A Ghanaian court has sentenced 29-year-old Nigerian national, Chukwudi Nwachukwu, to 10 years in prison for human trafficking after luring his younger sister and nine other Nigerian girls to Ghana under the guise of securing them restaurant jobs, only to force them into prostitution.
The victims, aged between 15 and 18 years, were trafficked from Nigeria with false promises of decent employment. Upon their arrival in Ghana, they were kept at Nwachukwu’s residence in Liberia Camp near Kasoa, where he allegedly cut their pubic hair and forced them to take oaths before a shrine, warning them that they would suffer incurable skin diseases if they tried to flee.
According to Assistant Superintendent of Police Isaac Babayi, the case came to light after Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in Ghana, alerted authorities and helped rescue the victims. On June 7, 2024, Ghana’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) received a report from the Nmai Dzorn Police Station that Nwachukwu had been arrested, and the girls were freed.
Investigations revealed that Nwachukwu financed their transportation from Nigeria and collaborated with unidentified accomplices who recruited the girls from various villages. After forcing them into prostitution in Accra’s Odorkor area, he demanded GH₵300 daily from each victim and kept detailed income records in an exercise book.
Presiding Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong of the Achimota Circuit Court convicted Nwachukwu on two counts of human trafficking. Although he pleaded for leniency as a first-time offender, the judge stressed that the increasing cases of human trafficking demanded a strong deterrent. She sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently, and ordered him to pay GH₵15,000 compensation to each of the ten victims.
This case follows reports by The Guardian last year that the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana had taken custody of 11 trafficked Nigerian girls rescued from a similar prostitution ring allegedly operated by Nwachukwu. Acting High Commissioner Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo confirmed that the rescued victims, mostly from Imo and Plateau states, were being sheltered and rehabilitated at the Commission’s premises in Accra.
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