SIM box fraud: Ex-GREDA boss denied bail

Former President of Ghana Real Estate Developers Associ­ation (GREDA), Dr. Alexander Tweneboah, who was arrested with nine others for engaging in SIM box fraud, has been arraigned before an Accra magis­trate court.

The other suspects are Ebenezer Boateng, Victor Owusu, Kwadwo Asare, Emmanuel Kofi Essilfie, Edmond Essil- fie, Kwaku Appiah, Alvin Habib, Fran­cis Abbey and David Ayitsi.

The SIM box fraudsters, including two foreign nationals, were arrested by a joint Anti-Telecommunication Fraud task- force in collaboration with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service. Items retrieved from the suspects included thousands of different SIM cards, SIM box equipment, heavy duty batteries, SIM servers, 4G modems, printers, laptops and assorted scratched cards.

Dr. Tweneboah's plea for bail was not taken by the court presided over by Worlanyo Kotoku.

Fiifi Abban, lead counsel for the accused, was not happy with court's bail denial. He said the rights of his client has been violated.

He said Dr. Tweneboah had been on remand for 15 days, and since the alleged offence was bailable the court should have decided otherwise.

But state prose­cutor Kwesi Senchen said investigations were still ongoing into the matter, a reason the accused, Dr Tweneboah, should be remanded.

According to Mr. Abban, his client was prepared to cooperate with the police as investigations continue.

The trial judge, however, refused the bail application by the lawyer and accordingly remanded Dr. Tweneboah into police custody to reappear on Feb­ruary 9, 2015.