A Ghanaian court has sentenced 29-year-old Nigerian, Chukwudi Nwachukwu, to ten years’ imprisonment for trafficking his younger sister and nine other teenage girls from Nigeria to Ghana for prostitution.
What began as a promise of decent restaurant jobs for 10 young Nigerian girls — including one trafficker’s own sister — ended in a shocking case of betrayal and exploitation across borders.
The case, which unravelled through the intervention of a concerned community leader, highlighted the growing role of diaspora groups in exposing transnational crimes.
Prosecutor Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Isaac Babayi told the court that the matter came to light after Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in Ghana, alerted the police and rescued the victims.
According to ASP Babayi, 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 victims.
Investigations showed that Nwachukwu personally financed the girls’ transportation from Nigeria and coordinated with unidentified accomplices who recruited them from rural villages.
Upon their arrival in Ghana, he confined them at Liberia Camp near Kasoa, where he reportedly forced them to swear oaths before a shrine — after cutting their pubic hair.
According to The Guardian, the court also heard that Nwachukwu told the girls they would suffer incurable skin diseases if they ever defied him or attempted escape.
Each girl was allegedly given waist beads from the shrine before being moved to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were compelled to engage in sex work and pay him GH₵300 daily from their earnings.
The Ghanaian police later found that Nwachukwu meticulously documented their daily income in an exercise book.
At the Achimota Circuit Court, Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong found Nwachukwu guilty on two counts of human trafficking.
Although the convict pleaded for mercy as a first-time offender, the judge emphasised that the seriousness and rising prevalence of human trafficking demanded a firm response.
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 10 victims.
The case stands as a chilling reminder that human trafficking often hides behind familiar faces — and that vigilance, even from within the community, can be the first step toward justice.
