Four arrested over telephone deal

THREE Liberians and a Ghanaian, who allegedly tapped the telephone lines of Ghana Telecom (GT) to operate communication centres at the Gomoa Budumburam Refugee Camp in the Central Region, have been arrested by the police.

They are Sekou Ben Kabah, Andrew Mannah, Michael Pah, all Liberians, and Samuel Atobrah.

Their activities are said to have resulted in the loss of ?214.5 million to the state.

They were picked up in a night swoop on the camp at the weekend by personnel of the Rapid Response Unit from Accra.

Seven officials from the GT head office in Accra, who allegedly collaborated with the suspects, are also helping the police in their investigations. Their names were, however, not disclosed.

Two other suspects, who also operate communication centres at the camp, are on the run.

Mr David Asante-Apeatu, Chief Superintendent of Police in charge of Operations at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), said this in an interview in Accra on Wednesday.

According to him, the suspects first succeeded in using fake documents to subscribe for post-paid lines with GT.

He said after exhausting the units allocated them by GT, the suspects connived with the GT officials who managed to keep the lines open for them to operate.

Mr Asante-Apeatu said the activities of the suspects were detected "just by chance", by GT head office staff.

"We believe this is just a tip of the iceberg", he added.

Mr Asante-Apeatu said 15 cellular phone handsets and ordinary telephone receivers were seized from the suspects.

Investigations continue.