Kodjo Panyi Duncan And Seth Mensah Accused Of  GH¢270,000 Fraud; But Duncan Denies Allegation

An Accra based business man, Mr. Kodjo Panyi Duncan has been accused of allegedly defrauding
a businesswoman, Madam Rita Awuah, of GH ¢270, 000 under false pretenses but he flatly denied the allegations, saying that it is a calculated attempt to soil his reputation.

The security man who works at the office of First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo, Mr Seth Mensah was also accused of involving in the same fraudulent activity with Mr Duncan.

According to information available to this news outlet, Mr. Duncan through Seth Mensah allegedly promised to assist Madam Awuah in clearing her goods in the 20 container at the Tema Port in the Greater Accra Region, but all these turned out to be a scam.

The two were alleged to have  used the First Lady's name to convince Madam Awuah and later Mr Duncan  single-handedly issued two fraudulent cheques through her clearing agent, Madam Grace Trancy Homadzi to pay back Madam Duncan. But Mr Duncan also refuted these allegations.

Madam Awuah revealed that when Duncan 
was arrested for defrauding her, the police at Cantonment Police Station in Accra, led by Chief Inspector Gyasi, allegedly helped him escape.

She claimed that Mr. Duncan has bribed the police which influenced their decision not to pursue his arrest and the criminal charges against him.

Chief Inspector Gyasi has since refused to answer Madam Awuah's calls, prompting her to call on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to urgently investigate the case.

The allegations, Mr. Duncan has flatly denied, saying, "I swear by the grave of my dead father, how can I bribe police to set me free? This is not true." l have not also mentioned the name of the First Lady's at the time l have engaged Rita Awuah to her facilitate the clearance of the goods at Tema Port.

However, Madam Awuah noted that Seth Mensah told her that Mr. Duncan had sorted out the police officer.

The business woman also detailed how the same Seth Mensah has brought Mr. Duncan to book an UDA apartment at East Legon somewhere in June 2024 at a cost of USD$150.00 per night for 16 days which amounted to USD$2,400.00 under pretext of getting it to him foreign visitors who are coming to Ghana.

But the so-called foreign visitors never showed 
up but Mr Duncan continued to lodge in the apartment for two weeks but he refused to settle the full payment and left, saying that Mr Seth Mensah only gave "me GH¢30,000 for part payment of the UDA Apartment he rented."

In a request of getting back the money, Mr Duncan  issued the two cheques to Madam Awuah for the withdrawal of the money, which got bounced.

The Genesis of the matter

Madam Awuah recounted that the issue began when her clearing agent, Grace Trancy Homadzi, attempted to clear goods in a container she was importing from Thailand, only for the goods to be returned.

She was initially charged GH¢570,000 by the port regulatory authority including General Revenue Authority Division of Customs but pleaded for a reduction, as she could not afford the full amount.

During this crisis, Mr. Seth Mensah, introduced Madam Awuah to Mr. Kodjo Panyi Duncan, who claimed to know someone who cleared goods for the First Lady at Tema Port. 

She said that Mr. Duncan assured her that the clearing agent would reduce the duty cost to GH¢285,000 by adding her goods to the First Lady's shipment.

Madam Awuah, through her clearing agent, Grace Trancy Homadzi, handed over GH¢270,000 to Mr. Duncan, who claimed it was for the agent to clear her goods in the 20 footer container.

Additionally, she transferred GH¢20,000 via Mobile Money to Mr. Duncan as a gesture of gratitude for facilitating the transaction.

However, the goods were never cleared, and when Madam Awuah tried to retrieve her GH¢270,000 from Mr. Duncan, he stopped answering her calls.

After paying the full amount of the money herself to clear the goods, she discovered that Mr Duncan had never passed the GH¢270,000 to the supposed clearing agent, Ato Williams.

"So the reason why l gave the money to Duncan was that he claimed that there a man called Atto Williams who can help me to clear the goods," she added.

When she confronted Mr. Duncan, he issued a dud cheque for GH¢270,000, which was rejected by CAL Bank's East Legon branch.

Madam Awuah further detailed how Mr. Duncan took her junior sister, Miss Akua Afriyie, to the East Legon branch of CAL BANK more than three times to withdraw the money from the cheque to pay back GH¢270,000.00 he owed her, but he couldn't withdraw the money.

Madam Awuah pointed accusing fingers at Seth Mensah for convincing her to trust Mr. Duncan, who defrauded her, knowingly that Duncan didn't have what it takes to help facilitate the clearance of the goods.

It was discovered that after Duncan has allegedly succeeded in defrauding Madam Awuah to the tune of GH¢270,000.00 , he gave an amount of GH¢ 5,000.00 to Seth Mensah and GH2,000.00 to one of the brothers of Seth Mensah for helping him to dupe the woman.

"I have now realised  that these are the plan works of Duncan and Seth Mensah to defraud me.so I am blaming Seth Mensah now because I suspect that he knows I have money and that I can afford to pay such an amount to Duncan, that's why he went to deliberately bring Duncan to defraud me of such a huge amount, knowing that Duncan cannot help me anyway to clear my goods at the Tema Port," she reaffirmed.

Our investigations have revealed that Mr Seth Mensah and Chief Inspector Gyasi on behalf of Madam Awuah have collected an amount of GH¢20,000.00 from Duncan at the Fiesta Royal Hotel  in Accra and interestingly instead of them giving out the said money to Madam Awuah as a part payment of Duncan to pay his debt, the two shared the money. 

However, Chief Inspector Gyasi has confirmed that Mr Seth Mensah gave him GH¢6,000.00 out of GH¢ 20,000.00 received from Duncan to be paid to Madam Awuah.

In this regard, Madam Awuah called on the First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, to be cautious of Duncan and Seth Mensah fraudulent activities, as they had used her name to scam her.

In an interview with this news outlet, Mr Seth Mensah admitted of introducing of Mr Duncan to Madam Awuah, saying that Duncan promised to help her to clear her goods at Tema Port and that after GH¢270, 000.00 was given to Mr Duncan, he refused to clear the container as promised and also defaulted in paying the money.

However, when contacted by this news outlet, 
Mr. Duncan denied using the First Lady's name 
to defraud Madam Awuah. He further denied working at the First Lady's office.

He also refuted allegations of being arrested by 
a police officer from the Criminal Investigative Department (CID) at the Cantonment Police Station and dragged to his house in Achimota. 

He stressed that he was simply invited by the police at the request of Seth Mensah over allegations of delaying payment of the money 
to Madam Awuah. 

Although he admitted collecting GH¢270,000.00 from Madam Awuah to facilitate the clearance of her goods at a reduced cost at the Tema port, Mr. Duncan noted that he used the said money to facilitate the clearance processes for the business woman at the reduced cost. 

Mr Duncan provided documentary evidence 
to support  his claim that he used part of GH¢
270,000 given to him by Madam Awuah to support the clearance of the goods by the business woman.

According to Mr Duncan, the money he would repay to the business woman is GH¢120,000 and not GH¢ 270,000.00 as she was demanding from him.

The claim Madam Awuah has disputed, stating that it is entirely untrue, stressing that she needs her GH¢270,000.00 to be refunded by Dr Duncan.

She emphasized that it is not true that Mr. 
Duncan helped facilitate the clearance of her goods, saying that some influential individuals had helped to ensure that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) cleared her goods at the reduced cost.
 
"Please my friend journalist l wish to state that Duncan himself knows for sure that he is not the very person who has helped me to clear the goods," she insisted.

But Mr Duncan indicated that since Madam Awuah has not satisfied of what he has done for her to clear the goods, he agreed to refund the  GH¢120,000.00 to her including the UDA Apartment money that he is owing the business woman.

According to him, so far he has managed to pay a total of GH¢50,000.00 through Seth Mensah to Madam Awuah and promised to pay the arrears in the installments.

Mr Duncan gave breakdown of the GH¢270,000 received from Madam's Awuah agent, Grace  Tracy Homadzi to help facilitate the clearance of goods for which Mr Duncan rejected his claim.

He disclosed that One hundred and ten thousand cedis (GH¢110,000) was paid to our contact to assist in reducing the duty value of GH¢1, 200,000.00 to GH¢ 400,000.

Additionally, he indicated that the others payments amounting GH¢40,000 were made to various officers and that balance of GH¢120,000 is what is left for him to be paid Madam Awuah.