Nigerian Woman Arrested for Sex Trafficking

Police have arrested a Nigerian woman purported to have dealings in human trafficking at Tarkwa in the Western Region.

The suspect, Victoria Omotayo is alleged to have promised a number of girls from Nigeria, high-income jobs as sales girls only for them to be strayed into prostitution after arriving in Ghana.

According to Superintendent Kwabena Acheampong of the Ghana Police who spoke to Joy News, the victims narrated that “she approached them and her parents and told them that she is a businesswoman in Ghana with a very big business and they are into sales so she needs about four ladies to help her with sales.”

“So pursuant to this information, the ladies were given to her to come to Ghana,” he said.

After the ladies were hit with a reality check when the sales job never fell through, they were forced into prostitution by Madam Omotayo who went on to threaten their lives if they ever confided in anyone about the situation.

“When they arrived in Ghana their hair, pubic hair, nails, brassieres and panties were taken to put fear in them that if they dare run away from what they came to do, they will be killed so out of fear they also obliged,” the police officer said.

The Superintendent disclosed that the girls marched to the police station yesterday’s dawn after two weeks of keeping quiet to report their procuress.

The police acted quickly by following the girls to their hiding place to arrest Madam Victoria and her accomplices.

They were able to rescue thirteen (13) girls between the ages of eighteen (18) to twenty-six (26) and have mounted a search for one of the girls who went missing, a 16-year old girl reported to have fallen ill after the bawd conducted an illegal abortion on her.

Trafficking in persons has become a multibillion dollar business in Africa that African governments have been slow to address.

Human trafficking is a $13.1 billion annual enterprise in Africa. With the wave of migration toward the Mediterranean that started in 2014, thousands of migrants have found themselves vulnerable to trafficking and other exploitative practices.

Ghana’s fight against human trafficking has received an international recognition as the latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) has upgraded the country’s Tier 2 Watch List to a Tier 2 ranking in the 2018 TIP Report.

Procedures have been adopted to identify and refer trafficking victims to necessary services and supported a range of anti-trafficking awareness raising activities.

Although Ghana does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, these increased efforts have resulted in the upgrade.

By: Jennifer Avemee