An Asokwa Circuit Court has sentenced a Nigerian commercial sex worker noted for trafficking young girls into prostitution in Konongo in the Ashanti region to five years imprisonment in hard labor for human trafficking and assault.
Rose Ikem, aged 40, will also compensate four of her victims, whom she lured from Nigeria, for GH 24,000 with each of them receiving GH6, 000.00,
Her latest victims were aged between 17 and 24 years.
According to police prosecution, the accused person has been trafficking young girls from Nigeria to Konongo, exploited them in prostitution, with some of them being subjected to abuse.
On April 23, 2024, police received a complaint from a resident of Konongo about the treatment being meted out to the victims by the accused.
Police proceeded to the Konongo SSNITÂ area residence of Ikem but met her absence.
According to ASP Stephen Ofori who led the police prosecution, the police detected that the victims were locked up in a room, and the whereabouts of the accused person were unknown.
Police then laid an ambush until the accused person resurfaced and was subsequently arrested.
When the accused person was forced to open the room, police rescued two victims (name withheld) with two others who had run away being rescued the following day with the help of the complainant.
The court, presided over by His Honour Fred Obikyere, was told how Ikem, tasked her victims, who had worked between 3-months and 2-weeks, to make a daily remittance of GH 500 to her. This amounts to a total of GH 89,000.
According to ASP Ofori, any time the victims failed to meet their target, the accused assaulted them physically causing one of the victims to fracture her left hand.
The court sentenced the accused person to 5 years in hard labor for trafficking and 12 months for causing harm. Both sentences will run concurrently.