By Favour Ulebor, Abuja
The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Binta Adamu Bello, has dismissed claims that its operatives abducted children during a June operation in Asaba, Delta State, insisting the mission was a lawful rescue exercise.
Speaking at a media briefing on Friday in Abuja, Bello explained that the operation led to the rescue of eight children allegedly stolen from Kano State. She said misleading social media reports had sought to misrepresent the intervention as abduction.
The case, she noted, began in December 2022 when the Protection Against Abduction and Missing Children (PATAMOC) petitioned NAPTIP over rising child abductions in Kano. Investigations revealed that one Hauwa Abubakar of Gombe State, arrested by police, had sold 21 children to an associate, Nkechi Odlyne, who allegedly resold seven of them to Christopher Ogugua Nwoye, proprietor of Happy Home Orphanage in Asaba, at ₦450,000 each.
According to Bello, four of the recovered children were identified by their biological parents in Gombe and Kano, including one girl, Aisha Buhari, whose case had been widely circulated by PATAMOC. To rescue her, NAPTIP operatives, supported by the Delta State Police Command, conducted the Asaba operation on June 12, 2025.
“At the orphanage, over 70 children were profiled, and eight were positively identified through photographs, including Aisha. No arrest was made at the facility because only the proprietor’s wife was present,” Bello stated.
She added that Nwoye was later arrested in Gombe, admitted to the crime, and returned four children. He, along with Abubakar and Odlyne, is currently facing trial at the Gombe State High Court. While the two women remain in custody, Nwoye is out on bail.
The DG stressed that NAPTIP followed due process, securing police support ahead of the operation. She revealed that armed officers accompanied the team to ensure order, dismissing allegations of foul play.
“The operation was not an abduction as the Agency does not engage in such condemnable acts but a lawful rescue under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015,” Bello clarified.
She said the rescued children remain in NAPTIP protective custody, with DNA tests ongoing to confirm parentage before reunification.
Bello also urged the Delta State Government to investigate Happy Home Orphanage, noting reports of irregularities in its operations.
“The Agency remains committed to expeditiously concluding investigations, prosecuting those found culpable, and reuniting the children with their lawful families,” she assured.
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