PHOTO: 3 nabbed for fake police recruitment

The suspects claimed there was an ongoing exercise to enlist only people from the three northern and Volta regions.

The three suspects are Aisha Asumda, alias Aisha Boku Masi, aged 36, a sheabutter seller; Joshua Palba, 35, and Ariel Lamptey, 21, both unemployed living in Accra.

Money retrieved

When a search was conducted on them following their arrests, GH¢58,500 was retrieved. The amount is believed to be part of monies collected from the victims.

The police also retrieved from the suspects forged letters of the “Offer of Enlistment into the Ghana Police Service” with an attached list of training prospectus addressed to various victims.

There were also letters requesting the victims to report at the various police training schools on January 31, 2015.

Majority of the victims were graduates from the three northern regions and wives of military men working at the 37 Military Hospital, as well as other members of the public.

According to the Director General of the CID, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Prosper Agblor, the three were arrested at the 37 Military Hospital on Wednesday, December 24, 2014, where they had gone to collect more money from some of their victims who worked at the hospital.

He said a fourth suspect, Joseph Awuni, who always kept his distance from the trio, escaped arrest.

Hoax training

COP Agblor said somewhere in November, 2014,  Aisha Aumda and her accomplices loaded their victims in three VIP buses and conveyed them to the Winneba Police Command and Staff College to start their training.

He said on their arrival at Winneba, the victims realised there was no recruit training programme at the college so they continued their journey to the National Police Training School in Accra but were told once again that no recruits were expected at the training school.

All this while, the suspects kept assuring their victims of their entry into the Police Service, mentioning the names of senior police officers including the Director General/Human Resource Department as the persons they were working for.

COP Agblor said since September 2014, the Human Resource Department of the Ghana Police Service had been receiving calls from individuals all over the country enquiring about an ongoing enlistment exercise.

He said intelligence, gathered over the period indicated that Aisha, while on her sheabutter trading business in the three northern regions, started spreading the rumour.

He said Aisha made representations to the effect that there was an ongoing exercise to enlist people from the three northern regions and the Volta Region into the Ghana Police Service and that she was responsible for the exercise.

 Enlistment categories

The CID director said Aisha further claimed that the enlistment was in two categories: the first category was for first degree holders who were to pay GH¢7,000 to be enlisted into the officer corps of the service, while the second category was for senior high school leavers who were to pay GH¢4,000 to be enlisted as recruits into the service.

Mr Agblor said between September and December, 2014, the suspects, together with the one at large managed to collect various sums of monies from the victims.

He said on December 24, 2014, the Police Surveillance team arrested the suspects at the 37 Military where they had gone to receive additional money from their victims who were wives of soldiers working at the hospital.