Man jailed 12 months for impersonating finance minister on social media

A Facebook imposter pretending to be Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been given a 12-month prison sentence with hard labour.

Nuetey Latif Ahinguah, also known as Oliver and Emmanuel Asare, were put before the Kaneshie Magistrate court in Accra on  January 22, for defrauding by false pretences.

According to an official document, Ahinguah and his accomplices began creating fraudulent Facebook accounts in 2018.

Aside targeting the Finance Minister, they also created accounts in the name of National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah.

“The criminals used the accounts in defrauding unsuspecting people under the pretext of securing them employment and cars to buy at very ridiculous or ‘give away’ prices”, read the document.

“Unsuspecting people fell prey to these criminals and transferred several amounts of money to the fraudsters on a given mobile money number”, the document continued.

The Magistrate court, presided over by Her Worship E.B. Botchway, convicted the accused to serve a twelve-month jail sentence after Ahinguah pleaded guilty for the offence of defrauding by false pretences.

Official security agencies say investigations are still ongoing in an attempt to arrest Ahinguah’s accomplices for fraudulent acts both within Ghana and abroad.

Since assuming office as Finance Minister, several fake social media accounts have been opened under the name of Ken Ofori-Atta or Kenneth Ofori-Atta. The Finance Minister is yet to open an official social media account.