NAPTIP arrests Federal Medical Centre nurse in possession of trafficked children

Operatives of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have rescued over 180 children allegedly trafficked from five states by organised criminal groups posing as members of civil society organisations, misleading parents in various communities and taken away under false pretences.

Among them were three children allegedly trafficked from a distressed parent in Kajuru, Kaduna state, to Onitsha, Anambra state just as another child was found in the care of a clinical staff member at the Federal Medical Centre, Onitsha.

The development came following the director general of the NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, expressing  concerns about the alarming activities of suspected trafficking syndicates moving from one crisis-ridden community to other and trafficking children under the guise of educational support and back-to-school programmes.

Binta Bello had established a special squad within the Investigation and Monitoring Department a few months ago tasked with recovering children who were allegedly trafficked and bringing the traffickers to justice.

The first batch of recovered children were reportedly taken from various communities in Benue and Nasarawa states and distributed to orphanages in Abuja and other states, where they were sold to unidentified individuals under the guise of adoption, after substantial amounts of money were paid.

The FMC Onitsha nurse confessed Tuesday that she got the child from a prominent orphanage (name withheld) located in Abuja, in 2023 after paying the sum of N771, 000.00.

The NAPTIP boss said: “I am seriously disturbed by the activities of some persons masquerading as members of the Civil Society Organizations, who have been fingered in several issues of child trafficking from across the country.

“I am confident that we have very committed members of the Civil Society Organizations 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.”