Court remands fake soldier over land security scam
The accused, Mahama Sani Razak, who also uses the name Major Zack Gariba Tanko, has denied defrauding the complainant, Lambon Justice Iddrisu.
A Circuit Court in Accra has remanded a 43-year-old man accused of posing as a soldier to collect GH¢192,000 from a businessman under the guise of providing security for land at Kwabenya.
The accused, Mahama Sani Razak, who also uses the name Major Zack Gariba Tanko, has denied defrauding the complainant, Lambon Justice Iddrisu. He is before Circuit Court Eleven and is due to return on 10 February 2026.
In court, the judge ordered prosecutors to send Razak for medical examination after he appeared on crutches and claimed he was injured during his arrest.
Presenting the facts, Chief Inspector Ebenezer Teye-Okuffo said the complainant, a businessman living at North Legon, owns plots of land at Kwabenya. He told the court that the accused approached him in March 2025, introduced himself as a military officer and later took him to Burma Camp, where he allegedly presented himself as a Major attached to the Military Police.
The complainant, the court heard, had complained about harassment by land guards at his Kwabenya site. Prosecutors said Razak then claimed he could deploy junior military personnel to keep the land guards away.
According to the prosecution, the complainant agreed and paid GH¢192,000 for the proposed operation. The money was transferred through three MTN Mobile Money numbers bearing different account names.
Prosecutors said the promised protection did not happen, and the accused went into hiding. Subsequent checks with the Ghana Armed Forces, the court heard, indicated that Razak was not a soldier.
Police said investigations later showed that one of the mobile money accounts belonged to the accused’s wife. She is said to have admitted receiving some funds and withdrawing money on her husband’s behalf.
The prosecution told the court that Razak was first arraigned on 8 July 2025 before Circuit Court Three and was granted bail of GH¢300,000 with two justified sureties after pleading not guilty. However, prosecutors alleged that he later absconded, and the case was struck out on 4 November 2025 for want of prosecution.
In January 2026, the Accra Regional Police Command received information that Razak had been arrested at Akuse in the Eastern Region in connection with a similar alleged offence, the court heard. A new charge sheet was filed, and he was brought back before the court.
Prosecutors opposed bail, describing Razak as a flight risk who could abscond again if released.
