FOR a man to chase a pretty lady for a possible marriage in future is a normal cultural practice in Ghana. But in the case of Isaac Dzihlornu, an Immigration officer stationed at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), his aim was to swindle his lover after getting the woman emotionally attached to him.
The lady at the center of the dispute, whose identity is being withheld for security reasons, was traveling abroad when she encountered Dzihlornu at the departure hall of the KIA.
According to her, when she handed over her passport to Dzihlornu for the usual examination, the swindler quickly spoke to her in her native language. The lady also responded and after a brief conviviality, her passport was stamped and handed over to her by Dzihlornu.
What the lady did not read in the face of Dzihlornu was that he had already hatched a plot to swindle her, using love as a subterfuge and he executed his agenda with precision.
Having come into contact with the name of the lady, Dzihlornu then went to the database of travelers using the airport and managed to retrieve all the information on the lady, including her telephone numbers.
Knowing the day the lady would return to the country, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) worker started bombarding her with calls, which eventually led to a love affair between the two.
In her narration as to how she met the officer, she said: “I once had a call and the caller said he (Dzihlornu) is an immigration officer I once met on duty at the Kotoka International Airport. After normal exchange of greetings, I asked him how he managed to get my number. He said we (GIS) have all the details of travelers”.
Madam Kugblenu (not real name) added: ” Dzihlornu then met me one day and handed to me the details of my travelling – where I stay and my house address”.
The victim said she got a bit apprehensive but kept it in her mind. Interestingly, Dzihlornu used the opportunity to get closer to Madam Kugblenu, portraying himself as a senior immigration officer who was interested in marrying her.
“From the interactions with me, what he told me indicated that he has been helping in facilitating prohibited trades at the airport and his focus at the airport was to make money and check on the records of women he perceived to have money and swindle them,” Madam Kugblenu stated.
According to her, in the course of the supposed courtship, Isaac Dzihlornu drove all the way to her village at Akpafu in the Volta Region to see her mother, without first informing her.
She told African Eye News that Dzihlornu only called her when he arrived at Hohoe and was looking for the route to her hometown. I told him that my mum could be on the farm at that time, but nevertheless I directed him”, she said.
Just trying to impress upon his victim that he was serious in marrying her, Dzihlornu met the mother of his victim and told her that he wanted to marry her daughter.
Upon return from the lady’s hometown, Dzihlornu brought a man he claimed to be his father, which later turned out to be false, to the lady’s home at Takoradi. “I cooked for them, after which they slept and left the following day, she added.
Having traveled to Volta Region to meet his victim’s mother and also bringing his supposed father to visit the lady in Takoradi, Dzihlornu realized that he had won the heart of the supposed future wife and, therefore, started making unreasonable demands on her.
According to the lady, she once received a call from her lover that he was in Ho and he had run short of money, and that he wanted her to send GH¢1000 to his GCB account. Dzihlornu, according to the lady, told her that he had money in his Zenith Bank account but there is no Zenith branch in Ho to enable him cash money.
The unhesitant lady victim paid the GH¢1000 into his GCB account which he withdrew. Later, Dzihlornu again called the lady that he had seen a car that he wanted to buy and that his victim should give him GH¢10,000 to top up with what he had.
“I told him that I did not have that money,” the lady narrated.
Dzihlornu again suggested that she should go to a money lending institution to borrow for him, and that he would pay her back. The promise of marriage clouded the judgement of the lady, who has a master’s degree, to go and borrow the money for her newly found lover.
Upon the receipt of the money, Dzihlornu again approached the lady for more money, using another excuse and she again gave it to him.
The unrepentant Dzihlornu, like Oliver Twist, was still asking for more money, but this time the lady had had enough so she refused his demand, as she realised that she was being duped.
The lady victim, who drove all the way from Takoradi to Accra to expose Dzihlornu’s fraudulent activities, said before discovering the motives of the officer, he had already collected various sums of money from her, amounting to GH¢12,100 and used her to take a loan from a financial institution, which Dzihlornu refused to pay until she reported him to the police.
The victim said when she investigated and discovered the immigration officer’s criminal motives and confronted him, he assaulted her physically and verbally, and started threatening her life.
The immigration officer (Dzihlornu) then passed her phone numbers to a Police officer, Francis K. Amenuvor, who also started tormenting her life with midnight calls. The police officer, she noted, also proposed to marry her.
“The painful part was that, I reported the immigration officer and the policeman to the Kwesimintim District Police. However, the two happened to know the regional crime officer, who called for the dockets.”
The regional crime officer, she said, failed to follow the issue and allowed the two to go, because they were his friends, from his last station in Ho.
“I was shocked that the officer, after many attempts to invite them, allowed them to go without even a simple caution statement, or tell her how the immigration officer was going to pay the money he owed me, she said.
“I made a case of threat and harassment against the immigration and police officers, but the two gained some uncontrolled strength and rubbished the case after the immigration officer confirmed in the presence of the crime officer that he assaulted and threatened me,” she said.
According to her, if the officers, who were to protect travelers were allowed to swindle them and support unlawful businesses at the airport, “then God save this country.”
The Kwesimintim District Police Command, when contacted confirmed that the case had been reported to their outfit, but argued that the suspect was mistakenly allowed to go and they were making frantic efforts to get him back and process him for court.
When African Eye Report contacted Isaac Dzihlornu, he said: “I spent money on the lady and she also spent money on me”. But the victim has denied ever receiving a penny from him.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
