The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has arrested a 60-year-old orphanage owner and founder of the National Council of Child’s Right Advocates of Nigeria, in Benue State, over alleged large-scale child trafficking, illegal adoption, and sale of children.
According to a statement released by NAPTIP on Sunday, the suspect, said to be a prominent member of the Orphanage Owners Umbrella Body in Nigeria, was arrested alongside a 34-year-old female accomplice and two other orphanage operators in Abuja and Nasarawa State.
The agency said 26 children were rescued in the operation, while about 274 others are still being traced out of the over 300 allegedly trafficked to Benue, Enugu, Lagos, Nasarawa, and Abuja.
NAPTIP said the arrests followed a complaint filed on May 1, 2025, by a man who alleged that his four-year-old son was given out to an NGO by his mother-in-law without his consent. He was later told he could not see his child again until after three years.
This led to a full investigation that uncovered a network of traffickers operating under a fake initiative known as the “Back to School Project.” The group reportedly targeted children from conflict-prone communities in Benue, such as Daudu, Yelwata, and Ngban in Guma Local Government Area.
The suspects allegedly deceived parents and community leaders by promising to sponsor the children’s education. Many parents were made to sign consent forms or agree verbally to release their children, believing they would return after three years.
NAPTIP said the children, aged between one and thirteen years, were later transported to orphanages in Abuja and Nasarawa, where they were allegedly sold to couples under the guise of adoption for between one million and three million naira per child.
Some of the orphanages identified as part of the syndicate were used as holding centres before the children were handed over to buyers. Four of such facilities located in Kaigini along Kubwa Expressway, Masaka Area 1, and Mararaba in Nasarawa State are currently under investigation.
A complainant told NAPTIP that he paid 2.8 million naira as an adoption fee and an additional 100,000 naira as a consultancy fee to one of the suspects.
NAPTIP said many of the rescued children’s identities had been changed, making it difficult to trace their biological families.
Reacting to the arrests, the Director-General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, described the case as “unbelievable and mind-boggling,” warning that child trafficking and illegal adoption had become a national crisis.
She said, “It is painful that some unpatriotic elements with recognised entities and social status now use their influence to deceive vulnerable people in crisis-prone areas, traffic their children, and sell them to desperate couples in the name of adoption.”
Bello vowed that those arrested would face the full wrath of the law, stressing that no child should ever be treated as a commodity.
“Our children are not commodities to be displayed in orphanages and sold to the highest bidders. This must stop,” she said.
