Trafficker lures, sells 15 Nasarawa children

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has disclosed how a suspected member of a human trafficking syndicate allegedly kidnapped 15 minors in Nasarawa State and sold them for N30m.

The NSCDC said the suspect allegedly posed as an official of the National Council of Child Rights Advocates and deceived the children’s parents into handing them over to him.

Public Relations Officer, Babawale Afolabi, disclosed this at a news briefing at the corps’ headquarters in Abuja on Friday.

Afolabi said the suspect operated under the guise of running a nongovernmental organisation and orphanage programme known as the Back to School Project, using promises of free education to lure less privileged parents into releasing their children.

“Under the guise of operating an NGO and orphanage programme called the Back to School Project, he lured willing, less privileged parents into releasing their children with promises of free education,” Afolabi said.

He said the Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad, led by Commander Dandaura Appollos, carried out the rescue operation.

According to Afolabi, 15 of the 16 children allegedly trafficked from Kama Madaki and Gudindi Mada communities in the Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa State were rescued from their alleged buyers.

“Through advanced field tracking, technical intelligence and multi-state tactical sweeps, operatives of the CG’s SIS tracked down the buyers who were from different locations in the country,” he said.

He said three of the victims were rescued in Anambra, Imo and Enugu states, while the remaining 12 were rescued in a coordinated operation across eastern transit routes.

Afolabi added that three suspected buyers, comprising a man and two women, had been arrested in connection with the case.

He said the corps maintained a zero-tolerance policy towards human trafficking and other forms of criminality, adding that suspects found culpable would be prosecuted after the completion of investigations.

The NSCDC spokesman urged members of the public to remain vigilant and report suspected cases of child trafficking to security agencies.(Punch)