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 allegedly deceived with promises of restaurant jobs but were instead forced into sex work after arriving in Ghana. One of them was Nwachukwu’s biological sister.
Prosecutor Assistant Superintendent of Police, Isaac Babayi, told the court that the case was uncovered after Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Ghana, reported the incident and helped rescue the girls.
According to Babayi, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) at the Ghana Police CID Headquarters received a report from Nmai Dzorn Police Station on June 7, 2024, indicating that Chief Eloziepuwa and his team had arrested Nwachukwu and freed the victims.
Investigations revealed that Nwachukwu funded the girls’ transportation from Nigeria to Ghana with the help of unidentified accomplices who recruited them from different villages across Nigeria.
The court heard that upon arrival, Nwachukwu kept the girls at his house in Liberia Camp, near Kasoa, where he allegedly forced them to swear oaths before a shrine after cutting their pubic hair. He reportedly warned them that they would suffer incurable skin diseases if they disobeyed or tried to run away.
He later gave each girl waist beads from the shrine and moved them to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were made to engage in prostitution. They were forced to pay him GH₵300 daily from their earnings.
Police investigators found an exercise book in Nwachukwu’s possession containing detailed records of the girls’ daily payments.
Delivering judgment, Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong of the Achimota Circuit Court found Nwachukwu guilty on two counts of human trafficking.
Although Nwachukwu pleaded for mercy as a first-time offender, Judge Adjepong said human trafficking had become a serious social problem and deserved a strong sentence to serve as a warning to others.
She sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment on each count, with both sentences to run concurrently. The court also ordered him to pay GH₵15,000 compensation to each of the 10 victims.
Last year, the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana confirmed taking custody of 11 rescued Nigerian girls linked to Nwachukwu’s trafficking network.
In a memo signed by the Acting High Commissioner, Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo, the commission said, “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 under the care of the High Commission in Accra.”
