Ghanaian police have arrested eight Nigerians for allegedly assaulting a 21-year-old man during his initiation into an internet fraud operation in Kotokrom, Sunyani West Municipality, in the Bono Region.

The Bono Regional Police Command disclosed this in a statement dated October 9, following a distress call received by its Regional Operations Unit on October 4, 2026.

According to the police, officers who responded to the call at about 4:30 p.m. found the victim, identified as Godstime Umukoro, with multiple marks of assault on his body and arrested eight suspects at the scene.

The suspects were identified as Peter Mbam, 24; Godwin Moses, 26; Humble Oweifah, 18; Osas Ogbemudia, 30; Samuel Aisosa, 22; Ashile Godbess, 24; Alexander Uyuo, 30; and Patrick Romans, 25.

The police said the suspects allegedly admitted during interrogation that they had subjected Umukoro to severe beating as part of his initiation into the internet fraud business, claiming that they had undergone a similar process themselves.

“The Regional Operations Unit has arrested eight suspects involved in fraudulent acts and assaulting one Godstime Umukoro, aged 21, at Kotokrom, a suburb in Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region,” the statement said.

Preliminary investigations reportedly indicated that the suspects were brought to Ghana by a man identified as Nwachukwu King Augustine, whom the police described as their chairman.

The command further alleged that the group used photographs downloaded from the internet, depicting foreign military personnel, to defraud unsuspecting victims.

According to the police, the suspects allegedly posed as foreign military personnel serving on the war front in Yemen to establish contact with victims online and persuade them to send money.

“They lure innocent victims using downloaded images of foreign military men and start chatting with them under the pretext that they are at war front in Yemen. When they succeed in collecting the victims’ money, it is then paid into their boss’s account,” the statement added.

The police did not disclose whether the alleged leader, Augustine, had been arrested or provide further details about the investigation.

The Bono Regional Police Command commended members of the public for their intervention and reaffirmed its commitment to working with residents to combat crime in the region.