New Patriotic Party (NPP) Youth Organizer for the Lower Akyem Constituency, Ransford Adu Darko, aka Oluman, has pulled the biggest scam yet on the school feeding programme.
Oluman has allegedly defrauded a caterer of the programme to the tune of over GH¢83,000 in Asamankese, the capital of the West Akyem Municipal District.
Adu Darko is also a campaign team member and errands boy for NPP Parliamentary Aspirant for the Lower West Akyem, Sintim Aboagye, Deputy Managing Director in charge of Operations at State Transport Corporation (STC).
According to sources, Ransford Adu Darko fictitiously switched the caterer’s name with that of his girlfriend on the payment system.
He has since been collecting payment for the caterer’s work until he was exposed recently.
A reliable source hinted to this portal that the victim of the racket, Akua Kyerewaa, who had worked with the School Feeding programme since it was introduced under the Kufuor Administration was denied a new contract after the 2016 elections.
Subsequently, however, the NPP Constituency Youth Organizer in the company of several other party executives approached her for help claiming they had been given contracts by the programme to provide meals to certain schools.
However, because they do not have the means to start they pleaded with Kyerewaa to execute the contract on their behalf so they can share the profits. The source indicated the caterer agreed and started preparing the meals.
The youth organizer, however, switched her name with that of his girlfriend, one Beatrice Ofosu, an NPP activist and employee of Zoomlion, in the payment system.
All the payments for Kyerewa’s work therefore went into Beatrice Ofosu’s bank account where Ransford Adu Darko cashed it with her support.
The Youth Organizer played dump and pretended not to know what was happening to the payment and continuously promised to sort the situation out for Kyerewaa.
The scam was exposed when the caterer visited the offices of the programme where she was able to collect the information of the person collecting her cheques.
With the help of one of her suppliers they tracked down Beatrice Ofosu who admitted it was Ransford Adu Darko who used her name and had been collecting the payment.
Akua Kyerewaa confirmed the incident to this news portal when contacted and indicated that after going through lot of troubles to blow Beatrice Ofosu’s cover, Ransford eventually owned up to the scam when he realized there was overwhelming evidence against him and that his girlfriend had spilt the beans.
According to Kyerewaa, the Youth Organizer promised to pay back but has since reneged on his promise after he had initially offered a paltry sum of GH¢15,000 to settle some of the suppliers who had dragged her to court.
Kyerewaa disclosed that she did not go to the police because NPP stalwarts in the constituency and the region as well, stepped into the matter to have it settled without involving the law enforcement agencies.
Investigation also revealed Ransford Adu Darko is a truly crafty character who had been short-changing Zoomlion workers in the area.
He had reportedly been scheming off GH¢20 on each salary of Beatrice Ofosu and other workers of Zoomlion, despite the fact that he uses Beatrice Ofosu’s account to siphon thousands of cedis from Akua Kyerewaa.
Information further revealed that Mr. Sintim Aboagye, when told of the crime committed by his boy, promised to help Ransford Darko pay the debt, and that it should not be reported to the police.
However, checks indicate that Sintim Aboagye has not yet settled the debt and is playing hide and seek with the victim, Akua Kyerewaa, as at the time of publishing the story.
