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This followed a raid on a popular orphanage in Asaba, the Delta State capital.
NAPTIP’s spokesperson, Vincent Adekoye, revealed the development in a statement titled, ‘NAPTIP rescues eight suspected stolen children from a popular orphanage in Asaba.’
The agency said the operation, conducted with the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police, and local civil society groups, followed years of complaints from parents in Kano and neighbouring states over missing children.
According to the statement, syndicates posing as traders allegedly lured children aged between two and 10 from their communities and transported them to the South, often vanishing overnight.
“In 2017, some parents in Kano and other states in the region raised an alarm on the unwholesome activities of some syndicates who move from one community to another, luring children mostly between the ages of two years to 10 years and trafficking them to other parts of the country.
“The investigation revealed that the syndicates operating under the guise of traders typically work in two batches.
“While a syndicate normally lives briefly within such a community, gets used to the children, and later disappears with them, others come in as traders and operate from parks and terminals, where they lure unaccompanied children on their way to school and errands,” it read.
In the Asaba orphanage, operatives found over 70 children, including newborns, though only eight were confirmed as those abducted from Kano.
They have since been reunited with their families, the agency confirmed.
“The rescued children were identified through their pictures and other features by the representative of the concerned parents from Kano State, out of the over 70 children found inside the orphanage, including neonates,” the statement quoted NAPTIP’s Director General, Binta Bello, as saying.
“NAPTIP is seriously worried over the unwholesome activities of these so–called orphanages and care homes. Imagine over 70 children inside an orphanage, and the number keeps increasing daily.
“The big question is, where are these children from?” she queried.
The activities of orphanages in Nigeria have increasingly come under public scrutiny in recent years, following investigations by journalists and campaigners into child trafficking rings.
NAPTIP’s Chief, Bello, explained that the rescued children were identified through photographs and distinguishing features by representatives of the affected parents from Kano, out of more than 70 children, including newborns, discovered in the orphanage.
She expressed deep concern over what she described as the unwholesome activities of some orphanages and care homes, questioning the origins of the large number of children housed in such facilities.
Bello accused the operator of the orphanage of evading investigation by turning to social media to spread falsehoods against the agency, instead of presenting himself to NAPTIP’s Kano Zonal Command.
She clarified that operatives met the owner’s wife during the raid but did not arrest her since she was not the target, and that contact information was left behind for the owner to reach the agency.
She commended the DSS, the police, and other partners for their collaboration, stressing that the operation underscored NAPTIP’s commitment to combating child trafficking, protecting vulnerable children, and ensuring justice in line with the law.
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