The circumstances that excited Ghana’s investigative body, Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), to jump into an ongoing investigation by the Ministries Police station over an alleged cloned cheque of the Ministry of Energy by some unscrupulous persons have raised eyebrows at the Ministry.
The unscrupulous persons allegedly attempted to transfer an amount of GHS3,540,000 from the Energy Ministry’s account at National Investment Bank (NIB) into Guma Oil and Gas Ltd account at Zenith Bank.
The Chief Director and Finance Director of the Energy Ministry Mr Lawrence Apaalse and Kwasi Adjei had lodged a complaint at the Ministry’s Police Station for investigations to be conducted into an act of forgery, but surprisingly, EOCO took over the investigation.
Officials of EOCO, recently, announced in press interviews that they had arrested the Managing Director of Guma Oil and Gas Ltd, Fuseini Abdulai, Bright Addison and Dennis Koranteng in connection with a forgery incident at the Ministry of Energy.
However, EOCO’s involvement in investigating the case has come as a surprise to the Chief Director and the Finance Director as to whether the purported act was deliberately engineered by some persons within the Ministry or outside in order to get them interdicted to kick them out of office.
According to statements presented to the Ministries’ Police Station by the Chief Director and Finance Director which were sighted by energynewsafrica.com, Kwasi Adjei, on April 23, this year, at about 12:43pm, received a WhatsApp message and a telephone call from the Ministry’s Relationship Manager at the National Investment Bank (NIB) for the confirmation of a cheque.
It said when Kwasi Adjei checked a scanned cheque number 002289 with a face value of GHS3,540,000 issued in favour of Guma Oil and Gas Limited and forwarded to him on WhatsApp, he quickly went to the office to check only to realise that the cheque book contained the cheque leaflet with the number 002289 and so, notified the Chief Director about it.
The statement said the Chief Director, upon a careful examination of the cheque, realised that the signature purported to be was not exact.
“The Director Finance and I then drafted and jointly signed a letter to the National Investment Bank (NIB) distancing ourselves from the said cheque on the same day and proceeded to make this report,” part of the statement read.
Information available to energynewsafrica.com indicated the Chief Director, in the company of the Finance Director, went to NIB to instruct them not to honour the cheque. The Chief Director, per information available, then made attempts to brief the Energy Minister, John-Peter Amewu, in the office about the forgery incident, but when he could not get him in the office, he called the Minister on the telephone to tell him about the incident and the action that had been taken.
He indicated to him that the Finance Director and the Internal Auditor of the Ministry would brief him on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.
However, barely a week after the briefing, Mr Amewu received a letter from the Executive Director of Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), signed by the first Deputy Director, inviting the Chief Director and Finance Director for questioning.
According to sources, Mr Amewu immediately directed the Chief Director and Finance Director to follow Paul Gyan, Godwin Semeh and William Amoako, who are EOCO officials, for questioning.
EOCO, later, invited Charles Fobi, Chief Treasury Officer, Richard Kwaku Boadu, Chief Accountant, Gifty Jackson, Secretary to the Finance Director, Awudu Issaka, Accounts Manager, and David Nortei, Accounts Officer, for questioning.
Although, a letter written by COP Frank Adu-Poku (Rtd), Executive Director of EOCO, to Mr Peter Amewu, and intercepted by energynewsafrica.com, has cleared the Chief Director and Finance Director of the Ministry of Energy of any wrongdoing, the treatment by EOCO officials to the Chief Director and the Finance Director has compelled the Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co Chambers, who are lawyers of the Chief Director and the Finance Director, to write to the Executive Director of EOCO to make some demands.
The lawyers are demanding, among other things, the identity of the person who instructed them to get involved in investigating the case and person’s interest since the police had assured their client of pursuing those behind the cloned cheque.
The lawyers said this demand in particular is relevant because all interested parties in the case, notably the Energy Minister and staff of the Ministry, Police and NIB, have denied reporting the matter to EOCO.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com