As a father who had committed every available resource to provide his son with the best opportunities in life as he possibly could, Inusah Fuseini, a former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, could not hide his disappointment in the fact that all of that did not seem to save his boy from trouble.
Speaking in an interview with Citi TV’s Umaru Sanda for the first time since his son, Abdul Hamid Fuseini, was sentenced by a US court, the veteran politician said that he had hopes that his son would have been smarter about such decisions.
Explaining further what happened and how things led up to the incarceration that will see him spend the next two years, Inusah Fuseini stressed that even though he had advised his son against focusing on other things apart from school, he got unlucky.
“Well, it is a difficult thing; it is difficult. I mean you train your child, bring up your child to be a useful and responsible person. You sit down with him at night and in the day to talk about what decent life is, you try to infuse in him what hard work can do, but we are of different generations.
“It is difficult to talk about him because deep inside me - deep inside me, I think he was just caught by stupidity and nothing, or, some level of invincibility. As a student he had his document so he decided to register a company. I never sanctioned that. I believe that if you are sent to school to learn, you must concentrate on your studies, and I told him that. Obviously, as a young man, he thought he could make quick bucks so he registered a company and he was actually buying cars for people. I know many people in Ghana that he bought cars for.
“In this particular case, he bought a car for some guys from Nigeria who were fellow students - colleague students -, and it turned out that the money used to buy the car was obtained fraudulently, and that was his offense,” he said.
Inusah Fuseini, who is also a former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, added that while all of these things happened, just as he is fully confident in his son that he is not an intentionally-bad person, the court that sentenced him also thought so.
He added that it is the reason he was handed the minimum sentence in the case.
The sentencing of Abdul Hamid Fuseini has since been appealed, the former MP added.
The 32-year-old Abdul Inusah was sentenced to a two-year jail term after being found guilty of his role in a Huntington-based scheme that defrauded individuals in multiple states through the use of false online personas.
According to YouTuber Hello Frank, who broke the news on Saturday, July 8, 2023, Inusah was also ordered to pay $128,000 in restitution.
The details, culled from a statement from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, said that the trial was decided by a federal jury after three days in court.
The statement from the United State’s Attorney, dated Thursday, March 23, 2023, added that Abdul Inusah was found guilty for being part of a “conspiracy that targeted victims using false personas via email, text messaging, online dating websites and social media platforms.
But according to his father, he can still vouch for his son’s innocence.
“I support my son 110%, I know him. I know Abdul Hamid, I know he can be boisterous, but I don’t know him to be somebody who will be interested in other people’s things,” he stated.
The former minister of environment science and technology who is also a private legal practitioner revealed that his son has since commenced an appeal of his sentence.
You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV:
You can also watch the latest episode of Everyday People below
AE/OGB