The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued eight children believed to have been abducted from Kano and other northern states and trafficked to the South-South and South-East by a well-known interstate child trafficking ring.
The children, aged between two and ten, were reportedly found in a privately operated orphanage managed by a senior official of the Association of Orphanage Operators in Nigeria.
According to NAPTIP, over 70 children, including 15 newborns, were discovered at the facility, but only eight have been confirmed as missing children from Kano.
The operation was carried out with the support of the Anambra State Command of the Department of State Services, DSS; the Nigeria Police, Delta Command; and the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs, with the active involvement of civil society organisations and distressed parents.
The Director-General of NAPTIP, Dr Binta Bello, while speaking on the operation, decried what she described as the “unwholesome activities” of some orphanages in the country.
Bello stated that said the breakthrough followed years of lamentations by parents in Kano and neighbouring states, who, as far back as 2017, had raised alarm over syndicates luring children between the ages of two and 10 from schools, markets and neighbourhoods.
She recalled that in December 2022, a Kano-based NGO, Protection Against the Abduction and Missing of Our Children, PATAMOOC, petitioned NAPTIP on behalf of more than 200 affected parents.
“We, the parents, are in serious pain. Some of us are already hospitalised, while others have passed away due to the shock of losing our children and the continuous uncertainty of waiting daily for news — whether they will be found dead or alive,” she said.
