NAPTIP Mandates DNA Tests Before Releasing Rescued Children To Claimants

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said it will not release any rescued children to claimants without completing thorough investigations, including mandatory DNA testing.

NAPTIP’s Director-General, Binta Bello, stated this in Abuja during a press conference organised to address issues concerning the eight children allegedly stolen and rescued from an orphanage in Asaba, Delta State.

Bello denied allegation that operatives of the agency abducted eight children from Happy Home Orphanage, Asaba, Delta State, saying it was a lawful operation carried out in line with the mandate of the agency and occasioned by petitions by parents of the missing children.

“It is important to restate that the rescue operation by operatives of the Agency at Happy Home Orphanage was not an abduction as the Agency does not engage in such condemnable action but a lawful undertaking under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, which empowers NAPTIP to investigate, rescue, and prosecute cases of trafficking, abduction, and related offences,” she said.

She further stated that all attempts made to get the proprietor of the Asaba Orphanage to make himself available for interview have failed, adding that all he has done is to engage in blackmail against the Agency, organising women to lay claims to the children who are now in the Agency’s Shelter.

“We therefore call on all those laying claims to the children to make themselves available to the Agency for further investigations. Running around on social media and dragging the Agency through blackmail will not help anyone.

“We are not for or against anyone making claims over the children now, but they should make themselves available for better investigation. NAPTIP is a law-abiding agency that believes in the Rule of Law in its activities. However, we will also not spare anyone found culpable in this matter.

“Be assured that the Agency will not hand over any of the children to any of the claimants until investigations, which include a DNA, are concluded”, she said.