By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, has rejected claims of abduction of children from a Delta State Orphanage.
The Source reports that the agency had, on June 15, 2025, conducted operation at an Asaba based Orphanage during which it’s officials and security operatives claimed to have rescued no fewer than 70 Children, among whom were eight indigenes.
However, a few days after the acclaimed rescued children were handed over to the Kano State authorities, the Proprietor of the Orphanage through some human rights activists and civil society organizations, CSOs, raised the alarm and pointedly accused NAPTIP of illegally raiding and abducting children from the South and handing them over to a Northern State.
Specifically, one of the concerned individuals, a lawyer, had, in addition to accusing NAPTIP of abducting Christian children and handing them over to Muslim families in the North, called for DNA tests to ascertain the parental status of the children.
But at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday September 26, 2026, the Director General, DG, of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu, insisted that the June 15 2025 ,Asaba Orphanage rescue effort was not an abduction as being widely claimed.
According to her, the rescue operation was a lawful exercise undertaken after the receipt of some petitions.
“Let me restate here that the rescue operation in Asaba was not an abduction. It was a lawful, coordinated operation, backed by intelligence, conducted with the Police, and in line with our mandate.
“Blackmail and misinformation will not deter us”, the NAPTIP DG stated.
According to her, the eight children taken to Kano and initially kept with the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs facility, has since been relocated to a more secure NAPTIP facility.
She explained that the relocation became necessary in the face of conflicting and multiple parental claims from women in Kano.
Adamu informed that the agency has in view of the conflicting parental claims, decided on the conduct of DNA tests before finally handing over the rescued children.
“We are not for, or against any claimants. The only way forward is a thorough investigation backed by science. Until then, the children will remain under our protection”, Adamu insisted.
Giving an insight into the Delta State operation, the DG noted that the exercise was in response to a petition received on December 16,2022 from the Protection Against Abduction and Missing Children PATAMOC signed by Comrade Ismail Ibrahim Mohammed.
According to her, the petition entitled “Demand for Justice and Address the Child Abduction in Kano State and Nigeria” underscored widespread cases of missing children.
” Based on this petition, NAPTIP’s Kano Zonal Command began intelligence gathering which led to the discovery of a child trafficking syndicate.
“A woman identified as Hauwa Abubakar of Gombe State was arrested by the Police after being found with stolen children.
“She confessed to selling 21 children to an accomplice, Nkechi Odlyne, who, in turn, sold seven of them to Mr Christopher Ogugua Nwoye , proprietor of Happy Home Children’s Orphanage Asaba. Each child was reportedly sold for N450,000.
” Nwoye, arrested in Gombe, confessed to the crime, and returned four children. Alongside Abubakar and Odlyne, he is currently facing prosecution at a Gombe State High Court.
“While the two women are remanded in prison,bNwoye is out on bail but attending trial.
“Of the four children returned, three were confirmed by their biological parents in Gombe state. The photograph of the fourth child was circulated by PATAMOC leading to her identification by a woman in Kano as her missing daughter, Aisha Buhari.
“This prompted NAPTIP to step in, especially, as it was already assisting the Kano State Government in its probe of over 600 missing children between 2010 and 2019.
“So on June 12 2025, NAPTIP dispatched operatives from its Abuja Headquarters and Kano Zonal Command to Asaba.
“The team was joined by the Kano State Chairman of Parents of Missing Children under PATAMOC, who could identify Aisha and had photographs of several children.
“For transparency and security, NAPTIP sought and obtained official support from Delta State Police Command.
“At the facility where over 70 Children were kept, the proprietor was absent and only his wife was present.
“After profiling the children, PATAMOC’s Chairman identified Aisha, and seven others. No arrest was made at the scene to avoid chaos, but NAPTIP left its contact for the proprietor to respond”, Adamu noted .
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
