Crime & Punishment of Monday, 23 March 2015

Source: starrfmonline.com

Police recruitment scam: Key suspect granted bail

The key suspect in the Police recruitment scam case, Alifa Adams has been granted bail in the sum of Ghc500, 000 with two sureties.

Adams who jumped bail and was arrested last week was sent to court Monday together with another suspect.

As part of Adams’ bail conditions, the sureties must be civil servants who earn not less than GHc1, 500.00 and one of them must be justified.

According to the Special Investigative Taskforce that probed the police recruitment scam, 14 people including three police officers and 11 civilians were investigated.

The report has been handed over to the Attorney-General’s department and the Police council for the necessary action.

The Police Council set up the investigative taskforce following the interdiction of COP Timbilla over the fraudulent police enlistment.

On March 1, 2014 news broke that hundreds of young men and women had turned up at five police training depots for enlistment in the Ghana Police Service but left disappointed after they found out it was a scam.

It was found that their recruitment letters, which had the signature of Mr Timbila, were fake and that the purported enlistment was a fraud.

It took the police a hectic time to drive away the victims, most of them university graduates, who had gone to the Kumasi, Koforidua, Pwalugu, Accra and Ho Police depots with their luggage to begin the training.

The victims were said to have paid money ranging from GH¢2,000 to GHc3,500 to the fraudsters.

The police have since arrested eight people, including two policemen, as part of investigations to unmask the people behind the latest police recruitment scam.

Two suspects, Aisha Asumda, alias Aisha Boku Masi, a 36-year-old shea butter seller, suspected to have played a key role in the scam, and her accomplice, Alifa Adams, were arrested at Tesano and Adenta, respectively, following a tip off.

The five other suspects include Amos Brown, 40, a radio presenter; General Corporal Gideon Sarpong of the Visibility Unit, Takoradi; Constable Ruth Agyiri, 27, Central Police Station, Koforidua.

The rest are Pastor Paul Danso from Tarkwa and Richard Harrison, 30.