TWO OFFICERS CHARGED WITH FRAUD (MIRROR, PAGE 27)

By George Ernest Asare, Kumasi

A Kumasi High Court is hearing a case in which two officers from the Information Services Department and the Department of Agriculture are facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and defrauding by false pretences.
The suspects, Nana Fosu, 57, the Information Officer in the Offinso District, and Philip Attah, alias Boggie, 54, an Agriculture Officer in the Akomadan District of the Ashanti Region, have been granted bail in the sum of GH¢10,000 each with a surety to be justified.
They will be remanded into prison custody if they fail to meet the bail bond.
They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecuting, the Ashanti Regional Deputy State Attorney, Mr Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, said last year the two suspects approached a female ‘akpeteshie’ distiller at Asuoso, a farming community in the Akomadan District, and posed as officers who were in the position to supply her with 1,500 oil palm trees to facilitate her business.
He said after succeeding in convincing the complainant that the trees would be readily available if she paid GH¢9,600, the complainant paid the money to them.
Mr Otoo-Boison said after collecting the money, the suspects failed to honour their promise, while efforts to retrieve the money also proved futile.
He said the complainant, therefore, reported the conduct of the suspects to the Akomadan Police, who effected their arrest.
After police investigations, they were charged with the offence.