Man sentenced to 12 yrs’ imprisonment for defrauding thousands

A High Court in Tamale, presided over by Mr Justice Edward Apenkwa, has sentenced one Abdul Salaam Tijani to 12 years’ imprisonment with hard labour for defrauding 10,185 people in the metropolis.

Mr Justice Apenkwa, in addition, sentenced Tijani to five years each on two counts of money laundering which are to run concurrently.

Case

The convict, in January 2017, advertised that he had established a company, Educare Endowment Support (GH) Foundation, to eradicate poverty in rural areas in the then Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions with sponsorship from India.

Tijani recruited agents to register persons in the three regions under two initiatives: Endowment Fund and Agricultural programmes. Subscribers to the Endowment Fund were to register with GH¢50 each and were entitled to GH¢100 every month for five years, while subscribers to the Agricultural Programme were required to register with GH¢115 and would have five acres of farmland ploughed for them, with a free supply of agricultural inputs for five years, together with a ready market for their farm produce.

Registration

Based on those promises, a total of 10,185 people registered under the two programmes.

However, the convict failed to honour his obligations after paying only a few clients and bolted.

The matter was subsequently reported to the police and Tijani was arrested.

During investigations, he admitted buying two tractors and three plots of land on which he started putting up a house with the money.

Tijani was, therefore, put before court and charged with defrauding by false pretence and money laundering.