About 10 teenage girls around the ages of 15 and 16 have been rescued after they were trafficked to Ghana for prostitution.
Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed this in a video posted on her verified X, formerly Twitter.
It was gathered that the girls were rescued, after a tip-off, by NIDO – the umbrella body of all Nigerians living in Ghana and an arm of the NiDCOM.
At least three of the victims are siblings from the same parents. According to one of them, the suspect traded them for sex without paying them, adding that they could not contact their parents because the suspect seized their phones.
The suspect, a yet-to-be-identified Nigerian man, has been arrested, having molested and trafficked the victims, according to the Chairman of NIDO, Chief Callistus, who was in the now-viral video.
Some of the girls were mainly from Imo and Plateau States, and were below the official Nigerian adult age.
Still speaking in the video, one of the unnamed girls pointed to the other, stating that it was her brother who brought them to Ghana for prostitution.
Still quizzing, they asked, “When they brought you here, what were you asked to do?”
One of the girls responded to the question, saying, “They give us out to men and they don’t give us money; they collect everything.”
Facing the camera now, the chief said, “See our children in diaspora, 15 years old, children that are supposed to be in school, these are the great future of Nigeria in the diaspora, three children from same father and mother in Imo State.”
Reacting to the post on her personal X page, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa called on the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons to take decisive follow-up actions.
She wrote, “These are young girls trafficked to Ghana for prostitution. We thank Chief Callistus for ensuring the arrest of the evil perpetrator. I am sure @naptipnigeria will follow up; very, very heartbreaking.”
Speaking in the video attached to her post, the NIDO chairman said, “We just rescued these girls from a single person’s house, innocent Nigerian children; they were brought here to do what they would not have wished to do.
“They are helpless; they beat, molest and send them out for prostitution; they will collect money from them.
“We just apprehended the perpetrator, a Nigerian guy; we are at the police station now.”
Section 13 of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria prohibit the act of trafficking in persons.
The law prescribes penalties of 10 years to life imprisonment for sex trafficking.
