A distressed mother, Mrs. Stella Taylor has petitioned the Director General of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP), over the continued detention of her two adopted children at the Benin zonal command.
The minor detainees, four-year- old Master Divine William Ikechukwu Taylor and five-month- old Sherlyn Nwamaka Taylor, were taken away in September, 2023 when operatives of the anti-trafficking agency stormed Mrs. Taylor’s house in Asaba, Delta state.
The agency had acted on the strength of a joint petition by Mrs. Taylor’s elderly mother, Ifeoma Osakwe and youngest sibling, Valentina Osakwe, alleging that she was into trafficking of children.
But Mrs. Taylor’s, in a petition to the Director General of NAPTIP, debunked the trafficking allegation, accusing the Benin zonal commander of the agency, Mr. Nduka Nwanwene of dancing to the tune of her estrange family members to detain her children.
The United States of America-based nurse alleged that her mother and youngest sibling were out to dispossess her of her property, adding that they had allegedly conspired to also snatch her earlier adopted child, Stella Star Uzomeyea Osakwe which they changed to Nene Star Osakwe in the process of adoption.
She said she discovered the fraud in the adoption process when she returned to Nigeria in October 2022, adding that the child was adopted in her youngest sibling’s name despite her bearing the cost.
“I never for one day did anything to forcefully remove the said adopted child from my mother’s custody or did anything in the nature of trafficking the said child,” she said.
