GH - THE REPUBLIC V. PATRICIA ASIEDUA ALIAS NANA AGRADAA

H/H EVELYN E. ASAMOAH (MRS)

● Ms. Patricia Asieduaa, also known as Nana Agradaa, is accused of defrauding some of her church attendees during an all-night service and publishing videos on social media with intent to deceive the public. She alleged that no incident happened on that day. The accused was charged with the following offences: charlatanic advertisement, contrary to section 137(1) of the Criminal Offences and Other Act, 1960, Act 29 (Count 1), and defrauding by false pretence, contrary to section 131(1) of Act 29 (Counts 2-5). She pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!!” - Sir Walter Scott

● Facts – The facts, as presented by the prosecution, are as follows: The accused, Patricia Asiedua, alias Nana Agradaa, is the founder of Heaven Way Champions International Ministry, located in Weija, Accra, and resides in Weija. On 10th October 2022, the complainants, as indicated on the face of the charge sheet, reported to the Police that the accused demanded and received sums of money from them under the pretext of giving them various sums of money in return. Upon receipt of the report, Police commenced investigations into the matter, which led to the arrest of the accused. Investigations established that, on 5th October 2022, the accused advertised on Today's TV and other social media platforms that she was organizing an all-night service on 7th October 2022 at Heaven Way Champions International Ministry where she was going to share an amount of GH₵300,000.00 to all participants who needed money to fund their business or pay rent. The accused displayed the bundles of cash during the advert and encouraged the public to attend the service for a share of the money. Investigations also established that, due to the false representation made in the adverts on media platforms, complainants and other members of the public came from far and near to attend the all-night service.

Accused, during the all-night service, directed the congregation to form groups of 20 members, and each member was to pay an amount of money from various amounts - GH₵1000.00. She made the representation that if the first group of 20 could pay GH₵1000.00 each, she would give them GH₵50,000.00 to share. She continued in that fashion and promised the next group to pay GH₵900.00 each and would get a sum of GH₵40,000, and so on. Some of the complainants found themselves in a group of 19 who had to pay GH

H/H EVELYN E. ASAMOAH (MRS)

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!!” - Sir Walter Scott

THE REPUBLIC V. PATRICIA ASIEDUA ALIAS NANA AGRADAA

Areas of Law

JUDGMENT