Lawyer wants court to restrain newsmen from reporting on his client

Tema, Feb. 23, GNA- Mr Robert Blay, a lawyer at Tema, on Monday applied to a Tema Circuit Court "B" to restrain newsmen from reporting on a visa fraud case against his client.

The reason being that: " journalists report sensational stories these days".

Lawyer Blay in his four-minute application stressed that the reportage would affect his client, who is a pastor with the Charismatic Faith Chapel International at Tema.

The presiding judge, Mr Stephen Teye, overruled the application. The pastor Emmanuel Inkum pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and defrauding Mr Duah Kofi Asante, a trader at Ntonsu in Ashanti of 5,030 dollars under the pretext of supplying him with a United States (US) visa.

The court granted Inkum 80 million cedis bail to re-appear on March eight.

The court ordered him to surrender all his travelling documents to the Tema Criminal Investigations Department (CID). An accomplice, Maxwell Quaye is now at large.

Police Chief Inspector Edith Nutakor said in June 2003, Inkum went to visit a friend at the 'Talk of the Town' at Tema Community Two where the friend introduced Mr Duah to him as someone who needed a visa to travel to America.

She said Inkum told the friend that there was an elder in his church who could offer assistance and immediately called Quaye on the telephone.

The prosecutor said when the information was passed to Quaye, he and Inkum agreed to assist and Mr Asante gave them 5,030 dollars. Inkum and Quaye could not produce the visa while Quaye since then, had gone into hiding.