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.
According to court records, Nwachukwu lured the victims, aged between 15 and 18 years, from different communities in Imo and Plateau States, promising them decent jobs in restaurants and beauty salons.
Upon arrival in Ghana, however, the young girls were forced into sex work and subjected to abuse, intimidation, and spiritual manipulation.
How the trafficking ring was uncovered
Prosecutor ASP Isaac Babayi told the Achimota Circuit Court that the case came to light after Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in Ghana, raised the alarm and rescued the girls.
He narrated that 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 intercepted Nwachukwu and freed ten girls who had been confined in a house at Liberia Camp near Kasoa, Central Region.
“Upon investigation, it was revealed that Nwachukwu had sponsored their transportation from Nigeria and worked with unidentified agents who recruited them from their villages,” Babayi told the court.
Chilling rituals and threats
Further investigations revealed disturbing details. Before forcing the girls into prostitution, Nwachukwu allegedly took them to a shrine, where their pubic hair was cut and used to administer oaths of secrecy.
He reportedly told them that any attempt to disobey him or flee would result in incurable skin diseases or instant death. Each girl was also made to wear waist beads from the shrine as a form of “spiritual control.”
From deception to forced labour
After the ritual, Chukwudi Nwachukwu moved the girls to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were made to serve clients daily and pay him GH₵300 (₦32,000) each day from their earnings. He kept detailed financial records of their payments in an exercise book seized by the police.
The victims were eventually rescued in a sting operation coordinated between NIDO Ghana and the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit.
The court’s verdict
Presiding Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong described Nwachukwu’s actions as “heinous and cruel,” especially given that one of the victims was his biological sister.
She convicted him on two counts of human trafficking and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. Nwachukwu was also ordered to pay GH₵15,000 (N1.8 million) in compensation to each of the ten victims.
Although he pleaded for leniency as a first-time offender, the judge stressed that human trafficking had become rampant and required a strong deterrent.
“The court cannot close its eyes to the growing menace of human trafficking. Such crimes destroy lives, families, and the dignity of humanity,” she said.
Aftermath and Nigerian response
The Nigerian High Commission in Ghana confirmed that it had taken custody of the rescued girls. In a memo signed by Acting High Commissioner Ambassador Adeoye Ifedayo, the victims were identified as indigenes of Imo and Plateau States, aged between 14 and 18 years.
They were temporarily sheltered at the High Commission’s compound on Circular Road, Cantonment, Accra, while arrangements were made for their repatriation and rehabilitation.
“We have the honour to report that the Nigerian High Commission, Accra, has taken custody of the 11 trafficked Nigerian girls rescued by officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation,” the memo read.
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