By joshua Kogi Police Burst Notorious Human Trafficking Cartel, Rescue Victim Trafficked To Côte D’ivoire
… Family of four arrested in Lokoja; NAPTIP to take over case as more girls feared trapped abroad
Operatives of the Kogi State Police Command have arrested a family of four for allegedly operating a human trafficking cartel that lures young women with fake job offers and transports them to Côte d’Ivoire for sexual exploitation.
The Kogi Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Saliu Afusat, disclosed this on Tuesday while parading the suspects at the Command headquarters in Lokoja. She said the arrests followed weeks of intelligence gathering and collaboration with civil society groups.
The suspects are Mrs. Angela Sylvester, 38, her two daughters, and her son-in-law, Emmanuel David. According to the PPRO, the family conspired to deceive and transport Miss Patience Adamu, 21, daughter of their neighbor in Ibaji Quarters, Lokoja, under the pretense of securing her a hairdressing job in Côte d’Ivoire.
ASP Afusat explained that Mrs. Sylvester had formed a cartel with her children, specializing in convincing vulnerable young women in the neighborhood of lucrative jobs abroad. The victims are often moved without the consent of their parents. In this case, the suspect exploited the poverty of Miss Adamu, whose father had died, leaving her mother, a petty plantain hawker, to raise five surviving children.
“She was promised that she would be sent to the suspect’s daughter who runs a hairdressing business in Côte d’Ivoire. Weighed down by excruciating poverty after her father’s death, Patience accepted the offer believing it would turn around her family’s fortunes,” ASP Afusat said.
The victim was allegedly transported by Emmanuel David, the son-in-law who lives in the same apartment, to a kingpin in Lagos who then handed her over to Mrs. Sylvester’s daughter in Côte d’Ivoire. The bubble burst when Miss Adamu discovered that no hairdressing job existed. Instead, she was forced into prostitution and managed to contact her siblings through a foreign call. That call prompted her mother to demand her return, but the suspects failed to comply.
The mother, Mrs. Mercy Aliudo, 41, reported the matter to Challenge Parenthood Initiative, CPI, an NGO working against gender-based violence and trafficking. CPI then lodged a formal complaint with the Kogi State Police Command.
With credible intelligence, police operatives swung into action and arrested the principal suspect and her accomplices. The victim was safely returned to Nigeria last Saturday and reunited with her family. Further investigation revealed that other girls are still being held by the cartel in Côte d’Ivoire, raising concerns over the scale of the operation.
ASP Afusat warned would-be victims to be circumspect with offers of overseas jobs from people of predatory character. She said on completion of investigation, the suspects will be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, for prosecution.
Shedding more light, Executive Director of Challenge Parenthood Initiative, Eunice Abimbola Agbogun, said CPI received the report of trafficking on 10/4/2026. After a stakeholders’ meeting, a formal complaint was written to the Commissioner of Police, CP Naziru Kankarofi, on 22/5/2025. The CP swiftly deployed his men, leading to the arrest of the suspects who confessed to the crime.
Agbogun disclosed that the cartel operates from Ibaji Quarters in Lokoja, using Ghana as a transit route to Côte d’Ivoire, where Mrs. Sylvester’s two daughters receive the girls and subject them to prostitution. She lamented that human trafficking remains a serious menace in Kogi State, fueled by poverty, illiteracy, and the state’s location bordering about ten states and the FCT.
“The cartels take advantage of excruciating poverty to hoodwink these girls with promises of better lives. We are urging the state government to take active interest and calling on NAPTIP to open an office in Kogi, since suspects currently have to be taken to Abuja,” she said.
The mother of the survivor, Mrs. Mercy Aliudo, speaking amid sobs, said life became difficult after her husband’s death. “Maybe the woman thought trafficking my daughter would be an assistance to me, which I did not know,” she said, while commending CPI and the police for rescuing her daughter after months of anguish.
Miss Patience Adamu, the victim, described her experience in Côte d’Ivoire as “horrific and traumatic.” She urged relevant authorities to repatriate other Nigerian women trapped in abusive prostitution rings abroad.
The Kogi Police Command reiterated its commitment to cracking down on trafficking networks and urged residents to report suspicious movements of young women to security agencies.