By Esi Asante

IN a bid to impress and meet the requirements of a lady he had been wooing for some time with difficulty, a 28-year-old musician, Godfred Tiegah, posed as an aide to the President. He did that because the lady, who he met at the funeral of a soldier at Aburi in 1995, had asked that he joined the Ghana Army before she would accept him as a lover. Now, Tiegah is in the grips of the security services. He was said to have gone to the Aburi Gardens and introduced himself as Captain Boadu, a Presidential Aide, who had been sent to prepare the place for an impending visit of President Rawlings.

For 10 days, he stayed at the place enjoying VIP treatment with his lady. But he pushed his luck too far. On Wednesday, Tiegah told the management of the Gardens that President Rawlings would arrive at 9 pm that day and asked them to put off all the lights at 8.45 pm before the President's arrival. But some soldiers on routine patrol in the area had a tip-off about some strange happenings at the Gardens. They went in to investigate and Tiegah was exposed. Briefing newsmen yesterday, Lt-Col J.H. Blood Dzraku, Director of Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations, said that Tiegah was arrested in a military swoop early on Thursday. He said the military, on Wednesday, received a tip-off during their normal patrols around the Aburi-Akwapim area, that something strange was happening at the Aburi Gardens.

On their arrival there, they found Tiegah lodging in bed with his girlfriend, and receiving VIP treatment. According to the military, Tiegah had telephoned the caretakers of the Aburi Gardens identifying himself as Col. Owusu and requested that they accord a guest called Captain Boadu, the best of courtesies. He arrived at the Aburi Gardens on February 14, and introduced himself as Captain Boadu of the Office of the President, saying that he was there to prepare the place for President Rawlings' visit. "Captain Boadu" therefore enjoyed due courtesies at the Gardens until about 6 pm on Wednesday when he informed the management of the President's impending arrival and his request to have the lights turned off in the area. Although at that stage the management became suspicious, they complied with his request and put off the lights, and then alerted the military.

According to the military, Tiegah and another man, identified as Kofi Asante, drove into the Gardens in two taxis during the "lights out". None of the two taxis carried passengers or goods of any kind. The taxis departed later after which the lights were switch on again upon the instructions of "Captain Boadu". When questioned upon his arrest, Tiegah admitted that he was an imposter and attributed his action to his intention to impress the lady he was wooing. Apparently, Tiegah had contacted the lady, who left Ghana shortly after their first encounter in 1995, and promised to meet her at the airport and to host her at the Aburi Gardens where he was officially lodging for a course pending a promotion examination.

A search on him revealed five Ghanaian passports, three foolscap notebooks, two bearing the lettering "Co" and "OC", some personal clothing, a birth certificate in the name of Dickson Aboagye DaCosta, and an amount of ?718,000, out of which he gave ?218,000 to the lady. Tiegah, in another development, is alleged to have duped a lot of people under the pretext of acquiring visas for them. He abandoned a Diawoo saloon car with a foreign licence number plate in which he was travelling after going into hiding at the Achimota Forest area during police pursuit on February 2. He will be handed over to the police for prosecution.