Three arrested for attempting to traffic 11 girls to Middle East

A combined team of Police, Bureau of National Investigation (BNI), and the Ghana Immigration Service personnel, have apprehended three people at Agona Swedru for allegedly attempting to traffic 11 girls to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.

The girls, aged between 14 and 22, were recruited from Kumasi, Togo and Volta North District of the Volta Region.

Police Chief Inspector Philip Arthur, Head of Agona Swedru Divisional Domestic Violence Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, who disclosed this to the media, said the suspects were arrested upon a tip off.

The suspects are Alhaji Ibrahim Imoro 60, Hajia Sward Zakari, and Hajia Zaratu Ibrahim both wives of the suspect, and resident at Yarlewa Zongo, a suburb of Agona Swedru.

Chief Inspector Arthur said the Immigration Service Personnel at Agona West Municipal Office had information that Alhaji Imoro had kept the females in his house.

According to Head of DOVVU, the suspect’s son (name withheld) for security reasons, initially brought 12 females to Swedru and took one of them to an unknown place in Kumasi and left the rest in Agona Swedru.

He said this was not the first time the suspect’s son had brought a group of females to Agona Swedru to be trafficked to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states for odd jobs.

Chief Inspector Arthur said the suspect told the security personnel during interrogation that his son brought the ladies for safe keeping at Agona Swedru.

He said the suspect confessed that his son was in Accra to prepare Ghanaian passports to enable the ladies to travel to their various destinations.

He said two of the girls revealed during the interrogation that, their parents were not aware of their supposed traveling abroad to work, which each could earn them huge dollars as salaries at the end of every month.

Chief Inspector Arthur said nine Togolese females involved in the trafficking, could not identify their hometowns where they were picked from by the suspect.

Chief Inspector Arthur said the 11 girls and three suspects have been transported to the Ghana Immigration Service head Office in Accra for further action.