A 25-year-old footballer, Toffik Abubakar, is in court for allegedly collecting GHc17,000 from one Badariyatu Ibrahim, a food vendor, in addition to a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus mobile phone.
A Hohoe circuit court, presided over by Mr Michael Johnson Abbey, remanded Abubakar into prison custody after he pleaded not guilty to the charge of defrauding by false pretence. He will reappear on February 3, this year.
Chief Inspector Charles Aziati, prosecuting, told the court that the complainant, Ibrahim, was a food vendor at the Hohoe main lorry park, while the accused person hailed from Kete Krachi in the Oti Region.
He said Abubakar, alias Jupiter, had been buying food from the complainant and always commended the vendor for selling tasty food.
Chief Inspector Aziati said during the early hours of October 19, last year, the accused person went to the complainant and bought food.
He said at about 1830 hours the same day, the footballer, who had access to the complainant’s mobile number, called her at home and she directed the accused to her residence, where they had a chat.
Between October 21 and 24, the accused person visited the complainant again and told her he had one billion dollars, which he would like to keep with the complainant in exchange for local currency.
The complainant asked Abubakar to bring the dollar currency and he brought a “check check bag” containing money, prosecution said.
Abubakar then told the complainant that they should both swear on the Quran that none of them would tell anybody about the deal and warned her not to open the sack and touch the content.
Prosecution said the accused person then began collecting money from the complainant each time he visited and succeeded in collecting GH₵17,000 and a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus mobile phone.
The complainant, who later suspected foul play, opened the bag only to discover that the contents were pieces of paper cut in the form of money notes, arranged and put in envelopes.
She started looking for the accused person and in the late hours of October 25, the complainant met him in town and convinced him to have supper with her.
Prosecution said while they were having supper in her room, the complainant excused herself and locked the door and invited the police, who came and arrested the accused person.
Upon interrogation, Abubakar showed the police a rubber bucket in the complainant’s porch where he claimed he hid an amount of GH₵7,835 at the time he was left alone in the room.
The accused, however, denied the offences in his caution statement.