A lotto agent posing as a military officer has been arrested by the army in the Ashanti Region.

The suspect, 38-year-old Jonas Afriyie Poku, a physically challenged man from Pokukrom, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, was apprehended on Friday, February 4, 2022.

The Central Command Headquarters of the Ghana Army in a statement said, it “has been receiving information about some persons parading as Military Officers and extorting monies from illegal miners in the Command Area of Responsibility.”

The suspect is one of the fake soldiers arrested after it put in place measures to fish out the unscrupulous individuals, bringing the name of the Command into disrepute.

A statement from the command said they received a tip-off on the activities of Mr. Afriyie-Poku, who was found to be extorting money from illegal miners at Amansie West District.

“Upon interrogation, it came to light that the suspect for some time now has been calling illegal miners and introducing himself as the military commander who carried out the just-ended OPERATION HALT in the Amansie Central and its environs…He will then threaten the illegal miners to either pay monies or have their equipment destroyed,” the statement said.

It added that the suspect in one instance extorted, GH¢5000 from two victims.

He was handed over to the military police and has since been handed over to the Civil Police at the Regional Police Headquarters for further investigation.

“The Command wishes to inform the general public that the Ghana Armed Forces is doing everything to jealously protect its hard-won image. Consequently, systems have been put in place to closely monitor the Central Command’s Area of Responsibility which covers Ashanti, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions in order to fish out such unscrupulous persons whose activities are dragging the reputation of the Ghana Armed Forces through the mud.”

The military urged the public to report suspicious characters to the police for action.