Businesswoman in court over trafficking five girls to Ghana

A 38-Nigerian businesswoman accused of trafficking five girls from Nigeria to Ghana to engage in prostitution, has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.

Favour Okonkwo charged with five counts of human trafficking, pleaded not guilty.

Favour is said to have taken the victims to a fetish priest to swear by a deity and coerced them to shave their public hair and draw their blood for rituals.

The trial judge, Christina Cann, has admitted Favour to bail in the sum of GH¢300,000 with four sureties.

Four of the sureties should be justified with land title deeds.

According to the court, land title deeds should be in the name of the sureties, and they must be Ghanaians.

It ordered the sureties to deposit their passports and copies of their Ghana Cards at the Registry of the court.

The court asked the prosecution to file witness statements and all documents they intended to rely on and serve defence counsel with the documents.

The matter has been adjourned to February 19, 2024, for the Case Management Conference.

The prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Stanley Fiotso, said the five complainants (the victims) name withheld were Nigerians residing at Agbogboloshie, Accra.

The prosecution said on November 9, 2023, the Regional Police Command obtained intelligence that a group of young ladies had been recruited and trafficked from Nigeria to Ghana and hiding at AgbogbOloshie.

It said personnel from the Regional Police Investigations Department were deployed to the scene to rescue the victims from some wooden structures to the Regional CID office.

The prosecution said the complainants informed the police that they were recruited and trafficked from Nigeria to Ghana, and that they were promised lucrative jobs.

It said, however, on their arrival in Ghana, the jobs turned out to be prostitution and that the accused person allegedly took them to a fetish priest to swear that they would not disclose the job to anyone and that they would die should they.

The prosecutor said, “the complainants alleged the accused person took their blood samples for rituals”.

According to prosecution, the victims were also told that if they decided to return to Nigeria, they would die.

It said the accused person had asked them (the complainants) to sleep with 10 men each day and render account for work done.

The prosecution said as part of the deal, the complainants were to pay between GHC100 and GHC200 each a day to the accused person.

It said investigations revealed that the complainants were trafficked to Ghana without the consent of their parents, and that they had been kept in a wooden structure where they had sex with men for money.

When the accused person was escorted by the police to her room, an exercise book with the records of the complainant’s contributions was found.

During interrogation, the prosecutor told the court that the accused person admitted recruiting the girls for prostitution.