A Nigerian national who posed as a police officer and extorted money from two scrap dealers to the tune of GH¢1,860 after telling them that he had been assigned to handle a theft case involving them has been dragged to court.
The suspect, Prince Tempo, also known as Sgt Asiedu, was put in an Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs Jennifer Myers Ahmed and charged with impersonation, extortion, attempted extortion and unlawful use of police accoutrement. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
He has since been granted bail in the sum of GH¢400,000 with two sureties while the case has been adjourned to December 2, 2015.
The facts of the case as presented by the prosecuting officer, DSP M. Odonkor, are that the complainants, Godfred Afful and Kaharu Aminu, are scrap dealers while the accused person is a Nigerian and a self-styled police officer.
He said on October 31, 2015 the accused went to the shops of the scrap dealers and introduced himself as an officer from the Criminal Investigations Department and told them that he was investigating a case of stealing in which they were said to have dishonestly received stolen goods.
In addition, he said the accused asked them to pay GH¢1500 and GH¢300 in order for him to drop the case against them and then consequently asked them to pay GH¢25 for his taxi fare and GH¢400 for his lunch, threatening that if they failed to do so he would take them to the police station in handcuffs.
The prosecutor noted that the accused person took the scrap dealers to the police headquarters and asked them to wait in a taxi and went away to allegedly book himself. He returned after a few minutes and asked for the money, which made the complainants suspicious.
DSP M. Odonkor further stated that the complainants, on seeing a police officer, informed him about the behaviour of the accused and he was interrogated by the officer, whereupon he confessed that he was only doing it to earn his daily bread and that he was not a police officer.
Explaining further, the inspector noted that Tempo led police to Kantamanto where he kept his handcuffs and that he was arraigned after police concluded investigations.
By Fidelia Achama