Ghana police arrest eight for beating a young man during fraud initiation

The Ghana Police Service has arrested eight people for allegedly beating a 21-year-old man during his initiation into an internet fraud group at Kotokrom in the Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region.

The Bono Regional Police Command shared this news in a statement on October 9. This followed a distress call received by its Regional Operations Unit on October 4, 2026, about an attack on a man in the area.

When officers arrived, they found the victim, Godstime Umukoro, with several injuries on his body. They arrested the suspects at the scene.

"The Regional Operations Unit has arrested eight (8) suspects involved in fraudulent acts and assaulting one Godstime Umukoro, aged 21, at Kotokrom, a suburb in Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region," the statement said.

It continued, "On 4th October 2026, at about 4:30 p.m., the patrol team received a distress call that a group of people was attacking a person at Kotokrom."

The suspects are Peter Mbam, 24; Godwin Moses, 26; Humble Oweifah, 18; Osas Ogbemudia, 30; Samuel Aisosa, 22; Ashile Godbess, 24; Alexander Uyuo, 30; and Patrick Romans, 25.

According to the police, the suspects admitted during questioning that they beat Umukoro badly as part of his initiation into internet fraud.

"During interrogation, the suspects stated that they subjected the victim to severe beating as part of his initiation into the Internet fraud business, a process they claimed they had also undergone," the statement explained.

The police said early investigations showed that a man named Nwachukwu King Augustine brought the suspects to Ghana. They described him as their chairman.

The police also claimed that the group used pictures of foreign military personnel to trick people online.

"They lure innocent victims using downloaded images of foreign military men and start chatting with them under the pretext that they are at war front in Yemen. When they succeed in collecting the victims’ money, it is then paid into their boss’s account," the statement added.

The Bono Regional Police Command thanked the public for their help and promised to work with residents to fight crime in the area.