The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has rescued 15 minors who were trafficked and sold for N2 million each by a fake official of a civil society organisation, the National Council of Child Rights Advocate.

The NSCDC Public Relations Officer (PRO), Babawale Afolabi, said this at a news briefing in Abuja on Friday.

He said a member of a syndicate represented himself as an official of the National Council of Child Rights Advocate to the parents of the children, deceiving them into handing over their children to him.

“Under the guise of operating an NGO and orphanage programme called the Back to School Project, he lured willing, less privileged parents into releasing their children with promises of free education,” Mr Afolabi said.

The NSCDC spokesperson said the commandant general’s Special Intelligence Squad (CGs SIS), headed by Dandaura Appollos, carried out the rescue.

Mr Afolabi said 15 of the 16 trafficked children from Kama Madaki and Gudindi Mada communities, Kokona Local Government Area in Nasarawa, were rescued from their buyers.

“Through advanced field tracking, technical intelligence and multi-state tactical sweeps, operatives of CG’s SIS tracked down the buyers who were from different locations in the country,” he said.

According to him, three of the victims were rescued in Anambra, Imo and Enugu, respectively, while 12 others were rescued in a coordinated operation across the eastern transit routes.

Mr Afolabi further said three buyers – one male and two female – had been apprehended in connection with the case.

He said the NSCDC has a zero-tolerance policy against crime and human trafficking.

Mr Afolabi said the agency would prosecute all suspects found culpable.

(NAN)