A Ghanaian court has sentenced a 29-year-old Nigerian, Chukwudi Nwachukwu, to 10 years in prison for trafficking his younger sister and nine other girls from Nigeria to Ghana for prostitution.The victims, aged between 15 and 18, were reportedly lured from Nigeria with promises of restaurant jobs but were instead forced into sex work upon arriving in Ghana. One of the victims was Nwachukwu’s own sister.
According to Prosecutor Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Isaac Babayi, the case began after Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in Ghana, reported the incident to authorities and helped rescue the victims. He 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 girls.
Investigations revealed that Nwachukwu funded the victims’ journey from Nigeria to Ghana and collaborated with unidentified accomplices who recruited them from different villages. The court was told that after their arrival, Nwachukwu kept the girls at his residence in Liberia Camp near Kasoa, where he allegedly took them to a shrine, cut their pubic hair, and forced them to swear an oath of allegiance. He warned them that they would develop incurable skin diseases if they disobeyed or tried to escape.
Nwachukwu also gave them waist beads from the shrine and later moved them to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were forced into prostitution and made to pay him GH₵300 daily from their earnings. Ghanaian police found detailed records of their daily payments in an exercise book recovered from his home.
The Achimota Circuit Court, presided over by Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong, found Nwachukwu guilty on two counts of human trafficking. Judge Adjepong noted that while he was a first-time offender who pleaded for leniency, the seriousness of the crime and the rising cases of human trafficking demanded a deterrent punishment.
She sentenced Nwachukwu to 10 years’ imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently, and ordered him to pay GH₵15,000 in compensation to each of the 10 victims. Reports also confirmed that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana had taken custody of 11 trafficked Nigerian girls rescued from the prostitution ring linked to Nwachukwu.In a memo signed by the Acting High Commissioner, Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo, the victims were identified as natives of Imo and Plateau States.
Adeoye stated, “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 Winneba, Central Region, Ghana. The victims were rescued by officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Ghana, led by its President, Olayemi Akinwande. The girls, aged between 14 and 18 years, are currently being sheltered by the High Commission at 15 Circular Road, Cantonments, Accra.”
Source: https://guardian.ng/
