14 DAY TRIAL // Two men have been arrested after being caught selling toilet soap molded as mobile phone to an unsuspecting customer. The problem of illegal phone dealers has seen a real outbreak over the past years in Ghana and the Police is now working on ways to solve it.
Kwadwo Addei, 22 and Desmond Nkwah, 20 were only two of the 30 suspects who were arrested by the Accra Regional Police Command during their attempt to reduce the number of criminals on the metropolis. Their main concern has been that of catching as many illegal phone dealers as possible and reducing crime on the streets.
The two men used to carefully mold cakes of toilet soap and then package them as handsets to later sell to potential buyers. Incredibly enough, the idea proved to work, as one person has actually made the purchase. The victim must have agreed to buy a mobile phone without previously seeing it, otherwise the scam would have never been possible. Sounds like a pretty unwise thing to do and an amusing situation, as a result of it.
The Accra Regional Police Commander Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) has made this exercise as part of a larger project meant to reduce the number of cell phone thefts in the country. The 30 suspects have been taken in under the suspicion of being part of this tendency. They were detained for making it easier to check whether the handsets found on them were stolen or not.
High demands for mobile phones are actually the main cause for the illegal industry which had developed over the past period in Accra. People want more evolved handsets at lower prices, which has set grounds for request on the illegal market. The local Police will continue their actions as part of the struggle to end the tendency.