A Nigerian trader, Joyce Samuel Chidema, aka Choice, has appeared before an Accra Circuit Court for trafficking three persons to Ghana to engage in prostitution.

Chidema is being held on the charges of two counts of human trafficking, two counts of procuration, trading in prostitution, failure to appear before an Immigration Officer, and entry into Ghana through an illegal border and point of entry.

The accused person is said to have asked her victims to pay ¢700,000 and ¢1 million before they could secure their freedom.

She has denied the charges before the court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah, a relieving judge.

The court admitted Joyce to bail in the sum of ¢100,000 with three sureties, one to be justified.

The prosecution, led by Abu Issah, said on October 17, 2022, the Human Trafficking Unit of the Economic and Organised Crime Office, received intelligence that three Nigerian women had been trafficked to Ghana by another Nigerian woman.

The prosecution said investigations established that the accused person was a Nigerian who had resided in Ghana since January 2021 and had allegedly been working as a prostitute and a trader in cloth.

It said Chidema had harboured three persons whose names have been withheld and engaged them in prostitution.

The prosecution said further investigations established that Chidema allegedly kept the victims in a house in Ghana and that she has been exploiting their vulnerability of being unemployed.

It said Chidema had also taken the three victims to a Shrine where they were made to “swear loyalty to the accused person and compelled them to engage in prostitution”.

According to the prosecution, the victims were also made to make sales between ¢80 and ¢100 each to Chidema after engaging in the prostitution business.

The prosecution said further investigations revealed that Chidema had told her victims that they could only secure their freedoms from her “if they work to pay her between ¢700,000 and ¢1 million”.