The House of Representatives has raised a red alert over the spike in the trafficking of Nigerian citizens across West Africa, revealing a disturbing shift in tactics by syndicates who are now targeting children as young as ten for sexual exploitation and organ harvesting.
The motion, spearheaded by Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, has prompted the House to demand a more aggressive and well-funded national strategy to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate victims trapped in Mali and neighboring countries.
While the trafficking of Nigerian women for forced labor has persisted for over a decade, Hon. Akande-Sadipe informed the House that traffickers are pivoting toward minors to evade detection.
“Adult traffickers, having become aware of the risks, have now diverted their attention to children as young as ten years old,” Akande-Sadipe stated. “Most alarming is that these children are often sold to brothels or organ harvesters.”
Reports from the National Council of Child Rights Advocates of Nigeria (NACCRAN) indicate that hundreds of Nigerian minors remain trapped in “extremely exploitative conditions” across the West African sub-region, many of whom were kidnapped or lured with false promises of legitimate work.
Despite recent successes-including the repatriation of several underage Nigerians through a joint effort by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the House Committee on Humanitarian Services-the lawmaker warned that bureaucratic bottlenecks are costing lives.
The House expressed concern that despite Nigeria’s commitment to international agreements like the Palermo Protocol, coordination gaps and inadequate funding continue to delay timely rescues. The motion emphasized that bringing victims home is only half the battle; without proper medical, psychosocial, and vocational support, survivors remain highly vulnerable to being re-trafficked.
To address these systemic failures, the House adopted several far-reaching resolutions:
- The Federal Ministries of Humanitarian Affairs and Foreign Affairs, alongside NAPTIP, have been urged to develop a comprehensive Repatriation and Reintegration Framework that aligns with global best practices.
- In a strategic move to secure resources, the House urged the inclusion of special intervention funding in the 2027 budget specifically for the empowerment and rehabilitation of trafficked girls.
- The Committee on Humanitarian Services, in collaboration with the Committees on Diaspora, Foreign Affairs, and Justice, has been mandated to conduct a thorough investigation into the status of Nigerians currently trafficked in Mali.
The joint committee is also tasked with identifying the specific legal and administrative challenges hindering cooperation between government agencies and proposing policy reforms to seal the cracks exploited by trafficking rings.
