Agradaa jailed 15 years for fraud, charlatanic advertisements
Founder of the Heaven Way Champion International Ministry at Weija in Accra, Patricia Asiedua, aka Nana Agradaa, has been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court for her involvement in fraudulent religious activities.
The conviction was handed down after the court found her guilty on one count of charlatanic advertisement and five counts of defrauding by false pretence.
The charges stemmed from a televised broadcast in 2022, during which Nana Agradaa claimed to possess spiritual powers capable of doubling money.
Her claims, widely disseminated via her Today-TV channel and other social media platforms, led numerous victims to part with large sums of money in anticipation of miraculous financial returns — promises that were never fulfilled.
After finding her guilty, the court presided over by Evelyn Asamoah, deferred sentencing her to allow her to conduct a pregnancy test which later came out negative.
She was, therefore handed the jail term after the test.
Prosecution's facts
Per the facts of the case, Nana Agradaa on October 10, 2022, the complainants in the case reported to the police that Agradaa demanded and received sums of money from them under the pretext of giving them various sums of monies in return.
Upon the receipt of the report, police commenced investigations into the matter which led to the arrest of the convict.
The prosecution said investigations established that on October 5, 2022, she advertised on Today's TV and other social media platforms that she was organising an all-night service on October 7, 2022 at Heaven Way Champions International Ministry where she was going to share an amount of GH¢300,000 to all participants who needed money to fund their business or pay rent.
“Convict displayed the bundles of money during the advert and encouraged members of the public to attend the service for a share of the money.
“Investigations also established that due to the said false representation made in the adverts on media platforms, complainants and others members of the public came from far and near to attend the said all night service,” ASP Emmanuel Haligah said.
He added that, during the all-night service, Agradaa directed the congregation to form groups of 20 members and each member was to pay an amount of money starting from GH¢ 1000 and below.
The convict is said to have made the representation that if the first group of 20 could each pay GH¢1000 each, she would give them GH¢50,000 to share.
She continued in that fashion and promised the next group to pay GH¢900 saying which of them would get a sum of GH¢40,000 and so on.
Agradaa, according to the prosecution, represented to them that she would give those in the group of 19 a sum of GH¢25,000 to share in their group of 19 persons.
“Based upon this representation, the complainants parted with various sums of money.
“Agradaa after obtaining the monies did not fulfill her promise to give them the sums of money in return and rather left them in the church premises stranded,” the prosecutor added.
Further investigations established that Agradaa undertook the charlatanic advertisement with intent to defraud unsuspecting complainants.
