Free ‘Tamale Sakawa King’- Colleagues demand

There has been a social media revolution by colleagues of arrested ‘Tamale Sakawa King’ Peter Maxwell who was arrested a fortnight in Tamale.

According to one of the flyers making rounds on social media with the hush tag #FREE PETER MAXWELL, they are demanding that the suspect be freed by the law enforcement agencies having spent more than 14 days in detention.

Maxwell Peter was arrested for his alleged involvement in a $10 million gold scam.

Noted for living a luxurious and driving expensive fleet of cars, the suspect was arrested at his home in Tamale by a combined team of security personnel form the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) handcuffed and taken to Accra.

Described as the ‘Sakawa King’ of Tamale, Maxwell Peter show of wealth and extravagant lifestyle is not new to residents of the ancient town as he is reported to have built and living in one of the much talked about houses in the area.

It has been established that his arrest follows more than a year of investigations by EOCO in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) of the United States of America.

According facts available, Maxwell and his gang of 19 reportedly used dubious means in defrauding a US-based company of 10 million dollars under the guise of supplying it with gold bars but failed.

The suspects between 2007 and 2016 presented themselves as gold dealers and succeeded in getting the US-based company to release a whopping $10Million to supply it with gold.

To ensure that their partners believed them, they created a bogus email usually containing either an attachment or a link to a malicious website which was linked to the said real estate company and infected the company’s entire computer network and harvested information including company files, credentials and gave the accused persons access to sensitive information which aided them to dupe the company.

The criminal network is facing 19 counts of defrauding by false pretences, conspiracy to defraud and unlawful access to computer programme or electronic record, contrary to Section 130(1) of the Electronic Transaction Act 2008 (Act772).

They are; Maxwell Peter, Babatunde Martins, Bernard Emurhowhoariogho Okorhi, Dana Brady, James Dean, Javier Luis and Ramos Alonso.

Those on the run include; Sumaila Hardy, Victor Daniel Fortune Okorhi, Dennis Noah, Olufoajimi Abegunde, Ayodeji Olumde Ojo.

Maxwell Peter and Babatunde Martins were arraigned before an Accra District Court on Tuesday but refused bail by the trial judge indicating this could impede investigations..

Meanwhile, police retrieved documents covering various transactions from Maxwell Peter he had with his victims, which amounted to $60,000 and €8,500.

He confessed having had several business contracts with the complainants and also confirmed the payments, supposed to have been used for gold purchases.