The Chief Executive Officer of the Channel of Blessing Ministry, Princess Asie Ocansey, has been arrested by the police for allegedly recruiting young Ghanaian women and men to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to work as domestic servants and butchers. Princess Ocansey hosts a radio programme on Sunny FM every Saturday afternoon and uses the platform to recruit the victims. She is also said to have visited churches to lure the youngsters into believing that their lives would change if they travelled outside the country. The Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Mrs Patience Quaye, said the complainants in Ocansey’s case were the American Embassy in Accra and a young woman. The identity of the woman, aged 27, has been withheld. According to the police, the young woman, who was a staunch Christian, was alleged to have been lured to Kuwait by the suspect, believing that she would live a better life but was shocked by what she went through when she arrived there. The police said the young woman was made to believe that she was going to work in a supermarket, but she was rather pushed into prostitution. After that the young woman was brought back from Kuwait about two months ago with serious mental problems. Mrs Quaye said the victim had told the police about her horrifying experience the result of which was her current mental instability. Supt Quaye said the victim was brought to the unit by her uncle and brothers, screaming and running around the car park of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service. When the relatives finally managed to calm her down, the victim started screaming that ” I will not die, I will not die”. Supt Quaye said the victim looked pale, dehydrated and drowsy so after her statement and that of her uncle had been taken, she was sent to the 37 Military Hospital for treatment where she was admitted for some weeks. She said doctors at the hospital could not immediately administer any drugs on her because she had been heavily sedated and kept passing out. Supt Quaye said after her discharge from the hospital, she narrated her ordeal to the police, claiming that a lot of young Ghanaian girls were suffering. Some of the victims are even said to have lost their lives in the process. From the narration of the victim to the police, she claimed to have heard the announcement on the radio and followed up to Princess Asie Ocansey’s office in Tema. After a few days of orientation, seven of them were sent to Kuwait to work in a huge supermarket. She said on arrival they were met by three Arab men who packed all seven of them and their luggage into a car. As soon as they arrived at their destination, their passport, luggage and mobile phones were taken from them. Thereafter they were pushed into a room where they met young women from other countries. The victim indicated that they were not given water or food and for the two days that they stayed in the room it was locked from outside and the ventilation in the room was very poor. The room was only opened when men from various recruiting agencies came to select those they thought could serve their purpose and took them away. It was a relief when she was picked by one of the men thinking that she was going to work in the supermarket, but little did she know that her problems were just beginning. She was moved from one location to another sleeping with men, and at a point she passed out because she couldn’t take it anymore. She pleaded with the doctor who treated her in hospital in Kuwait to call her family in Ghana. It was based on the efforts by the doctor that she was able to get in touch with her family who compelled Ocansey to bring her back to Ghana. Following her arrest, Ocansey told the police that she was not the only person in Ghana with the backing of labour laws to recruit girls to the Gulf countries. She said several girls had been sent there to work and that the victim was not the only woman she had sent there to work. According to Ocansey, she had information from his counterparts in Kuwait that shortly on arrival, the victim fell in love with a Kuwaiti man. According to Princess Asie Ocansey, the man, after sleeping with her, realised that the young woman was a virgin and, therefore, quit the relationship. She claimed it was the breakdown of the relationship which caused the young woman to develop a mental problem. Supt Quaye said the American Embassy had also made a complaint against Ocansey. Ocansey is currently on police enquiry bail assisting in their investigations.]]>