.... Drain Gullible Victims in Ghana

During the period of the slave trade, innocent and healthy Africans were forcefully taken to work in farms, houses and plantations in the White man's country. Many resisted arrest and those who were captured into the ships rebelled. The ring-leaders were thrown in the sea. Alex Haley portrayed this vividly in his best-selling book, "Roots." Even when they arrived in America, most of them made the effort to run away.

There is also an interesting story by a Jamaican oral historian I interviewed, Nestor Kwesi Balfour, who said he heard from his grandparents. It explains how the West Indies island came to be known as Jamaica. According to him, the slaves who were initially brought to the Island en route to America were the Kromantin negroes from the Central Region of what is now present day Ghana. They were boat makers and fishermen and very aggressive people. They were never happy to be on the Island since they knew that sooner or later they would be transported into slavery in America.

They decided to make canoes from fallen and abandoned trees in the forest. They set to work. The first canoe could take twelve people. They bade farewell and set off on the still sea, much to the surprise of onlookers. When they got to the middle, the sea suddenly became boisterous. The canoe went up and turned throwing them into the sea. They could not swim to safety and were drowned. Meanwhile a second and a third group had already set off. Unfortunately, they also met the same fate. The elderly among them began to advise the leaders who were eager to take the rest along. They told the leaders in Fanti: "gyae menka."(Let this end) Those from the West Indies Island overhead them and began to call them "Gyae menka people." According to Mr. Kwesi Balfour, the statement gained so much currency that it was on the lips of everybody. Jamaica became established as a misspelling of "Gyae menka.

Today the situation has changed dramatically and there is now a mad rush of Ghanaians to go to America, Canada and Europe. This has given rise to Visa contractors and Green card lottery fraudsters. It is often said that if three passenger ships docked at Tema Harbour and Ghanaians who want to go to America to work as maid-servants, labourers on farms and plantations must board the ships without tickets and visas, obviously there would be a stampede at the harbour, and many would enter the ships with injuries.

The urge to travel abroad due to hardship at home has given rise to visa contractors, many of them fake and defrauders. In the early 60s, Ghanaians could travel to many countries, including UK and Germany, without visas. Due to the prosperity of Ghana at that time, very few travelled abroad in search of work. Many Ghanaians did not even know they could travel abroad to work. The football legend, Osei Kofi, refused a foreign contract because he was satisfied with what he was getting at home. Those who travelled abroad were mainly students who left to pursue further education. Things changed when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana was overthrown in a military coup d'état. The economy became worse and unstable since no democratically-elected government was allowed to rule for four years to instil financial discipline in the economy. The country experienced coup after coup and this situation caused a slowdown of the economy. Hardship and unemployment became the order of the day due to misrule by these military leaders.

Today the visa contractors have a field day as a result of the strong desire to travel in search of greener pastures. These visa contractors charge unsuspecting, innocent and gullible travellers between $10,000 and $15,000 depending on which country one is travelling to. The contractor normally gives the traveller between two to three weeks to come for the visa. You will only return to find the door to the office locked and braced with wood, leaving the victims helpless and duped.

There is also a group of visa contractors who will charge you similar amounts and actually give you your passport with a visa in it. These contractors select two or three Schengen countries and print out visas of these countries with special machines. There is no way the traveller will detect that the visas are fictitious. When these travellers get to the Kotoka airport they are able to pass through the passport check-in with ease, only to be arrested at a European airport. They are detained for a couple of days and deported to Ghana.

A visa contractor has been advertising on radio stations in Ghana that he is able to procure visas, jobs and accommodation in Pretoria for anyone who wants to travel to South Africa. Last month he was able to procure genuine visas for twenty people. Each traveller paid $2000 excluding tickets which they had to buy themselves. On their arrival at the Johannesburg Airport, they were met by a South African who drove them to Pretoria and into a one room apartment. He told them to wait while he collected the keys to separate accommodations for all of them. That was the last time they saw him. For two weeks they had been sleeping on a bare floor with no hope in sight. Their ordeal has reached Ghana and a search for the visa contractor begun but he is nowhere to be found. The case, which happened some weeks ago, is still pending and the police are still searching for the visa contractor.

Many travel agents are involved in defrauding potential travellers. They have also specialised in filling application forms online for those who want to be part of the U.S Diversity Visa Lottery at costs between $300 and $500. One is supposed to check from the agent when the draw is made. This is where the problem lies. If you were picked in the American visa lottery, he would tell you better luck next time. He would then sell the chance to somebody else, prepare a passport in the winner's name for the one to whom the win is being sold. The agent then charges you $15,000 including a one way ticket. If he is able to get four people, he makes a cool $60,000. He then relocates to another country for at least a year. Two may pass the interview and two will not because to pass the interview, one must have at least a High school education. Fortunately, the first two were lucky. Those whose names they were using had high school education. One of those who lost because he was refused a visa is an acquaintance. He is languishing in prison due to his inability to pay the $15,000 he borrowed from a businessman.

A friend's nephew, Sam Klutse, also won through an agent who told him to pay 3000 dollars before he gave him a certain number that would enable him attend the interview. Meanwhile, the agent had added his own wife's name and children's names to Sam's application without telling him. So when Sam saw that he had won, it was with a wife and children whom he had never known before. But Sam, a graduate teacher, is also a fast guy. He pulled a fast one on the agent and went to the interview without the supposed "wife and children". Sam has been in the US for a year now but without his own wife and children whose names never appeared on the application form. Sam never admitted at the interview that the names of the wife and children on the winning ticket were his. So the agent's wife and children are still in Ghana now - they couldn't go for the interview.

These agents apply for so many people and put their wives and children's names on each of the applications in order to increase their chances of winning. Then they zoom in on the eventual winner. These agents often will not get any high amount from you when they do the thing for you. But they will keep the receipt number you receive on submitting the application online. This is the same number which you will use to check if you have won. Since they have this number, they can check if you have won and when they see that you have won, that is when they will tell you to cough out thousands of dollars.

In another true story, a self-styled travel and tour operator was not fast enough after defrauding a client. The tour operator, Eric Odoi Yeboah, was arrested immediately and arraigned before court for allegedly collecting $50,000 under the pretext of securing a Canadian visa and two years work permit for Ahmed Addy but failing woefully. When he was arrested, many came to complain that, the so-called agent had duped them of large sums of money. This fraudster was sentenced to twenty years in prison in an Accra court. His house, cars and other properties were sold to pay the victim.

Dear reader, this dawns on all of us to open our eyes wide. We should be wary of visa contractors who promise so much but leave you in total disappointment and deep sorrow. Even if you ask somebody to help you to complete the DV Lottery online, you should make sure you see all the information they have entered on your behalf and also to get the receipt number when your application is received. You should have this number yourself and use it yourself to check if you have won. The best thing is for you to complete the online application YOURSELF! The US State department has made the online application process so easy that anyone with a high school education (the minimum qualification needed to pass the interview) should be able to do it. Why employ someone else?

Dear reader, this advice is pertinent because soon, it will be time to apply for the DV lottery so you should be on the lookout not to be duped.

Written by: Stephen Atta Owusu

Author: Dark Faces At Crossroads

Email:stephen.owusu@email.com