting because people are very ignorant about it.”

According to Mrs Okah-Donli, the use of children for labour and exploitation has seen children being parcelled, and sent ahead in buses with no one suspecting.

“The receiver is usually at the motor park waiting to receive the child like a way bill of goods or property. That is how children are trafficked now and people do not know what is going on,” she said.

Mrs Okah-Donli stated that in the last one-year her foundation had recorded successes, with many cases of human trafficking and gender based violence that was reported by victims to the Roost Foundation, referred to NAPTIP for onward action.

(NAN)