A Ghanaian court has sentenced a 29-year-old Nigerian man, 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 deceived with promises of restaurant jobs but were forced into sex work upon arrival in Ghana. One of the victims was Nwachukwu’s own sister.
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 incident and helped rescue the victims.
According to Babayi, on June 7, 2024, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Ghana Police Service received a report from the Nmai Dzorn Police Station that Nwachukwu had been arrested and the victims freed.
Investigations showed that Nwachukwu financed the victims’ journey from Nigeria to Ghana with the help of unidentified accomplices who recruited them from different villages.
Upon arrival, Nwachukwu reportedly kept the girls at his home in Liberia Camp, near Kasoa, where he forced them to take oaths before a shrine after cutting their pubic hair. He warned that they would develop incurable skin diseases if they disobeyed him or tried to escape.
The court also heard that Nwachukwu gave them waist beads from the shrine and later moved them to Odorkor, Accra, where they were forced into prostitution. He collected GH₵300 daily from each girl and kept a record of their payments 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 despite being a first-time offender, the seriousness of the crime demanded a strong deterrent. She sentenced Nwachukwu to 10 years in prison on each count, to run concurrently, and ordered him to pay GH₵15,000 compensation to each of the 10 victims.
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 signed by Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo, Acting High Commissioner in Accra, the victims were identified as young women from Imo and Plateau states.
“The victims, aged between 14 and 18, were rescued by officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Ghana, led by its President, Olayemi Akinwande,” the memo read. “They are currently being sheltered at the Nigerian High Commission in Accra.”
The case has drawn widespread condemnation from rights groups in both Ghana and Nigeria, who have urged stronger cross-border efforts to combat human trafficking.