NAPTIP Busts Illegal Asaba Orphanage, Rescue  70 Children

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, on Tuesday September 16, 2025, announced the rescue of eight children suspected to have been trafficked from Kano to Asaba Delta State.

According to the Agency, the eight teenagers, believed to have been stolen between 2017 and 2022, were among over 70 trafficked persons recently rescued by a combined team of  operatives of Department of State Service, DSS, the Nigeria Police, the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs, Civil Society Organizations and Concerned parents at an Orphanage in the  Delta state capital.

In a statement from  its spokesperson, Vincent Adekoye, the NAPTIP informed that  the operation was sequel to a plethora of petitions filed by some Kano parents alleging that their children, especially those between the ages of two and 10 years were abducted and relocated to other parts of the country.

Consequently, the agency, according to him, deployed its surveillance team, and based on the intelligence gathered, sent out a combined operational team, that busted the illegal Asaba Orphanage.

“During the operation, more than 70 children, including new borns, were found in the Orphanage, but only eight were confirmed to have been from Kano. They have since been reunited with their families”, the NAPTIP spokesperson stated.

This is as the agency’s Director -General, DG Binta Adamu Bello described the Asaba findings as deeply disturbing.

She expressed serious concern that some Orphanages  in the country have turned themselves into safe havens for child  trafficking syndicates .

To mitigate the ugly situation,  Bello called on the State’s Ministries of Women Affairs and Child Development to close-monitor the activities of Orphanages operating in their States.