No Witness For Ex-GREDA Boss' Trial

State prosecutors in the trial of Dr. Alexander Kofi Tweneboa, former Ghana Real Estate Developers' Association (GREDA) boss, over SIM box fraud are having difficulty producing witnesses in the case.

Ms. Stella Ohene Appiah, a State Attorney, yesterday told the Financial and Tax High court that she was unable to establish contact with her witness who she claimed had travelled to Kenya.

She explained that the witness, who was expected in Ghana last Thursday, had still not arrived.

This compelled the court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, to adjourn the case until Wednesday, April 22, 2015, at the instance of the prosecution.

At the previous sitting, Theophilius Botwe, Fraud Prevention Manager of Vodafone Ghana, said the accused was using a SIM box machine as at the time of his arrest.

Dr. Tweneboa was arrested by a joint Anti-Telecommunication Fraud Taskforce and the security agencies for allegedly engaging in illegal SIM box operations at Manet Cottage, Spintex Road, a suburb of Accra.

He is facing charges of providing electronic communications service without licence, possessing illegal devices and knowingly obstructing and interfering with the sending, transmission, delivery and reception of communication - charges he has denied.

The prosecution, in its substituted facts sheet, had alleged that Dr. Tweneboa had told the police that he was introduced into SIM box fraud because his business was going bad.

This, according to him, was due to the economic situation in the country.

The aforementioned taskforce on January 15, 2015 conducted a search in one of the rooms used as an office by Dr. Tweneboa and retrieved among others internet modems, antenna and large quantities of SIM cards which he admitted ownership of.

According to Ms. Ohene Appiah, even though the accused claimed he had been in the SIM box business for about two months, investigations revealed that he had been in it for not less than six months with a total revenue lost to the state and service providers over the period amounting to $919,296.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
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