By Ngozi Nwankwo
National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, has rescued more than 180 children allegedly trafficked from five states by criminal groups posing as civil society organisations.
The Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, disclosed this recently, saying the syndicates were targeting distressed and crisis-ridden communities under the guise of educational support and back-to-school programmes.
According to her, in the most recent operation, operative’s recovered three children allegedly trafficked from Kajuru, Kaduna State, from a private building in Onitsha, Anambra State.
Another child was found in the care of a clinical staff member at the Federal Medical Centre, Onitsha. The nurse has been arrested.
The nurse confessed to paying N771,000 for the child in 2023 to a prominent orphanage in Abuja, according to NAPTIP.
Bello said the traffickers often approach parents in security-challenged communities; promise education and welfare support, and then disappear with the children who are later sold.
The first batch of rescued children were reportedly taken from communities in Benue and Nasarawa States and distributed to orphanages in Abuja and other states, where they were sold under the guise of adoption.
“From the various confessions of survivors and relations as well as our investigation, these criminal elements use the platform of prominent CSOs to lure and deceive parents, take away their children in the name of educational support, and disappear with them. These children are later sold to the highest bidders,” Bello said.
The NAPTIP DG called on the umbrella body of Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria to carry out an internal cleansing and expose criminal elements infiltrating the sector.
“I am confident that we have very committed CSOs working in the humanitarian and counter-trafficking space. But it seems they have been infiltrated by criminal elements whose mission is to steal and traffic children,” she said.
“They must be flushed out. On our part, we have commenced a manhunt for those mentioned in our investigation, and we shall ensure they face the full wrath of the law.”
One father, whose 3-year-old son was taken three years ago during an attack in Kajuru, said he was reunited with the now 6-year-old child after seeing his picture on NAPTIP’s Facebook page.
“I had lost hope. I thank the Director General and officers of NAPTIP for rescuing my son. This is just like a dream,” he said.
NAPTIP said it set up a Special Squad within its Investigation and Monitoring Department a few months ago following reports of missing children across the country.
