Court Orders Police To Rescue Trafficked Girl

IGP inspecting a quarter guard AN ACCRA Circuit Court Judge has ordered the Police to contact the Interpol in Kuwait to help rescue one Sakina Haruna, an alleged victim of human trafficking.

This follows reports by the prosecutor, ASP Mary Agbozo that the distraught victim has been calling her, weeping and appealing for help to come back to Ghana.

One Abdul Aziz Korda, a designer, has been accused of transferring the victim from Accra to Kuwait for exploitation. He has pleaded not guilty to the offence of human trafficking but is on remand as efforts are being made to establish the whereabouts of Sakina.

He is reported to have deceived the victim and her husband, the complainant that his counterparts in Kuwait wanted a driver and teacher for employment and that he would assist them to get the job. However, unknown to the woman she was going to do a different job.

ASP Mary Agbozo, who said she did not know how the victim got her number, disclosed that the victim complained of being maltreated because she declined to do the work offered her.

At an earlier sitting, the court ordered an officer of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in the matter to write to Interpol for assistance.

In response to the order, the CID informed the court that Interpol said the victim was happily working with the said company and had refused to come home. The CID officer said based on the report, he was at a loss as to where the pleas for help were coming from.

According to him, he even received calls from an aunt of the victim who assured him that the victim was happy and did not want to come to Ghana.

The prosecutor, who believed that the CID officer was now supporting the accused, got offended and told the court that she could even call the victim for the judge to listen to her.

The judge subsequently asked the CID officer why he was contradicting himself as he had earlier informed the court that the victim was willing to come back to Ghana. However the officer said he was dealing with the report from the Interpol.

The court then asked the CID officer to write again to Interpol and inform the outfit of the new development and report back to the court on February 16, 2009 since it believes that the agency might be talking to the wrong person.

ASP Agbozo, narrating the case, stated that the complainant is a driver and lives in Tamale whilst the accused is a traveling agent for a company in Kuwait.

According to her, sometime in January 2008, the accused informed the complainant and his wife that there was a job opportunity and his counterpart in Kuwait wanted people to fill that vacancy.

The accused, she said, assured them of positions such as a teacher and a driver and demanded GH¢1,000 for processing their documents.

However, on November 29, 2008 after processing all the documents including the visa, the accused person took the complainant and his wife to the Kotoka International Airport but informed the complainant that he purchased the air ticket for his wife alone because his particulars were not ready.

However, in the last week of November 2008, the wife who had left for Kuwait called her father in Ghana and told him that she needed help to return to Ghana since she could not do the job given her and also was in trouble.

The prosecutor said since then, both the family and the complainant lost contact with the victim in Kuwait and suspected she was being maltreated.

When they contacted the accused, he allegedly stated that he could not locate the complainant's wife. The case was then reported to the police and the accused, who went underground because of the incident, was arrested.

During interrogation, he told the police that his counterparts in Kuwait could not tell him the location of the victim and pleaded for some time to contact them.