Teachers held over GH¢394,500 employment scam

Three teachers held for alleged employment scam have been granted a GH¢350,000.00 bail each by an Accra Circuit Court.

Samuel Mensah Amelikpo, David Bacha Ntenyam and Daniel Ofori Boateng are to get two sureties each from the Ghana Education Service (GES) teaching profession or family members.

They are to report to the police every Wednesday.

The case has been adjourned to April 30, 2024.

All three denied conspiring to defraud 42 persons of GH¢394,500.00 under the pretext of securing jobs for them in the GES.

Police Chief Inspector Daniel Danku told the court presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah that Sumaila Awueidze, the complainant, was unemployed and a resident of Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region.

He said Amelipko lived at Awoshie, a suburb of Accra, Bacha, resident of Asamankese, Eastern Region, while Boateng stayed at Effiduase in the Ashanti Region. They are all teachers.

In August 2023, Amelikpo communicated to the complainant that GES recruitment slots were available and that he had a protocol to recruit people.

Amelipko during the conversation allegedly gave full assurance and promised to make a refund when the recruitment failed.

The prosecution said due to such representation, the complainant became convinced and organised forty-two (42) interested applicants.

It said on August 29, 2023, Amelikpo demanded and collected GH¢394,000.00 from the complainants to get them the jobs but failed to do so and went into hiding.

The court heard that all efforts made by the complainant to reach Amelikpo proved futile thus, a report was made to the police.

The prosecution said on October 18, 2023, Amelikpo was arrested at Odorgonno Accra and in his investigation cautioned statement, he admitted having collected the above-mentioned amount of money from the complainant to secure jobs for his applicants but failed.

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Amelikpo mentioned Bacha and Boateng as his accomplices, leading to their arrest on November 10, 2023, at Asamankese and Asante Effiduase respectively.

The prosecution told the court that Bacha in his cautioned statement admitted the offence and told the police that he only received GH¢388,000.00 from Amelikpo and the same was handed over to Boateng and one Reuben Bempoh for the recruitment.

Boateng in his cautioned statement also admitted having received monies from Amelikpo and Bacha but paid into the Vodafone Cash wallet accounts produced by Bempoh, whom he met online and also claimed working at GES, National Headquarters Accra.

During the investigation, the police retrieved GH¢70,000.00 from Boateng and the same was handed over to the complainant.

The police are still investigating the matter.