The Accra Circuit Court granted a blogger and an information technology (IT) professional GH20,000 bail with two sureties each for an alleged fake publication that resulted in panic bank withdrawals from dollar account holders.
This followed the arrest of the accused by police after they examined a report from the Bank of Ghana alerting them to the publication, which the BoG claimed caused fear and concern among the people and resulted in panic withdrawals from banks.
Jeffrey Eppirim Nyame, the blogger, has been accused with spreading false information, while his alleged accomplice, I.T Professional Jeremiah Kobina Egyebeng, has been charged with abetment. Both have entered not guilty pleas to the allegations.
The court presided over by Mrs Rosemary Baah Torsu fixed the next hearing for December 29, this year in which period the prosecution is expected to file all disclosures.
Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Richard Amoah told the court that on October 27, 2022, Nyame published an article on his news portal called reportghana.net captioned, “Dollar account holders to get cedi at BOG rate for bank withdrawals effective 31st Oct?” and shared it on various WhatsApp groups and social media platforms, causing fear and panic among the general public.
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Chief Inspector Amoah stated that during the investigation, it was discovered that Egyebeng initially created the news portal for Nyame called reportghana.com in the year 2019 which was used for the publication of similar articles but was closed down by Google for violating their community standard due to user complaints.
“However, Egyebeng again created a similar news portal but this time changed the domain from “dot com” to “dot net” and registered it as reportghana.net on February 11, 2022 to be able to use same for publication of articles and happenings in Ghana.
“After publishing the said false news, Nyame then shared the publication on WhatsApp group platforms including “reportghana news feed 1,” “reportghana news feed 2,” “reportghana news feed 3” with over 160 active members where he was the administrator with his personal telephone numbers 0551993013 and 0574144388 registered on the platform,” he told the court adding that the news was still circulating on social media.
According to Chief Inspector Amoah, Nyame agreed to publishing the alleged false news but claimed he received it from mynewsgh.com, but the investigation proved otherwise and identified Nyame as the author and publisher.
According to Chief Inspector Amoah, Egyebeng admitted to creating the news platform managed and used by Nyame.
He went on to say that further research had revealed the involvement of other people involved in the publication who were still at large, and that efforts were being made to apprehend them.
SOURCE: GRAPHICONLINE
