- Agency says suspected trafficking networks targeted crisis-hit communities with promises of educational assistance
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 members of civil society organisations.
The agency said the suspects allegedly targeted parents in vulnerable communities by offering educational support and back-to-school programmes before taking the children away under false pretences.
The arrests and rescue operations followed concerns raised by NAPTIP Director-General Binta Adamu Bello over the activities of suspected trafficking syndicates targeting crisis-affected communities.
Bello said the syndicates moved from one distressed community to another, allegedly taking children under the guise of providing educational assistance.
According to the NAPTIP director-general, the agency established a special squad within its Investigation and Monitoring Department to recover trafficked children and ensure that suspects are prosecuted.
Among those rescued were three children allegedly taken from a distressed parent in Kajuru, Kaduna State, and moved to Onitsha, Anambra State.
Another child was reportedly found in the care of a clinical staff member at the Federal Medical Centre in Onitsha.
NAPTIP said the nurse, who was questioned on Tuesday, told investigators that she obtained the child from a prominent orphanage in Abuja in 2023 after paying ₦771,000.
The agency did not disclose the name of the orphanage.
NAPTIP said the first batch of children recovered by the special squad had allegedly been taken from communities in Benue and Nasarawa states and moved to orphanages in Abuja and other states.
Bello said some of the children were allegedly sold to unidentified individuals under the guise of adoption after money had changed hands.
She expressed concern over the alleged involvement of people posing as members of civil society organisations in child trafficking.
“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,” she said.
“I am confident that we have very committed members of the civil society organisations in Nigeria working in the humanitarian and counter-trafficking space.
“But it seems that they have been infiltrated by some criminal elements whose mission is to steal and traffic children for various forms of reasons.”
Bello said NAPTIP would continue efforts to identify and dismantle the networks allegedly involved in the trafficking and reunite rescued children with their families where possible.
The allegations reported by NAPTIP have not been independently established by The Times Nigeria. The agency said its investigations and prosecutions would continue.
Source: TheCable