A 32-year-old Nigerian woman, Patience Gold, has been handed a 20-year prison sentence by the Tarkwa Circuit Court in Ghana for trafficking four young women, including one who was HIV-positive, into forced prostitution. Gold was convicted on multiple charges, including human trafficking, illegal abortion, assault, and prostitution. The sentences for each crime will run concurrently, meaning she will serve a maximum of 20 years.
The case, presented by Assistant Superintendent of Police Samuel Ahiabor, revealed that between March 22 and 27, 2025, Gold trafficked the victims from Nigeria’s Benue State to Ghana, under the false pretext of offering them employment as bar attendants at her establishment, Asanka-Moscato. Upon arrival in Ghana, the victims were coerced into sex work. Gold maintained control over the women using extreme intimidation, including shaving their pubic hair, removing their fingernails, and forcing them to swear an oath that they would repay the money she claimed to have spent on them.
Gold kept all the earnings from the prostitution and showed complete disregard for the well-being of her victims. One victim, who was pregnant, was given a harmful herbal concoction that led to an illegal abortion. Another victim, diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, was relocated after her health status became known, and Gold continued to exploit her in sex work, seizing her antiretroviral medication and assaulting her when she was unable to meet the expected financial quota.
The assault, along with the withholding of the medication, led the victims to report the abuse to the police. Following an investigation, Gold was arrested and subsequently sentenced. This case follows a similar incident in 2024 when another Nigerian woman, Rose Ikem, was sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking girls into prostitution in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.
