A 23-year-old man who placed a '419' scam advert in an Accra daily and succeeded in duping several peoples has been caught by the very long arm of the law because of his fear of an ethnic god of thunder, Nogokpo. Last Tuesday, the fraudster, Midelle Monimanor Attah, was arraigned before the Amasaman District Magistrate's Court where he pleaded not guilty before Mrs. Doris Bimpong to a charge of fraud by false pretences.

The prosecutor, Inspector Raphael Totimeh, told the court that the accused, sometime in February this year placed an advert in The Daily Guide announcing vacancies in a French institution for the study of journalism and evangelism in France. He provided his mobile telephone 024-519911 as contact number.

Consequently two people, Messrs Anthony Ashotor and Mavis Aheto, contacted and paid US$1,000 and ?900,000 to him respectively as part-payment as they were interested in those courses in France.

On March 18, 2003, Attah collected the victims' passports and travelled with them to Lome, Togo for the acquisition of visas for France. However, he left them stranded by absconding.

All efforts to trace him proved futile because he escaped from Accra and rented a room at Akropong-Akwapim in the Eastern Region where he stayed with a lady with whom he started 'blowing' his ill-gotten wealth.

The Prosecutor further informed the court that the accused bought a computer with which he perpetuated his criminal activities. The prosecutor continued that the victims lost their patience and started threatening loudly to whoever would listen that they would consult the god of thunder at Nogokpo in the Volta Region. The news got to the accused who gave US$900 to a taxi driver whom he directed to the house of one of the victims; but during verification it was detected that US$700 out of the US$900 were fake bills.

A report was made to the police and the accused was arrested, investigated and charged with the offence.

The lawyer for the accused wondered why with all the legal means of acquiring travel documents through the embassies, people still choose to encourage 'cheap side' visa acquisition and later use legal means for the refund of their monies.

Following his plea for a bail for his client, the presiding magistrate granted the accused court bail in the sum of ?15 million with one surety. The court asked him to report to the police twice weekly, Tuesdays and Fridays, until the final determination of the case, which was adjourned to Wednesday, April 30, 2003.