A marketing officer, who allegedly posed as an immigration officer and reportedly collected US$6,800 from a man and gave him a fake Canadian visa, has been arraigned before an Accra circuit court for fraud.
The accused, Ebenezer Jojo Tetteh, was nabbed after the complainant, Johnson Atima who was travelling to Canada, was arrested and detained in Ethiopia for using a fake visa.
Ebenezer, together with two accomplices at large – Samuel Asante and Theresa – are facing trial in a court presided over by Mrs. Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku, charged with conspiracy to commit crime and defrauding by false pretences.
Tetteh was additionally charged with falsely pretending to be a public officer. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and had been granted bail in the sum of GH¢20,000 with two sureties.
The case has been adjourned to August 25, 2015.
Chief Inspector A. Afful, prosecuting, told the court that Johnson Atima is a trader and lives at Bantama, Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region while the accused, who is a marketing officer, lives at Achimota, Accra.
According to him, in January 2015, the trader wanted to travel to Canada and was introduced to Ebenezer Jojo Tetteh by one George Ofori as someone who could assist with the acquisition of visa.
Chief Inspector Afful said the accused, who posed as an immigration officer, demanded US$6,800 to process the travel document for the trader and the latter readily gave the said amount of money to him and his (accused person’s) wife after his two accomplices had also told him (complainant) that Tetteh was indeed an Immigration Officer.
The prosecutor said Tetteh additionally demanded US$700 as ‘pushing fee’ to enable them push the victim (complainant) to his destination; and the accused managed to push Johnson to Ethiopia with the fake visa.
The police officer said while there, the complainant was arrested for possessing a fake visa and consequently deported.
He stated that the victim reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of Tetteh, while his accomplices vanished into thin air.
By Fidelia Achama
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