A Ghanaian court has sentenced a 28-year-old Nigerian woman, Favour Ugwe, to eight years in prison with hard labour for human trafficking and forced prostitution.
In the ruling, delivered by Her Honour Akosua Adjepong on Thursday, Ugwe was also ordered to pay GH¢5,000 to her 19-year-old victim as compensation.
According to Ghanaian-based news website Star FM, the court found the woman guilty of recruiting and forcing the Chadian teenager into prostitution in the West African country.
Adjepong, before delivering the judgment, said she considered Ugwe’s lack of remorse during the trial and the prevalence of human trafficking in the country before passing her sentence.
The convict admitted to recruiting the victim from Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with the help of an accomplice, who paid for her transportation to Ghana.
An electrical engineer, Ibrahim Yahaya, reported Ugwe at the anti-human trafficking unit at the CID headquarters on November 5, 2023, after the victim was stranded in the neighbourhood at Olonka behind Madina Redco Flat in Accra.
The Chadian girl said she was recruited and transported from Nigeria to Ghana by Ugwe to work in a restaurant but was instead forced into prostitution.
On November 21, 2023, the victim was accompanied by a team of personnel from the unit, headed by the unit station officer to Madina in search of the accused.
While the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Isaac Babayi, urged the court to impose a hefty penalty on Ugwe to serve as a deterrent to others, the court said it took into consideration the fact that the convict was a first-time offender, her age, and the number of months spent in custody.
Babayi said, “The victim happened to locate Olonka and Red Light, a slum housing a large group of ladies suspected to be sex workers behind the Madina Redco Flats, and the victim pointed at the accused person as the trafficker. She was subsequently arrested by the police at her hideout.”
“Further investigation revealed that the accused person received the victim at Circle, Accra, and later took her to Olonka, her abode,” the report added.
She then provided the victim with dresses, condoms, and gel for lubrication during the victim’s sexual intercourse with men for a fee, which the accused person admitted receiving and recording.
Reacting to the incident, the Chairman, of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa said Ugwe’s conviction was a credit for the fight against human trafficking.
Dabiri-Erewa wrote this on her official X page on Thursday.
“A plus for the war against human trafficking. Favour Ugwe was convicted today in Ghana to spend 8 years in prison. One of the faces of those who traffick our young girls to Ghana,” the NiDCOM boss said.
