By BARBARA KUMAH
A Cameroonian national living in Ghana has been arraigned before the Circuit Court for allegedly taking a seventeen-year-old Nigerian female unlawfully and having sexual relations with her in 2024 for a year.
CESAR VICTOIRE TSALA, 55, is alleged to have transported and detained the victim, who was at the time writing her West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), under the pretext of securing her a football team, but ended up exploiting her sexually. Tsala is facing three counts of criminal charges, namely human trafficking, abduction, and rape, contrary to provisions in the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) and the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
The complainant in the case is a relative of the seventeen-year-old victim, all Nigerian nationals living in Ghana, while the suspect, Cesar Victoire Tsala, is a 55-year-old Cameroonian trader.
According to court documents, on September 16, 2025, the complainant, together with the victim, reported to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service Headquarters that the accused had abducted the victim, who was then writing her WASSCE in 2024, from Spintex, in Accra. Her whereabouts had been unknown to the family for a year.
The victim managed to escape from the suspect on September 12, 2025, and returned home with a report that she was forcefully transported to Kasoa in the Central Region and subsequently to East Legon in Accra, where she was purportedly sexually abused by Cesar Victoire Tsala.
During an interview, the victim indicated to police that she was 16 years old at the time of her abduction. She was writing her WASSCE when the accused lured and abducted her under the pretext of providing for her basic necessities, teaching her French, and securing her a football team, but she was detained by the accused and prevented from going back to her family.
On September 18, 2025, the victim led police to East Legon, where she identified the accused, who was then arrested. During interrogation, he allegedly admitted to keeping the victim in his custody for a year without her consent and also knowing of the complainant. Investigation disclosed that in 2019, the victim was brought to Ghana from Nigeria to live with the complainant, her aunt, in Spintex-Accra to further her education. The accused, who attends the same church as the victim and complainant, assured the victim of support whenever she faced difficulties.
Per documents, in 2024, the complainant traveled to Nigeria, and the accused, leveraging the absence of the complainant, used the opportunity to lure the victim to live with him. He allegedly detained the victim in Spintex for seven months and prevented her from returning to her family even after the complainant returned to Ghana. The accused was aware that the complainant was searching for the whereabouts of her niece. The accused later transported the victim from Spintex to a guest house in Kasoa for one month before finally relocating her to East Legon, where he exploited the victim sexually. It was also revealed that the accused allegedly prevented the victim from writing the rest of her WASSCE papers and deceived her with a promise of recruiting her into a football academy.
The victim, looking for a means of escape, played along and feigned interest. On September 12, 2025, she requested to go back home to bring her birth certificate for the football documentation and was able to escape from the accused and return home.
The presiding judge at the Circuit Court, Evelyn Asamoah, adjourned the case to Monday, September 29, in order to find a French translator for the accused.
