A 48-year-old man, Mohammed Abdullah, suspected of human trafficking, has been arrested while attempting to cross from Ghana to neighboring Cote d’Ivoire with a 16-year-old girl.
The suspect, who was granted bail yesterday, claimed the girl was his wife, but officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) became suspicious when they observed a misunderstanding between the two, as they went through departure formalities at the Elubo border.
The officials intervened and subsequently arrested Abdallah after the girl, who was interviewed separately, said she was being taken away against her will.
The Western Regional Public Affairs Officer of the GIS, ICO Moses A. Akakpo, who confirmed the arrest to the Daily Graphic, said although Abdullah claimed the teenager became his wife after he had married her on August 13, the girl’s demeanour was not that of a newly married wife who was travelling with her husband, thus one of the officers on duty decided to find out what the problem was.
Mr Akakpo said the officials invited the two to the GIS office for questioning and put in separate rooms to be interviewed.
“When interviewed, Mr Abdullah told the officers that the teenager was his wife and that they just got married in Tamale and were relocating to neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire.
“The girl, on the other hand, insisted the man was not her husband and that she was not consulted in any way regarding the marriage,” the Public Affairs officer indicated.
The man
The officers said Abdulah recounted that he had come home from Cote d’Ivoire where he lived and worked as a trader for the celebration of the Muslim feast of sacrifice, Eid-ul-Adha.
He indicated to the immigration officials that it was the father of the girl who offered his daughter to him for a wife.
“He told the immigration officers that while conversing with the girl’s father about his experience in Cote d’Ivoire, he mentioned that he was looking for a wife to accompany him to his location to start a family and help in his business.
“Abdulah said the girl’s father told him he had a beautiful daughter and that he should come home and if he was interested, he (the father of the girl) was ready to give her to him as a wife,” Mr Akakpo further said.
“The 48-year-old followed up on the conversation and went to the girl’s house and upon verification, he found the girl to be good and a wife material, so he went ahead to perform the rites and they set a date for her to accompany him as he returned to Cote d’Ivoire,” the suspect is said to have told the officers in the interview.
Though the girl did not deny being married to the man, she was being forced to travel with him.
The officers also did not find Abdullah’s story convincing, so they arrested him on suspicion of trafficking the girl to the neighbouring country.
She is not in love
Mr Akakpo also revealed that when the girl was interviewed, she refused to acknowledge the man as her husband and insisted that her father forcibly handed her to the man she was not in love with.
Asked why she did not resist the marriage, she said the father did not consult her, but was ordered to leave with the man.
“I woke up as a child in the morning and in the evening I was a married woman; married to Abdullah and my parents were not ready to listen to me,” the teenage girl is reported to have told the immigration officers.
The shelter for her
Mr Akakpo said since the issue bordered on an element of trafficking and early child marriage, the case had been referred to the appropriate agencies for action.
“In a situation such as this, we work with other agencies, therefore, we invited the officials of the Department of Social Welfare and the Domestic Violence Unit who took custody of the girl,” he said.
The girl, according to the GIS, had since been transferred to the district capital, Half Assini, where officials had provided her with shelter and were currently trying to locate the family in Tamale for reunification and for them to help in investigations.