Fake Prophet Busted

A 32-year-old Kumasi-based spiritualist, Justice Baah, has been busted by the police for allegedly defrauding a family at Odumase, near Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region. According to the Brong Ahafo Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Sampson Agbeko, Baah claimed to have magical powers which could find the exact location a pot of gold had been buried in the farm of his victims. He said the spiritualist, who is currently being held by the Sunyani police, would be processed for court and charged with defrauding by false pretence under Section 131 of the Criminal Offense Act. Briefing a section of the press, DSP Agbeko said the complainant, Stephen Korang, a resident of Sunyani-Odumase, was in search of someone to help his family dig for a pot of gold his late father, Opanyin Kwasi Donkor, had bequeathed to the family which was believed to be hidden in his cocoa farm at Asafo Adjeikrom in the Sefwi area of the Western Region. DSP Agbeko said on March 22, 2011, an uncle of the complainant, Kwadwo Adu, gave Baah�s number to him because he was told that Baah was in involved in the business of helping people dig for hidden treasures such as gold. When Korang contacted the spiritualist, he accepted to help him get the gold. He said the suspect then asked Korang to buy some accessories including aravia oil, sasoravia oil, fowls, bottles of schnapps, jinjiwani oil and pocket money, all amounting GH�2,500, to perform some rituals in order to dig out the pot of gold from the farm. The DOVVSU Coordinator explained that the complainant hired a hotel room for the suspect at Odumase, where he lodged for several days, just to make him feel comfortable to execute the task. According to the police, the complainant, in the company of his brother, Charles Amankwaah and the suspect, embarked on the journey of fortune on March 23 to Sefwi to dig for the gold. At the farm, Baah performed rituals and located a spot he claimed to be home to the pot of gold and instructed the complainant to dig a trench around it. After digging a few meters into the ground and hitting something suspected to be the pot of gold, Baah ordered the complainant and his brother to stop and go home and bring a bowl of sand to perform another ritual. However, when they returned to the farm, they saw that the pit had been tampered with. Thereafter, the suspect did the digging himself and pulled a pot believed to contain the said gold from the ground and handed it over to the complainant. He however charged them not to open it until he asked them to do so. DSP Agbeko mentioned that the complainant, after their return to Odumase, opened the pot and discovered that it was full of sand. The complainant moved quickly to the hotel and informed the suspect, but the suspect told them that the gold turned sand because they opened it without his instruction. Baah then ordered his victims to leave the pot with him and come for it the next day as he was going to consult his dwarfs to change the sand back into gold. DSP Agbeko said the suspect then arranged with somebody in Kumasi to bring him four iron brasses, which looked like gold, and placed them in the pot. The next day, when the complainant returned to the hotel room, the spiritualist gave the pot containing the items to him. When the complaint went home and carefully assessed the items, he realised that it was not gold. However, when he rushed to the hotel, the suspect was nowhere to be found. He then reported the case to the police, leading to the suspect�s arrest.