Six
Nigerians have been arrested for allegedly forging letterheads of the
Office of the President and other state institutions to defraud people.
They
are Paul Kelvin, 20; Wallace Darden Odon, 28; Osamidiamwen Ikecheku
Emeka, 24; Prince Ejime, 19; Charles Chinedu, 32, and Adebayoo Alaba
Saheed, 21.
They are all unemployed.
They have since been
charged with forging documents and signatures and posing as state
officials, and because they gave false names to the police during
interrogation, they have also been charged with deceit of public
officers.
Briefing , the Accra Regional Crime Officer, Chief
Superintendent of Police Mr Paul Kontomah, said the suspects were
arrested in a house at Ayensu Estate, near Adenta in Accra, on June 9,
2014.
Among the letters retrieved from the suspects was one directing
a former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to take his compulsory leave
for Mr Mohammed Alhassan, the current IGP, to take over the position.
There
were also certificates signed by the Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwesi
Ahwoi, to prove the origins of some American citizens, as well as High
Court disclaimer forms.
Arrested while browsing
Mr
Kontomah said the police, acting on intelligence that the young men were
involved in criminal activities, swooped on them in the early hours of
June 9 “and we found them busy browsing the
Internet in their room with laptops”.
He
said prior to the arrest of the suspects, residents of the area had
filed complaints with the police that a group of young men in the house
had been harassing them in the night.
On the day of the arrest, the
police retrieved eight laptops and a search on them led to the retrieval
of a number of forged documents from state institutions, including
forged ones from the Office of the President, the High Court, the Ghana
Police Service, the Value Added Tax division of the Ghana Revenue
Authority, among other institutions.
He said the suspects used the documents to facilitate illegal electronic transaction and lure people to part with money.
It was also found that the men posed as military officers of the United States of America in war zones to defraud people.
In
addition to the eight laptops retrieved from the suspects, a quantity
of dried substances believed to be Indian hemp was also found on them.
IGP’s appointment letter
One
of the letters on the letter head of the Office of the President and
purportedly signed by Dr Raymond A. Atuguba, the Executive Secretary to
the President, “His Excellency the President has given approval for
Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye, the Inspector-General of Police, to commence his
compulsory 90-day terminal leave from February 5-4 May 2013.
“He has
further directed that Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, the Deputy
Inspector-General of Police, is to act as Inspector-General of Police
until further notice.
“On behalf of the people of Ghana, His
Excellency the President wishes to thank Mr Quaye for the invaluable
services he rendered to the state during his career and especially his
tenure of office as Inspector-General of Police.”
News Source: Naijapals
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