Police recruitment scam: 38-year-old man granted GH¢150,000 bail

The Accra Circuit Court has granted GH¢150,000 bail with three sureties to Samuel Yeboah, 38-year-old unemployed, for alleged abetment of crime.

The court said one of the sureties should be a public servant earning not less than GH¢3,000 a month.

The court will take the plea of Bismark Adu Odame, a 31-year-old miner, Yeboah’s accomplice, accused of defrauding by false pretences.

The court presided over by Mrs. Kizita Naa Koowa Quarshie and adjourned the case to November 8, 2022.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Fuseini Yakubu told the court that the complainant was Nana Ekow Freeman, a media consultant residing in Komenda in the Central Region, while Odame, resided in Akwatia in the Eastern Region with Yeboah also a resident of Akim-Oda in the Eastern Region.

The prosecution said in March 2021, the complainant received a phone call from Odame through a Vodafone number, and introduced himself as Commissioner of Police, Mr. Alex George Mensah, from the National Police Headquarters Accra.

It said Odame allegedly informed the complainant that he had been assigned to help NPP members be recruited into the Ghana Police Service and asked him to submit names of party members and their contacts to him.

The prosecution said Odame asked the complainant to task each prospective applicant to pay cash in the sum of GH¢3,000.00 for documentation and other processing fees.

It said the complainant submitted names of 47 people to Odame with payment of GH¢ 3,000.00 each to the mobile money numbers given to him by the accused with their respective mobile money accounts.

The prosecution said after the accused had collected the monies, he allegedly told the complainant that he wanted to meet all the 47 people in Accra and, therefore, agreed on a date for the meeting.

It said on the agreed date for the meeting, the complainant assembled all the prospective applicants at Kasoa to be transported to the accused in Accra, but all calls placed to Odame’s known contact numbers could not go through.

The prosecution said all his contacts known to the complainant could not be reached anymore.

The complainant petitioned the Director-General of CID for assistance.

The prosecution said mobile money statements of the two mobile money numbers were obtained from MTN Ghana Limited per court order and upon analysis, it was confirmed that the complainant sent GH¢79,000.00 to the numbers.

Investigations led to the arrest of Odame in Akwatia in the Eastern Region on June 24, 2022, with investigations on the phone numbers used to receive the payments from the complainant leading to the arrest of Yeboah in Akim-Oda.

Yeboah stated in his caution statement to the police that the two SIM cards used to receive funds from the complainant were given to him by Odame to be receiving funds from his business partners for him.

He added that any time he received money on the said mobile money numbers, he withdrew it from mobile money merchants for Odame.

Yeboah allegedly said Odame gave him 10 percent of any amount he withdrew for him.