GRi In Court 25-03-99

Electrician jailed 10 years for fraud

Bench and Bar console Asanteman:

Tema (Greater Accra), 25 March 

Edwin Mawuli Alorvor, electrician and local agent of Keryong Mining Company Limited in Accra, was today sentenced to a 10-year-jail term by the Tema Public Tribunal for defrauding 10 people of 24,300 dollars (56 million cedis) under the pretext of sending them to Korea.

He pleaded guilty and was convicted on his own plea.

Chief Inspector Edith Nutakor told the tribunal chaired by Mr R.C. Azumah that in the early part 1998, the accused organised some graduate students and teachers with a promise to take them to Korea to teach English at the Dorcal Foreign Language Institute.

Each of the complainants was requested to pay 3,000 dollars with the departure time set for July 1998.

Chief Inspector Nutakor said although not all the complainants paid the full amount required, Alorvor collected a total of 24,300 dollars from them.

When the departure time was approaching the accused told the complainants that he had invested the money in gold business to procure more money to get them travelling documents.

She said the accused person could not honour his promise and went into hiding until his arrest on August 27, 1998.

Mr Justice E.K. Wiredu, Supreme Court Judge, also led 150 members of the bench and the bar to pay their last respects to Otumfuo Opoku Ware the second, who is lying in state at the executive lounge of the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.

Justice Wiredu described the late Asantehene as a man of great humility and a wise counsellor saying, he would be missed by both members of the bench and the bar.

As custom demands, Justice Wiredu, on behalf of the bench and the bar, donated one carton schnapps and 1.5 million cedis to Asanteman. 500,000 cedis of the amount is for the Asantehemaa, Nana Afua Kobi Serwaa Ampem.

Members of the Freemasons Lodge from all parts of the country, comprising the Scottish, English and Irish, were also at the palace to pay their last respects.

A delegation from the Odd Fellows also paid their respects.

As usual, there was hustle and bustle as people from all walks of life elbowed their way to the palace in a meandering queue to pay their last respects as guns boomed, the "fontonfrom" and "atunpan" throbbed amidst dirges.

The police had hectic time controlling the spilling crowd, which had congregated behind the palace gate and the funeral grounds with the queue moving at snail pace.