The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS), has arrested a female truck driver, Hasana Jacob, and six others for allegedly stealing and trafficking children across Nigeria.
In a press statement signed by NAPTIP’s Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, on Tuesday, the agency revealed that Jacob, a 33-year-old truck driver from Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, worked as an alternate truck driver for a popular cement company based in Obajana, near Lokoja, Kogi State.
She was arrested in Abuja alongside six suspected members of her gang—Aisha Suleiman, Murtala Tanimu, Shamsu Tanimu, Adamu Jacob, Abubakar Ahmed, and Ali Muhammed—while attempting to sell a three-year-old girl stolen from Damaturu, Yobe State.
Investigations revealed that Jacob led a well-organized human trafficking syndicate specializing in stealing children between the ages of one and above and selling them for N600,000 each. As a truck driver, she allegedly used her job as a cover, enabling her to abduct children from truck terminals across the country, evade security checks, and deliver them to buyers without suspicion.
According to NAPTIP, the syndicate had members with different roles, including luring victims, coordinating sales, and arranging buyers before the children even arrived.
Speaking on the arrest, NAPTIP’s Director General, Binta Adamu Bello, OON, described the crime as “an unimaginable act of wickedness” while commending the DSS for its role in apprehending the traffickers.
She expressed gratitude to the DSS for its continued support and urged other law enforcement agencies to collaborate more closely in combating human trafficking.
She said, “I am deeply sad by the latest arrest. It is painful to note that human beings will organize a criminal gang, use a branded vehicle of a company, move from one part of the country to another, steal children belonging to other families, and sell them to interested buyers whose motives for the children are not known.
“They create everlasting sorrow and pain for those families and smile to the bank after selling those children. This is unimaginable and it is a condemnable act of wickedness.
“This is more painful when the arrowhead of this evil syndicate is a woman who knows the pain of motherhood.”
Meanwhile, the 22-tyre cement truck used in trafficking the child has been impounded by NAPTIP as investigations continue.