Nigeria Trafficking Map (III): Zamfara Records 3,850% Increase, Borno 2,670% As Edo Drops 57%

…FCT Records Only 22 Victims In 11 Years

…Edo Retains Highest 11-Year Total Despite 57% Decline

This is the final part of a three-part investigation based on 11 years of NAPTIP data obtained by NEWSNGR through an FOI request.

For about two decades, Edo State was one of Nigeria’s most prominent trafficking hotspots, and the victims were mostly trafficked through Libya to Italy.

Eleven years of data from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), however, show a shift in where the agency is finding victims.

While the number of victims recorded from Edo fell 57 per cent from its 2017 peak, Zamfara recorded a 3,850 per cent increase between 2015 and 2025, while Borno’s figure rose by 2,670 per cent. Benue also recorded a sharp increase.

The figures do not explain what is driving those changes.

They also expose gaps in the agency’s records, including in the Federal Capital Territory, where NAPTIP recorded only 22 victims over 11 years despite THE WHISTLER documenting children working in illegal gold mines in Kwali Area Council.

NAPTIP recorded 2,584 trafficking victims nationwide in 2025, according to data provided to NEWSNGR. But the figure captures only victims identified by the agency, leaving unanswered how many others may have remained outside its records.

Edo’s Decline: From 353 Victims To 150

Edo recorded its highest number of trafficking victims in 2017, when NAPTIP documented 353 victims. By 2025, the figure had fallen to 150, representing a 57 per cent decline from the peak.

The state still has the highest cumulative number of victims in the 11-year dataset, with more than 1,700 recorded during the period. Its figures also rose in 2022 and 2025, although they remained below the 2017 level.

For the period under review, trafficking from Edo to Italy through Libya drew attention. Young women were recruited by traffickers, often placed under debt arrangements, and taken to European cities where they were exploited in sex work.

The 11-year records do not explain why Edo’s figures have fallen. They also do not establish whether the decline reflects a reduction in trafficking, changes in migration routes, better or weaker detection, or a combination of factors.

NAPTIP recorded 2,584 victims nationwide in 2025, its highest annual figure since the 2022 total of 2,883.

The fall in Edo’s numbers therefore coincides with sharp increases in some other states, particularly Borno and Zamfara.

Borno: Victims Rise From 10 To 277

Borno recorded 10 trafficking victims in 2015. By 2025, the number had risen to 277, an increase of 2,670 per cent.

The state has spent more than a decade at the centre of the Boko Haram insurgency and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) operations. Conflict has displaced millions of people, while women and children have faced abduction, forced marriage and other forms of exploitation.

NAPTIP’s records also contain 29 cases of procurement or recruitment for use in armed conflicts over the 11-year period. But the data supplied to NEWSNGR does not provide a state-by-state breakdown, making it impossible to determine how many of those cases were linked to Borno.

Zamfara: A 3,850% Increase

Zamfara recorded just 2 trafficking victims in 2015. By 2025, the figure had climbed to 79, representing a 3,850 per cent increase.

The rise became pronounced in 2020, when the number increased from 2 to 32.

Zamfara is also one of Nigeria’s major centres of illegal gold mining, an industry that has raised concerns about child labour, criminal networks and the exploitation of vulnerable communities.

The NAPTIP data does not establish a connection between Zamfara’s rising trafficking figures and illegal mining.

Benue And The FCT

Benue recorded 307 trafficking victims in 2025, its highest figure in the 11-year dataset.

The number represents a 420 per cent increase from the 59 victims recorded in 2015.

Benue shares a boundary with the FCT, where NEWSNGR documented children working in illegal gold mines in Pangu, a community in Kwali Area Council.

NAPTIP recorded only 22 victims from the FCT throughout the entire 11-year period. In 2025, the agency recorded just 2.

The figure contrasts with what NEWSNGR found in Pangu, about nine kilometres from the Abuja-Lokoja expressway. During the investigation, the newspaper documented children aged between nine and 15 years old working alongside adults in illegal gold-mining pits.

Lagos: 39 Victims

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial centre with a population of more than 20 million, recorded 39 trafficking victims in 2025. Its figure did not exceed 119 in any year covered by the dataset.

NAPTIP’s figures are based on victims’ states of origin, rather than the locations where they were trafficked or exploited. This means the 39 victims recorded against Lagos in 2025 do not necessarily reflect the number of people trafficked into, through or exploited within the state.

As a major commercial centre, Lagos may also receive victims from other states and countries, whose cases would be attributed to their places of origin.