ATTA AKYEA CHARGED FOR STEALING, DAILY GRAPHIC, WED JULY 13, 2011 (PAGE 3)

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South, Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, has been arrested and charged with stealing and fraudulent breach of trust by the Commercial Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service.

The charges were preferred against the MP yesterday after he had been arrested on the premises of the Accra High Court, where he was scheduled to be witness to a case pending before the court.

But Mr Akyea, who was granted bail in the sum of GH¢100,000 with one surety, has denied the charges.

According to police sources, Mr Akyea was arrested for his alleged role in the embezzlement of US$60,000 earmarked by J. Adom Company Limited for the purchase of a building situated in the Airport Residential Area in Accra.

The Public Relations Officer of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Inspector Joseph Benefo Darkwa, who confirmed the arrest to the Daily Graphic, however, declined further comments on the issue.

Mr Akyea was also said to have defrauded Mr Adom of some $60,000 which was said to be a judgement debt paid into Mr Adom’s account to which the MP was the sole signatory.

Mr Akyea, who has denied the allegation, said he suspected that the government had a hand in his arrest.

He accused the Attorney General of allegedly putting the forces of the state behind Mr Adom, since there was already a civil suit pending before the court regarding the same case.

Mr Akyea explained that his arrest was unusual because the police had already requested the Speaker of Parliament for his release to stand trial and indicated that the Speaker was yet to respond to such a request.

“The Attorney General has stepped into a purely private matter which is pending before the civil court and the forces of the state have been put behind Joseph Adom to do whatever he wants to do,” he told an Accra FM station.

Telling his side of the story, Mr Akyea said Joseph Adom contracted him to prepare a title document for a $115,000 landed property he (Adom) had wanted to buy from one Amissah.

He said in the course of the transaction, Mr Adom paid $60,000 in three tranches to Amissah, but it later “turned out that the guy (Amissah) was a fraudster.

The MP said Amissah was subsequently arrested and arraigned before a court of law, “so how do I suffer for that?”

“If it had not been me, Mr Adom would have lost about $115,000, and I am being punished for this also,” he lamented.

He, however, indicated his preparedness to defend himself in the case to its logical conclusion and clear his name as well.