The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, acting through its official communications team in Abuja on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, launched a nationwide search for an unidentified man filmed repeatedly flogging a toddler with what appears to be a charger cable, after the clip spread rapidly on X.

The footage, posted early on Wednesday by the Nigerian news account Nigeria Stories, shows the shirtless man in green athletic shorts striking the child across the head and body on a tiled indoor floor.

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The toddler, described in reports as a young girl, falls, covers her head and continues to cry while the man speaks aggressively in Yoruba, saying “Ori ẹ o ma pe,” a phrase commonly used to mean knocking sense into someone. He then stoops and forces the distressed child back to her feet. By late morning the original post had been viewed more than 309,000 times.

Nigeria Stories wrote: “The security authorities should find this man and get him arrested!! How can you do this to a kid.” That call was echoed across social media, with users demanding both the man’s arrest and scrutiny of whoever recorded the assault without intervening.

NAPTIP replied within hours. “Child abuse will never be tolerated,” the agency said. “We have noted the viral video and are working with relevant security agencies to identify, locate, and prosecute the perpetrator to the full extent of the law.” Anyone with useful information was asked to send a direct message, email info@naptip.gov.ng or dial the shortcode 627.

Director-General Binta Adamu Bello, OON, has in recent cases stressed that violence against children will be pursued under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, the Child Rights Act 2003 and the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015.

Those statutes treat beating that causes harm as more than private discipline. Implementation remains uneven.

The Criminal Code and Penal Code still allow some corporal punishment, while the Child Rights Act prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Reported child abuse cases rose from 3,943 in 2021 to 9,279 in 2024, with conviction rates still low.

The latest clip sits in a grim pattern. In August 2025 Rivers State police arrested Pastor Ifediorah Joseph after a video showed children being flogged during a so-called spiritual cleansing.

NAPTIP’s Rivers official Nwamaka Ikediashi called that “a total case of child abuse” and said even consenting parents needed counselling. In February 2025 Ogun State police hunted Odukaye Kunle after he was filmed kicking a boy to the ground.

In January 2025 a Lagos teacher was condemned after slapping a three-year-old pupil during a numeracy lesson.

Each episode followed the same arc: a phone video, public fury, then a race by police or NAPTIP to put a name to a face.

No name, address or confirmed relationship to the child has been released in the present case. The tiled setting and Yoruba dialogue point towards the South-West, but that is inference, not fact.

Some commenters have also asked that the person who filmed the beating be questioned, arguing that recording without stopping the assault compounded the harm. Officials have not confirmed any second suspect.

The child’s welfare is the immediate concern. NAPTIP’s mandate includes rescue and rehabilitation as well as prosecution.

Until the man is found, the agency cannot assess injuries, remove the toddler from danger or establish whether this was a single outburst or a pattern.

Public identification of a minor’s face in circulating copies of the video also risks further trauma, a point NAPTIP has made in other recent cases.

For now the hunt continues. The agency’s statement was short, firm and deliberately public, a signal that viral evidence will not be treated as a family quarrel.