Former traditional priestess turned evangelist, Patricia Asiedua Asiamah, widely known as Nana Agradaa, has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court for her involvement in fraudulent religious activities.
The conviction was handed down after the court found her guilty on multiple counts of charlatanic advertisement and defrauding by false pretence.
Why Agradaa has been sentenced to 15 years hard labour
The charges stemmed from a televised broadcast in 2022, during which Nana Agradaa claimed to possess spiritual powers capable of doubling money.
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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.
Court documents revealed that she urged viewers to attend an all-night service at her church, Heaven Way Champion International Ministry at Weija in Accra, with the assurance that any amount of money offered would be doubled.
According to the prosecution, six complainants, along with more than a thousand others, travelled from various parts of the country to participate, offering money as instructed but receiving nothing in return.
“The accused successfully demanded and received huge sums of money from some members of the public who attended the said all-night service at Heaven Way Champion International Ministry, Weija, including complainants in this matter, as indicated on the face of the charge sheet,” the prosecution stated.
Further investigations confirmed that the accused collaborated with others to carry out the fraudulent scheme.
The court also noted that her conduct had the hallmarks of a coordinated and deliberate attempt to defraud vulnerable members of the public under the guise of religious ritual.
Before sentencing, the court ordered a mandatory pregnancy test, as required under Ghanaian judicial procedures for female convicts. The test confirmed she was not pregnant, allowing the court to proceed with delivering the sentence.
Prosecution’s facts
Per the facts of the case, on October 10, 2022, the complainants in the case reported to the police that Nana 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 Agradaa.
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 other 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.
