14 Arrested In Police Recruitment Scam

About 14 persons have been arrested by the police in connection with this weekend's fraudulent police recruitment exercise.

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Alhassan, made the disclosure when he and his team appeared before Parliament's Defence and Interior Committee on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people issued with fake recruitment letters by some fraudsters, were stranded at various police training depots in the country over the weekend. They claimed they received letters directing them to report at the training schools.

Some of the victims who turned up at the Police Training Depot in Kumasi with their enlistment letters for training were turned away by the authorities.

A shea butter trader, Aisha Asumda, has been identified by the police as the brain behind the botched nationwide recruitment exercise.

Today's meeting between the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Interior and the police hierarchy was held behind closed doors.

However, a member of the committee, Major Derrick Oduro (rtd), told Joy Fm the police administration informed the committee that the 14 were assisting them in their investigation.

'They came and gave us thorough briefing. I think that we are satisfied with the briefing that the IGP and his staff officers came and presented to us.

'Fourteen people have been arrested. Our hope is that some people have been arrested and they have not gotten away with what they did. A greater amount of money has been collected from the people: if you are SHS graduate you pay GH¢5,000 and university graduates pay GH¢7,000,' Major Derrick Oduro (rtd) intimated.

He disclosed that the accounts of the suspects had been frozen and monies found on them at the time of their arrest were also seized.

He would not comment whether those arrested include police personnel, but noted that some wards of police officers were among victims of the recruitment fraud.

Meanwhile, Director General of Police Human Resource and Administration, COP Patrick Timbilla, has stressed that persons currently in possession of the police recruitment letters would be treated as suspects to deter others from falling victim to a similar fraud.