NAPTIP Busts Children Trafficking Gang In Niger

Niger State Command of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued six victims of children trafficking including few days  old set of twins and  arrested seven members of the syndicate .

LEADERSHIP gathered that the arrested suspects were members of a syndicate who are social welfare workers that usually capitalise on the vulnerable economic situation of the parents to lure  them to give up their children for education and government care.

It was learnt that the rescued victims included twins taken few days  after they were born but now three months old. They were taken to  Lagos , Abia and Anambra to some unnamed people before NAPTIP operators caught up with them based on the complaints received from one of the parents.

The state commander of NAPTIP, Mr. Emmanuel Awhen, confirmed the incidents  saying that some of the rescued victims were reunited with their parents.

He explained that ” The case began after the mother of the twins reported that a female staff member of the Social Welfare Department in Bida had taken the babies a day after their birth under the pretext that the government intended to assist in raising them.

“investigations revealed that the babies had been sold through a nurse at the Federal Medical Centre Bida to two individuals in Lagos and Anambra states. The agency subsequently recovered the twins and reunited them with their biological mother.”

Awhen further disclosed that ongoing investigations uncovered another related case involving the same suspects, who allegedly deceived a beggar in Bida by posing as government officials willing to support the upbringing and education of her children.

The commander said  four children were taken from the beggar, two of whom were kept by the suspects as domestic helpers, while the other two were sold through the same nurse and her associate to individuals in Abia and Anambra states.

He added that the two children kept by the suspects were later returned to their parents during the course of the investigation saying  that seven suspects, including a staff member of the Bida Local Government Council’s Social Welfare Department, have been arrested in connection with the cases.

Speaking on the development, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Hadiza Idris Kuta, commended NAPTIP for its swift response in rescuing the victims and reuniting them with their families.

Mallam Mu’azu Halilu, the father of the children, expressed gratitude to NAPTIP and the state government for rescuing his children, who had been taken from him and  pledged to take proper care of the children henceforth.