A Nigerian, Joshua Nnama Chukwu-Kadibia, 54, who has been on the radar of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) for allegedly issuing fake visas to foreigners, has been arrested.
His accomplices, Ignatius Aguowo, 38, and Moses Onyanka, 29, also Nigerians, have also been arrested.
The three have been remanded in the custody of the Ghana Immigration Service to appear before court on September 28.
Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) Francis Palmdeti, Head of GIS Public Affairs, told the Ghanaian Times that for the past two years, the Service had detected that some foreigners entered the country with immigration visas embossed in their passports, and whenever questioned, they claimed the visas were issued to them by Kwame Acheampong, also known as Joshua Nnama Chukwu-kadibia.
Mr. Palmdeti said that information prompted the surveillance team of the Service to begin monitoring the activities of the said Acheampong.
He said last Monday (September 19), a Russian, Ikhvan Gerikhanov, arrived at the Kotoka International Airport with an entry visa and during interrogation, he (Gerikhanov) said he was invited into the country by Danso Philip Law and Co Limited to negotiate a multimillion dollar contract.
ACI Palmdeti said during further interrogations, it came out that the address of the said law firm was fake.
Consequently, an order was issued that anybody appearing at the airport to meet the Russian should be arrested.
Mr. Palmdeti said moments later, Chukwu-kadibia and Aguowo arrived at the airport to pick up Gerikhanov to a hotel.
He stated that the surveillance team tailed the suspects to a hotel where they were arrested, together with another Nigerian, Moses Onyanka, who was found to have been in the country illegally and without a passport.
“It was discovered during a search that Chukwu-kadibia has fraudulently acquired Ghanaian passport number H2537836 bearing the name Kwame Acheampong. A sample of GIS emergency entry visa was also found on him,” ACI Palmdeti said.
Chukwukadibia has been on GIS radar for over two years as a '419' fraudster who managed to defraud a lot of foreigners,” he said and stated that the suspect had been producing fake GIS emergency entry visas for his victims.
He said in July, last year, the Service received an e-mail from Ahmet Erdogan Horzum, a Turkish civil engineer, purported to be a response to an invitation to him by the acting Director-General of GIS.
Mr. Palmdeti said a critical examination of the mail showed that it was fake. Besides, the name of the Director-General was wrongly spelled.
Mr. Palmdeti said the GIS suspected that it was the same group which issued the fake visas to the Turkish and another Russian, Nickolav, a lawyer.
Story by The Ghanaian Times/Ghana
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