Togolese Gets 12 Months For False Declaration


An unemployeD Togolese was on Thursday sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for false declaration by an Accra Circuit Court.

The man, Norbert Komlavi Egloh, is said to have made a false declaration for the purpose of procuring a Ghanaian passport.

By the charge, Egloh has violated Section 15 of the Passport and Travel Certificate Decree Act NLCD 155 of 1967.

When the case was called in the court presided over by Mrs. Vivian Ellen- Amoah, the accused pleaded guilty to the charge, compelling the trial judge to convict him on his own plea.

Meanwhile, a bench warrant has been issued for the arrest of one Christopher Adjei – now at large – who is said to have aided Komlavi Egloh to make those false declarations.

Delivering the sentence, the court noted that the accused had shown remorse and accordingly jailed him 12 months.

Briefing the court, Detective Inspector Samuel Sarkwah said Komlavi Egloh is unemployed and presently lives at Teshie, a suburb of Accra, with Adjei, a supervisor at Warren Oil Company at Kwabenya, near Accra.

He said in April 2014, Egloh presented an application for a Ghanaian passport but in order to deceive the authorities at the Passport Office and also to circumvent the passport acquisition requirements, he presented a Ghanaian birth certificate issued at the Mamprobi office of the Birth and Death Registry on 21 March, 2014, which indicated that he was born at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on 6 June, 1978.

According to the prosecutor, the accused on his application form, indicated that both his parents are natives of Vikpe in the Volta Region, adding that his application form was allegedly witnessed by one Charles Nii Mensah and Victor Kpoedu of Teshie.

Detective Inspector Sarkwa said when the authorities at the Passport Office dialed the telephone numbers provided to confirm their true identities, both ‘witnesses’ denied knowing the accused person and stated that they had not endorsed any passport form for him.

He said the accused was subsequently handed over to the police for investigation and that in his caution statement, Egloh, who had earlier declared on the passport request form that his parents are alive and live at Vikpe, retracted that declaration saying both parents are dead and could not be traced to confirm his actual home town.

The prosecutor further averred that investigations also disclosed that the first accused had never been a student at Aflao Vikpe Junior Secondary School as declared on his passport request form, insisting that preliminary investigations indicated that he had lived and schooled in Togo throughout his life.

Prosecution said Egloh also admitted that his father is a Togolese from Ablogameh near Lome, and not Vikpe in the Volta Region.

Detective Inspector Sarkwa stated that the information the accused provided to the Passport Office was a false declaration for the purpose of acquiring a Ghanaian passport, adding that in his quest to acquire the passport, he sought the assistance of Adjei to facilitate the process for him and prepared all the documents he presented to the authorities at the passport office.

The prosecutor intimated that Adjei on his part, claimed to be a cousin of Egloh but the latter lived in Togo with one of their uncles and denied forging the documents

for the former. He claimed it was done by one Victor.

According to the police, Adjei claimed he did not know the residence of the said Victor but they only spoke on telephone.

Detective Inspector Sarkwa said efforts to get the said Victor proved futile as the cell phone number provided by Adjei had since been off.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson ([email protected])

Comments:
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.