Three arrested for attempting to steal from Energy Ministry’s bank account

Three persons are in the custody of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for allegedly trying to steal GHc 3.5 million from a bank account belonging to the Ministry of Energy.

The three, whose identities are not yet known, are reported to have attempted stealing from the ministry’s account,  managed by the National Investment Bank (NIB).

The suspects, including the Managing Director of Guma Oil and a worker of NIB, are said to have cloned the Energy Ministry’s cheque and attempted depositing the money into the account of Guma Oil at Zenith Bank.

The cheque was, however, not withdrawn and the ministry has revealed it had no contract with the suspects involved.

The Deputy Executive Director of Operations at EOCO, Nana Antwi, disclosed that his outfit is on a manhunt for another suspect while the dockets are being finalised for prosecution.

“Initially, it was felt that some persons within the Ministry [of Energy] had attempted to steal money belonging to the Ministry. The suspicions were narrowed to the accounts department so there was a swoop on the department where various personalities were questioned, Mr. Antwi said.

“It was there that it came up that the internal mechanism had identified an attempt and had even made a report to the Ministry’s police station and that some investigation had already commenced.

“That notwithstanding, we pushed on and spread our tentacles of investigation where we contacted Zenith and NIB and then the tracing started [leading to the arrests],” he added.

According to him, “our dockets are almost ready. Very soon, they’ll be sent to court after the legal department has reviewed the dockets and appropriate charges are leveled against the persons”.