Two in court over panic withdrawal of dollars from bank accounts

A blogger and an IT professional whose actions are said to have caused dollar account holders to panic and take their money out of their accounts have gone to court in Accra.

The blogger, Jeffrey Eppirim Nyame, is being charged with spreading false information.

The IT worker, Jeremiah Kobina Egyebeng, has been charged with aiding a crime. His alleged helpers are still out there.

The two have, however, said that they are not guilty.

So, the court, which is run by Mrs. Rosemary Baah Tosu, let each person go free on bail for a total of GHS20,000 with two sureties.

After the Bank of Ghana told the police about the false publication, they were caught.

This comes after President Akufo-Addo said in a national address that security agencies would deal with people who spread false information about the economy.

The case has been put off until December 29. The prosecution has been told to be ready to file their disclosures.

The Prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Richard Amoah, said that the Police gathered cyber intelligence on social media that showed that on October 27, 2022, Nyame posted an article on his news portal called reportghana.net with the headline “Dollar account holders to get cedi at BOG rate for bank withdrawals starting October 31?”

He is said to have shared the content on different WhatsApp groups and social media sites, making dollar account holders scared and worried.

The prosecutor said that during the investigation, it was found that Egyebeng made a news website for Nyame in 2019 called reportghana.com. This website was used to publish articles that were similar to the ones in question.

But Google shut it down because users complained that it didn’t follow their rules for the community.

Then, on February 11, 2022, Egyebeng made a similar news site but changed the domain from “dot com” to “dot net” and registered it as reportghana.net.

It was so he could use it to write about things going on in Ghana and publish them.

His personal phone numbers, 0551993013 and 0574144388, are listed on the platform because he is the administrator.

The Prosecution said that people were still talking about the news on social media and other sites.

It said that Nyame admitted to spreading the false news during an investigation, but he said that he got the story from mynewsgh.com.

But research showed that wasn’t the case and confirmed that Nyame was the author and publisher.

Egyebeng also said that he made the news website that Nyame runs and uses.

The investigation also found that other people who were still at large were also involved in the publication.

The Prosecution said that people were trying to catch them.

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