Charles Andoh aka Arafat
An Accra Circuit Court on Wednesday ordered one Tonya Abela and another, the men who stood as surety for Charles Andoh accused of forging the Energy and Petroleum Minister’s signature, to produce the accused person before May 28.
Andoh was said to have forged the signature of the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah, ceding an oil block offshore of the south of the Cape Three Points, to Miura Petroleum Limited, a subsidiary of Gondwana Oil Corporation, a Canadian oil firm.
Police said since Andoh was given bail on April 17, 2014, he has never reported to them, even though he was asked to do so daily.
The suspect upon his arrest was detained for two days and granted bail of GH¢10,000 with two sureties.
Inspector William Nyadikor, filing an application to compel the sureties to produce the accused person, said the regional Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was investigating a signature forgery case involving Andoh.
He said the suspect had failed to appear before the police while the sureties had also failed to produce the accused.
Francis Achibonga, counsel for the sureties, prayed the court to rescind an earlier bench warrant issued for their arrest because they, including him, were not in court when the case was called for hearing.
He said they would need some time to produce Andoh, adding that ‘we can only plead with the court to give us some time to produce the accused person to ensure that justice in this case will be served.’
However, the trial judge, Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku, revoking the bench warrant issued for their arrest, directed the two sureties to produce Andoh on the adjourned date.
She admitted them to a bail sum of GH¢15,000 with one surety each.
Twist
The suspect at the centre of the alleged forgery case was said to be known as Arafat, a native of the Northern Region but resident of Nima, an Accra suburb.
He had now gone underground after allegedly pocketing GH¢50,000 as reward for claiming to be the person who supposedly forged the signature of the minister in order to cover up an alleged shady deal at the Energy Ministry.
Fresh evidence gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicated that the alleged ‘confidence trickster’, who gave his name to the police as Charles Andoh, is actually called Arafat and that he might be a pawn for powerful oil merchants with officialdom at the Energy Ministry backing him.
Arafat is said to have gone out of jurisdiction and likely to be cooling off in Burkina Faso.
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By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
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