A Ghanaian court has sentenced 29-year-old Nigerian national, Chukwudi Nwachukwu, to 10 years’ imprisonment for trafficking his younger sister and nine other Nigerian girls into Ghana for prostitution under false pretenses of employment.
The Achimota Circuit Court, presided over by Judge Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong, found Nwachukwu guilty on two counts of human trafficking. The sentence will run concurrently, and the court further ordered him to pay GH₵15,000 compensation to each of the ten victims.
According to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Isaac Babayi, the accused lured the victims from rural communities in Nigeria with promises of restaurant jobs in Ghana. Upon arrival, however, Nwachukwu confined them at Liberia Camp near Kasoa, where he subjected them to ritual oaths at a shrine after forcibly cutting their pubic hair. He allegedly warned the victims that they would suffer incurable skin diseases if they disobeyed or attempted to escape.
Each victim was given waist beads from the shrine before being transported to Odorkor, a suburb of Accra, where they were forced into sex work and required to remit GH₵300 daily from their earnings to Nwachukwu. Investigators later discovered that the convict meticulously recorded their daily income in an exercise book.
The case came to light following a report from Chief Calistus Eloziepuwa, a member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in Ghana, who alerted police and assisted in rescuing the victims. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Ghana Police Service subsequently took over the case.
While Nwachukwu pleaded for leniency as a first-time offender, the court maintained that the gravity of the offence and the growing incidence of cross-border human trafficking necessitated a deterrent sentence.
Judge Adjepong emphasised the judiciary’s commitment to upholding Ghana’s anti-trafficking laws and protecting vulnerable persons from exploitation.
This conviction underscores the critical role of diaspora community leaders and law enforcement collaboration in combating transnational trafficking networks across West Africa.
