284 children suspected to be victims of human trafficking have been transferred to the police headquarters in Accra from Tema.

The anti-human trafficking unit of the Criminal Investigations Department together with the Tema Regional Police intercepted them onboard three buses at Prampram.

According to the police, the victims who are aged between five and fifteen were being transported to Yeji to engage in menial jobs.

“The anti-human trafficking unit has established that there is the likelihood that most of the children were going to be used for menial jobs and other fishing activities in and around Yeji, DSP Kwesi Ofori, Director of Police Public Relations told News men.

Some of the children who spoke to news men said they were on vacation and were traveling to Yeji to visit their parents.

They claim to be hungry after being starved since morning.

He said the children have been taken to the Police training school to make use of hostel facilities after which a decision will be taken.

Meanwhile thirteen men accused of allegedly trafficking children were Tuesday arraigned before the Accra Circuit Court 5 presided over by Judge Georgina Mensah–Datsa.

They have been charged with conspiracy to commit crime and human trafficking.

The accused are Samuel Yenyan Korye, Eric Siaw, Super Dzisenu, Ku George Moses, Felix Nartey, Robert Nartey, John Nartey, Akakpo Dameh, Emmanuel Nartey, George Ayiku Nartey, Alex Koffie, Tei Dawa and Enock Tetteh Bordozor.

The first, second and fifth accused persons who are drivers have also been charged additionally with carrying persons in a vehicle in excess of the prescribed number.

Their pleas were not taken but were ordered to be kept in police custody until August 10, 2010.

Presenting the facts to the court, ASP Annor said on August 1, 2010, three commercial buses with registration numbers GT 6121-10, GR 3096 C and WR 2175 C en-route to Yeji in the Brong Ahafo Region were intercepted by the police at the outskirts of Prampram.

He said on the spot investigation revealed that, 338 children between the ages of 4 and19 years recruited from Ada, Ningo, Sege, Kpongnuour and its surrounding villages were being transported by the accused persons to Yeji to work.

The prosecutor also informed the court that investigations were continuing as a team of investigators and personnel from the Anti-Human Trafficking unit of the police have left for Yeji to ascertain if the parents of the victims are based there.

That, he said, was when the police were told when the children were intercepted.

He said the children are being housed at the Tesano Police Station and have since been fed and catered for by an NGO.

Got another taxi story here. :)

I took a taxi this afternoon which had the radio on a local FM station broadcasting the news. In reaction to the answers being given by a local government leader who was being interviewed, the driver of the taxi angrily switched off the radio and started talking about how dishonest our politicians - from any party are and how he earns for a coup d'etat in Ghana.

I convinced him to change his mind with the reason that we can change bad leaders with democracy after some time, no matter how long. With military leaders we cannot. But this makes me wonder if the society will not support a coup in Ghana now which can give a military adventurer some legitimacy to misbehave, thus repeating some not very good parts of our history. What do you think?

For trafficking their nationals for prostitution, three Chinese nationals were on Monday June 22, sentenced to a total of 41 years imprisonment in hard labor by an Accra Circuit Court.

The court found the ringleader, James Xu Jin, his wife Chou Xiou Ying, and Sam Shan Zifan, Jame’s younger brother, guilty of recruiting, transporting and harboring the victims for prostitution.

James was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, while Chou and Sam were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment each.

James was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charge of conspiracy and 15 years on the charge of human trafficking, while his wife was sentenced to two years imprisonment and 10 years imprisonment on the charges of conspiracy and human trafficking, respectively.

Sam was jailed two years for conspiracy and 10 years for abetment. Their sentences are to run consecutively.

Delivering its judgment in Accra on Monday, the trail judge, Mrs. Elizabeth Ankomah, held that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons acted together to recruit, transport and harbor the girls for prostitution and slammed their defense that they were running a restaurant.

It held that the girls, who were eight in number, were “reduced to the state of slavery” by James and Chou who had deceived the girls into believing that they (girls) were to assist in running a restaurant business in Accra, only for their passports to be seized and for them to be forced into prostitution on arrival.

The court ordered the deportation of the convicts after serving their terms.

It also revoked James’s resident permit and further ordered that his assets should be confiscated to the state.

It also ordered that the $14.560 which was found in James’s house on February 14, 2009, the day of the arrest, must be paid into the human trafficking fund and part must be used to pay the amounts James owed the victims.

According to the court, the victims were recruited from Harbin, a city in China, under the guise that they were to assist Jin and Chou to run a restaurant in Accra for a monthly salary of $500 but on arrival in Ghana they were forced into prostitution.

It is said James exploited the poor victims whom he claimed owed him for their airfare and other transport arrangements, seized their passports and also ordered them to pay a penalty of $50 a day anytime they refused to offer sex.

The court further held that James misled officials of the Ghana investment Promotion Council (GIPC) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and managed to get documentation to stay in the country to run his prostitution business and not a restaurant, as he had made those institutions to believe.

According to the court, from the totality of the evidence, a tour of the brothel called Peach Blossom Palace and from the evidence of neighbors, it was clearly evident that James and Chou did not run a restaurant, as they had indicated to the court.

It further stated that the names of two restaurants which were registered by James existed on paper only to deceive the GIPC and the GIS, assign that it also found that James and Chou saddled the victims with debts to further exploit them.

The Court said it was also obvious that the debt owed by the victims forced them into a state of vulnerability, adding that it was also evident that the victims were put under bondage by the convicts.

It also held that there was overwhelming evidence to the effect that Sam helped Jamnes and Chou and acted as the interpreter for the victims and their clients who were mostly Indians, Chinese and Lebanese.

The court found that there was abundant evidence to prove that Sam sometimes drove the victims to meet their clients, opened gates for men to enter the palace, among others, and added that he “aided, facilitated, carried, promoted the act of trafficking and was paid $600 a month”.

An investigative journalist, Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, whose seven-month investigations led to the arrest of the accused persons on February 14, 2009, also gave evidence on the activities of the accused persons and produced video and audio tapes on their activities.

Counsel for the convicts, Mr. B.O.K. Johnson, said he was yet to receive instructions from his clients on whether or not to appeal against the conviction.


Source: Daily Graphic

Apostle Safo Kantanka has made a couple of interesting machines here in Ghana. They include the 'Kantanka Obrempong', a 26 feet limousine. He also cultivates acres of land each year.

Let me know what you think of the work this man is doing. Is he to be encouraged and supported in his mechanical and electrical/electronic research or we are better off allowing the Germans, Americans, Japanese and co worry about that so that he can focus on farming?

Over 60% of the labor force in Ghana is engaged in occupations in the agricultural sector, yet the nation imports incredible quantities of food daily. Why are we failing to feed ourselves?

The boss of Peach Blossom Palace is spotted In Ghana's most expensive casino, wearing Gucci shades, a golden brown Emperio Amani tuxedo and a custom-made Rolex wrist watch.

Scores of raunchy mini-skirted Chinese girls fill up his glass with exotic Frcnch champagne. He spins his cozy swivel chair in sensuous delirium as the ladies' dainty fingers caress his neck, back and shoulders to orthopedic effect. "Ha,ha ha" he lets out another loud peal of frenzied laughter.

There is no doubt that this impressive figure is a successful man. His appearance likewise leaves little doubt that his prosperity comes from brisk business.

What is not immediately evident is the fact that he rakes in millions that flow not from his own pores, but from the bloody chores of hapless, naive lasses he has made whores on the shores of West Africa.

He presides over an evil empire, which traffics his Chinese compatriots, engaging them in sex slavery, not only here in Ghana, but also in Nigeria and Togo.

The non-African expatriate community is the clientele. Peach Blossom Palace is the wholesale outlet from where the "goods" are marketed and sold. Poor, innocent and vulnerable Chinese girls, some as young as 19, are the human commodity on sale paraded in front of the clients like pieces of meat in a butcher shop window. They are lured here with promises of honest, well-paid jobs, only to have their passports and return tickets confiscated.

The travel documents may be recovered, but only after one had paid off the cost - invariably inflated of the trip to Accra. They are beaten and threatened with a high debt to be repaid only through the sale of their bodies.

They are thrown into debt bondage and forced to sell their innocence and human dignity for their master's gain in nightclubs and casinos. 'I was told that I was going to be waitressing in a Chinese restaurant, but it however turned into nightmare.

There was no way of turning back and I resorted to this dehumanizing business' said one of the girls. Any of this trafficker's victims, who attempt anything akin to disobedience, not to talk of rebellion, is firmly, swiftly and brutally repressed.

Six months of backbreaking investigation yielded the above discovery on the nefarious activities of King James, the man at the centre of the sex trafficking ring.

Posing as a bartender in the hotels where this sordid business is carried out, "The New Crusading Guide" reporter managed to capture every aspect of this trade with a hidden camera. He also pretended to befriend a lady who lived in the brothel and from whom, over a period of four months, he obtained valuable, first-hand accounts of the activities of King James and his colleagues. All of the above described is captured on video. It was upon the presentation of this evidence that the Police CID planned and carried out a raid on the Peach Blossom Palace in Labadi, Accra.

The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, Supplemental Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafticking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) serves as the international legal standard. It outlines the definition of human trafficking in Article 3 (a):
"Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, with total annual revenue for trafficking in persons estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion. The Council of Europe states that "people trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about $42.5 billion."

Enslavement Prevention Alliance - West Africa, an NGO that has provided the victims with postrescue care, stated that: "The ruthless criminals behind the sexual exploitation of these vulnerable women should feel the full hand of the Ghanaian law. This would not only serve to provide the victims with justice, it would also serve as a deterrent to all those who wish to perpetrate similar crimes in Ghana. Swift prosecution of this case will send a clear message that the business of sexual slavery is not welcome here."


Credit: Anas Aremeyaw Anas reported From La, Ghana, Victoria Island, Lagos,Nigeria, [Crusading Guide]

How do you improve the Ghanaian educational system? In times past, I would have had an easy answer for this. Train teachers better, get textbooks in the schools etc would have come off the top of my head, probably. But is it really that simple? After doing community service, traveling the country more than before and actually starting to think about the issues in more than superficial terms, I realize that it's definitely not. And in case you don't think the educational system is that bad, think again. It's almost impossible to get reliable data that actually means anything on how bad the situation is, but if an overwhelming majority of citizens are unable to make anything meaningful out of their lives with the education they are getting and rather equips them with a ludicrous dependence/obsession with government and its whims, I am positive there is something VERY VERY wrong. Even for the VERY few who are getting a semblance of a "good" education, is it really? Education that has no relevance to the society and does not in any way encourage citizens to think through and generate practical solutions for themselves and others is really a waste of resources to me. Do check out Paolo Friere's thoughts on this subject:

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm

He was a 20th century Brazilian educator and theorist who had some interesting ideas about education. I agree with what he says to a large extent.

What are your thoughts?

Tomorrow, Sunday, 7th December, 2008, Ghanaians will go to the polls to pick their next president and members of parliament. There is a very extensive campaign going on to ensure this is a peaceful event. Do you think Ghana's democracy has grown enough for a completely violence free election?