The Nsawam prison inmate, originally from Edo State in Nigeria, relocated to Ghana to engage in 'Yahoo Yahoo' fraud. He explained that he chose Ghana because of its stable electricity supply compared to his home country.
In a self-confessed interview with Gh One TV, he said, "I came to Ghana to do Yahoo. They call it fraud, but my target was not to defraud Africans. I looked outside Africa." When the presenter asked why he did not do it in Nigeria, he replied, "Because we don't have steady light."
"The normal NEPA light, we don't have it steady," he explained. The inmate further detailed that his fraudulent activities eventually led to his imprisonment. He recounted having a misunderstanding with his boss, with whom he was engaging in fraudulent activities, which forced him to move into a hotel.
The prisoner said they fell out over sharing the proceeds from a successful online scam. "We were supposed to share it 40-60 per cent; my chairman was supposed to get 60 per cent and give me 40 per cent, but he insisted on giving me 30 per cent, so out of anger, I took the 30 per cent, my laptop with my things and moved out into a hotel."
During his seven-day stay at the hotel, he went out on the last day to a popular pub in Lapaz to employ the services of a commercial sex worker who later died mysteriously in his hotel room.
Recounting what happened, he said, "So I took her in, and she only took Smirnoff; she said she had already drunk alcohol because it's her freedom day after settling her madam. In the morning, around 5 AM to 6 AM, I tried waking her up only to realise she had died."
"When I checked, I realised white foam was coming out of her, so I called the attention of the hotel staff, who also tried to resuscitate her by pouring water on her, but it didn't work. So the hotel owner was called, and he brought the police to arrest me," he said.
However, clemency has found the inmate, who has now been released under the Justice for All programme. This comes amid concerns that he has only appeared in court once since his arrest in 2019 and has been remanded in prison.
Hear more from him in the interview conducted by Murtala Inusah in the post below