The founder of Heaven Way Church, Patricia Oduro Koranteng, popularly known as Nana Agradaa, has been remanded in lawful custody for three days by an Accra Circuit Court.
She appeared in court on Monday, October 10, 2020, after she was arrested for allegedly scamming some members of her church.
This was after she pleaded not guilty to charges of charlatanic advertisement and six counts of defrauding by false pretences.
The presiding judge, His Honour Samuel Bright Acquah, after listening to the bail application from her lawyers with prosecution opposing to same, remanded her.
The court said considering her previous experience with the law regarding ‘sika gari’ and now money doubling, no one knows what she would come up with next.
She is to reappear in court on October 13.
Background
On Sunday, October 9, the police arrested Nana Agradaa following allegations of money doubling scam levelled against her by some members of the public.
A statement issued by the police said,” Anyone who is a victim of the alleged money doubling scam should report to the Accra Regional Police Command for further action to assist the investigation.”
This follows a viral video on social media of victims recounting their losses.
Some victims said they went to the church of Nana Agradaa as she advertised on her TV programme that she would be doubling money during Friday’s all-night service.
Based on this assurance, the affected worshippers said they were convinced to give her various sums in expectation of multiplied outcomes.
But in a series of viral videos on social media on Saturday, the church members who reposed confidence in the recently converted fetish priestess said their monies had not been doubled, with no trace of Nana Agradaa.
In their view, this smacks of a well-orchestrated scheme by the preacher to trick them out of their sweat.
Therefore, the angry and betrayed congregants trooped to the church premises on Saturday in search of answers from Evangelist Mama Pat.
Some of them spotted in the viral videos intimated that they had given huge sums to Nana Agradaa, ranging from GHS1,000 to GHS20,000.
Meanwhile, the self-styled pastor, Mama Pat, has denied all allegations of defrauding levelled against her by her congregation.
Speaking in a video, the former fetish priestess said she also donated money to help some congregants in their various businesses.
As usual, 0f a church, she said there was also fundraising through offertory.
She explained that if new members attending church for the first time offered money to support the church and did not receive anything in return from her, they should wait for an opportune time to be blessed and should not attribute that to fraud.
She claims the GH¢1000, GH¢800 and GH¢700 offered by members were voluntary donations and should not be interpreted as fraud.
This is not the first time such allegations have been made against the controversial preacher.
In her previous practice as a fetish priestess, she was accused of promising her followers of money doubling.