Ministers’ impersonator still in custody days after securing bail

A 31-year-old Nigerian woman who was granted bail by an Accra Circuit court after impersonating the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, and others is still in police custody after failing to meet her bail conditions.

The suspect Vivian Sajida Imran and her husband, Prince Joel, currently at large, have been charged with eight counts of falsely pretending to be a public officer and defrauding under false pretence.

But despite being granted bail in the sum of GH?12,000.00 with two sureties, one of whom must be a public servant, earning not less than GH?1,200, last week, the accused person has failed to meet the bail conditions.

This came to light after the court presided over by His Honour Emmanuel Essandoh had adjourned the case to June 27, 2020.

The accused person together with the husband are said to have impersonated over 20 state ministers and succeeded in defrauding people to the tune of GHC100,000

Brief facts

Presenting the facts of the case to the court on Friday, State Prosecutor Detective Frederick Sarpong told the court that in April the accused persons used the names of Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway; and the Deputy National Security Minister, Henry Quartey, to create multiple Facebook accounts and pretended to be ministers.

According to the detective, the first and the second accused suspects, through online chats and phone calls informed their unsuspecting victims that they could secure them jobs at Tema Oil Refinery, Ghana Gas or COCOBOD.

Following this, the suspects requested the victims to pay various amounts to mobile money accounts in order for their application forms and interviews to be facilitated.

The monies amounting to about GH?10, 200 were paid to their mobile money accounts. The prosecutor told the court that a search conducted in the suspect’s rooms revealed six mobile phones, including the three mobile money numbers, used to receive the monies from the victims.

He explained that an order of the court was sought and a forensic examination was carried out on the retained mobile phones. One of them was found to contain a SIM number which had been registered in the name of the first accused person.

The same number was found to be the final destination where the ‘booties’ obtained from the victims were transferred and later withdrawn. During investigations, the prosecutor said the first accused person admitted being the owner of the mobile money number. With the number in hand, the police contacted the victims, and they narrated their ordeal.