Five employees of Kwadwo Ofori Limited popularly known as K. Ofori Enterprise have been granted bail in a combined sum of GHc5 million by the Circuit Court in Accra.

The employees of the Kwadwo Ofori Limited, a leading brand in the provision of building materials were on December 28, last year, remanded for allegedly stealing building materials worth ¢2,615, 011.

The accused persons – Santa Nangba, a 27-year-old Sales Manager; Peter Bawla, a 28-year-old Supervisor; William Dagadu, 27, Michael Jeffery a 28-year-old IT Technician and Felix Ofori -Boafo, a cashier were each granted GHc1 million bail.

In addition to the bail sum, they were each to produce three sureties, one of whom must be justified with a landed property located within the jurisdiction of Accra or Central Region. The other, the court said should be a civil servant earning not less than GHc3, 000 and the other a family member.

The court presided over by His Honour Samuel Bright Acquah has ordered them to also report to the case investigator once a week on Wednesdays.

The case has been adjourned to January 23, 2023.

The accused had earlier on December 28, last year, pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit a crime namely stealing.

*Brief facts*

Per the brief facts of the case narrated by the prosecution ASP Augustus Yirenkyi, said the complainant, Frank Kwadwo Ofori is the Director of Kwadwo Ofori Enterprise Limited, while the accused persons are his employees whom he trained to manage his various branches.

The Prosecutor said accused persons were formally working in Accra and they were later transferred to Cape Coast to manage a branch.

ASP Yirennkyi said, the accused persons were supplied with iron rods, cement, binding wires, and nails to be sold by the complainant in large quantities. It said the complainant trusted the accused persons, especially Nangba, his sales manager of the Cape Coast branch.

According to him, on or before September 2022, the accused persons requested for bags of cement to be supplied to them, but the complainant realised that the accused persons had about 10,000 bags of cement in stock.

The complainant, therefore, became sceptical as to why the accused persons were requesting bags of cement among others.

The Prosecutor told the Court that the complainant through one of his employees got to know that the accused had sold the bags of cement that they had in stock, but they had failed to account for them.

The Prosecutor said the complainant became alarmed and together with his accounting officers conducted stocking at the Cape Coast branch and it was revealed “a net shortage of stock to the tune of ¢2,615,011.30”.

He said the accused persons were, therefore, invited to the head office in Accra to be interrogated.

The prosecutor said the accused persons admitted having stolen items such as iron rods, bags of cement, binding wires, and nails to the tune of ¢2,568,770.40 and wrote an undertaking to refund the money to the complainant.

On December 20, last year, however, the complainant reported the matter to the Police and the accused persons were arrested.

The prosecution said the accused persons in their caution statement admitted the offence.

“Investigations revealed that the accused persons had sold the materials which were supplied to them without accounting for them,” he said.

Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Murtala Inusah