A security coordinator at the Metro Mass Transit Company Limited (MMTL), who bugged the office of the former Managing Director of the company and allegedly attempted to extort money from him, has been dragged before an Accra Circuit Court.
The accused, Lawal Fuseini in March last year planted a voice recorder in the office of the then Managing Director of the company, Bennet Aboagye, ostensibly to blackmail him, according to prosecutors.
He succeeded in recording his boss and subsequently demanded $1 million to destroy the audio recording.
He reportedly threatened his boss that he would release the audio recording to both print and electronic media to dent his reputation if he failed to meet his demands.
The former managing director, who is the complainant in the case, is said to have noticed that it was a ploy by Lawal Fuseini to blackmail him and extort money from him so he decided to play along according to the police.
Mr. Aboagye, according to the prosecution, met the accused person and negotiated the said $1 million to GH¢20,000.00, which was later increased to GH¢40,000.00 due to demands by the accused person and his supposed accomplice, one Bawa, who is at large.
But the ex-Managing Director’s suspicions were heightened when his wife found a scanned copy of a criminal check report he obtained from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on his compound.
The criminal check reportedly contained threats that if Mr. Aboagye failed to pay the $1 million demanded earlier, the audio recording said to contain ‘corrupt acts’ would be released to the Chinese government, as Mr. Aboagye was billed to travel to China at the time.
This confirmed the complainant’s suspicion that he was being blackmailed as the criminal check report was in his office and only an employee of the company could have had access to it.
He subsequently reported the matter to the police for further action.
He, however, met the accused prior to reporting the matter to the police, where he made the GH¢40,000.00 payment in two installments at different places and dates.
The complainant and eyewitness, according to the police, recorded the accused person taking the money.
The prosecution, led by ASP Nyamekye, told the court that investigations revealed that the accused person picked his boss’ key from a common room where all keys are kept and illegally entered his office where he planted the voice recorder.
He said the accused, after collecting the GHc40,000.00, deposited it in his ADB bank accounts on May 5, 2018, which he later withdrew on May 19 and May 2, 2019.
The prosecution said he admitted the offence in his police caution statement, but insisted that he took the decision to plant the voice recorder in the former Managing Director’s office to get proof of his supposed ‘corrupt deals.’
The prosecutor told the court that the said Bawa, who conspired with Lawal Fuseini to blackmail Mr. Aboagye, initially denied any knowledge of the act, and efforts are being made to arrest him.
The accused pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit crime, extortion and unlawful entry.
The Circuit Court, presided over by Afi Agbanu Kudormo, granted him bail in the sum of GH¢80,000.00 with two sureties.
He will reappear on March 5, 2019.
By Gibril Abdul Razak