Boundless cruelty

• How human traffickers use churches, NGOs to harvest, sell children

From Jude Dangwam, Jos

Human traffickers have taken a toll on children in Plateau State, with victims being snared by agents who are on the rampage, making mouthwatering promises of opportunities to their prey. Some even use names of churches and non-governmental organisations to lure their victims.

Pastor Dayo and his syndicate being paraded

The year 2024 will continue to be in the record of the Plateau State Ministry of Women Affairs and the State Gender Commission for battling with the menace of these human traffickers with young girls and children trafficked not only to Nigerian cities but outside the country.

Chairperson of the  Plateau State Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission, Hon. Olivia Dazyem, a lawyer, in an interview with Daily Sun, lamented how perpetrators of trafficking are cashing in on the vulnerability of some communities, which have suffered from years of attacks, leaving behind orphans and widows in their numbers.

Dafur with some of the rescued children meant to be trafficked to Lagos

She maintained that through their awareness campaign to about 10 out of the 17 LGAs of the state, families of victims are beginning to open up and come forward with their plights.

Dazyem

Daily Sun gathered that over 500 children have been trafficked out of a single local government area of the state, with some of the perpetrators at large. This situation has left most families traumatized.

Relatives of the children also played critical roles in  signing documents, giving their consent for the movement of these children to their current location in the southern part of the country. The chairperson of the Gender Commission disclosed that some families cannot even account for the children at the moment.

She said: “When we came on board, we discovered instances of human trafficking thriving in the state. We set out to tackle this head-on. There is a particular section under the Gender and Equal Opportunities Law, which empowers the commission to particularly take special interest in promoting, defending and protecting the fundamental human rights of women and children, but the laws were not been implemented. How did we discover this? There was an attempt to prosecute somebody who had beaten up his wife but we received a lot of resistance from the community.

“Again, somebody who had raped a minor and you see a lot of resistance from community members, saying, no, let’s forgive. The worst of it was the case of a man who was HIV-positive and raped a 19-year-old virgin. The communities, including her father, came here and said they have spoken about it and they want to forgive him. And that is why part of what we said we needed to embark on is aggressive awareness campaign to sensitise our people.

“We have gone through a lot as a state, particularly in terms of insecurity, our level of vulnerability is very high. The security challenge, which bedevilled the state for some years now, exposed our vulnerabilities to the point that we have more widows and more orphans, children not completing their studies, particularly the girl child dropping out of school and these challenges compounded our problems.

“The situation has been exploited by people who do not mean well for our state and they came under the guise of offering help. Like in one of the local government areas, they came under the guise of religious organisations and 300 children were moved out of the community. The parents in their ignorance and lack of awareness allowed their children to be trafficked. Many times, at the slightest information on an organisation, some parents will bring their children to them.

“The truth of the matter is that even the community leaders who facilitated the movement of these children cannot account for the number of children that were actually taken out of the community presently. And our children are not finding life easy; the moment you see a stranded child and ask, they will say he’s from Plateau.

“So, there are mischievous people who want to make ends meet, using these children. They go into our communities, they only need to go with some sort of documents to say we are a registered organisation. For example, this one, they said the Lord Fellowship International, and they go through the churches and announce that they have a non-governmental organisation, they want to help the children, and the people will just pack the children and give them.

“These children are taken away from their known communities to unknown communities. Some are being sold out. Yes, outright sale. This syndicate was tracked during the Lalong administration but follow-up on the case was not proper. That’s why we are still looking for these children up to now.”

Through the close working relationship between the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Gender and Equal Opportunity Commission, she said information on Plateau children stranded in illegal orphanages around the country was gathered and deliberate actions were made with the backing of Governor Caleb Mutfwang.

“When we got to Abuja, there was an illegal orphanage and all the children in that orphanage were from Plateau State. It is an orphanage that is not known by the Federal Capital Territory Administration. They just used them for whatever gains the orphanage was making.The children are not sent to school and the sad part of it is that those children had their names changed.

“So, you can enter the orphanage and see a Davou bearing Emeka. Virtually all of them, they changed their names. We discovered that some of the children sent in that place were the ones sent to Port Harcourt. We brought about 39 of them at once, some from the ones that we brought back from Lagos,” Dazyem explained.

The chairperson attributed the successes recorded in recent times to the aggressive awareness campaign embarked upon by the commission.

“Because of the awareness, His Excellency granted us the opportunity to go into communities and sensitise our people. We have gone to over 10 LGAs already and it has significantly helped. These days, on a daily basis, you see families coming into the office here with report of their children stranded or taken away and they can’t reach out to them again.

“Last year, we (state government ) brought back girls from Ghana; last December, some girls came back from Mali. And while this is happening, some are leaving again because they have been promised some mouthwatering job opportunities by these traffic agents.

“This trend cuts across all the local government areas of the state. Actually, we were thinking it was only those LGAs that have suffered insecurity but how wrong we were. We discovered that local government areas like Pankshin, Kanke that never had those challenges also have and the shocking part is that our people are the ones that are being used as the agents to mobilize these children out of our state.

“In fact, we got one of the women arrested and she told us that she has been in the business of selling Plateau children for the past 10 years. So, proliferation of churches in the city of Jos has also contributed immensely to our problem. How can you explain that a religious leader is involved in the trafficking of our children!? Not only trafficking but outright sale of these children. After they finish their prayers, they are doing transactions of how to sell a child in the night,” she said.

The chairperson challenged parents to live up to their responsibilities, saying: “Parents must be responsible for the upbringing of their children, even though we discovered that there is a lot of dysfunctionality in families. You find out a nine or 10 years old leaving home on their own and you see the parents are not ready to complain. They feel it is okay and waiting for whatever will be the proceeds of his/her going out to come to them.

“Parents should know that all those job opportunities are not realistic and should not allow their children leave home to unknown destinations where some are sent to work on plantation farms, some of the girls end up in prostitution and sometimes bringing the children back is another big problem on it’s own.”

The Plateau State Government, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, in December 2024, cracked down on another syndicate trafficking in persons after credible tips from the joint task force established some months ago, and with the invaluable professionals of the special unit of police operatives of the FID-IRT, apprehended a woman named Nanman Pungtel at Old Airport Junction, Jos, on December 2, 2024, with three kids she couldn’t account for. The investigation led to the arrest of the mastermind of the trafficking operations, one Pastor Dayo Bernard of End Time Army Ministry, Bukuru on the same night.

The operation led to the rescue of five children between the ages of two and four abducted from various homes in Kwande area of Qua’an Pan LGA and the subsequent arrest of other members of the syndicate identified as Rita Agboeze, Victoria Ugwu, and Peter Ukwuani.

Daily Sun gathered that upon interrogation, the principal suspect Pastor Dayo was said to have confessed to abducting and selling of “13 Plateau children at varying prices ranging from ₦350,000 to ₦750,000” All of whom have been recovered by the police and reunited with their families through the Plateau State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.

The Plateau State Police Command recently paraded some suspected traffickers for criminal conspiracy and human trafficking, who specialized in luring young girls into a mouthwatering job opportunities in Ghana.

CP Emmanuel Adesina noted: “On 08/02/2025 at about 07:40pm, a report was filed at Rantya Division by a resident of Kangang Phase 3, reporting that his 19-year- old daughter ran away from home on 05/02/2025, and on 06/02/2025, she called her elder sister and informed her that she was on her way to Ghana.

“She was however arrested by policemen at a checkpoint in Badagry, Lagos State while attempting to smuggle herself out of the country. Upon interviewing the girl, she revealed that one Salvation Gwaktin, 22 years old of Kangang Ruga, Jos South LGA of Plateau state promised her a job with her sister, one Zitta Gwaktin who is resident in Ghana.”

CP Adesina noted that investigation is currently ongoing, and the suspect will be charged to court upon conclusion of investigation to face the full wrath of the law.

The state command in 2024 had a total of 794 cases that were reported, 859 suspects were arrested, 415 cases were charged to court. 46 victims of kidnap were rescued while 27 arms were recovered with 115 ammunition recovered in the year under review.

       *Dazyem

Some of the recovered children with their families.

Pastor Dayo and his syndicate being paraded.

                  *Dazyem

Dafur with some of the rescued children prepared to be trafficked to Lagos.