A 35-year-old Nigerian has appeared in an Accra Circuit Court after reportedly collecting GHC30,000 from a businessman under the guise of supplying him with scrap but failing.
A scrap trader, Ozoemena Agbowodike, informed the police that he had given the money to his brother in Nigeria to help him with his pressing family concerns. Agbowodike has pleaded not guilty to the charge of defrauding by false pretenses. The accused was granted bail in the amount of GHC20,000 with two sureties by the court presided over by Mrs Patricia Amponsah.
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The prosecution was also asked to file witness testimonies by the court. The Case Management Conference has been rescheduled for January 20 of the following year.
Prosecuting Chief Inspector John Gohoho said the complainant Ebere Chukwu Chibueze resides at Odorkor and the accused also resides in the same vicinity.The prosecution said somewhere in November this year, the accused approached the complainant and introduced himself as a scrap dealer and that doing scrap business in Ghana was a lucrative venture.
Based on that, the complainant and the accused became friends. The prosecution said the accused told the complainant that since he arrived in Ghana from Nigeria, he had seen a massive improvement in his life and wished the complainant would also transact the scrap business to enrich himself.
The prosecution said the accused promised to supply the complainant with a quantity of scrap. A few days later, Agbowedike collected GHC30,000 from the complainant to supply him with the scraps. He was accused of failing to honour his promise and going into hiding.
On December 15, this year, the accused was arrested from his hideout by the complainant and handed over to the police. The prosecution said the accused, in his investigation caution statement, admitted the offence and told the police that he sent the money he collected from the complainant to his brother in Nigeria to be used to solve his pressing family problems.
