Attempt to swindle Cardinal fails ... Burkinabe in police grips
Mar 04, 2006
A 45-year old Burkinabe, Paul Yada Gean, who claimed to be an urologist, and attempted to swindle Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson on Monday, this week, has found himself in police grips, Chronicle has learnt.
(The Ghanaian Chronicle, September 15, 2005) Yada Gean was alleged to have attempted to dupe the Cardinal and his Vicar General of an amount of $500 after falsely claiming to have a link with an Archbishop in Burkina Faso.
A police source told the paper that Yada Gean presented himself to the Vicar General as a Burkinabe who had received a message from Burkina Faso through his brother-in-law that he had lost his wife and children through a motor accident.
It continued that after making such claims, he then went ahead to tell the Vicar General that an Archbishop in Burkina Faso had directed him (Yada Gean) to seek assistance following the sad incident.
The Vicar General partially believed the story and gave him a telephone to talk to the supposed Archbishop in Burkina Faso. Yada Gean feigned in front of the Vicar General to have talked to the Archbishop, the source said.
The Vicar General, suspicious of Yada Gean’s behaviour, alerted the Cardinal, who eventually caused his arrest.
Yada Gean, according to the police source, held the police to ransom when he attempted to commit suicide by knocking his head against the walls of the police cells, and again feigned unconsciousness as though he was dead, creating uneasiness among the police.
The police then sent him to the Police Hospital in Cape Coast where he was nearly pronounced dead after infusion and syringe attempts to revive him failed.
After failing to revive him, the doctors and nurses at the hospital suggested that his body be deposited at the mortuary and Yada Gean, realising he was on the verge of meeting his untimely death, quickly rose up from his unconsciousness and shouted “ I’m not dead.”
Reports reaching the paper also indicate that Yada Gean had allegedly stolen some items belonging to the owner of Fair Hill Guest House in Cape Coast.