Unemployed Journalist In Police Grips

Albert Kumashie Dotse, a 32-year-old unemployed journalist and resident of Sun City at Adjei Kojo in Tema, is in the grips of the Ashaiman Divisional Police Command for allegedly defrauding 14 victims of GH₵19,000. The money was to facilitate enlistment into the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS). The accused, according to Superintendent William Daah, head of the Ashaiman Divisional Criminal Investigation Department (CID), was arrested by the police in Anloga in the Volta Region, where he went into hiding after swindling his unsuspecting victims. Briefing a section of the media at the Command, Superintendent Daah said in the early part of this year, Albert Dotse, who is also known as Kwekumi, collected a cash of GH₵2,150 from a victim at Zenu in the Kpone-Katamanso District as fee to help enlist the victim into the GIS. He said the suspect then approached another victim at Kubekro, also in the Kpone-Katamanso District, with the view of getting him enlisted into the GIS after paying a fee of GH₵2,150, "but this second person could not pay all the cash and so he paid GH₵1,500 and topped up with a laptop to defray the said total enlistment fee." The accused, according to Superintendent Daah, moved into parts of the Volta Region where he succeeded in swindling more unsuspecting victims with the same assurance of getting them enlisted into the GIS, adding that the suspect attached a printed list of prospectus to the purported GIS admission forms he presented to whoever made the full payment of GH₵2,150. After months of not hearing from the accused, some of the victims, in May and June, stormed the GIS headquarters with their admission letters and prospectus to find out when they were reporting for training, only to be told that their forms were not recognised by the GIS and that the service had not started enlistment. Two of the victims, on August 14, consequently reported the matter to the Ashaiman Divisional Police, who after further investigations dispatched information to the Anloga Police after they had gotten hint that the accused could be hiding in Anloga. The Anloga Police, after their vigorous hunting and surveillance, grabbed Albert Kumashie Dotse on September 13 and handed him over to the Ashaiman Divisional Police. Upon interrogation, the accused mentioned that he was contracted by some director of Manpower Planning Unit of the GIS --- a unit, Superintendent William Daah said, which does not exist in the GIS. The Ashaiman Divisional Police CID boss said so far 14 persons have reported as being swindled by Albert Dotse, who claimed he is an unemployed journalist "and there may be more of his victims." The police CID boss said the accused would be arraigned before court.