Deputy Minister, Florence Appoh’s security detail in trouble

The personal security detail attached to a Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Rachel Florence Appoh, has been arrested by the police for allegedly withdrawing money from the account of his boss.

The suspect, Constable Nicholas Owusu Asante, was said to have already withdrawn GH¢800 from the account of the deputy minister and was in the process of withdrawing an additional GH¢100 when he was arrested at the bank.

According to the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Commissioner of Police Mr Prosper Agblor, Ms Appoh went to her bank and detected that some money had unusually been withdrawn from her personal account at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

He said Ms Appoh also detected that her cheque book, with serial numbers 151901-151925, was missing and following the detection she made a complaint to the bank, who mounted surveillance to monitor cash withdrawals on the said account.

Mr Agblor said on November 19, 2013, Constable Asante forged the deputy minister’s signature on the stolen cheque and went to the Adabraka branch of the ADB to cash a cheque for GH¢100.

He said unknown to Constable Asante, policemen on duty at the bank had been alerted, and so as soon as he entered the bank to withdraw the cheque, he was arrested.

Constable Asante admitted to the offence in his caution statement and said before his arrest he had already withdrawn GH¢800 from Ms Appoh’s account.