Jamila Wahab, 45 and a banker at the Prudential Bank, has been arraigned before Accra Circuit together with three others for allegedly aiding conciliation of signature of a party to a joint account.

Jamila, third accused  (A3), with the other accused persons – Sule Manud, 52 and a farmer, Habib Matawakil, 44 and a businessman, and Hani Tikasa, 54 and businessman – had been charged of fraudulent breach of trust, conspiracy to commit crime, abetment of crime and defrauding by false pretence.

The fact of the case

The Accra Circuit Court 7 presided over by Ellen Ofei-Ayeh was told by Prosecuting Officer Chief Inspector Isaac Anquandah yesterday that the complainant in the case is one Oscar Abdul Mumin, a Ghanaian domiciled in the United State of America (USA).

 Whereas, the first accused (A1) Sule Mamud is a farmer and a resident of Swalaba, a suburb of Kumasi, Habib Mutawakil (A2) and Hani Tikass (A4) are also business men Resident of Ababo and Dzowulu respectively whilst accused Jamila Wahab (A4) is a banker and also resident of Kumasi.

He said the complainant knew A1 about twenty years ago in the USA where they became friends and about eleven years ago, Al returned to Ghana and settled down.

On the background of their existing relationship, the complainant asked A1 to supervise his ongoing project in Ghana, which the complainant’s younger brother, Jamal Mohammed Junior was in charge.

He said Al who is also friends with A2 told him about the complainants’ project financial plans, which A2 then asked Al to convinced the complainant to open his financial bank account with Prudential Bank as he knows A3 as a smart banker who can aid in changing the mandate of the account to enable Al cash from same without the other party’s signature. 

The farmer was said to have succeeded in convincing the complainant to open his US Dollar financial account with Prudential bank with the names of Sule and Jamal Mohammed Junior. 

Oscar allegedly deposited a total cash of USD$245,500.00 equivalent to GH¢1,964,000.00 on installment basis whilst in the US.

Habib later led Sule to Jamila’s office and discussed their intention with to change the mandate of the joint at the blind side of Jamal.

Jamila was alleged to have betted same by aiding to cancellation of Jamal’s mandate as a signatory to the joint account.

June 10, 2021, Sule, Habib and Hani hatched a plan that the Economic and Organise Crime Office (EOCO) official had frozen the joint account of the complainant, as they suspect that the complainant’s source of money was through money laundry. 

Sule then called Jamal to inform him that, he has been arrested by the officials of EOCO, and detained in cells at their Head Office in Accra and he should inform the complainant as well.

Al again gave Habib’s contact number to Jamal to call him for feedback, which A2 also gave Jamal, Hans’ contact with further instructions to contact to him. 

Habib contacted Jamal under the pretext that Hani is the one who will lead him to EOCO to course the release of Al. 

Jamal was informed by Hani after contacting him that Sule has been arrested and officials of EOCO are demanding USD$100,000.00 for his release. 

Jamal also informed the complainant about the development but the latter was said to have suspected a foul play, hence contacted friend of his by Mubarak who called Hani to ascertain the story.

Hani confirmed the demand of the USD$100,000.00 to Mubarak but he promised to pay US$30,000.00 as a bait. 

In order to verify the actuality of the story, Mubarak proceeded to EOCO Head Office to ascertain the story but it turned out that everything was false.

Interestingly, Mubarak met Hani and gave him the USD$30,000.00 personally as a bait for the release of Al, which the following day, Sule called Jamal and informed him that he has been released.

 The supposed arrest of Al made Jamal suspicious and was prompted to check their joint account at Prudential Bank.

To his surprise, he discovered that between June 2 and 9, 2021, Al withdrew a total of USD$245,500.00 from the joint account at his blind side.

On this basis, the court was informed that investigation has disclosed that Al gave USD$45,000.00 to A2 as his share of the USD$245,000.00 while A3 and A4 also benefitted from the USD$245, 000.00 per their roles played in the criminal enterprise.

The court was told the incident compelled Oscar to quickly flown to Ghana and reported the matter to the Police and the accused persons were subsequently arrested for investigation. 

During investigation, Al admitted having withdrew the aforementioned amount of money from the joint account without the consent of the complainant and shared with A2, A3 and A4. 

A4 has since refunded USD$30,000.00 he collected from Mubarak Ibrahim to Police. 

Sule and Habib been granted bail in the sum GH¢H¢1,964.000 with two gainfully employed sureties each to be justified.

Hani was slapped with a bail condition of GH¢1,000,000 with two sureties, one to be justified.

All the three has pleaded not guilty excerpt Jamila who plea  has been slatted July 4, 2022.