From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Evidence has emerged that human traffickers are increasingly gaining “unfettered” access to the business of orphanages and other related operations in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja and Lagos, among other big cities in the country.
There are also indications that, by proxy, human traffickers are involved in the setting up of orphanages and child care homes, not because of interest to serve humanity but for financial and other gains.
As a result, the orphanages, most of which are unregistered, have become a channel for child trafficking and other related crimes by some cartels. Unfortunately, relevant officials, particularly from the FCT Administration, that ought to checkmate the activities and operations of these orphanages, seem to have gone on ‘official slumber.’
Recently, it was learnt that this existential threat to humanity has been extended to creches where babies and toddlers are kept by their mothers during work hours, thus resulting in cases of missing babies, an indication that the accomplices might be among the caregivers.
From all indications, the cartel in human trafficking business is in continuous search for loopholes and opportunities to escape government agencies, particularly the police and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), and perhaps, make more illicit fortunes for themselves. Unfortunately, too, they are succeeding in Abuja due to lapses in the FCT Administration through the Social Development Secretariat (SDS).
Not too long ago, NAPTIP raised the alarm of rising cases of missing children in schools, as well as sudden disappearance of babies in hospitals, churches, markets and other public places, linking the development to the upsurge of unregistered orphanages across Abuja and beyond.
Preliminary investigations further revealed that human traffickers now work closely with some hospital officials and some undercover agents to pick babies from unwanted pregnancies or abandoned babies from various locations and drop them at some unregistered orphanages to service waiting buyers at whatever cost agreed.
“It’s sad to imagine that children that are brought to life with much joy and hope are deceitfully trafficked under the pretence of greener pastures, only to be displayed as wares in some unregistered structures called orphanages and baby care centres,” NAPTIP officials said.
Reports showed that these unregistered orphanages and, in some cases, registered ones, make huge fortunes out of undocumented babies brought to their care without proper accountability.
With the aid of the accomplices, they would assemble the babies from different locations in the country in the name of caring for them and end up trafficking them.
Many of these babies seem to be products of “baby factories” and surrogate mothers who might have fallen out of favour with their masters, and in many more from unwanted pregnancies from mostly prostitutes as was the recent case recorded in Mabushi, Abuja, by officials of FCT Administration through the SDS. But within a short while, the babies would begin to disappear one after the other, perhaps, sold off to waiting clients.
Due to weak enforcement, relevant authorities, particularly the FCT Administration’s SDS, rarely approach these orphanages and baby care centres periodically for accountability of the babies in their custody. In some instances, the monitoring officials are influenced with the corrupt proceeds, hence they turn a blind eye to wrongdoings of the orphanage operators.
Daily, kind and generous Nigerians visit orphanages with large quantities of food and non-food items, as well as cash to celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries or any other breakthroughs.
In some cases, information is left with the managers of the orphanages on how to maximize the items, while in other cases they are asked to use their discretion to distribute the donated items. But the items often disappear shortly after the donors leave and are unaccounted for. They are, perhaps, sold by the operators of the orphanages for whatever reason, thereby, denying the children the opportunity of good food and care.
Similarly, because of the involvement of the human traffickers in the business, the babies also disappear without proper accountability from the handlers and nothing is done because of weak enforcement by the authorities.
In Abuja and other cities in Nigeria, some people, mostly women who are neither registered nor unregistered orphanage home or baby care centre operators, have also engaged in the business of impersonation using the names of non-existing orphanages to enrich themselves and swindle innocent Nigerians of their hard-earned resources.
As recently noticed, the women print cards and envelopes with the name of an orphanage that, perhaps, only exists in their pockets, move from one location to another in Abuja, sharing them to passersby or at public events, soliciting help for children in their fictitious orphanages.
Many passionate Nigerians barely read the content of the cards or envelopes, neither do they interrogate the authenticity of the claims before giving out their resources. For the givers, they believe they have given for the upkeep of the orphans, but, unknowingly, they have enriched the women and their accomplices.
Meanwhile, there was a mild drama in Dutse Alhaji Market in Abuja late last year, when two of such women met their Waterloo. They could not defend their claims of providing shelter for over 20 children in their acclaimed orphanages located at places they refused to disclose in Abuja, which they claimed needed food, clothes and other basic things for the upkeep of the children.
The women that fateful day went out as usual, sharing appeal envelopes and cards in the market, when they were confronted by a man who claimed to have genuinely wanted to assist in the provision of some items for the children in the orphanages.
Unlike other people that would freely give food, non-food items or money without asking questions, the man insisted on knowing more about their activities and, if possible, visiting the orphanage before he could make a donation.
He was surprised that the women vehemently resisted the offer in spite of several efforts. They asked him to make his donations and not bother to visit the orphanage. The more he tried to convince them, the more the women declined and tried to discourage the man. But he insisted. Apparently uncomfortable with the unending interrogations, the women “shamefully” walked away amid boos and insults from the scene already created in the market.
A trader in the market, who identified himself as Maxwell Ekezie, said he used to show empathy to such people but he stopped doing so because of previous unpalatable experiences.
He said: “Some of these people are impostors looking for ways to swindle people and enrich themselves using the name of God or the orphans. I know a woman that does that. It was recently that I discovered it’s the business she does. She would move from one location in Abuja to another and even beyond where no one could easily recognize her for the business.
“She would present a sympathetic countenance to gain attention. She would use all means to convince people that she ran an orphanage, when she did not. She could explore a particular location for two or three days before changing locations. I pray that she meets her Waterloo someday. The implication is that people won’t know the genuine persons that need help.”
It was recently discovered that human traffickers have also shifted their trade to various online platforms, targeting students, job seekers and teenage boys who are desirous of making a career out of football in Europe and other parts of the world.
Unarguably, football is a lucrative business now and many teenage boys are very much interested in the game. But they fall prey to human traffickers who often present mouth-watering offers to them, dangling fake opportunities in various football academies and clubs abroad that in most cases turn otherwise. Most of them end up victims of organ harvesters.
There is urgent need for relevant government bodies to review sections of the law that permit floating of orphanages at random even by people of questionable character.
There seems to be complete failure from the FCT Administration to tackle the rising number of unregistered orphanages and baby care centres.
Investigations by The Sun indicated that the responsibility of monitoring the activities/operations of orphanages in Abuja was given to the Gender Department in the Social Development Secretariat of the FCT Administration, but, unfortunately, they lack the capacity and manpower to checkmate the activities of operators.
Weak enforcement system and capacity might have limited their effectiveness in the regulation and monitoring of the orphanages and baby care centres in Abuja, hence the human traffickers’ operations through the orphanages are rising.
A senior staff of the department confirmed that there were several unregistered orphanages in Abuja, but they could not monitor their activities effectively due to several challenges of logistics and manpower.
The official confirmed that in the database was more than 50 registered orphanages, in addition to several other unregistered orphanages, and SDS can only meet with them through their association because of several challenges, particularly manpower and logistics.
The SDS staff said: “The orphanage operators in Abuja have two associations and we meet with them at that level periodically. We don’t engage in individual visit or checks on their individual operations due to numerous challenges we are faced with. However, we have directed the association to monitor the activities of their members and they have been doing that effectively, according to reports they present to us.”
The SDS official said they have been running short of logistics that would have helped them to, at least, carry out periodic unscheduled visits and assessment of the orphanage homes and other baby care centres.
“We are aware that a lot of irregularities, including child trafficking, are going on in the orphanages but there’s a limit to what we can do. We have received some reports and acted on them accordingly. But we have serious manpower and logistics challenges. For instance, we don’t have operational vehicles and we have submitted requests for that several times over the years but nothing was done to that request.
“Such items would have helped to improve our operations. We also have limited manpower in our department to do the monitoring. Ordinarily, we should have undercover personnel across the FCT to take a periodic look into the books of the orphanages, but that is not being done because of several challenges we are being confronted with, and you don’t expect us to do magic in doing the work.”
Meanwhile, a document obtained by The Sun from SDS confirmed that there were many cases of child trafficking going on in FCT through the orphanages and a strong cartel was behind the act driven by strong networks within and outside Nigeria.
The report also confirmed that there were lots of unregistered orphanages operating in Abuja and many of them were into the business of child racketeering. Some of them, it added, go the extra mile to get children from outside Abuja to satisfy their clients.
It highlighted that the traffickers take advantage of several loopholes to embark on the child racketeering and, until the loopholes are closed, child trafficking would continue.
The report also accused area councils (equivalent of local government areas) of engaging in illegal adoption, stating that the law never permitted area councils to do adoption. Rather, they are expected to refer abandoned babies to the SDS for proper documentation and adoption.
It was also discovered that police operatives and other security agencies were also culprits. The report accused them of, perhaps, ignorantly, referring abandoned babies to orphanages instead of the SDS, and such practices gives orphanages the leverage to do whatever they like with the babies in connivance with those who referred the babies to them.
Director of gender, SDS, Mrs. Grace Adayilo, lamented the huge responsibilities ahead but was concerned that SDS doesn’t have the required resources, including finance and logistics, to clamp down on unregistered orphanages. Besides, she said cartels were behind the child trafficking trend: “We are lacking in relevant equipment to carry out the work. Additionally, there’s need for immediate constitution of monitoring and inspection teams that will be going round to monitor the activities of the orphanages on regular basis.”
Meanwhile, NAPTIP has struck a deal with Meta, owners of Facebook and Instagram, to solve the issues of missing and abducted children in Nigeria.
To solve the problem, the Amber Alert Programme was deployed on Facebook and Instagram to assist in the quick rescue of missing and abducted children once their details, including photos, are uploaded on the social media platforms.
When an Amber Alert is activated by law enforcement agencies, the alert will appear on the Facebook and Instagram feed of users within the designated search area, enabling them to share the information instantly with friends or contact the authorities, if they have leads.
It will include important information about the missing child such as a photo description, location of the abduction, and other relevant and available information to aid in immediately identifying the missing child.
When there is a reported case of a missing child, the most valuable thing one can do is share the information as quickly as possible on the social media platforms.
For the director-general of NAPTIP, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi, it is the responsibilities of all Nigerians to tackle the issue of human trafficking, and there is need for increased advocacy and awareness regarding the operations of the human traffickers.
She appealed to parents who are interested in child adoption to formally apply for adoption of babies instead of passing through human traffickers whose businesses are illegal and fraudulent.
She also suggested increased advocacy and enlightenment programmes at rural communities with pictorial illustrations and other stories that would prove to the communities that human trafficking is real and deadly.
The NAPTIP boss also advised relevant government bodies to review sections of the law that permit floating of orphanages at random even by people of questionable character.
The agency advised those involved in the barbaric act of human trafficking to quit and embrace legitimate sources of income before the heavy weight of NAPTIP comes on them.