Internet café operator arrested for fraudulent activities

Desmond Narh Tetteh, an internet café operator at Odumase Krobo, in the Eastern Region, has been arrested for fraudulent activities.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (N&MC) collaborated with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to arrest him on suspicion of fraudulently using the logo of the Council to brand his internet café as an accredited facility to defraud Nurse Assistants who were seeking employment with the Ministry of Health.

A media brief issued by the Public Affairs Directorate of the N&MC to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said at the time of his arrest on Thursday, August 20, 2020, Mr Tetteh, was in possession of some Certificates of Registration issued by the Council, which were suspected to belong to some Nurse Assistants.

He was also found with a list of over 100 names and index numbers, which he claimed were those of Nurse Assistants who sought for his assistance to register their details and apply for employment on the Ministry of Health (MOH) recruitment portal.

According to the brief, Mr Felix Nyante, the Registrar of the N&MC, received a tip-off that an internet café situated in the Odumasi Krobo in the Eastern region, had used the Council’s logo and photo of some Nurse Assistants, to design a flyer and circulating on social media.

It said the target group as per the details on the said flyer was captured as “Nurses General Recruitment, Strictly for 2017 NAP and NAC graduate only who completed from various Public Health Training Institutions.”

It said, following the announcement by the MOH for the recruitment of Nurse Assistants Clinical (NAC) and Nurse Assistant Preventive (NAP), it was reported that Mr Tetteh, advertised his internet café using the logo of the Council to solicit for services from the applicants.

According to the release, Mr Tetteh charged GHS20.00 for each registration done on behalf of his clients, and that the people who patronised his internet café did so with the notion that the facility, was accredited by the N&MC, hence the Council’s logo on his E-flyers.

It said upon this information, the Registrar tasked the team from the Disciplinary and Intelligence Department of the Council to investigate the matter.

The team, it said, sought the assistance of the Special Investigation Unit of the CID, to effect the arrest of Mr Tetteh, and he was caught in the act while he was attending to some clients at his internet café, and was subsequently sent to the Police CID Headquarters in Accra for further interrogation and investigation.

Items retrieved by the Police included a desktop computer, laptop, signed Certificates of Registration issued by the N&MC, and a list containing names and index numbers.