A handful of Ghanaians have been engaged in some crimes abroad
News of Ghanaians living abroad have continued to make headlines
A number of Ghanaians living abroad have been found on the wrong sides of the law
A few Ghanaians engaged in crimes have been jailed
Some of the headlines from the past weekend read somehow like this, “UK-based Ghanaian,” and, “Ghanaian man/woman living in the US…” and so on, but not all were for good reasons.
And while the headlines of Ghanaians living abroad have not been more of the negatives than the positives, this GhanaWeb listicle focuses on some of the big stories coming from people of Ghanaian descent but who have, in the last two years, been engaged in some forms of crimes.
We begin with the story of a young lady who twice bathed her boyfriend in acid over suspected infidelity.
Esther Afrifa
Esther Afrifa, a young Ghanaian lady living in the United Kingdom, was reported to have been sentenced to 14 years in prison for pouring acid on her boyfriend as he slept in their home in Wembley.
The 28-year-old is reported by dailymail.co.uk to have bought a litre of sulphuric acid online and left it by her bedside ready to attack her 29-year-old boyfriend, Kelvin Pogo.
Esther Afrifa is also said to have gone to extraordinary lengths to stop Pogo from getting medical treatment after the first attack, leaving him with life-changing injuries that have left him plagued by suicidal thoughts.
“At first, he did not realise his girlfriend was responsible and asked her to get help before pouring holy water on his wounds. She pretended to call 999, blocked his friends from calling, and cancelled a taxi that was due to take him to hospital,” the report added.
In the second instance, Esther Afrifa struck while Kelvin lay resting on the sofa with already painful wounds, pouring more acid over his face and body. Judge Charles Bourne QC who handed down the sentence to Afrifa, called it “a truly wicked thing to do.”
She is likely to be deported to Ghana after her release, the report added.
Moses deGraft-Johnson
This story sounds like a grace to grass sort of script especially because Moses deGraft-Johnson is reported to have once saved the life of rapper 50 Cent after he was shot in 2000 in New York City.
Moses deGraft-Johnson, a Ghanaian native who came to America as a child and rose to prominence in the medical world, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
According to a report by Tallahassee Democrat sighted by GhanaWeb, deGraft-Johnson, was a one-time jet-setting heart surgeon who walked away with millions of dollars for medical procedures he never performed.
The report stated that Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who imposed the punishment during a hearing Thursday, November 18 at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee ordered the accused to pay $28.4 million in restitution — the same amount he bilked from the government and private insurers.
In February 2020, Moses deGraft-Johnson, was indicted on 58 counts of healthcare fraud. He was accused of ripping off Medicare, Blue Cross, Blue Shield and others by billing for expensive procedures he never performed on his underprivileged patients.
Pastor Sylvester Ofori
In 2020, news broke about the devastating killing of 27-year-old Barbara Tommey, by her husband, Sylvester Ofori, 35, in Florida, in the United States of America.
News of Sylvester’s actions left the members of his church, Floodgates of Heaven International Ministries, in shock, after their Ghanaian pastor was charged with fatally shooting his wife outside her job at the Navy Federal Credit Union just two days before their fifth wedding anniversary.
A spokesperson for the Orlando Police Department told the Orlando Sentinel that Sylvester Ofori, 35, who leads the church and has more than 60,000 followers on social media, attacked his wife, Barbara Tommey, 27, just before 9 am near the front door of Navy Federal Credit Union on the 4600 block of Gardens Park Boulevard.
In a court appearance, prosecutors told a judge that Tommey’s killing was caught on surveillance video.
