The suspect, Lance Corporal Elvis Atoprah, 27, formerly of the Enlistment Office at the General Headquarters of the GAF, Burma Camp, was arrested by the police following a tip-off.
According to military records, Atoprah was enlisted in 2005 and discharged from the Armed Forces in December 2009 for similar offences.
He allegedly continued with the act and succeeded in collecting sums of money ranging between GH¢500 and GH¢1,000 from his victims, including a number of tertiary and senior high school graduates in different parts of the country.
Giving details of Atoprah's activities, the Deputy Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, ACOP Joshua Dogbeda, said although the suspect lived in Accra, he travelled to the regions and sought the support of opinion leaders or influential persons in different communities to spread the
message that he could assist the youth in those areas to be enlisted into the Armed Forces.
He said the suspect extended his operations to the Western, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra regions where he allegedly registered more than 100 people after taking sums of money from them.
ACOP Dogbeda said the suspect collected GH¢5OO each from three young men in Techiman and, after perusing their certificates, informed them that they had qualified for the officer course
because they were tertiary graduates.
He then asked them to pay an additional GH¢5OO but the young men became suspicious of his activities and went to Accra to report him to a relative, who is an Army officer.
According to ACOP Dogbeda, the Army officer told the youngsters that the enlistment claims by the suspect were fraudulent.
Consequently, the gentlemen reported the case to the Military Police, who advised them to invite the suspect to collect the additional GH¢5OO he had requested, with the intention of arresting him.
He said the three gentlemen called the suspect, who agreed to meet them at Abeka Lapaz in Accra, but when they went to the spot with plain-clothes policemen, the suspect sent a young man, Kofi Adjabeng, to whom he had given his (suspect's) mobile phone to collect the money on his behalf.
The policemen arrested Adjabeng, who took them to the suspect's house at Santa Maria. But the suspect had vacated the house.
All efforts to trace him proved futile until the police had a hint that he was hiding in a girlfriend's house at Awoshie from where he was picked.
Following his arrest, a number of students came forward to identify him as having taken money from them with assurances of enlisting them into the Army.
Atoprah is currently assisting the police in their investigations.
Source: Dailly Graphic
