The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Binta L. Adamu Bello, has refuted allegations that the agency abducted children from an orphanage in Delta State.
She clarified that the eight children rescued from the facility in Asaba were victims of a trafficking network that operated across Kano, Delta, and Gombe states.
On September 16, NAPTIP announced the rescue of the minors, believed to have been stolen from northern communities and trafficked to the south.
The operation was carried out in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS), the police, and local civil society groups. It followed years of petitions by parents from Kano and neighbouring states who had reported missing children.
In a statement issued by NAPTIP’s spokesperson, Vincent Adekoye, the agency revealed that traffickers disguised as traders lured children aged between two and ten, transported them overnight, and sold them through illegal adoption networks.
The rescue later sparked controversy on social media, where critics alleged that the children were forcibly removed from the orphanage and subjected to religious conversion. Viral videos also featured women claiming to be mothers of the children, calling for DNA verification.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, Bello said NAPTIP would not fold its arms while “blackmail and false narratives” portrayed a lawful rescue as abduction.
“This was no abduction. It was a legitimate rescue operation backed by intelligence, police collaboration, and our mandate under the Trafficking in Persons Act of 2015. These children were trafficked victims, not adopted wards,” Bello stated.
She explained that the case dated back to December 2022, when the group Protection Against Abduction and Missing Children (PATAMOC) petitioned NAPTIP over mass abductions in Kano. The group alleged that between 2010 and 2019, hundreds of children disappeared without trace.
According to Bello, investigations uncovered shocking details. A woman named Hauwa Abubakar was arrested in Gombe with stolen children. During interrogation, she confessed to selling 21 minors to one Nkechi Odlyne, who in turn sold several of them to Happy Home Orphanage, run by one Christopher Ogugua Nwoye in Asaba, Delta State. Each child, investigators found, was sold for around ₦450,000.
Nwoye was arrested in Gombe, admitted to the transactions, and returned four children. Three were immediately reunited with their parents, while another was later identified by a Kano woman who recognised her long-missing daughter, Aisha Buhari, from circulated photographs.
“This sequence of arrests, confessions, and identifications led us directly to Happy Home Orphanage in Asaba. It was not arbitrary—it was based on intelligence,” Bello explained.
On June 15, 2025, NAPTIP operatives from Abuja and Kano, alongside the chairman of Parents of Missing Children in Kano and armed Delta police officers, stormed the orphanage. At the time, Nwoye was absent, leaving his wife in charge.
The team profiled more than 70 children in the home. Eight were positively identified by the Kano parents’ group chairman, who had photographs of missing children from the state, Bello said.
She noted that no arrests were made that day because the only adult present was Nwoye’s wife, and detaining her would have endangered the other children. Instead, officials left behind a contact number for Nwoye to report himself to NAPTIP.
“All attempts to get him to appear have failed. Instead, he has sponsored a smear campaign, using women to make false claims over the rescued children and branding NAPTIP as kidnappers. This is disgraceful,” she said.
The children were first placed under the care of the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs. But as conflicting claims of parentage emerged from women in both Kano and Delta, NAPTIP transferred them to a secure facility in Abuja.
“These children will remain in our protection until DNA tests and full investigations are completed. We cannot hand them over hastily. Our duty is to safeguard them, not to satisfy competing claims. We are impartial, but we must be thorough,” Bello stressed.
She further warned that anyone found complicit—whether in Kano, Gombe, or Delta—would face prosecution.
Beyond defending the agency’s actions, Bello urged the Delta State Government to launch an independent probe into the Happy Home Orphanage, which she described as engaging in “unwholesome practices.”
“It is alarming that more than 70 children were housed in that facility, many without proper documentation. What kind of orphanage is that? Even the Commissioner for Women Affairs in Delta has admitted to irregularities. This cannot be swept aside,” she concluded.
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