The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) says it will handover a Nigerian businessman, Martins Eze Obina to the International Police (INTERPOL) to face United States’ District Court over fraud related charges.
Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI), Adolf Abogye Asenso, said the GIS had also received an FBI alert indicating that the accused person was a member of a transnational Cyber Syndicate and a hacker.
He, therefore, prayed an Accra Circuit Court to remand Obina so he could go through extradition processes to the USA.
CSI Abogye Asenso informed the Court that a District Court in the US had issued an arrest warrant for Martins Eze Obina through Ghana’s US Embassy.
The Court, presided over by Mr Emmanuel Essandoh, obliged GIS’s request and offered the Service one week so Obina could go through the extradition processes to the US.
It held that the Court should be updated of the accused person’s extradition process after one week.
Obina’s extradition came to light after the Court had ordered the GIS to produce Obina in court.
The accused person, through his lawyers had filed an application for bail after the GIS arrested him for obtaining Ghana’s Residence permit through false declaration.
According to CSI Aboagye Asenso, Obina had been put before a Kaneshie District Court for acquiring Ghana’s Resident permit through false declaration.
The CSI said the District Court preserved his plea.
He said the accused person’s lawyer, Mr Paul Abarigah, was emphatic that the Circuit Court had granted Obina bail hence the District Court did not set out any bail condition.
The CSI, who showed the USA District Court arrest warrant to the Court, said Obina had been indicted in the USA in the year 2021.
According to him, the accused person resided in a rented apartment at Teshie and, therefore, he could abscond.
Additionally, the CSI told investigators that he was a shareholder in a company in Ghana but checks at the Registrar General’s Department indicated that the company was a sole proprietor firm and as such Obina could not be a shareholder in sole proprietorship.
On the Circuit Court’s bail, the CSI, said the GIS was served with a Court order to produce the accused person in court, but the GIS had already put him before a District Court.
The CSI, however, opposed the bail application because of the existence of an arrest warrant.
CSI Aboagye Asenso said the accused person was flight risk and when granted bail, he would abscond.
Ms Sarah Kusi, who represented Obina, argued that her client’s passport was with GIS, and he had sureties when granted bail.
On December 27, last year, GIS officials arrested Obina at the Kotoka International Airport when he showed up to go through departure formalities to Lagos.
GIS Personnel nabbed Obina after the Service had received an alert from the FBI.
GIS Information indicate that the accused person is facing charges of conspiracy and other fraud related offences in the US.
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