John Ackay Blay-Miezah reincarnated-albatross in NPP?

He is audacious and brave. A conman of spectacular proportions. He has an uncanny ability to befriend people in high places, forge documents and play the press. He obviously believes his own lies.

He had struck up a friendship with the then-presidential candidate Mr. J. A. Kufuor and bought influence and protection by donating to his campaign fund using money obtained from the gargantuan fraud he committed on the unsuspecting Ghanaian people. He managed to convince the former President to give him a huge, juicy contract on his assumption of office with the firm promise to use the profit to support party activities. But he unsurprisingly reneged on the promise.

A trickster whose self-delusion and shamelessness readily come to mind the ways of the late John Ackah Blay-Miezah. Just like Blay-Miezah who deceived American Investors that he was a diplomat working at the Ghana Embassy in the US - and that he had been by the side of Dr. Nkrumah on his deathbed in Bucharest, Romania in 1972. - When in fact, at the time Dr. Kwame Nkrumah died, he was doing time in prison in Pennsylvania, for fraud. He went on air recently to falsely claim that he was at the ÑPP delegate’s conference in 1998, where he bought 120 double cabin pick-ups for the NPP to campaign with, but at the time he was in fact, thousands of miles away from Ghana, driving a taxi in New York and hiding from victims of his gargantuan fraud. He had defrauded hundreds of people in Ghana to the tune of over one million dollars (US$1,000,000), under the pretext of obtaining an American Green Card for them and took off with the money, never to be seen again for five years.

Following the introduction of the American visa lottery, he came to Ghana in 1995 and set up an office in Asylum Down, Accra, and falsely claimed that he was an American immigration Officer who wanted to help Ghanaians interested in migrating to America to do so, for a fee of US$5,000 and that, the whole process would take a maximum period of 6 months Not many people in Ghana had heard of the American visa lottery. People trooped to his purpose-furnished office to make enquiries and were persuaded to believe that he was in fact, an Immigration Officer who was based at the JFK International Airport in New York.

Typical of the ways of conmen, three people in the office and other hangers-on vouched for him. Lots of people bought into his con. People sold their properties - land, cars and other valuables and paid US$5,000 to him, believing sincerely that they would be obtaining a Green Card to migrate to the US. He quickly registered all the victims in the US visa lottery, together with many members of his own extended family and several others from his hometown.

Three of the people won the lottery and that did the trick. He capitalized on it. He fraudulently attached the names of some of the victims to the application for visas for the women who won the lottery, fraudulently claiming that they were the husbands of the applicants and succeeded in obtaining the visas. This made the gullible to believe in him even more. It gave him legitimacy. That he was in fact, an American immigration Officer who could deliver on his promise. No one doubted his story anymore. People bought into the con and trooped to his office in large numbers each paying him US$5,000.

My cousin Nana Amma who was going through a bitter divorce at the time, withdrew her lifetime savings from the bank, sold her car and other valuables, borrowed money from family members, and paid the USS$5,000 to him and started to pack her suitcase.

Sincerely believing that she was on her way to join her sister in the US in 6 months’ time to start life afresh. Adelaide Osei, a widow who was grieving and mourning the sudden death of her beloved husband, having been wrongfully accused of causing the death of her husband by her late husband's family, had been forcefully thrown out of the matrimonial home. She was advised by her brother to forget about everything and come to the US. She heard about this American immigration Officer who had set up an office in Accra and went to see him.

Like the several others before her, she was hoodwinked into believing that her American Green Card would be ready in a maximum period of 6 months counting from the day she paid the US$5,000. Very happy and believing that she would soon be migrating to the US, she couldn't wait to sell her land at Adenta, her car and other personal belongings and paid the US$5,000 to him in September 1995.

But alas, that was the last time they were to set eyes on him. He could not be traced. The office was closed in December 1995. Nobody knew where he lived in Ghana. Adelaide, the widow became desperately poor and aged rapidly. She became miserable, felt humiliated, sad, stranded and homeless and was living on charity. Every valuable item she owned had been sold or pawned and the money given to this false, wicked and heartless conman.

Not much was known about him at the time, so it was difficult to trace him. They had come to a dead end. All they could do was pray to God to intervene and so they prayed and fasted and continued to pray, going from one prayer camp to another for prayers and waiting until God answered their prayer 5 years later.

In 2000, Nana Amma got wind of him. She had heard rumours that the con man was back in town and had contested and won the NPP primaries in his hometown to contest the parliamentary elections on the ticket of NPP. We immediately travelled to his hometown in search of him.

After a lengthy, painstaking search and enquiries, we were directed to his house at Community 12, Tema, only to be told that he had just left for Accra on his way back to his hometown to campaign for the general elections. He was tracked to the head office of the NPP in Accra where I caused his arrest just as he was leaving the head office. The NPP office staff confirmed that several people had come to lodge a complaint about him for defrauding them. The whole thing was kept under wraps at the head office as it was getting close to the 2000 general elections and didn't want any bad publicity for any of their parliamentary candidates. Times were different then. The NDC under Rawlings was in power and the political atmosphere was tense. People were even afraid to be identified as members or supporters of the NPP.

The Police detained him at the headquarters and asked me to go and bring in the complainants. He initially denied knowing them when he was brought from the cell. He said he had never met any of them in his life. Nana Amma became furious and challenged him, shouting at the top of her voice and insisting that she pay the cash amount of US$5,000 to him personally. He quickly admitted knowing her and requested to see the receipt he issued to them when they made the payment. He was put back in the cells while we went to fetch the receipts. When he was brought from the cell and shown the receipt, he asked to make a call and a lady, presumably a girlfriend of his, came a few hours later with the cash of US$10,000 and the money was refunded to Nana Amma and Adelaide at the Commercial Crime Unit of the Police Headquarters.

He is a hustler and a cruel scammer and must be treated as such. He deceived the vulnerable and unsuspecting people of Ghana and took off with more than one million US dollars and was not seen again for 5 years. US$1,000,000 in 1995 was a lot of money. He refunded the money to the poor ladies without any interest or apology. He had done It to so many people so many times that he clearly didn‘t see anything wrong with what he had done as he did not show any remorse at all when he was arrested. He clearly did not have the conscience to see the impact it has had on the lives of the people, especially on the widow and the divorcee. He is always bragging that he is rich. Why won’t he be rich? If you take off with over one million US dollars for over 5 years, and all you do is to refund the money without any interest or penalty, when you are caught, why won’t he be rich? He refused to refund the monies to all those who had, unfortunately, misplaced their receipts as he denied ever collecting any money from them. He is evil and heartless.

He falsely claims to have attended Howard University on full scholarship and was one of the two exceptional students poached to work for a company in the US. That, he had been offered a salary of more than US$100,000 per annum plus a bonus, but he declined it because he believed he would make even more money doing business. As usual, his wife was his only witness to this false claim. Checks made at Howard University did not show any record of him ever being a student there. He is quick to throw his weight about and names around as his witnesses even when he’s not been challenged about what he‘s saying, and all his witnesses to his false claims are either his wife or dead people.

A psychiatrist friend of mine said, “I have a feeling he is a schizophrenic unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy”. A master of dog-ate-my homework, he has convinced himself and a great many that he is the one man who held the key to winning the next general election for the NPP. The more division he creates in the party, the more relevant he becomes and the more he advances his aim. His only aim is, if it’s not him then he will break the party. It must be him at all costs. His entire political career is built on dividing the party and turning the party against itself. He creates confusion wherever he goes. He is dishonest, callous, calculated, deceitful and a scheming criminal who must be exposed. He is someone with obvious mental issues who needs help and must be stopped before he causes even more damage to the party. His ego will be his undoing.

Hopefully, the delegates will show discernment as always on the 4th of November 2023 and emerge from this catastrophe stronger and more united than before, leaving out the diversionist and the delusional.

'HOW DID NPP GET HERE” —???

Danny Ohene-Gyan

Hse no: T3-183-2183, St. Francis street Anaji, Takoradi.