The Nungua Divisional Police Command has nabbed two persons for allegedly posing as Francis Antwi, aka Reverend Obofour, Head Pastor of Anointed Palace Chapel, and defrauding people who needed ‘spiritual breakthrough.’
The suspects are Richlove Tay, 29, a regional supervisor of an oil company, and George Addo, 25, a trader.
ALSO READ : BoG extends minimum capital deadline for MoMo operators to December 2020
The two are said to have created a bank account and a mobile money account into which their victims paid their monies.
When contacted, the Kpeshie Nungua Divisional Police Commander, ACP Francis Tsidi, told that Rev. Obofour is the complainant in the case.
He said Rev. Obofour had been complaining for some years that he had been receiving several complaints of unscrupulous persons who had created social media accounts and posed as him, using those platforms to dupe people.
The police said Rev. Obofour contacted a witness in the case to assist him trace the suspects involved and in the process “Richlove Tay, first suspect, introduced himself to the witness as Rev. Obofour and asked the witness to give him GH¢10,000 to help him get spiritual breakthrough on the Instagram page.”
The suspects also displayed a Barclays bank account with number 0393552247 and mobile money account numbers 0547991364 and 0594085479 as numbers of Rev. Obofour into which the victim could pay the money.
The suspect, the police said, lured the witness to deposit the cash but the witness declined and requested to meet them personally to hand over the money.
ACP Tsidi said on March 15, 2020 around 4:30pm, the two suspects lured the witness to meet them with the money at Nungua Junction Mall.
“In order to be sure that the witness has the money, suspect George Addo asked the witness to send him pictures of the money before he can send one of his junior pastors to meet him for it which the witness obliged,” he narrated.
The police then laid ambush and arrested the suspects and upon interrogation, Addo admitted having opened the Instagram account and posed as Rev. Obofour.
“The two were sent to court but since the court did not sit, they were brought back and are in our custody awaiting prosecution,” ACP Tsidi added.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey
