The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued more than 180 children allegedly trafficked from five states across Nigeria by suspected criminal syndicates operating under the guise of civil society organisations.
The agency said the syndicates allegedly moved from one crisis-ridden community to another, offering educational support and back-to-school programmes to win the trust of vulnerable families before taking their children away.
The operation also led to the arrest of a nurse at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Onitsha, Anambra State, who was allegedly found in possession of one of the trafficked children.
In a statement signed by Vincent Adekoye, Head, Press and Public Relations Unit, NAPTIP said the recent rescue involved three children allegedly trafficked from a distressed parent in Kajuru, Kaduna State, and recovered from a high-rise private building in Onitsha. A fourth child was recovered from the care of a clinical staff member at FMC Onitsha.
NAPTIP Director-General Binta Bello had earlier set up a Special Squad within the Investigation and Monitoring Department to probe missing-children cases, rescue trafficked children and prosecute those responsible.
The agency said the first batch of rescued children were allegedly taken from communities in Benue and Nasarawa states, and some were subsequently distributed to orphanages in Abuja and other states, where they were allegedly sold to unidentified individuals under the guise of adoption.
The father of one rescued child said his family was displaced three years ago when gunmen invaded his community in Kajuru. He said individuals claiming to run an NGO offered to take displaced children to the city for education, but he later discovered his son, taken at age three and now six, had been deceived away. He said he found out about the rescue after seeing his son’s photo on NAPTIP’s Facebook page.
The arrested nurse confessed to obtaining a child from a prominent Abuja orphanage in 2023 after paying N771,000.
Bello expressed concern over the alleged involvement of persons masquerading as civil society actors, and called on the umbrella body of civil society organisations in Nigeria to carry out internal cleansing and expose criminal elements within their ranks.
She said NAPTIP had commenced a manhunt for persons named in the investigation and would ensure culpable individuals faced the full wrath of the law.
