I wanted to get a new SIM to complement the one I already have. Then I decided to patronise a road side sim vendor and the unexpected happened. 

During registration, I gave out the needed details to the vendor and the registration was going on smoothly until it got to capturing.

Usually, you are expected to be captured once but the vendor captured me twice and that made me suspicious. So I queried him but he gave a flimsy excuse.

Immediately after the registration, I got a welcome text message indicating I registered two numbers instead of one

I asked why two numbers registered in my name instead of one, the vendor said “it’s normal, that sometimes the issue is from the network operators”. 

The next day, I went to Glo office to lay a complain and the moment I mentioned what brought me, the manager there said

“these guys again? Why doing these to innocent people”?, that was when I realized the gravity of what just happened. The second number was deregistered, the case was reported and the guy was picked up.

Questioning the vendor, he said they usually use people’s details to register other sim cards which they resell to “car trackers” at a higher price. 

On further interrogation, he confessed that he uses people’s details to register sim cards which they sell to fraudsters, ritualists, kidnappers and he makes a lot of money from the business.

Now, imagine if he sold this second number to a kidnapper or a fraudster and when tracked, my picture and details would pop up and it would be difficult to deny.

I’m putting this out here because a lot of innocent people are in prisons today because of cr!me they know nothing about.

While doing your registration, please be attentive and report any suspicion to the right authority.

Thanks Let’s Be Guided Please.

I really admire the President and the NPP’s commitment to making secondary education free for all, and not be a hindrance for the poor or deprived. THIS IS SUPER GOOD.

But surely, we should run our free education in a way that helps the young people, the state and the economy as a whole.  Whilst lauding the opportunity for all to have secondary education, the few years of implementation points to several practical challenges – stifling the economy, collapsing private schools and  businesses and creating lots of hiccups in the smoothness we’ve known with our secondary education.  And this is why it surprises when the Government consistently insists on not ‘reviewing Free SHS’. 

Let me say, I pity the government for getting a bad name for what it does out of good intentions for the people of Ghana. 

But the sure fact is that good thought isn’t all that it takes to satisfy a people and prosper a nation. The good thought must be carried through a strategy of pragmatism, truthfulness and objectivity; otherwise this good intention would give the NPP more bad name – and I could predict that many parents who enjoyed the freedom from payments, and even the students who went through this free education, would vote against the NPP one day soon.

 And this is simply because, we asked our governments to get our children opportunity to experience secondary education. We never really asked them to give our children food for free! If they choose to do so, they may, but must do it effectively – not compromise the training and knowledge we asked for!

It’s surely best to give all qualified Ghanaians a chance to secondary education, but should free education mean ‘FREE FEEDING’? In the countries that we are often proud to mention as successful education and economies, FEEDING IS NEVER FREE. 

Rather, every opportunity is availed for qualified young persons

• to have admission into schools

• to have a good, reliable and consistent academic calendar 

• to have the best of all the needed facilities for teaching and learning generally for free

with teachers and other staff who are well motivated to teach and guide the students to learn.

As know it now, Free SHS is a veritable yoke around the neck of government, the economy, parents, the GES, teachers, and the students themselves. The promise we hear is that an improved economy would help deliver a better free SHS programme. BUT the sadness is that the Free SHS as we have it now would even hold us back from developing a prudent state expenditure, a reasonable balance of payment and sound economy which would reenergise and grow itself and its people!

In my next issue, I’ll share my suggestions on our secondary education saga. But surely, the answer to the Free SHS issue would be from technocracy and objectivity – never through politics!

Thank you, Compatriots for your kind attention. 

 Yaw Sekyi

Accra, Ghana (GS) A former Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale Central in the erstwhile NDC government, Inusah Fuseini, has broken his long silence following the arrest of his son in the US state of West Virginia by Federal Agents and his subsequent indictment for committing several offenses against citizens of the United States and the US government.

At the trial, the US Department of Justice, (DOJ), disclosed that Inusah Fuseini, the MP’s son, was part of a conspiracy that targeted victims, using false personas via emails, texts, and online dating and social media platforms to lure unsuspecting Americans into his web of lies and criminality.

“From at least January 2018 through at least December 2019, the scheme sought to induce victims into believing they were in a romantic relationship, friendship, or business relationship with various false personas. The victims were persuaded to send money for a variety of false and fraudulent reasons for the benefit of the false personas”, the prosecution revealed at trial.

However, in an interview with Asaase Radio in Accra, Mr. Fuseini, who is also a former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources under President Mahama’s administration, pointed out that his son, Abdul Fuseini, was not directly involved in the scam that he has been accused of.

“As a father, my son told me that one of his colleague students wanted a car and he has documents that allow him to auction vehicles, and it turns out the colleague student was involved in romance fraud. My son’s documents were used by his colleague who had requested same for a transaction, but unfortunately, it turned out he used it for romance fraud”. the former MP narrated.

The ex-MP’s son was arrested in Huntington, West Virginia, and charged with defrauding American residents in multiple states through the use of fake online personas after a thorough investigation by US Federal prosecutors..

The former MP’s explanations for his son’s criminal activities is a far cry from a statement issued by prosecutors and investigators who handled the case.

At the trial, DOJ prosecutors disclosed that ” 31-year old Abdul Inusah was part of a conspiracy that targeted victims using false personas via email, text messaging, and online dating and social media websites. From at least January 2018 through at least December 2019, the scheme sought to induce victims into believing they were in a romantic relationship, friendship, or business relationship with various false personas. The victims were persuaded to send money for a variety of false and fraudulent reasons for the benefit of the false personas”, the statement stressed.

The accused, Abdul Inusah, has also come out of his hideout to refute the allegations and charges that have been leveled against him by the US Federal Prosecutors. He said he is in close contact with his attorneys to challenge the charges made against him by the US government since according to him, he is innocent of the crimes he has been charged with.

According to Abdul Inusah, on April 27, 2021, he received an indictment from the US Federal government, charging him with two counts of receiving $20,000.00 in wire fraud and receipt of stolen money in connection with the $20,000.00 he is accused of receiving. Through his lawyers, Inusah said he was given a plea deal by the prosecutors but he rejected it because, in his view, he was innocent of all the charges preferred against him.

In the ensuing engagements, the former MP’s son opted for a trial instead of a plea deal. Subsequently, the US Federal government decided to enhance the charges against Abdul Inusah from two to eight counts to include wire fraud, money laundering, and defrauding by false pretense among others.

He has vowed to challenge the prosecution’s case against him during the sentencing stage later on November 2022, adding that what hurts him most is what he called ‘half-truths being published in the media to tarnish the image of his family’.

The Federal charges leveled against the ex-MP’s son carry up to 50 years in a US Federal penitentiary.

In a clandestine meeting held with some disgruntled supporters of the opposition party, Haruna Iddrisu, in an audio, implored the supporters of the NDC to rather commend them for putting impediments in the way of the Akufo-Addo administration in its revenue generating efforts, including E-levy.

“This Minority succeeded in reducing E-levy from 1.75 to 1.50. I mean, when they came, the intention was 1.75. There were many other activities that would have been captured by E-levy, they’ve abandoned it, thanks to the opposition and our constructive criticisms of the policy in order to be able to improve it, including remittances” he said.

He continued, emphasizing that blocking government from achieving its target revenues, leading to a loss of half the revenue expected from E-levy, is an achievement that Minority MPs must be commended for;

“Even more importantly, government has already lost half-year revenue of whatever it anticipated from E-levy. That can only be attributed to purpose and tenacity of the minority group in Parliament. You maybe dissatisfied with us, we just took a legal step which probably may not satisfy you”

This audio which has since gone viral, is a testament to the fact that the Minority’s stiff opposition to the passage of the E-levy bill was not without malice.

It was a well planned plot to ensure that Government was denied the needed resources to undertake its planned projects and execute its numerous programs.

This, in the long run, goes a long way to affecting the developmental paradigm of the country as same loudly sends out the message that the NDC does not have the well-being of Ghanaians at heart.