Police Destroy Fake Cedi Notes

The Odumase-Krobo Police, upon the orders of the area’s circuit court, have burnt fake cedi notes worth GH¢410. The fake notes were detected by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) after it carried out a forensic examination on them. The notes, comprising ten GH¢5 notes and 36 GH¢10 notes denominations, were found on the accused person, Daniel Nyarko Matey, a 63-year-old farm labourer and resident of Nyameama near Akosombo in the Eastern Region. Justice Asiedu Akwasi Asmah of the Odumase-Krobo Circuit Court gave the order after Chief Inspector Emelia Ebeheakey, a prosecutor, told the court she would discontinue with the case for want of prosecution. She said the witnesses in the case, Yaw Demanya and Enoch Tetteh, a driver and his mate, had continuously failed to appear in court. According to her, on December 9, 2009, at about 9pm, the witnesses approached an Allied Oil Filling Station pump attendant at the Odumase Junction to buy diesel with an amount of GH¢180 in GH¢10 denomination. She said the pump attendant and the complainant, upon suspecting the money to be a fake, quickly called in the area’s police who arrested the driver and his mate. Upon interrogation, Yaw Demanya and Enoch Tetteh mentioned the accused as the one who gave them the money at Nyameama to buy some sugar and rice at Agormanya for him, she narrated. Later, when the suspects led police to arrest the accused, additional GH¢230 cedi notes suspected to be counterfeits were found in his room “and when he was interrogated, he alleged that two unidentified young men gave him the notes at Kejetia, Kumasi, for genuine cash of GH¢200. He admitted giving the GH¢180 to the two suspects.” The cedis notes, prosecution narrated, were sealed and sent to the BoG for examination and in its report on May 27, 2010, the BoG’s report indicated that all the notes were fake. The accused was later arraigned after police investigations. Chief Inspector Emelia Ebeheakey advised the general public to be on the alert and quickly report such cases to the police for onward arrest. “We need the assistance of the general public to assist us weed out miscreants in our society,” she entreated. The counterfeit cedi notes were set ablaze at the forecourt of the court in the presence of the court’s registrar and police.