SHOCKER: How syndicate lured minors for kidney harvest with fake job offer in Abuja

Chilling details of how unscrupulous syndicate in Abuja, the federal capital territory, deceive young boys between the ages of 15, 16 and 17 years with fake job offer in order to harvest their kidney have emerged.

The revelation was made by the Boy Child Advancement and Protection Foundation (BCAPF), a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering and safeguarding the future of the boy child.

BCAPF which met on the 30th of December 2023 in Abuja as part of it’s effort to draw the attention of the authorities over the illegal organ trading business, presented victims who recounted how they were deceived by the syndicate to sell off their kidney for a fee.

One of the victims identified as master Oluwatobi Salaudeen, who is just 16 years old, narrated his ordeal by saying that a friend introduced him to an agent that lured him into the deal. According to Salaudeen, he was promised a job and when he got to the supposed venue where the job will be offered to him, it turned out to be a different thing altogether.

He was deceived and manipulated to sign some documents which he did not know the content and afterwards taken to a hospital named Alliance Hospital which is currently situated somewhere in Area 11 Abuja.

Salaudeen said in the hospital, he saw many other young boys in the theater. He was later operated and his kidney harvested.

According to victim’s narration, they were directed to lodge in a hotel out of the money given to them by the syndicate from where they could be going for treatment in the hospital until the wound is healed so that their parents won’t find out what happened to them.

Oluwatobi also said that while in the hotel room waiting for the wound to heal, he started receiving threat calls that he should leave Abuja immediately or be killed

Due to the threat, Oluwatobi said he fled to Lagos where he stayed with his relations who later discovered he had a scar on the side of his abdomen which finally led to his father getting to know about the kidney harvest that was carried out on him.

Another 17 year old victim named Yahaya Musa, also narrated how he told a friend in his neighborhood that he is out of school and had nothing doing for the moment.

The friend in turn introduced him to an organ trafficker who tricked him into the deal by promising to pay him some certain amount of money.

Musa Yahaya, who is the father of Yahaya Musa narrated that after his son came home after some time of being away, he discovered that he was carrying a scar by the side of his abdomen.

He immediately raised alarm and asked Yahaya what caused the scar on his abdomen, it was after much pressure that Yahaya later confessed and narrated his ordeal to his father.

Meanwhile, both parents of Oluwatobi and Yahaya according to BCAPF had made various effort to seek justice for the injustice meted out on their children by the organ traffickers.

They have since reported the matter to various security agents and media houses and the case is still pending.

However,Mr Adamu FCT program manager of Boy Child Advancement and Protection Foundation (BCAPF), has called on Nigerian government and international bodies to rise up for justice for the boy child and to bring to an end such business in various hospitals involved in the illegal trade.

Mr Adamu also called for the arrest and prosecution of individuals culpable in the illicit trade.