A Ghanaian Court has sentenced a Nigerian to prison for forcing his younger sister and nine other girls into prostitution.
The ruling highlights efforts to combat human trafficking and exploitation in the region following a 10-year imprisonment slammed on a 29-year-old Nigerian, Chukwudi Nwachukwu for trafficking the girls from Nigeria to Ghana for prostitution.
The victims, aged between 15 and 18 years, were reportedly lured from Nigeria with promises of decent jobs in a restaurant but were forced into sex work upon arrival in Ghana. One of the victims was Nwachukwu’s own sister.
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Prosecutor Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Isaac Babayi told the court that the case began when Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in Ghana, reported the matter to authorities and rescued the victims.
ASP Babayi said that on June 7, 2024, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) at the CID Headquarters received a report from the Nmai Dzorn Police Station indicating that Chief Eloziepuwa and his team had apprehended Nwachukwu and freed the victims.
Investigations revealed that Nwachukwu financed the victims’ transportation from Nigeria to Ghana and worked with unidentified accomplices who recruited them from different villages in Nigeria.
The court also heard that upon the victim’s arrival, Nwachukwu reportedly kept girls at his residence at Liberia Camp near Kasoa, where he reportedly forced them to take oaths before a shrine after cutting their pubic hair.
The court also heard that Nwachukwu told the victims they would suffer incurable skin diseases if they disobeyed him or tried to escape.
Nwachukwu allegedly gave them waist beads from the shrine and later transported them to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were forced into prostitution and made to pay him GH₵300 daily from their earnings.
The Ghana police force found that Nwachukwu kept detailed records of their daily income in an exercise book.
The Achimota Circuit Court, presided over by Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong, found Nwachukwu guilty on two counts of human trafficking.
Judge Adjepong noted that although Nwachukwu was a first-time offender who pleaded for leniency, the seriousness and rising prevalence of human trafficking required a deterrent sentence.
She then sentenced Nwachukwu to 10 years in prison on each count, and the sentences are to run concurrently.
The judge also ordered Nwachukwu to pay GH₵15,000 compensation to each of the 10 victims.
Recall last year, The Guardian reported that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana had taken custody of 11 trafficked Nigerian girls rescued from a prostitution ring allegedly run by Nwachukwu.
In a memo sighted by The Guardian, signed by the Acting High Commissioner, Nigeria High Commission, Accra, Ghana, Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo, the victims were identified as native workers from Imo and Plateau States.
Adeoye said: “We have the honour to report that the Nigerian High Commission, Accra, has taken custody of the 11 trafficked Nigerian girls who were rescued on Thursday, June 6, at Wiennbba, Central Region, Ghana.
“The victims were rescued by officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Ghana, led by its President, Olayemi Akinwande. The victims, aged between 14 and 18 years, are at present being kept by the High Commission at 15, Circular Road, Cantonment, Accra.”
