An Accra Circuit Court has granted GH¢350,000.00 bail to each of the three teachers detained for allegedly engaging in an employment fraud.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) teaching profession or family members are required to provide two sureties each to Samuel Mensah Amelikpo, David Bacha Ntenyam, and Daniel Ofori Boateng.
Every Wednesday, they are expected to report to the police. The case will now reopen on April 30, 2024.
All three denied working together to steal GH¢394,500.00 from 42 people by pretending to be hiring them for positions in the GES.
Sumaila Awueidze, the complainant, was an unemployed inhabitant of Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region, according to Police Chief Inspector Daniel Danku, who was presiding over the court presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah.
According to him, Boateng resided in Effiduase in the Ashanti Region, while Amelipko lived in Awoshie, an Accra suburb, Bacha, a resident of Asamankese, Eastern Region. Each of them works as a teacher.
Amelikpo informed the complaint in August 2023 that GES recruiting seats were still open and that he followed a system when it came to hiring new employees.
During the call, Amelipko reportedly provided complete assurance and pledged to reimburse the money if the recruitment attempt was unsuccessful.
The prosecution said that as a result of this representation, the complainant was persuaded and organized 42 candidates who expressed interest.
The complaint stated that on August 29, 2023, Amelikpo asked and received GH¢394,000.00 from the complainants in order to obtain them jobs, but they were unable to get the positions and fled.
The complainant informed the police that their attempts to contact Amelikpo had been unsuccessful, as the court heard.
The prosecution said that Amelikpo was detained at Odorgonno Accra on October 18, 2023, and that during his investigation and cautionary statement, he acknowledged that he had attempted to get the complainant to part with the aforementioned sum of money in order to get jobs for his candidates, but had been unsuccessful.
Amelikpo named Bacha and Boateng as his collaborators, which resulted in their arrests in Asante Effiduase and Asamankese on November 10, 2023, respectively.
In his cautionary statement, Bacha acknowledged to the crime and informed the police that Amelikpo had only given him GH¢388,000.00, which Boateng and a man named Reuben Bempoh had got for recruiting. This was the prosecution’s case against Bacha in court.
In his forewarning statement, Boateng also acknowledged receiving money from Bacha and Amelikpo, but he deposited it into the Vodafone Cash wallet accounts created by Bempoh, a person he met online and who claimed to be employed at GES, National Headquarters Accra.
The complainant received GH¢70,000.00 that the police had taken from Boateng over the course of the inquiry.
The cops are currently looking into the situation.
