Prostitution, generally believed to be the oldest profession is assuming a new dimension in Ghana. Normally the preserve of adult women, it is now changing phase with new tricks being introduced.

Old women who have apparently become unattractive to customers are now using teenage girls to service their clients. Four of such prostitutes who lured a 12-year old girl, (name withheld), into a hotel room in Accra and forced her to service their clients while they collected the money, have been arrested.

They are Offei Baby Yaa Lucy, 23, Hamidia Ibrahim, 18, Rabi Abubakar, 19, and Appea Akua Twumasiwa, 18. They were said to have told the police after their arrest that, their clients no longer enjoy their services because they have become old and unattractive for their clients. The prostitutes, who were operating from a room in a hotel situated at Kokomlemle, were arrested by the Police upon a tip off from the management of the hotel on Sunday, December 15, 2002.

They were arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court on Wednesday, December 18, 2002, charged with conspiracy, abduction, loitering, and prostitution. They pleaded not guilty to the charge but the judge remanded them into prison custody to appear again on Monday, January 13, 2003. The court had heard through the prosecution that, the 12-year old girl who lives with her parents at Madina left home on the pretext of visiting an auntie at Nungua, but she instead went to the La Beach, to swim. The prosecution said on Sunday, December 6, 2002, the four prostitutes as usual went to the La Beach to enjoy, solicit, and entice young girls who meet the specification of their clients.

The prostitutes had no difficulty in finding the calibre of the girl they were looking for, as they spotted the victim loitering around the beach. The prosecution said they lured the little girl with food and an undisclosed amount of money and thereafter sent her to the hotel they operated from. There, they gave her out to men who slept with her while they collected the money for the service rendered. The management of the hotel, noticing the ordeal the little girl was going through expelled the prostitutes and reported the case to the police. Later, the police traced the prostitutes to a night club in Accra and arrested them.

The police after rescuing the little girl sent her to hospital where a medical report on her indicated that her hymen was broken. An offensive vaginal discharge was also noticed by the doctor who examined her. The nine-old ordeal the little went through from December 6, 2002 to December 15, was described by the prosecution as pure hell. The little girl, who was earlier reported to the police by the parents as missing has now been given back to her parents.