Some of the victims in court yesterday
A man arrested two months ago for allegedly defrauding members of the Christ Pentecostal church, located at Kwashieman has appeared before the Weija Circuit Court.
Joseph Acheampong stood in the dock yesterday, together with two others identified as Esther Ofori and Kenneth Osei Ansong.
They were provisionally charged for conspiracy and fraud and were granted a bail to the sum of GH?200, 000 each, with two sureties and were also ordered to be reporting daily to the police until July 8, 2019 when the case will be heard in court again.
Bernard Bentil, the trial judge, upon hearing the facts of the case as presented by the prosecution team led by Inspector Christopher Wonder said that the facts should be amended and presented again at the next adjourned date.
This was after the trial judge discovered that the number of victims allegedly defrauded in the case was not stated in the fact sheet even though they were all in court in their numbers for the hearing.
The judge, upon seeing the victims said that the amount as quoted could be more and directed that individual statements be taken from the victims together with the amount paid.
The case was then adjourned to July 8, 2019 for hearing.
Members of the church who claimed to be victims trooped to the court to catch a glimpse of the suspects.
The church members who were mostly women who were claiming to have been defrauded their life savings, hooted at the three accused persons when they were being whisked away by the police.
One of the victims, who gave her name as Elizabeth Impraim told Daily Guide that Esther Ofori, one of the accused persons, collected an amount of GH?50, 000 from her to invest in the said credit union a year ago.
She said when she later contacted Madam Ofori, the key suspect Joseph Acheampong called her on phone and promised to pay her the money but it never came.
It would be recalled that the three accused persons led by Joseph Acheampong were arrested in May this year by the Sowutoum Police for allegedly defrauding members of the Christ Pentecostal Church at Kwashieman in Accra.
The accused persons allegedly collected about GH¢200,000 as savings from the church members under the pretext of investing the funds into a small micro finance company established in the name of the church but ended up squandering the cash.
The members, who invested their monies in the fund, were eligible for loans as well as interest on their savings and based on that the church members contributed massively to the fund for close to two years but never got anything from the fund.
(lindatenyah@gmail.com)
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey