EOCO urged to investigate 2 alleged fraudsters

A 70-year-old German woman, who was swindled by two Nigerians in 2013, is appealing to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate and confiscate the assets of two Nigerians who defrauded her of €248,000.

Ms Waltraud Wiesent, a widow, stated that a court judgement, which convicted the Nigerians—Mark Latif Adijum and Benjamin Taofeek Oluwashola—in 2018, ordered them (convicts) to refund €248,000 they fraudulently received from her under the pretext of supplying her gold.

Making the appeal through The Ghanaian Times, Ms Wiesent noted that the convicts had investments and properties in Ghana and she believed EOCO could help identify and confiscate the properties.

Ms Wiesent said her bankers sold her houses to settle the loan she took and sent to the Nigerians, who told her they were genuine gold dealers in Ghana.

Adijum was sentenced to serve eight years at the Nsawam Prisons by the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs Afi Kudamor, now a high court judge.

Adijum and Oluwashola were charged with conspiracy to commit crime and defrauding by false pretence. Oluwashola was convicted to a fine of GH¢40,000.

While in prison, Adijum appealed his conviction at the High Court, Accra, and lost.

At the trial, which suffered several adjournments at the circuit court, Adijum denied the offence, claiming that he was a farmer and had never been to school.

Latif encountered Ms Wiesent, a German technical engineer, on Facebook and introduced himself as Chris Walters of Nottingham, who conducts business in Ghana.

Then prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Augustine Yirenkyi, told the court that the convict told the German he had quantities of gold and asked her to send monies for the purchase of gold.

He said Mrs Wiesent had transferred monies through MoneyGram and to different bank accounts at Ecobank and Guaranty Trust Bank.

The policeman told the court that Latif invited Mrs Wiesent to Ghana on two occasions and during her third visit, the German reported the Nigerians to the police and they were arrested and charged.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA

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