A 25-year-old self-styled Mallam and an artist has been arrested and arraigned before the Tema Circuit Court �A� presided over by Kyei Baffour on two counts of forgery of notes and defrauding by false pretences.
The accused, Karimu Ganiyu, was said to be in possession of 61 fake $100 notes wrapped around 30 bundles of white paper.
He collected an amount of GH�300 from his victims with the promise to provide them with an unspecified amount of dollars.
The accused person has however pleaded not guilty to the two charges and has been remanded into police custody for further investigations.
His lawyer stated that Ganiyu knew nothing about the money and a dove which came out of a box containing the money.
According to the court, the complainants were National Security operatives who had information about the activities of the accused that he had been swindling unsuspected members of the public who came to him for help with fake currencies in his house.
The prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Adolphus Otchere, said on April 20, 2012, at about 6:30 pm, the complainants feigned interest in doing business with him and approached the accused to conjure money for them to meet their pressing financial problems.
The accused, according to the prosecutor, demanded and collected GH�300.00 from them and started chanting some incantations. After the incantations, a white dove appeared in a box which also contained $100 bills around in sheets of paper.
The accused then demanded additional money to enable him to complete the deal for them.
The prosecutor told the court that the two then identified themselves and arrested him in his house together with the wooden box containing 30 bundles of blank paper cut into the shape of currency notes wrapped between two fake $100 notes, and the white dove and handed him over to the police at Ashaiman for onward conveyance to the RCID, Tema for further investigations.
The prosecutor noted that investigation revealed that the accused person had in his possession large sums of money suspected to be fake dollar notes. According to the court, efforts were being made to have the exhibits tested.
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