Musah Bukari, a trader at Ashaiman who posed as a customs officer and defrauded a man of 44 million cedis was on Wednesday arraigned before Tema Circuit Tribunal charged with fraud.

He pleaded not guilty and was granted 200 million cedis bail with two sureties to re-appear on November 1, 2002. Assistant Superintended of Police (ASP) Robert Aganiba told the tribunal chaired by Mr Seth Teye that two months ago, Mr Isaac Narh also of Ashaiman was looking for a tipper truck to buy and he was directed to Bukari.

He said the accused person introduced himself as a customs officer stationed at the Tema port when Mr Narh approached him and promised to get him a truck within a short time.

Bukari also stated that there was going to be an auction sale of various items including vehicles at the port so he demanded 30 million cedis from Mr Narh to buy the truck.

ASP Aganiba said later Bukari demanded another 14 million cedis with the explanation that the 30 million cedis was not sufficient after which he promised to bring the tipper truck but he vanished and all efforts to trace him proved futile. A report was made to the police and investigations led to his arrest in his hide out at Ashaiman.