Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency, NAPTIP, says it has dismantled a large child trafficking and illegal adoption network that operated between Benue State and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons said 26 children had so far been rescued, while more than 270 others were still being traced. The agency described the operation as one of the biggest trafficking syndicates uncovered in recent years.
According to NAPTIP’s spokesperson, Vincent Adekoye, the children, aged between one and 13 years, were allegedly taken from crisis-hit rural communities in Benue State under a fraudulent initiative known as the “Back to School Project.”
The traffickers reportedly convinced parents that their children were being sponsored for education, only to later sell them for sums ranging between one and three million naira each.
Adekoye said, “The syndicate preyed on vulnerable families, recruiting children from areas affected by insecurity in Benue and moving them to Abuja, Nasarawa, Enugu, and Lagos.”
He added that investigations revealed how trafficked children were laundered through multiple orphanages, with their identities changed using fake birth certificates and other forged documents.
A 60-year-old woman, identified as the founder of the National Council of Child Rights Advocates of Nigeria, was arrested alongside three accomplices. She is accused of running several orphanages in Abuja and Nasarawa used to facilitate illegal adoptions.
Four orphanages linked to the group have since been sealed by authorities in Kaigini, Kubwa Expressway, Masaka, Abacha Road, and near Mararaba International Market.
The case came to light in May when a father reported that his four-year-old son had been given away by his mother-in-law to an NGO without his consent. The NGO allegedly told him he could only see the child again “after three years.”
NAPTIP’s Director-General, Professor Binta Bello, described the findings as “unbelievable and mind-boggling,” warning that child trafficking and illegal adoptions had become a national crisis.
“This is unacceptable,” Bello said. “Our children are not commodities to be sold to the highest bidder. Those involved will face the full wrath of the law.”
She called on state governments to strengthen monitoring of orphanages and faith-based child-care centres, noting that some operators with social influence were exploiting vulnerable families for profit.
NAPTIP says it is working to locate and reunite the remaining 274 missing children with their families, while prosecutions are expected to follow.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) lists Nigeria among Africa’s top five source countries for child trafficking, with many victims ending up in forced labour, illegal adoptions, or domestic servitude.