Over 1000 people with disability defrauded by NGO

Over 1000 people with disability have been defrauded by Rev. T.A Topper the II Foundation (RTATF), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Koforidua and led by Ms Matilda Topper.

The Eastern Regional branch of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled (GSPD) has therefore appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to help them to collect the registration fees they paid to the NGO and their passport pictures in custody of the NGO.

According to Mr Daniel Agyekum, the Eastern Regional Chairman of GSPD, RTATF promised to provide wheel chairs, food stuffs, money, clothes and free vocational training to people with disability in the region if they register with the organization.

Many people with disability from different parts of the region numbering over 1,000 registered with the NGO and paid a registration fee of GhC10.00 each with two passport size pictures at the cost of GhC5.00.

The chairman said people who registered with the NGO were also made to buy a customized T-Shirt of RTATF at a cost of GhC20.00.

Mr Agyekum said he mobilized over 1000 members of his organization to register with the NGO in addition to people from other disable organizations in the Eastern Region.

He said Ms Topper urged all those who registered with her NGO to meet at Jackson Park at Koforidua on September 27 this year to collect their parcels.

Mr Agyekun said on the given date, many people with disabilities came to Jackson Park and waited in the rain for their parcels but Ms Topper failed to honour her promise.

The Chairman said the people with disability who were at the Jackson park want a refund of their registration fees and passport pictures.

A victim of the fraud, Mr Kwame Kusi who spoke with Ghana News Agency (GNA) said, he borrowed GhC50.00 from a friend to travel from Akim Oda to Koforidua hoping to receive something from the NGO and said he now has to go on the road to beg for money to repay his debt and threaten to curse Ms Topper for taking advantage of them.

Reacting to the demands of the persons with disabilities Ms Topper told the GNA that, she had a good package for the new members of her organization which include a vocational training for their children with monthly allowance and wheel chairs but their rude action on the meeting day made her not to present the parcels that she promised them.

Ms Topper said she spent the registration fees to rent a hotel for about six people who arrived in Koforidua a day before the scheduled date of the meeting, renting of canopies and a bus for float and therefore had no money to pay back to the persons with disability who she regards as new members of her organization.

She said she was on her way to Atwia mountains in Ashanti Region for a one week fasting and prayers for divine ideas on how to re-organized the program to give her support to the people with disabilities in the region.

When the issue was reported to the Koforidua Central Police Station, the Police claimed that they could not identify any crime in the relations between Ms Topper and the persons with disability.