Phone repairer and labourer remanded for impersonating Okudzeto Ablakwa

Two persons have been arrested and are standing trial at the High Court in Accra for allegedly impersonating the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to defraud unsuspecting Ghanaians.

The two, Promise Ahorgah, a phone repairer, and Kwaotse Mawuli, a building construction labourer, are said to have created social media accounts in the name of the North Tongue MP to solicit funds on behalf of victims affected by the Akosombo and Kpong Dam Spillage.

They were arrested in December and have been remanded into the custody of the National Signals Bureau pending further investigation.

The two are on six provisional counts, comprising two counts each of defrauding by false pretences, charlatanic advertisement, and falsely pretending to be a public officer.

The Criminal Division of the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, did not take the pleas of the accused persons, as investigations are ongoing.

On Friday, December 15, 2023, Watkins Adama, a state attorney, said, “Our prayer to the court is to have the accused persons remanded pending further investigations.”

The state attorney said the prosecution did not intend to take their plea but was allowed by the court to read the counts, the statement of offence, and the brief facts in open court.

Justice Osei Marfo has since remanded them into lawful custody while the case has been adjourned to January 9, 2024, for the pleas of the accused persons to be taken.

The court directed the accused persons who had told the court that they needed time to engage the services of lawyers to ensure that at the next sitting, they would come with their lawyers.

Per the brief facts of the case, the complainant in this case is the Member of Parliament for North Tongu and a resident of Accra.

It states that the first accused person is a mobile phone repairer, while the second accused person is a building construction labourer.

The prosecution said that following the Akosombo and Kpong dam spillage and the flooding of certain parts of the Volta Region, the complainant developed a flyer with the inscription ‘North Tongu MP’s Disaster Donation Drive,’ with a short code of *713*75#, requesting good Samaritans to donate in aid of the flood victims.

The prosecution stated that the 1st and 2nd accused persons, with intent to defraud, took copies of the complainant’s flyer on Facebook, modified the flyer, and inserted their respective phone numbers in the modified flyer.

“Holding themselves out as the complainant and causing the general public to wrongly believe they were the complainant, the 1st and 2nd accused persons published the fake and deceitful flyers on social media platforms requesting the general public to make cash donations into their mobile phone numbers 0535623416 and 0535364971, respectively, which each of the accused persons had stated on the fake and deceitful flyers,” the prosecution said.

The brief facts added that the 1st and 2nd accused persons again used the names and photographs of the complainant to create several social media accounts, impersonated the MP, and communicated with several people to solicit donations into their mobile money accounts.

“Through their acts of personation and publication of deceitful advertisements with the intent to defraud, the 1st and 2nd accused persons succeeded in causing members of the public to send to them sums of money,” the court was told.

The prosecution said the complainant, who chanced on the fake flyer on social media, petitioned the National Signals Bureau, and the accused persons were arrested.

“Both the 1st and 2nd accused persons admitted to the offences when interrogated. The investigation is still ongoing,” the prosecution said.