The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP has rescued at least 121 people in a string of raids on hotels, apartments and airports since February 2025.
These include syndicates funnelling young Nigerians primarily to the Middle East, a collation of the agency’s data reviewed by Sunday PUNCH shows.
The tally includes operations in Abuja, Katsina and Kano, which led to at least 19 arrests.
In February, operatives intercepted 13 girls suspected to be victims of human trafficking en route to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, for sexual and labour exploitation.
The girls, aged between 19 and 39, were allegedly recruited by unregistered labour recruiters suspected to be agents of a more prominent criminal labour recruiting gang operating between Nigeria and some Middle East countries.
During the raid, NAPTIP said it sealed a popular three-star hotel in Kwali community, in the Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
In March, NAPTIP raided a well-known hotel in Zamaru, near the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, where it rescued seven suspected victims of human trafficking.
The victims were reportedly being prepared for illegal migration to Baghdad, Iraq, where they were likely to face exploitation.
The agency’s Katsina State Command, in July, arrested three suspected members of an inter-state human trafficking syndicate that specialises in the recruitment, harbouring, and trafficking of young girls from other parts of the country to the North for sexual exploitation.
They were arrested inside a prominent hotel located in Katsina township, where three victims were rescued. Two of the victims were from Benue State and one from Rivers State.
Their ages ranged from 21 to 26.
On 18 August, NAPTIP said it intercepted 25 women suspected to be victims of labour exploitation en route to Saudi Arabia.
The victims were picked up in front of a popular hotel in the high-end area of Wuse II, Abuja, where they had gathered, awaiting their trafficker. The raid came just as a popular travel agency was being used for its part in the recruitment of trafficking victims.
On 31 August, the agency took custody of 12 rescued victims of human trafficking, all of whom are female and aged between 15 and 50.
NAPTIP’s Kano Zonal Commander, Abdullahi Babale, received the victims from the Kano State Hisbah Board, which carried out the rescue operation in collaboration with the agency.
Another raid on an apartment complex in Abuja’s Gwagwalada area freed 29 foreign victims, where eight suspects were arrested.
On 16 September, NAPTIP rescued eight children suspected of having been stolen from northern states and trafficked to the South.
This followed a raid on a popular orphanage in the Delta State capital, Asaba.
In another airport raid on 1 October, NAPTIP arrested five suspected traffickers and rescued 24 in a special operation at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Among those arrested was a retired senior officer from one of Nigeria’s leading law enforcement agencies, alleged to be a key member of a trafficking syndicate operating in the South-West.
A day earlier, NAPTIP operatives in Kano State rescued eight victims of human trafficking and arrested two suspects.
NAPTIP’s operatives intercepted the victims at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport.
Nigeria remains a source, transit and destination country for trafficking, according to the U.S. State Department.
Sunday PUNCH observed that several interceptions in Abuja and Kano involved women bound for Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, affirming what right groups had described as a wave of deceptive “housekeeping” and “supermarket” job offers that masked sexual or labour exploitation.
In multiple cases, NAPTIP says victims could not identify their final destination.
Explaining the purpose of the increased raids, NAPTIP Director-General, Binta Bello, said the operations were ‘a continuation of the newly unveiled anti-human trafficking onslaught targeting recruitment hubs, trafficking spots, and routes’.
She added, ‘We will sustain this raid until they stop this unpatriotic and illicit trade in human beings.
‘Human trafficking is a visible national concern, and we all must be on the same page to turn the heat on the traffickers.
‘Our resolve to ensure the protection of Nigerians from all forms of exploitation is firm and resolute’.
