The Attorney-General’s (A-G) has filed nolle prosequi in the case of the Republic versus Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, a former Absa Bank contract staff, and others.
The A-G, represented by Lawrencia Aseka, filed the application before the Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Mrs. Susan Eduful, to discharge the accused persons on January 17, 2024.
The state attorney told the court that: “We are here to pray the court to discharge the accused persons. We have taken the necessary steps against those found culpable.”
Since the application was not opposed by any of the defence counsel, the court was obliged to accede to the request of the prosecution to discontinue the case.
As a result, Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, 25, and facing 13 charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, stealing, forgery of other documents and falsification of accounts could now go home after being held in lawful custody, since the commencement of the trial in June last year.
Others, Cecil NyamesemAgyarkwa (A2), Richard Aikins (A3), Michael Tweneboah Oppong (A4), Fouad Mohammed (A5) and Caleb Bandoh (A6), Nicholas Nii Sai (A9), Nana Kwesi Gyimah (A10), Benjamin Adoari (A11), Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei (A13), Joseph D Anim (A14) and Othniel Amankwah Darkwa (A17).
The police are yet to arrest Clinton Asamoah (A7), Kwame OwsuBuadu (A8), Daniel Osei (A12), Ernest Aryee (A15), and Isaac De-Heer (A16).
Background
The brief factof the case is that Nana Addo Ampem-Darko, Head of Fraud Detection and Operations at Absa Bank Ghana Limited, was the complainant in the case.
Until May 2023, Emmanuel was contracted as Processing Officer at the bank, while Cecil is 26 years old and a student at the University of Ghana, Legon, Richard, 31, a trader, Michael, 25, also a trader, Fouad, 32, a System Administrator and Caleb, 25, an entrepreneur.
Emmanuel was employed by Absa bank as a contract staff in the month of February 2022 and was posted to Osu branch as a Processing Officer, whose job description was to assist customers in loan processing, T-bill processing, debit card processing, dormant account activation and customer account maintenance among others.
Emmanuel’s job description had him working on several accounts, including that of Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s bonus and savings accounts.
However, somewhere in February 2023, Emmanuel registered for an online coding course, which the renewable annual subscription fee of US$174.30 – equivalent to GH¢2,287.69.
Emmanuel, instead of paying for the course out of his own pocket, allegedly made the payment on Rev Cynthia Patricia Asamoah’s Visa card on February 6, 2023.
As a result, the complainant and the Fraud team of the bank were gathering evidence on the matter to engage Emmanuel, but the latter made a swift move to tender in his resignation letter, effective May 31, 2023.
The sudden resignation and the alleged illegal transaction on the customer’s visa card by Emmanuel made the bank officials more suspicious to investigate him in other areas.
The complainant, together with the fraud team, made up of the bank’s IT experts, detected that on April 20, 2023 Emmanuel by his own machination accessed one of his colleague’s User ID and password to change the contact number on another customer, Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts.
On April 21, 2023 he personally set up an internet and mobile banking access on Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts, using his own User ID and password, after which he had access and started operating on the accounts without the victim customer receiving SMS alert.
From April 21 to May 12, 2023 he had full access to the Ekua Ewuduwa’s account and fraudulently transferred a total of GH¢945,133.00 including charges from the accounts to a number of people.
First and foremost, he transferred GH¢90,000.00 to Cecil’s girlfriend, Rhoda Abena Gransimaa, Panyin Quansah’s Cal bank and Fidelity bank accounts; GH¢180,000.00 to Richard’s Cal bank account; GH¢30,000.00 to Michael’s Cal bank account and GH¢30,000.00 to Fouad’s GT bank account.
Caleb also received GH¢30,000.00 in his Cal bank account, Kwame and Nicholas received GH¢30,000.00 and GH¢60,000.00 respectively in their Access bank and Fidelity bank accounts, and Nana Kwesi got GH¢90,000.00 in his Cal Bank account.
Benjamin had GH¢60,000.00 in his Ecobank account, Daniel received GH¢30,000.00 in his Fidelity account, Boadu got GH¢30,000.00 in his GT bank account and Joseph had GH¢60,000.00 in his FNB account.
All of the transfers were done in tranches of GH¢30,000.00 on different dates within the said period.
On May 9, 2023 from 7:21am to 7:32am, he used another colleague and that of the branch Manageress, Felicia Mackenzie’s Users IDs to change and authorise the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts, including the account of late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, former IGP, late Mr. Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman, Esther Marian Hackman and replaced them with only one contact number – 0531668674.
On May 11, 2023 Al transferred GH¢50,000.00 from Esther Marian Hackman’s account to Absa account of Ernest Aryee and did the same on the next day, by transferring GH¢50,000.00 each from late Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong and Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman’s accounts to some other Absa account holders.The receivers of the transfers were Ernest, Othniel and Isaac.
The court was told that Cecil, Richard, Michael and Fouad stated in their respective investigation caution statements that Clinton came to their shops to purchase Iphone 14 Pro Max and requested for their bank accounts details and forwarded the same to Al, to effect those fraudulent transfers into their accounts.
On May 12, 2023 Al was arrested by the Police in respect of the Visa Card theft and was granted Police enquiry bail to be reporting regularly.
On May 15, 2023 the complainant on behalf of the bank petitioned the Director General of CID in respect of GH¢1,207,017.00 theft detected in furtherance to the Visa Card case.
Interestingly, when Al was contacted to report himself to the police, he refused to show up.Meanwhile, efforts to compel his surety to produce him also failed.
On June 4, 2023 A1, together with his girlfriend, Ivy Okertchiri, who stood as surety for him allegedly attempted to escape from the jurisdiction to Dubai, but he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service and handed over to the police.
Investigation revealed that Emmanuel together with his accomplices, within the period of April and May 2023, allegedly stole a total amount of GH¢1,209,304.69 from the aforementioned customers’ accounts.
