Jubilee House security woman who wanted road contract duped GH₵340k

A 45-year-old contractor has been hauled before the Accra Circuit Court for allegedly defrauding a security officer at the Jubilee House.

Kingsford Painstil, made away with GH₵340,000.00, with a promise of awarding the complainant with a road contract in 2019.

But that promise never saw the light of day.

The judge, Emmanuel Essandoh, who could not understand why the complainant could part away with such an amount, asked the complainant what happened.

The elegant security officer in a blue dress stood up and explained “The reason why I agreed was that he told me he will give me the contract within two weeks.”

Not convinced, the judge said ‘but if you see a contractor won’t you know. You work at the Jubilee House, some of these things, you should be able to uncover.”

The facts of the case presented by Chief Inspector Samuel Ahiabor, is that the complainant in the case is a security officer at Jubilee House whilst the accused Kingsford Painstil is a contractor and resides at Ablekuma.

In May 2019, the accused person met the complainant in her office at Jubilee House and introduced himself as a contractor in charge of government projects.

He told her that he could assist her in acquiring a contract to execute a project that would make her rich. They both exchanged contacts.

“Few days after their meeting, the accused person contacted the complainant and told her that he was currently having a road contract to be awarded and he urgently needed an amount of GH₵300,000.00 to facilitate documentation.

“This will enable the contract to be awarded in her favor and the accused person also promised to hand over the contract documents to the complainant within three weeks,” Chief Inspector Ahiabor narrated.

The complainant then became convinced and decided to give it a try and gave the said amount to the accused person.

But three months later the accused person failed to honor his promises.

He, however, contacted the complainant again to demand another GH₵40,000.00 to fast track the process or give her another contract given to him by Coastal Development Authority (CODA) to develop a certain area in Nsawam.

The accused person succeeded in taking GH₵40,000.00 and went into hiding.

The prosecution further said on September 28, this year, at about 9:30 pm, a witness in the case contacted the accused person for a meeting.

The accused person arranged for a place and a time for a meeting and he was subsequently arrested and brought to the station after he re-surfaced.

The accused person admitted the offence in his caution statement and pleaded to be given time to refund the money collected from the complainant but failed.

The accused has since been granted GH₵340,000.00 bail with five sureties, three of whom must be government workers earning not less than GH₵3,000.00.