Aflao, May 1, GNA - Two Ghanaian girls have been rescued from child traffickers in the Republic of Benin and handed over to the security agencies at Aflao by the Togolese authorities. They are Amina Aku, 12 and Zina Adam, 11.

Mr Baba Moro, Assistant Superintendent of Police in charge of Crime at Aflao, told the Ghana News Agency that a woman named only as Zinabu picked the two girls from their parents at Aflao and sent them to Benin to serve as domestic servants. The girls alleged that while in Benin they were often subjected to beatings and other forms of maltreatment for alleged misdemeanours, including those obviously committed by other children, according to ASP Moro.

He said the girls escaped in April this year at dawn when they were awakened to begin their daily chores.

Mr Moro said an unnamed Benin national, who came into contact with the girls in the capital, Cotonou, got attracted to the girls after hearing their story and put them on a Lome bound bus where they were handed over to the Togolese authorities. He said the two had been handed over to a foster mother while efforts were being made to reunite them with their families. Mr Moro said Zina told the Police that her mother was mentally deranged.

In another development, a native of Dutch Komenda, Veronica Eshun, based in Lagos, Nigeria, was last Tuesday arrested in her attempt to traffic two teenage girls to Nigeria.

Faustina Abaka, 16 and Adzoa Onu, 11, have since been re-united with their families in Elmina.

However, police investigations revealed that some family members of the girls struck a deal with the suspect to take the children away. Mr Moro said the suspect and the girls' parents had been granted police enquiry bail and would be arraigned for child trafficking.