Nigerian fraudster swerves taxi driver

The Police have arrested a 27-year-old Nigerian for defrauding a taxi driver of GH¢700 and a phone valued at GH¢1,200.

Roy Sylvester Ekene was arrested  on Monday after the taxi driver, Jonathan K. Woode, spotted Ekene at Abeka Lapaz three weeks after he had bolted with his money and phone.

Narrating the incident to The Mirror, the Ministries District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Fii Ochil, said the incident happened on March 4, 2013.

He said Ekene, who is a squatter at the Rawlings Park in the Central Business District in Accra, hired the taxi driver under the pretext that he had just arrived in the country on a business trip from London.

He said Ekene lied to the driver that he owned a house on the Oxford Street at Osu, and that he was a personal friend to most of the high ranking politicians in the country.

 DSP Ochil said after Ekene took Woode around for five hours, he asked him to lend him some money since he was yet to go to the bank to withdraw money.

According to the Police Commander,Ekene later requested for Woode’s phone to make a call to his wife because his phone battery had run out of power.

DSP Ochil said Ekene, after taking the GH¢700 and a sony Erikson cellular phone from Woode, asked him to wait for him in the car while he went to a bank at the Pension House to withdraw some money.

Ekene, according to DSP Ochil, then used another entrance to the bank and bolted. 

DSP Ochil, however, advised taxi drivers against doing business with people they had little knowledge of, especially those who claimed to have influence and connection.

Story: By Dominic Moses Awiah