The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it has rescued more than 180 children allegedly trafficked from five states by criminal groups posing as civil society organisations and offering educational support to families affected by insecurity.
Vincent Adekoye, Head of Press and Public Relations Unit at NAPTIP, disclosed this in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja.
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Mr Adekoye said the latest operation led to the recovery of three children allegedly taken from a displaced family in Kajuru, Kaduna State, and another child found in the care of a nurse at the Federal Medical Centre, Onitsha, Anambra State.
The development follows findings by PREMIUM TIMES that more than 300 children were allegedly taken from Yelewata, Daudu and Agban communities in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State in 2024 after individuals presented themselves as operators of a “Back-to-School” programme for vulnerable children.
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Parents interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES said they were promised that their children would receive free education, food, and accommodation, and would return home during the Christmas and Easter holidays. Instead, many of the children were allegedly taken to orphanage homes in Abuja and Nasarawa State before being dispersed to other locations.
NAPTIP said the first batch of children recovered during its latest operation included children allegedly taken from communities in Benue and Nasarawa states. The agency said some were subsequently distributed to orphanages, where they were allegedly sold to individuals under the guise of adoption.
The agency’s investigation into the Benue operation had previously linked Anderson Archibong, Executive Secretary of the National Council of Child Rights Advocates of Nigeria (NACCRAN), to the alleged trafficking network.
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According to NAPTIP, the latest operation shows that similar methods are being used in other conflict-affected communities.
“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, seriously disturb me,” NAPTIP Director-General Binta Adamu Bello said.
She said criminal elements had infiltrated civil society organisations and were exploiting the credibility of legitimate organisations to gain access to vulnerable families.
“From the various confessions of survivors and their relations as well as the investigation by NAPTIP, these criminal elements often use the platform of prominent and popular Civil Society Organisations to lure and deceive parents from security-challenged communities and villages, take away their children in the name of educational support, and disappear into thin air with the children,” Mrs Bello said.
“These children are later sold, allegedly to the highest bidders. This is criminal, and it is a direct way of adding more sorrow to already traumatised families.”
The agency said the latest operation was carried out by a special squad established within its Investigation and Monitoring Department following reports of missing and trafficked children across the country.
NAPTIP said the squad had been working to trace children allegedly removed from vulnerable communities and bring those responsible to justice.
One of the children recovered in the latest operation was reportedly taken from Kajuru when he was three years old. His father said the family had been displaced by armed attacks when people claiming to run an NGO approached them and offered to take their children to the city for education.
“We never knew that they deceived us. They tricked us and took our children away,” the father said.
The child is now six years old, according to NAPTIP.
The father said he discovered that his son had been rescued after seeing his photograph on NAPTIP’s Facebook page.
“I am overwhelmed with joy because I had initially lost hope of seeing my Son,” he said. “It is a mixture of joy and sadness for me because he looks very unkempt, unhappy, and it appears that he is being used as house help. On the other hand, I am happy that I am seeing him alive.”
In another case, NAPTIP said a nurse at the Federal Medical Centre, Onitsha, was found with one of the trafficked children. The nurse reportedly told investigators that she obtained the child from an orphanage in Abuja in 2023 after paying N771,000.
NAPTIP did not name the orphanage.
READ ALSO: Owed workers allegedly attempt selling employer’s child – NAPTIP
The agency’s latest disclosure reinforces a central finding of the PREMIUM TIMES investigation: conflict-displaced families are being targeted by people who use promises of education, welfare and protection to gain their trust.
In the Benue case, NAPTIP said more than 300 children aged between about one-and-a-half and 13 years were allegedly removed from Yelewata, Daudu and Agban. So far, the agency has said it has rescued 105 children linked to that operation, with 101 reunited with their families and four still in its custody.
Mrs Bello urged Nigeria’s umbrella body for civil society organisations, particularly groups working in humanitarian and counter-trafficking efforts, to investigate members suspected of involvement in trafficking.
“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,” she said. “They must be flushed out.”
She said NAPTIP had begun a manhunt for suspects identified through its investigations.
“On our own part, we have commenced a manhunt for those mentioned in our investigation, and we shall ensure that they are made to face the full wrath of the Law,” Mrs Bello said.
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