76 year-old man arrested for fraud

A 76-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested by the Criminal investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for allegedly defrauding some traders and farmers from Tamale for over GH¢100,000 under the pretext of supplying them with tractors on credit and buying their farm produce at higher prizes.
The suspect, Samuel Kittoe, the Deputy General Manager of Agricultural Marketing Development Company of Ghana situated at the Lashibi, was arrested by the police at a hotel at Sakumono where he has been hiding for the past six months.
Another accomplice, Samuel Gyimah, the General Manger of the company, is, however, at large and an intensive search had been mounted by the police for his arrest.
According to the Director General of the CID, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Prosper Agblor, the suspects’ company placed an advert in the January 6, 2012 edition of the Daily Graphic seeking traders to supply maize, millet, beans and soybeans to the company.
They also placed another advert later in the month in the same paper that the company had in stock tractors which it was offering for sale to farmers on credit basis. These two adverts attracted a number of traders and farmers from Tamale.
He said the complainants in this case were two men - a trader and farmer from Tamale - who came to the police headquarters and reported that they have been defrauded by a company at Lashibi.
COP Agblor said it was believed that a number of people in the region had fallen victims to the activities of the company.
He said the trader, Iddrisu Alhassan, on seeing the advert on the supply of farm produce in the newspapers, became interested so he called the company and informed them that he could supply them with maize.
He said the suspect, who had been communicating with Iddrisu, asked him to come to Accra to sign an agreement. In that agreement he was told that after the supply of the produce, payment would be effected after 21 working days, to which he agreed.
Iddrisu then went back to Tamale and loaded 600 bags of maize valued at GH¢72,000 onto an articulator truck and brought it to the company’s offices at Lashibi where it was offloaded and he returned to Tamale to wait for the 21 days to elapse.
After the 21 days, Iddrisu, full of hope, returned to the company’s premises at Lashibi to collect his money but to his dismay the company had closed its offices and Kittoe and the General Manager, Samuel Gyimah, were nowhere to be found.
The victim then made a report to the police and a search was mounted for their arrest and while the police were pursuing the case, the other victim who is a farmer also came to the police to report that he and his elder brother saw the advert on the supply of the tractors so they came to the company’s offices at Lashibi where they were informed that the prize for one tractor was GH¢48,000 but they had to make a down payment of GH¢12,000 each and after the supply of the tractor the rest would be spread for a period of four years so they paid the deposit.
COP Agblor said the complainant was to comeback after a month to take delivery of the tractor and when he returned after a month the company had folded up.
He said the reports were made in April, 2012 and all efforts to trace the whereabouts of the two suspects proved futile until January 2, 2013 when intelligence gathered by the police indicated that Kittoe had been hiding in a hotel at the Sakumono Estates and has been living in the hotel for over six months now.
Upon interrogation, Kittoe admitted to the offence but claimed the money was given to his accomplice, Samuel Gyimah who had absconded.
Mr Agblor said it was believed that a number of traders and farmers from the north had fallen victims to the activities of the fraudsters