NAPTIP rescues 180 child trafficking victims

NAPTIP rescues 180 child trafficking victims

By Ola Taiwo

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said it has rescued more than 180 children who were victims of child trafficking.

The agency said the rescued children were allegedly trafficked from vulnerable communities across five states in the county.

The NAPTIP made the rescue just as a nurse at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Onitsha, Anambra State, has been arrested for allegedly purchasing one of the children for N771,000.

The agency said the rescue operation exposed a suspected child trafficking network operating under the cover of civil society, humanitarian and educational assistance programmes.

The NAPTIP in a statement issued by its spokesman, Vincent Adekoye, said three children allegedly taken from distressed families in Kajuru, Kaduna State, were recovered from a high-rise private building in a choice area of Onitsha.

Another child was recovered from the custody of the arrested nurse at FMC Onitsha.

NAPTIP Director-General, Binta Adamu Bello, said the investigation had revealed a disturbing pattern in which suspected traffickers target communities affected by insecurity and other crises.

She said the suspects allegedly approach vulnerable parents with promises to provide their children with education, welfare and other forms of assistance in urban centres before moving the children away and eventually selling them.

“I am seriously disturbed by the activities of some persons masquerading as members of the Civil Society Organisations, who have been fingered in several issues of child trafficking from across the country,” Bello said.

The NAPTIP boss warned that criminal elements appeared to have infiltrated the civil society space and were exploiting the credibility of legitimate organisations to gain access to vulnerable families.

“It seems that they have been infiltrated by some criminal elements whose mission is to steal and traffic children for various forms of reasons,” she added.

The NAPTIP boss challenged the umbrella body of civil society organisations in Nigeria, particularly groups involved in counter-trafficking activities, to investigate their members and expose anyone involved in criminal activities.

“I want to challenge the umbrella body of the Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria, especially those working closely with us in the counter trafficking space, to carry out in-house cleansing and expose those suspected to be criminal elements among them. They must be flushed out,” she said.

Bello disclosed that NAPTIP had commenced a manhunt for other persons identified during its investigation, stressing that anyone found culpable would face the full weight of the law.

One of the rescued children was reportedly taken from his family in Kajuru three years ago when he was only three years old.

The boy’s father, whose identity was withheld, said gunmen had attacked the community, forcing residents to flee. He said during the displacement, people who claimed to be operating an NGO approached affected families and offered to take their children to the city for educational assistance.

The man said he eventually lost contact with the people and was unable to trace his son.

The child, now six years old, was later identified among those rescued by NAPTIP after his father saw his photograph on the agency’s Facebook page.

“I am overwhelmed with joy because I had initially lost hope of seeing my son,” the father said.

Meanwhile, the agency said the nurse arrested at FMC Onitsha admitted during interrogation that she obtained the child from a prominent orphanage in Abuja in 2023.

NAPTIP said the nurse allegedly confessed to paying N771,000 for the child.

The agency said the discovery was part of a wider investigation into a suspected network through which children allegedly taken from vulnerable families are transferred to orphanages and later sold to individuals under the guise of adoption.