- Adamu Salihu, the state NSCDC Commandant, disclosed that the victims, aged between 10 and 16, included five girls and 11 boys from Zing and Bali Local Government areas
The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Taraba Command apprehended two suspects trying to traffic 16 children at Jalingo Main Motor Park on Thursday.
The suspects, identified as Daniel Madin and Federation Markus, were en route to Benin in Edo with the 16 children.
Adamu Salihu, the state NSCDC Commandant, disclosed that the victims, aged between 10 and 16, included five girls and 11 boys from Zing and Bali Local Government areas.
Preliminary investigations indicated the suspects were part of a larger syndicate trafficking underage children with false promises of a better future in Edo, leading to dehumanizing jobs. Commandant Salihu lamented the trend of parents relinquishing their responsibility to raise children, opting to hand them over to strangers for meager gains.
“How can one give birth to children and expect others to take responsibility for their feeding, clothing, education, and general well-being?
“Most of the children taken from the state are sold into child labour and prostitution while others are used as materials for baby factories, organ harvesting, and money rituals.
“My concern is that all the victims of this heinous crime are children who are of school age, but forced to leave school by their parents and relatives even now that the Taraba Government has made basic education free and compulsory for all children,” he said.
“This trend must stop immediately”, the commandant added, and called on relevant stakeholders in the state to take adequate measures to end the rising trend of human trafficking.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suspects and the 16 children were handed over to officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, for further investigation and prosecution.