An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a 43-year-old Nigerian woman to five years in prison after convicting her of human trafficking and ordered that she be deported upon completing her sentence.
Eugenia Ifeoma pleaded guilty to two counts of human trafficking and entered a guilty plea with an explanation to a separate charge of entering Ghana through an unapproved route.
The court convicted her based on her own pleas.
According to prosecutors from the Ghana Immigration Service, Ifeoma recruited, transported and accommodated two Nigerian females, aged 19 and 17, for the purpose of prostitution after bringing them into Ghana through unauthorized entry points.
The prosecution told the court that on March 2, 2026, Ifeoma travelled from Ghana to Nigeria, where she met the victims’ brother, who requested that she assist in bringing his two sisters to Ghana.
Although she initially refused, she later accepted the request and financed their journey.
Upon their arrival, Ifeoma took the two victims to Asankragua, provided them with condoms and instructed them to remit GH¢200 from their daily earnings.
The prosecution further stated that she threatened to invoke the services of a fetish priest against the victims if they attempted to flee.
Acting on intelligence, officers of the Ghana Immigration Service at Asankragua arrested Ifeoma. Investigations later established that she had entered Ghana through an unapproved route.
In explaining her guilty plea to the illegal entry charge, Ifeoma told the court that she did not know it was an offence to bring others into Ghana.
The trial judge ruled that her explanation did not constitute a legal defence, convicted her and imposed a five-year custodial sentence.
The court further directed that she be deported after serving her prison term.
