Alert: Fake NGOs stealing children

Organised criminal networks are increasingly posing as civil society organisations, humanitarian workers and orphanage representatives to gain access to vulnerable children from poor families across Nigeria — with NAPTIP rescuing over 180 trafficked children from groups operating under the guise of NGOs across five states, Saturday PUNCH reports.

The Oyo State Police Command separately rescued 17 children from an interstate trafficking syndicate operating across Oyo, Ogun and Delta states.

Civil Society Network on Migration and Development member Angela Okoye warned that children taken under such arrangements typically end up as unpaid domestic servants, “vulnerable to maltreatment, abuse, exploitation and other human rights violations.”

NAPTIP spokesperson Vincent Adekoye confirmed heightened surveillance nationwide, with orphanage centres sealed in Delta, Port Harcourt and the FCT based on reasonable suspicions, while police and NSCDC have also intensified anti-trafficking operations.