Pastor impersonates NaCSA
Pastor Balogun Macaulay, a chorister of the Bethel Temple, Tower Hill, Freetown has appeared before Magistrate Sahr Kekura of Magistrate court No1 Pademba Road, Freetown, charged two counts of criminal offences.
He is charged with an accomplice, Hassan Bangura, alias Session an Ex-Soldier with conspiracy to commit an offence and committing an offence contrary to law.
Both men are accused of obtaining money by false pretenses and impersonation.
The accused persons are said to have gone to the Texas Community, Model New Road on diverse days where they pretended to be agents of the National Commission for Social Action (NacSA) to register people interested in getting a grant from the government of Sierra Leone through the Commission.
They obtained registration fees from the community people and falsely took photos of their unsuspecting victims.
On 12th November 2021, the two men ran out of luck at Leicester Road when they were nabbed by the police.
No plea was taken when they made their first appearance before Magistrate Kekura on Friday 19th November, 2021. Both men were remanded until the next adjournment date of Wednesday 24th November, 2021.
Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the Pastor and Ex-soldier are not alone in committing such fraud. Report says that one Alimamy Kamara had gone with some others to Leicester village to tell the community that they had been asked by government to register those whose businesses had been hampered by COVID-19. Each person was asked to pay the sum of thirty thousand Leones with two passport size pictures.
According to report, it was when Pastor Macaulay learnt about the trending fraud that he went to Texas Community and joined forces with Hassan Bangura to go to the Leicester village, where they charged ten thousand Leones per person with voters ID cards. They first went to Leicester village on Thursday 11th November 2021 and when the community people heard that people who were charging less fees had arrived, they abandoned Alimamy Kamara and his group.
It is suspected that it was out of jealousy that Alimamy Kamara sent one of his men to inform the police to observe the activities Pastor Macaulay and his accomplice. So the police, including CID personnel join the crowd that had gathered and pretended to be interested in the registration process. When it was their turn, they presented their police identification cards and arrested the two men.
Alimamy Kamara and his cohorts had gone into hiding since then.
By Amadi Abadi
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2021, https:. All rights reserved.
