They disappeared, leaving behind more questions than answers and families trapped in a never-ending nightmare. Years have passed, but for parents still searching, time has not healed the wound. In this concluding part, CHIJIOKE IREMEKA reports that cherished photographs have become painful reminders, while hope battles daily with despair
A 15-year-old girl, Ngozi, who was sheltered by social workers after escaping from a trafficking network that moved children between southern Nigeria and neighbouring countries, offered a glimpse into how quickly missing children can vanish beyond recovery.
According to her testimony, children abducted or bought through intermediaries are often moved within hours through informal transport routes stretching from Lagos to Ogun, Edo, Delta, and northern border communities.
“They change vehicles many times so that they will not be traced. Some children are drugged so they don’t cry. In most cases, they are transported in bags and in trucks without raising suspicion,” she said.
Ngozi described seeing toddlers transported alongside bags of rice and cartons inside overcrowded buses, hidden in plain sight from security operatives.
