Key Points

• Cross-border trafficking rescue exposes growing criminal network.

• Police intensify cross-border trafficking rescue efforts.

• Father’s alert prompted swift cross-border trafficking rescue.

Ghana’s capital, Accra Ghanaian officials have saved a 15-year-old Nigerian girl who was brought to Ghana from Enugu under the pretence of getting a cleaning job but was instead forced into prostitution. On Thursday, police said they had made progress in the case after following up on a missing-person report filed by the girl’s father in Nigeria.

Officials say that the teenager was able to contact her father weeks after she went missing and told him that she had been taken across the border and held against her will. That call set off a coordinated response that led investigators to a house in Aboso, close to Tarkwa, where they found her.

Fake job offer lured girl away from Enugu

The Western Central Regional Police Command said in a statement that the victim had been tricked by a woman named Golden Blessing, who promised her a job in Lagos. Instead, Blessing is said to have given the girl to 25-year-old Joy Ogbonna, who took her to Ghana.

Ogbonna is said to have locked the teen in a room and forced her to be a prostitute, taking all the money she made from it. Later, a medical report confirmed that the girl was five weeks pregnant when she was rescued.

The police said that the victim was only able to call for help after a stranger helped her call her father.

One suspect is in jail, and the other is on the run

Ogbonna was arrested by the police at the scene, and she will likely be charged soon. The alleged recruiter, Blessing, is still on the run and is thought to have gone back to Nigeria.

Authorities said they are still trying to find her and that cooperation across borders has already begun. The police command thanked the people who helped find the missing teenager.

In its statement, the command reaffirmed its commitment to combating human trafficking, describing the rescue as part of a larger strategy to protect vulnerable persons from exploitation.

Rescue follows series of trafficking incidents

The case adds to a string of recent trafficking investigations involving Nigerian minors. In August, the Enugu State Police Command arrested a 30-year-old man, Raymond Wonna, for alleged involvement in transnational trafficking and rescued two girls aged 18 and 16.

Around the same period, Lagos State Police dismantled a ring that had been moving young Nigerians to Ghana for prostitution, freeing eleven victims and arresting four suspects.

Authorities in both countries warn that deceptive job offers remain a common tactic for traffickers operating across West Africa. Families were urged to be vigilant and report suspicious recruitment efforts immediately.