...Rescues 26
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons on Sunday said it has uncovered a large-scale child trafficking and illegal adoption syndicate operating out of Benue State and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The operation, which involved field teams in Nasarawa, Lagos and Enugu, led to the rescue of 26 trafficked children, out of more than 300 reportedly sold across multiple states for between ₦1 million and ₦3 million per child.
A statement by the Agency’s Chief Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, read “About 274 others are still being traced, as investigations intensify to unravel the full extent of the syndicate’s activities,” .
Adekoye revealed that the operation also led to the arrest of a 60-year-old orphanage owner and founder of a well-known non-governmental organisation, .
The suspect, a prominent member of the Orphanage Owners’ Umbrella Body in Nigeria and founder of the National Council of Child Rights Advocates of Nigeria, was arrested alongside three alleged accomplices in a coordinated sting led by NAPTIP’s Makurdi Command.
According to the Agency, the syndicate disguised itself as a humanitarian initiative called the “Back to School Project”, a front used to deceive crisis-ridden communities in Benue’s Guma Local Government Area into surrendering their children for supposed educational sponsorship.
Parents were deceived into signing consent forms or verbally agreeing to release their children, with promises that they would see them again after three years. Over 300 children were reportedly handed over to the suspects. Some parents were unaware or did not sign any consent forms.
The children, aged between one and thirteen years, were transported to orphanage homes in Abuja and Nasarawa States, where they were allegedly sold to interested couples under the guise of adoption for amounts ranging from ₦1m to ₦3m per child.”
NAPTIP said the children’s identities were altered to frustrate tracing efforts, with new names and fabricated birth records issued through some complicit officials.
Four orphanages linked to the network, located along Kaigini, Kubwa Expressway, Abuja; Masaka Area 1, Abacha Road, Mararaba; and behind the International Market, Mararaba, have been sealed pending investigation.
NAPTIP’s Director-General, Binta Bello, condemned the operation as “unbelievable and mind-bugling,” calling it a “national crisis” that demands urgent government and public response.
“This is unacceptable, and those already arrested in connection with this wicked act shall be made to face the full wrath of the law.“Our Children are not commodities to be displayed in Orphanages and sold at will to the highest bidders. This must stop”, the NAPTIP Boss stated.
A 2023 report by UNICEF and NAPTIP estimated that thousands of children are trafficked each year through fake orphanages, often in collaboration with corrupt officials who falsify adoption papers.
Punch/Adebukola Aluko
