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The Adjabeng District Court in Accra has sentenced Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy, a.k.a. Tracy Mensah, and one Yvette Mensah, to a fine of 300 penalty units (GHS 3,600) each, for providing false information to the National Identification Authority (NIA).

In default of payment, they will serve six months in prison.

The suspects were charged with the offences of conspiracy to commit crime namely providing false information to officials of NIA, contrary to Section 23(1) of Act 29/60 and Section 17(c) of the National Identification Authority Act 707 (Act 2000) and Providing False Information to NIA Officials.

They both pleaded guilty to all charges preferred against them and were subsequently convicted on their own plea.

Meanwhile, Toyin Tracy, a Nigerian, is to be repatriated to her country of origin after serving her sentence by the orders of the Court.

On November 19, 2021, Toyin Tracy went to the Head Office of the NIA to acquire a Ghana Citizen Card.

She was accompanied by Yvette Mensah.

Tracy had in her possession a Ghanaian Birth Certificate, one of the documents required for acquiring a Ghana Card.

The two were directed by the NIA registration Official to the CID (NIA) Office for the usual vetting, interrogation and authentication of documents that most suspected applicants went through before being allowed to continue with the registration process to acquire the Ghana Card if they were cleared by the Unit.

In the course of Police investigations, it was detected that the birth certificate possessed by Tracy had the name “Tracy Mensah” with Yvette Mensah as the mother and one Alhassan Fusieni as the father, all Ghanaians.

The birth certificate was issued at the Birth and Death Registry on October 22, 2021 at Bubuashie Office, Accra and had its registration number as 020107-3879-2021 with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital as a place of birth.

Further investigations disclosed that, Yvette Mensah was not the biological mother of Tracy and that, the two were never related in any way.

Investigations also revealed that the name Tracy Mensah was adopted by Olarusi Toyin with the consent of Yvette Mensah to enable her have a Ghanaian lineage.

Again, it was revealed that Tracy’s biological parents were Nigerians and she was born in Nigeria.

Yvette Mensah in the course of interrogations confirmed to Police that, she was contacted by Tracy to assist her acquire a Ghana Card by playing a mother role on her birth certificate.

She (Toyin) gave her hometown as Agbozume in the Volta Region.