A Nigerian hairdresser has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trafficking seven victims from Nigeria to Ghana and forcing them into prostitution.

Promise Obianu Awayiaka, 32, compelled her victims to undergo a ritual involving shaving their pubic hair to intimidate them and prevent their escape.

Appearing before a Sogakope Circuit Court, Promise [accused] pleaded guilty to seven counts of human trafficking and was convicted on her own plea.

The court presided over by Mr Isaac Addo ordered her to pay compensation of GH₵10,000 to each of the victims and mandated the Ghana Immigration Service to provide counselling and return the victims to Nigeria.

“Looking at the seriousness of the offence committed, the number of victims involved, it ought to hand down a deterrent sentence to traffickers and “would-be traffickers,” the court said.

The court held that “the accused person ought to be kept away from society for a considerable period of time. This gruesome act is clearly a modern (form of) slavery, which must not be countenanced.”

The prosecuting officer, Assistant Superintendent of Immigration Yussif Misbawu, who held the brief of Superintendent of Immigration Bernard John Otoo, said the accused resided at Mafi-Kuamse, a suburb of Sogakope in the Volta Region.

The prosecution said Promise had initially lured the seven victims from Nigeria to Ghana with promises of employment as sales girls in a supermarket in Kasoa in the Central Region but instead forced them into prostitution.

It said the girls (victims) arrived in two groups; the first group was made up of four women aged between 22 to 25 years.

Assistant Sup. of Immigration Yssif Misbawu said Promise [accused] initially transported the victims to Kasoa and forced them into prostitution from which she took the proceeds.

He said after a while, security personnel in Kasoa were alerted of the plight of the victims - however, the accused upon becoming aware, relocated them to a guesthouse at Mafi Kumase, a suburb of Sogakope.

It said Promise also recruited and transported three more victims from Nigeria aged 17, 20 and 23 and forced them into prostitution while at Mafi-Kumase.

The prosecution added that the Ghana Immigration Service was informed which led to the arrest of Promise and the victims.