Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has revealed that the man arrested in connection with the trafficking of teenage girls to Ghana for prostitution will be charged before the court this week.
Dabiri-Erewa also disclosed that in addition to the ten girls between the ages of 15 and 18 earlier rescued, an undisclosed number of girls have also been rescued.
She stated this in a series of tweets on X while responding to queries by other Nigerians on Saturday morning.
Recall that a video had gone viral on Friday showing some of the girls, three of which were siblings, recounting their experience.
According to the victims, who were promised a better life, they were beaten, molested, and forced into prostitution without pay while their phones were seized, and were unable to contact their parents.
“They give us out to men, and they don’t give us money; they collect everything,” one of the girls said in the video.
But Dabiri-Erewa disclosed that the girls shown in the video were rescued after a tip-off by NIDO, the umbrella body of Nigerians living in Ghana.
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She said: “As I speak, a few more girls have been rescued in Ghana. The culprit will be charged next week as we work on getting the girls back home.
“But here is the challenge, as these ones are being rescued, triple the number are on their way out. Trafficked.”
She also called for the naming and shaming of convicted traffickers to serve as a deterrent to the menace, adding that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) is already working in that direction.
“Honestly, the traffickers need to be named and shamed! They are worse than drug barons. And as long as they are walking about freely, innocent young children will continue to be trafficked!” she said in another tweet.
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