<<Print>>

Operating under multiple aliases and moving freely between the United States and Ghana, Obed Tetteh believed he had the perfect plan to outwit the law while living off his victims� wish to travel outside at all costs. Obed�s slippery ways failed him, however, last December as he was about to board a flight for United States with over GH�300,000 creamed from his victims. Obed was identified and arrested at the airport even though he was travelling with a passport issued under one of his aliases, Ibrahim Freshpound. Obed, who also operates under the name of Nii Odai, is slated to appear before the Cocoa Affairs Court �6� today to answer charges relating to alleged defrauding of scores of Ghanaians and an Indian of huge sums of money under the pretext of assisting them to acquire visas to the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. According to two of Ibrahim�s victims, they made contact with Obed after reading on the internet that they could be assisted to travel outside through Sankofa Travel and Tours at North Kaneshie, Accra. They told The Finder that they met Obed at the travel agency and he asked them to pay an initial deposit of GH�320. Later Obed asked his victims to buy air tickets in order to facilitate the processing of their visas, but when the victims disputed the idea of buying the airline tickets before being given visas, Obed went ahead and purchased the tickets with his own money and asked the victims to reimburse him through one Ahmed Coker�s bank account. He introduced Ahmed Coker to the victims as a brother of Mr Joseph Ade Coker, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, and the one who would help the victims acquire the visas. However, Obed went behind his victims to cancel the tickets, claim the money and stamp fake visas in their passports. When the hopeful travellers got to the Kotoka International Airport, however, immigration officers pointed out to them that their visas were fake. One of the victims managed to call Obed, who had relocated to the USA, on phone, but Obed allegedly told the victim he earned his living by defrauding people. Obed called the victim a loser and told him the he could take the case anywhere as he would always pay his way out. Obed even emailed his picture to his victim in case he would need it. According to one of the victims, an Indian man whom Obed had defrauded of GH�150,000 did some investigations on the fraudsters and retrieved Obed�s photograph from Facebook. Obed subsequently deleted all his photos from Facebook. Some of the Ghanaian victims also located Ahmed�s residence at Sowutuom, Accra, and caused his arrest. Obed called from the United States to ask that Ahmed be granted bail as he would come back to Ghana to pay his victims. Ahmed was granted bail but Obed failed to pay reimburse his victims and was in the process of returning to the US after a stint in Ghana when he was arrested.