Agradaa
EMBATTLED SELF-styled Evangelist, Patricia Oduro aka Nana Agradaa, has through her lawyer, pleaded with an Accra Circuit Court to vary the terms of the GH¢50,000 bail granted her last month.
The accused, who is before the court on charges of defrauding by false pretences, was granted bail by the court and was ordered to provide three sureties, who are civil servants earning not less than GH¢2,000 a month.
In spite of the grant of bail on October 17, 2022, she is still in police custody as she has not been able to find the sureties to execute the bail bond on her behalf.
Appearing before the trial court yesterday, her counsel, Paul Asibi Abariga, pleaded with the court to vary the terms of the bail, indicating that the condition of providing sureties who are civil servants is very difficult to execute.
He urged the court to waive the civil servants aspects of the bail terms and allow “any ordinary Ghanaian citizen” stand in for her, assuring the court that accused will appear to stand trial.
The oral application was opposed by the prosecution led by DSP Sylvester Asare, who indicated that the accused had presented pay slips of the sureties and the documents were being verified at the Controller and Accountant General’s Office last Wednesday but the process had been truncated by bad network.
He said the investigator had gone back to the office yesterday morning to receive results on the search conducted on the pay slips so there was no need to vary the bail conditions.
He added that if the accused person wanted a bail variation, then her lawyer should have formally filed an application so the prosecution could respond to it appropriately.
His Honour, Samuel Bright Acquah, the presiding judge, adjourned the case to today to determine the oral application for bail variations.
The embattled former fetish priestess is before the court on charges of defrauding by false pretences and charlatanic advertisements.
The accused, according to court documents, defrauded her victims by promising to double any amount they gave her.
Nana Agradaa, according to court documents through an advertisement on her Today TV channel and other social media platforms urged her victims to give out any amount of money, which she will in return double for them.
The documents said the six complainants in the instant case as well as over one thousand other persons, came from far and near and attended the all-night service and gave out various sums of money as requested by Nana Agradaa for doubling. She, however, failed to deliver on her promise, the documents allege.
She has pleaded not guilty to the seven charges levelled against her by the police and was remanded on two separate occasions.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak