The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, has broken its silence on the controversial rescue of eight children in Asaba, Delta State, insisting that its operatives acted lawfully and within their mandate, contrary to social media claims labeling the operation an “abduction.”
The Director-General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, made this known during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, detailing its activities in respect of some missing children.
The agency however said that some persons, including Christopher Ogugua, the Proprietor of Happy Home Orphanage, Asaba, Delta State, Hauwa Abubakar and Nkechi Odlyne are currently undergoing prosecution for alleged child trafficking at the High Court 1 Gombe State.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, September 26, 2025, the Director-General of NAPTIP, Bello revealed details of a wider child trafficking network involving at least 21 missing children from Gombe and Kano states, tracing the operation back to a December 2022 petition that triggered the investigation.
“The rescue operation by our operatives at Happy Home Orphanage was not an abduction. NAPTIP does not and will never engage in such condemnable actions,” Bello stated.
“It was a lawful undertaking under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, which empowers the Agency to investigate, rescue, and prosecute cases of trafficking, abduction, and related offences.”
Trafficking network uncovers 21 children sold
The saga began on 16th December 2022, when the group Protection Against Abduction And Missing Children, PATAMOC petitioned NAPTIP about rising child abduction cases in Kano State. Acting on the petition, the Agency’s Kano Zonal Command launched intelligence operations, leading to the arrest of Hauwa Abubakar, a Gombe resident found with stolen children.
Under interrogation, Hauwa admitted to selling 21 children to Nkechi Odlyne, who later sold seven of them to Christopher Ogugua Nwoye, the proprietor of Happy Home Children Orphanage in Asaba, for ₦450,000 each.
Bello disclosed, “Mr. Nwoye admitted his role in the transaction and returned four children. Three were identified by their biological parents,”
While Hauwa and Nkechi remain in prison awaiting trial at High Court 1, Gombe State, Nwoye is currently on bail but facing prosecution.
NAPTIP says the disturbing revelations point to an organised child trafficking ring stretching across multiple states.
The controversy stems from a June 12, 2025 operation in which NAPTIP officers, supported by armed police and members of PATAMOC, stormed the Happy Home Orphanage in Asaba to rescue a child believed to have been abducted from Kano.
The mission was properly documented and a formal request was submitted to the Delta State Commissioner of Police, who directed local law enforcement to support the operation.
Despite the proprietor’s absence, NAPTIP profiled over 70 children on site and identified Aisha Buhari and seven others matching records of missing children.
The children were transferred to a secure NAPTIP shelter amid multiple claims of parentage from women in both Kano and Delta states. Bello emphasised that no child will be released until DNA testing and full investigations are completed.
“We call on anyone claiming these children to present themselves to the Agency for investigation. Resorting to social media blackmail will not help anyone,” she said.
Backlash over eight children rescued
Despite these explanations, Nwoye has refused to honour NAPTIP’s invitations and has instead mobilised public opinion against the Agency, prompting viral posts accusing NAPTIP of “abduction.”
Bello dismissed these claims as baseless attempts to obstruct justice.
Call for accountability
The NAPTIP boss also urged the Delta State Government to investigate the activities of Happy Home Orphanage, citing reports of “unwholesome practices” corroborated by the State Commissioner for Women Affairs.
She reaffirmed NAPTIP’s zero-tolerance stance on trafficking and pledged that the Agency will prosecute all those involved and reunite the rescued children with their rightful families once investigations conclude.
“NAPTIP remains resolute in expeditiously concluding this matter and ensuring justice is served,” Bello concluded.
TEXT OF THE ADDRESS FROM THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE NATIONAL AGENCY FOR THE PROHIBITION OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (NAPTIP), BINTA L. ADAMU BELLO OON AT A MEDIA BRIEFING HELD ON FRIDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER 2025 AT THE NAPTIP HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA.
Good Afternoon gentlemen of the Press
I welcome you to this special briefing on behalf of the Management, Officers and Men of the Agency. Permit me to start by expressing our sincere gratitude to you for the collaboration and partnership existing between us and the support you have given the Agency since my assumption of office as the Director-General a year ago.
The main aim of this briefing is to clarify some issues that have found their way into the media space especially the Social Media in recent weeks against the Agency with regards to an operation carried out by our operatives in Asaba, Delta State in June this year, leading to the rescue of 8 children allegedly stolen from Kano State. That operation has led to negative narratives by various persons including those who were commenting innocently based on their acceptance of the skewed narratives of the suspect who has made himself unavailable to the Agency for proper investigation despite invitations through phone calls and through his Lawyers; Some have even gone ahead to call the Agency unprintable names and dubbed the operation an ‘’abduction’’ by the Agency.
As an Agency of Government that owes the general public and the Government a responsibility to account for our actions, we are making this statement today to clarify and explain to the public everything about that operation bearing in mind that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has a mandate as enshrined in the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act 2015 as a law enforcement Agency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria dealing with all issues of Trafficking in persons and violence against persons and with zero tolerance for unethical practices.
On 16th December, 2022, the Protection Against Abduction And Missing Children (PATAMOC) headed by Comrade Ismail Ibrahim Mohammed wrote a petition to the Director General, NAPTIP entitled: “DEMAND FOR JUSTICE AND ADDRESS THE CHILD ABDUCTION IN KANO STATE AND NIGERIA’’. Based on that petition, the Kano Zonal Command was directed to commence intelligence gathering on the issues contained therein. In the course of their activities, they received an intelligence that one Hauwa Abubakar, a resident of Gombe State was arrested by the Police for being in possession of some stolen children from various locations within Gombe State. On further investigation, she admitted to selling 21 other children to one Nkechi Odlyne who in turn allegedly sold seven (7) of the said children to one Christopher Ogugua Nwoye, (Proprietor of Happy Home Children Orphanage, Asaba, Delta State) at the sum of N450, 000 each.
The said Christopher Ogugua was subsequently arrested in Gombe State, and upon interrogation, he admitted the crime and subsequently returned four (4) children. Christopher Ogugua Nwoye, Hauwa Abubakar and Nkechi Odlyne are currently undergoing prosecution at the High Court 1 Gombe State. While the 2 women are in prison custody, Mr. Nwoye perfected his bail and attending court sessions in Gombe.
Permit me to state that out of the 4 children returned, 3 were identified by their biological parents as indigenes of Gombe State. Photos of the remaining child were forwarded to the National Chairman, Protection Against The Abduction, Missing Of Children In Nigeria, who subsequently circulated the child’s photos on the Association’s WhatsApp platform for identification. Following this, a woman in Kano who is a member of the Association by virtue of her missing child identified the child as her missing child, Aisha Buhari. Before she could identify the child, she had already been returned to the Happy Home orphanage in Asaba where she was brought from.
This situation was therefore, reported to NAPTIP which was already supporting the Kano State Government in searching for the over 600 of its missing Children as a member of the Commission of Inquiry Into the cases of Missing Children in Kano State from year 2010-2019, as well as a member of the Implementation Committee on the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into cases of Missing Children in Kano State.
Based on this new report and the need to rescue Aisha Buhari from the Happy Home Orphanage in Delta state, the Agency on 12th June 2025 dispatched some of its operatives from the Abuja Headquarters and the Kano Zonal Command to Asaba, the Delta State Capital to rescue the girl. The NAPTIP team was accompanied on this mission by the Kano State Chairman of Parents of missing children in the state under the umbrella of PROTECTION AGAINST THE ABDUCTION AND MISSING CHILDREN (PATAMOC) who could identify Aisha and also was in possession of pictures on several missing children from Kano.
For a hitch free operation, and in line with the Agency’s procedures, a letter was submitted to the office of the Delta State Commissioner of Police same day requesting support to the operatives to carry out the operations. In a signal of 13th July, the Deputy Commissioner of Police who acted on the letter sent a signal to the Area Commander, Asaba as well as the Divisional Police Officer, B’ Division directing them to give the NAPTIP team the needed support for the operation which took place on 15th June 2025. The team was therefore, accompanied to the Happy Home Orphanage by armed Police Officers from the B’ Division. After the operations, the team reported back to the Police Division before leaving the State.
At the Orphanage home, the Proprietor was away and the wife could not reach him. Subsequently, a profiling of the over 70 children found there was done and the Chairman of the Association of Missing Children was able to identify Aisha and 7 others whom he had their photographs. As the endless wait for the return of the Proprietor could not continue, the telephone number of the leader of the team was left behind for the Proprietor to call as soon as he arrives from wherever he was. No arrest was made there as the wife was the only adult available at the time and taken her away would cause problems within the facility as a result of the large number of children there including toddlers.
All attempts made to get the Proprietor to make himself available for interview have failed and all he has done is to engage in blackmail against the Agency and organizing women to lay claims to the children who are now in the Agency’s Shelter. The children were initially kept in an open shelter of the Kano State Ministry of Women Affairs but when we saw the need to better protect them based on claims from women in Kano who have identified each of the children to be theirs and counter claims from other women in Delta State, we had to move them to a more protected shelter owned and run by the Agency while investigation continues. Be assured that the Agency will not hand over any of the children to any of the claimants until investigations which includes a DNA are concluded.
It is important to restate that the rescue operation by operatives of the Agency at Happy Home Orphanage was not an abduction as the Agency does not engage in such condemnable action but a lawful undertaking under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, which empowers NAPTIP to investigate, rescue, and prosecute cases of trafficking, abduction, and related offences.
We therefore, call on all those laying claims to the children to make themselves available to the Agency for further investigations. Running around on social media and dragging the Agency through blackmail will not help anyone. We are not for or against anyone making claims over the children now, but they should make themselves available for better investigation. NAPTIP is a law abiding Agency that believes in the Rule of Law in its activities. However, we will also not spear anyone found culpable in this matter.
We are also calling on the Delta State Government to carry out a thorough investigation on the activities of the Happy Home Orphanage to unravel the unwholesome practices going on there as also admitted by the Commissioner for Women Affairs of the State.
The Agency remains resolute in expeditiously concluding investigations on this matter, prosecuting whosoever is culpable and reuniting the rescued children with their lawful families.
Thank you for your attention.
