In June 2021, DATELINE.NG published the story of one Ruqayya Yusuf, who was stolen from her parents when she was only three years old, converted to another religion and married off at the age of 13. By the time she returned home, both her father and mother had died after years of searching for their stolen child.
Since then, hundreds other children have been criminally separated from their parents by organised crime syndicates, making child trafficking a serious issue in Nigeria. Many children are being stolen and sold daily through various criminal means, including illegal adoptions.
Going through social media accounts of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) will perhaps bring this social malaise to the fore. Everyday one reads about rescue of stolen children and arrest of suspects, all highlighting the devastating impact of child trafficking on families.
Stolen children are being sold for as little as N500,000 to N1 million, sometimes based on the gender. The involvement of supposed orphanages and social development centers in this illicit trade is particularly disturbing. These organizations are meant to help vulnerable children, not exploit them for financial gain as is often the case today.
The March 2025 arrest of a female cement truck driver, Hasana Jacob, and six others for allegedly running a child trafficking syndicate made newspaper headlines and social media commentaries. Hasana Jacob, 33, from Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, was leading an interstate human trafficking gang that specialized in the stealing and trafficking of children from one part of Nigeria to the other.
She was arrested along with the branded cement truck together with the six other suspected members of her gang namely Aisha Suleiman, Murtala Tanimu, Shamsu Tanimu, Adamu Jacob, Abubakar Ahmed, and Ali Muhammed, in Abuja by the operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) while trying to sell off a 3-year-old girl that was stolen from Damaturu, Yobe State.
According to a statement by NAPTIP at the time, Hasana Jacob and her accomplices specialized in stealing children from the ages of one and above and selling them to at the rate of N600,000 each. The syndicate allegedly has membership across the country with different roles. Some members hunt and lure victims to the truck terminal where they will be picked up by Hasana, others arrange buyers at any of the terminals even before the arrival of the victim, making it fast for the gang leader to dispose of the stolen child and collect her money.
But how many other traffickers are still operating undetected, how many compromised security agents are working with criminals to escape justice. We need to go to the root causes of child trafficking, including poverty, weak security, and fake adoption agencies. We need to strengthen laws and enforcement against human trafficking, provide support and resources for families and communities affected by child trafficking, raise awareness about the risks and consequences, and encourage community involvement and reporting of suspicious activities
By working together, we can help protect Nigeria’s children and prevent the devastating impact of child trafficking on families and communities.
