Photo: 'Castle' Boy Arrested

THE CENTRAL Regional Police Command, in the early hours of Wednesday, arrested a 29-year-old mining consultant, George Asante, who posed as a personnel from the office of the President. Asante posed as a national security officer at the Castle in order to get information on current activities going on at the Cape Coast Nurses and Midwifery Training College (NMTC). Lack however eluded him as he was arrested by the police. DAILY GUIDE gathered that authorities of NMTC were allegedly charging exorbitant fees, and as result some of the students were threatening to go on demonstration to register their displeasure. The paper gathered that the decision to charge high fees was not from the Ministry of Health (MOH), which is affiliated to the school, but from the school authorities, who allegedly wanted to drain the students financially. Information gathered by the paper indicates that Asante posed as a Castle boy to get more information on the issue since his relative was a student in the school. He was however arrested when he failed to show an ID card indicating that he was a national security operative, when he was asked to do so. As at the time of filing this report, Mr. Asante had been charged for impersonation and had been arraigned before a Cape Coast Circuit Court for prosecution. At a press briefing in Cape Coast on Wednesday, after his arrest, the Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Osei Owusu, disclosed that Mr. Asante was nabbed after his outfit received information from authorities of NMTC that a man who claimed to be from the National Security Office had come to the college to seek information from them. According to the crime officer, Mr. Asante alleged that he did his National Service at the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, a year ago. The Principal of NMTC, Cecilia Mensah, upon suspicion, demanded the Identity (ID) card of Mr. Asante but he failed to produce one, a situation which compelled her to call the police to arrest him. Spt. Owusu hinted that after thorough police interrogations, Mr. Asante admitted that he was not a staff of the Castle, but posed as one so he could investigate why the principal of NMTC had withheld the certificate of past students. Supt. Owusu therefore commended the college authorities for following their intuition and alerting the police. In an interview with Mrs. Mensah, the Principal of NMTC, she said Mr. Asante had called her about two weeks ago and informed her of coming to the college to get first hand information on allegations of extortion of fees and refusal of the school to hand over students� certificates. According to her, the suspect said he had the permission of the National Security boss, Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, to carry out the investigation and give him feedback. She added that because Mr. Asante called to inform them that he would come to the school, the authorities organised a board meeting, which would have included him but unfortunately he did not turn up on the day the meeting was scheduled. Mrs. Mensah disclosed that Mr. Asante arrived later on Wednesday, but because she was very busy she asked a teacher to see to him, explaining that it was there that it was detected that he was not from the Castle, as he claimed. She hinted that upon suspicion she informed the board chairman of the college of Asante�s intentions and they called the Castle and the National Security Officers to verify Asante�s identity, but they denied knowing him.