Suspected swindler granted bail

Kumasi, Sept. 16, GNA -- The Ashtown District Court in Kumasi on Thursday granted 15 million cedis bail with two sureties to Nana Appiah, a suspected swindler in Kumasi.

Nana Appiah is alleged to have printed loan application forms on letterheads bearing 93Friends of Nana Akuffo-Addo=94 (FONA) and sold them to unsuspecting traders in the Kumasi metropolis for 5,000 per copy to enable them register to obtain a loan from the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA).

He pleaded not guilty and would reappear before the court on September 19, 2006.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Alice Naami told the court presided over by Mr Justice Solomon Akyina that, on Wednesday September 13, 2006, Appiah went to the Asafo Market and approached one Isaac Ofori to organise about 60 people to form a group called Friends of Nana Akuffo-Addo (FONA) to enable them access loans from the MCA, which the government had just received.

She said some of the traders bought the forms in multiple numbers and registered.

Chief Inspector Naami said on the second day, when the suspect went to the market, the complainants demanded to know the offices of the FONA and the one who mandated him to register members. She said the complainants became suspicious, when the suspect was not able to show them the offices and other officials involved in the group formation and therefore, reported him to the Kumasi Central Police, who arrested him.

Chief Inspector Naami said the police retrieved 385 registered FONA letterheads and an amount of 1,010,000 cedis from the suspect. She said the suspect mentioned one Addae Nsiah as the secretary to the group but all efforts by the police to trace him had proved futile. At the court, the suspect mentioned one Nana Oppong, who he said was a government appointee at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), one Bright, a mechanic in Kumasi and one Thomas Arthur Andoh, whom he described as the Director, Institute of African Languages, KNUST and whose complementary card he shown to the court, as the people, who asked him to set up the group, adding that, the group meets at the Cultural Centre.