The Adjabeng District Court in Accra has ordered the repatriation of a Nigerian woman, Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy after pleading guilty to offences of providing false information to the officials of National Identification Authority (NIA).
According to the court her actions was contrary to Section 23(1) of Act 29/60 and Section 17(c) of the NIA Act 707 (Act 2000).
The Nigerian woman was convicted alongside her Ghanaian accomplice, Yvette Mensah after they both pleaded guilty to the charges.
Information available to the Republic Press indicate that on November 19, 2021, suspects Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy and Yvette Mensah went to the Head Office of the NIA to acquire a Ghana Citizen Card.
According to the NIA, she came to the authority having in her possession a Ghanaian Birth Certificate which happens to be one of the documents required for a Ghana Card.
She was accompanied by suspect Yvette Mensah, as the two suspects were directed by the NIA registration official to the Criminal Investigation Department of the NIA, office for the usual vetting, interrogation and authentication of documents that most suspected applicants go through before they are allowed to go through the registration process of the Ghana Card if they are cleared by the unit.
Police investigation
In the course of investigations, it was revealed that, the birth certificate possessed by suspect Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy @ Tracy Mensah bared the name ‘Tracy Mensah’ with suspect Yvette Mensah as the mother and one Alhassan Fusieni as the father, all Ghanaians.
The investigation further revealed that, the birth certificate was issued at the birth and death registry on October 22, 2021 at Bubuashie office, Accra and had its registration number as 020107-3879-2021 with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital as place of birth.
The police disclose further that, suspect Yvette Mensah was not the biological mother of suspect Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy @ Tracy Mensah and that, the two were never related in any way.
“That the name Tracy Mensah was adopted by suspect Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy with the consent of suspect Yvette Mensah so as to qualify suspect Yvette Mensah as her biological mother to enable her have a Ghanaian linkage,” police investigations revealed.
“It was also revealed that, suspect Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy’s parents are Nigerians and she was born in Nigeria.”
The police added that suspects Yvette Mensah in the cause of interrogations confirmed that, she was contacted by suspect Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy to assist her acquire a Citizen Ghana Card by playing a mother role on her birth certificate and further gave her home town as Agbozome in the Volta Region.
Results of police investigation and action
The police investigation unit of NIA is very much satisfied with information derived from investigation conducted on both suspects and handed suspects Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy @ Tracy Mensah and Yvette Mensah to the Greater Accra Police Regional CID Unit for further investigations and action.
The two suspects were formally charged with the offences of conspiracy to commit crime namely Providing False Information to the Officials of NIA, contrary to Section 23(1) of Act 29/60 and Section 17(c) of the NIA Act 707 (Act 2000) and providing false information to NIA officials.
On November 22, 2021, the accused persons were arraigned before the Adjabeng District Court, Accra where both accused persons pleaded guilty to all the charges preferred against them and were subsequently convicted on their own plea and sentenced to a fine of three hundred penalty units which is equivalent to GHS 3,600 each or in default serve six months in prison.
Meanwhile, accused person Olu Olarusi Toyin Tracy @ Tracy Mensah is also to be repatriated to her country of origin after serving her conviction by the orders of the court.
