Eight people on GHC100,000.00 bail each over illegal money changing

A court in Accra gave each of the eight people, including a woman, GHC100,000.00 bail with two sureties because they were running an illegal money exchange business.

The judge, Ms. Adelaide Abui Keddy, told the court that the sureties had to be any property worth GHC100,000.00.

She told Mohammed Ali, Barikisu Yakubu, Shaibu Suleman Issah, Barry Ali, Bashiru Saadu, Saadu Hamidu, Muhamadu Shamshudeen, and Karim Yahaya to go to the police twice a month until the case was resolved.

They have pleaded not guilty to running a foreign exchange business without a license. Their next court date is December 12, 2022.

Police Inspector Isaac Babayi told the court that on November 9 and 10, 2022, a group of police officers and the Bank of Ghana went to the Tudu, Accra business center to stop illegal forex trade.

The prosecution said that the suspects were arrested after it was found that they were trading without a license. A search of them turned up thousands of cedis and foreign currencies like Naira and U.S. dollars, the prosecution said.

The prosecution said that their partners-in-crime were able to get away and that efforts were being made to bring them to justice.

It said that $2,300 and $87 were taken from Mohammed, $10,100 and 6,002 Naira were taken from Barikisu, $3,850 and 65,000 CFA were taken from Shaibu, and GHC848 and $70 were taken from Barry.
The prosecution said that Bashiru had GHC52 and 25 Naira, Hamidu had GHC360, and Karim had GHC42.

In their request for bail, a group of lawyers led by Mr. Victor Kwadjoga Adawudu said that the accused people were arrested on Thursday, November 10, and brought to court on Monday, November 14, 2022, which went against the 48-hour constitutional rule.

The lawyer for the accused said that all of them denied the crime because they didn’t know about the business and didn’t do it.

He said that some of them lived and worked in the business area and were caught in the raid. For example, Barikisu was going to Lagos, which had a bus stop near the area.

Mr. Adawudu said that Bashiru, Barikisu’s son, was also caught in the raid while he was taking his mother to the bus station so she could go to Lagos.

He said that commercial motorbike drivers Hamidu and Shamshudeen were also on the street.

Mr. Adawudu said that there were family members and friends who could stand as sureties. He also said that they had permanent places of residence within the Court’s jurisdiction and were not likely to run away.

The prosecution, on the other hand, didn’t agree and said they should be kept in police custody to help with their investigations.

It said that some of them were likely to run away and that their passports were taken away when they were arrested.

They also worried that they would get in the way of investigations.

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