The Savannah Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service, led by Deputy Commissioner of Immigration, Lawrence Agyei Agyapong, has arrested a 34-year-old Nigerian national known as Prince James, a.k.a. Prince Odogunu, for alleged human trafficking in Clooth, an illegal mining community in the Bole District of the Savannah Region.
According to some stakeholders, Clooth is not just any illegal mining community, but a popular hub for foreigners, with nefarious activities described in security circles as criminal.
Briefing the media in Damongo, the Savannah Regional Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service, Lawrence Agyei Agyapong, explained that the command executed intelligence gathering and dispatched officials on motorbikes on a four-hour journey to the galamsey hub to fish out the suspect.
“They travelled 240 kilometres on motorbikes from the regional capital Damongo to Clooth, laid an ambush in the bush, and arrested the suspect.
“The victim’s account details that the syndicate is stationed across the African sub-region, and she was transported from Nigeria through Togo, Benin and then to Ghana’s Afloa border and to Accra and later to Savannah Region, where suspect Prince James, a.k.a. Prince Odogunu, moved in and transported her on a motorbike to the community to start operations as a sex worker.” Mr Achempong stated.
The Deputy Commissioner of Immigration also revealed knowledge of the various foreign nationals hiding and operating in Clooth, some of whom he said fled Clooth the moment the team effected the arrest of Prince Odogunu.
“We will not be deceived by their moves but will go after all of them.” DC Agyapong warned.
The victim, whose name is withheld, is also a Nigerian national. The 24-year-old chronicles how she was lured by an agent to Ghana for a professional nursing job and how she managed to escape.
“I was working as a Nurse in Nigeria but was not being paid for several months. So, I met an agent who promised me a Nursing job in Ghana. He collected 300GHS from me, and I was transported to Ghana, and then Prince James came for me. But when got to the place, it was a bush and what I saw, quickly I panicked and the Odogunu shown me a metal container as my room to be using as a sex worker. He said I must have sex with men and pay him Six Million Naira, GH₵50,000.”
“So, one night a Man approached, and that lady who was asked to watch over me collected 300GHS from him and asked me to follow him to his house. He slept with me, but I later escaped at dawn, at 4 am through the bush and came to Damongo,” she recounted.
She said more than 30 other girls suffering from a similar fate were still trapped in clooth working as sex slaves for their traffickers.
Meanwhile, Mr Agyapong said the suspect will be transferred to headquarters along with his victim for further investigation and action.
He, however, sounded a word of caution to all foreign nationals hiding in clooth and all others in the region to either do the needful or have themselves to blame.