Court orders accused to produce passport before bail

Accra, Jan. 5, GNA - An Accra Circuit Court, on Tuesday, ordered a 28-year-old marketing officer, to produce a Ghanaian Passport he took from a teacher before being

granted bail. Mark Osei Brown, the accused, allegedly collected 4,700 Ghana cedis from Mr Dickson

Abosti, the teacher, under the pretext of securing Abotsi an American visa but rather went into hiding.

The court presided over by Mrs. Patience Mills Tetteh asked the accu= sed to produce the

passport in order to be granted bail.

The trial judge contended that some people were using Ghanaian passports for numerous illegal means, causing untold hardship on Ghanaians when they travel outs= ide the country.

Mrs. Tetteh said passports, was a national property, and people who travel with it represented the State, adding "in the advent of the incident of the 23-year-old Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallah, who attempted to blow up a North West Airline Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Holland to Detroit in the USA on Christmas Day, we needed to

be vigilant on the use of Ghanaian passports". Brown had pleaded not guilty to defrauding by false pretences and wa= s remanded into

police custody. His counsel, Mr Samuel Ofori contended that if his client was remand= ed it would be

difficult for him to produce the passport. He explained that the passport was with the second party whom his client was finding

difficult to locate. Mr Ofori said they had paid GHC900 cedis as part payment and would endeavour to

produce the person who received the money to acquire the visa. Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mary Agbozo sa= id sometime in

August 2008, Brown introduced himself as a visa contractor and the complainant Mr Abotsi

expressed interest in travelling to the USA. During the transaction, Brown collected GHC4,700 and a Ghanaian passport number

H2107654 from the complainant and went into hiding. On August 26, 2009 the accused was however arrested and during interrogation admitted

the offence Brown is expected to re-appear in two weeks time.