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 Nigerian girls to Ghana for prostitution.
The victims, aged between 15 and 18, were reportedly lured from Nigeria with promises of restaurant jobs but were forced into sex work upon their arrival in Ghana. One of the victims was Nwachukwu’s biological 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, alerted authorities and helped rescue the girls.
On June 7, 2024, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) at the Ghana Police CID Headquarters received a report from the Nmai Dzorn Police Station that Chief Eloziepuwa and his team had apprehended Nwachukwu and freed the victims.
Investigations revealed that Nwachukwu financed the victims’ journey from Nigeria to Ghana and collaborated with unidentified accomplices who recruited them from several villages across Nigeria.
Upon their arrival, the girls were reportedly kept at his residence at Liberia Camp, near Kasoa, where he forced them to take oaths at a shrine after cutting their pubic hair.
The court heard that Nwachukwu threatened the victims with incurable skin diseases if they disobeyed or tried to escape.
He also gave them waist beads from the shrine as a symbol of the oath. Later, he moved them to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were coerced into prostitution and compelled to pay him GH₵300 daily from their earnings.
Police investigations further showed that Nwachukwu meticulously recorded their daily proceeds in an exercise book.
Delivering judgment, Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong of the Achimota Circuit Court found Nwachukwu guilty on two counts of human trafficking.
The judge noted that although the convict was a first-time offender who pleaded for leniency, the gravity of the offense and the growing rate of human trafficking warranted a firm deterrent sentence.
Nwachukwu was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. The court also ordered him to pay GH₵15,000 compensation to each of the 10 victims.
It will be recalled that 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 operated by Nwachukwu.
In a memo signed by Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo, the Acting High Commissioner in Accra, 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 Wiennbba, Central Region, Ghana.
The victims, aged between 14 and 18 years, were rescued by officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Ghana, led by its President, Olayemi Akinwande.
“They are currently being sheltered at the High Commission premises at 15, Circular Road, Cantonment, Accra.”
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