A self-styled business man, who issued a letter claiming he was Presidential staffer P.V. Obeng, is in the grips of the police.

Fred Kpoha aka Captain Kpoha is said to have written a letter on a forged letterhead captioned ‘Office of the President’, demanding the management of a manufacturing company (name withheld) to support him with an amount of GH¢40,000.

In the letter, which was purported to have been signed by Mr Obeng, the suspect noted that the money was needed to cater for the medical treatment of a hole-in-heart patient at the Kpando Orphanage Home.

Commissioner of Police (COP) Prosper Kwame Agblor, Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, told DAILY GUIDE that the suspect alleged that the Kpando Orphanage was managed by the late President John Evans Atta Mills “but after his demise they have become financially constrained and needed the said amount to enable them seek medical care for an inmate.”

According to the CID boss, the suspect mentioned PV Obeng as the Chairman of the Council of State and stated the phone number 0244053503 as the contact number of Mr Obeng.

“This raised suspicion since Mr PV Obeng is not even a member of the Council of State,” the police chief said. So the matter was reported to the police.

The management of the company after receiving the letter on April 22, 2013, the suspect followed up four days later at about 4:45pm.

The company, therefore, invited him over and gave him a cash sum of GH¢5000 and 20 pieces of branded T-shirts of the company, but as he walked out of the premises of the company the Police arrested him.

“A search was conducted on him, and six copies of the forged letterheads were found,” said the CID Director General.

It was discovered that four of the letterheads had the names of Mr Alex K. Segbefia and Mr Henry Martey Newman who were introduced as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff respectively.

In a caution statement, the suspect admitted the offence and stated that a copy of the letter was given to him by one Francis Opoku, who, he claimed was working at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) headquarters.

However, “we extended enquires to the party headquarters but there was no trace of the said person,” said Mr Agblor who added that the police had concluded investigations and charged the suspect with the offence and that he would be put before the court.

The suspect was charged with forgery of document contrary to section 159 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

Mr Agblor used the opportunity to warn the public, especially managers of foreign companies, to be on the lookout for such requests and demands for various projects.

Since the suspect indicated he had been in the business of forging letterheads and soliciting for funds since last year, it was suspected that many more people might have fallen victim to his fraudulent activities.