A lot of people have been asking the questìon: “Can Nana Agradaa be jailed for defrauding her church members?“. The rationale behind this question, is the view that church members are not given receipts for monies they give during church service, and so no evidence can be available against Nana Agradaa. To find an answer to this question, we first need to understand the facts or the story leading to her arrest.
First of all, there was a TV advert wherein Agradaa informed the general public that she will be having an all-night service. She said further that during the church service, she was going to share an amount of Three Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHc300,000.00) to the congregation, to enable them establish and develop a business in our difficult present economy.
What we need to understand is that, Agradaa’s statement suggested that she will gift the said amount to the congregation. We should also understand that some people ask for something in return when giving out gifts. So what Agradaa said on TV is normal and legal.
During the service, the following happened:
- She asked the congregation to give money as offertory to God;
- She asked them to give out money, before which they were made to pray over the money, for God to solve their problems and issues; and
- She asked them to give out money before they could receive some of the GHc300,000.00 which she had promised to gift to them.
The legalities surrounding the TV advert are that, Agradaa was within the law when she promised Ghanaians about being generous to them by giving them money. She therefore did nothing wrong in announcing it on TV.
Secondly, about giving out money in church, we need to make a sharp distinction between offertory given in faith to God in honour or in praise for an expectant miracle or help, or for what God has done for you, and money given in anticipation of what the church itself or the pastor can offer you, but not God, thus God is out of the equation.
For example monies given out for church projects, dues, and welfare have any no direct bearing on God. When you give money to God in faith, clearly you cannot recover it from the church or the pastor because that money is given to God by faith. However, where the money is given for the establishment of a church project, or for welfare, you can have a cause of action against the pastor or the church if the pastor or church fails to account for the money, or fails to establish the project after the required money is received. Thus, the distinction between monies given to God and monies given to the pastor or the church specifically.
From the above, it is clear that a direct promise from a pastor that you will receive something from the pastor, but not from God, for giving out money in church is actionable in court. Thus, once you give out money, you can have a cause of action against the pastor if the pastor fails to give you what he or she promised.
Clearly from the above, the monies given out by Agradaa’s congregation during the all-night church service as offertory to God, and for God to solve their problems and issues are not recoverable because they were given to God in faith. The problem started when Agradaa promised her congregation that she was personally going to give them money from her GHc300,000.00, if they give out some monies. At this point, Agradaa was not appealing to God but to herself.
She was simply saying that bring this amount and I will also give you this amount. It would have been a different issue, if she had said that those who bring their money will be given money by God. Once God is out of the picture it becomes a contract that is enforceable, and for which the law of contract will apply.
So the moment some of the congregation gave out money expecting money in return from Agradaa, but not God, Agradaa’s failure to give them the money in return was a breach of contract which the courts will enforce. Where there is proof that before and during the church service, Agradaa intended that she was going to take their money without giving them any money in return, that becomes fraudulent and Agradaa must be arrested by the police for criminal prosecution, for the offense of defrauding by false pretences among others.
As it stands now, the relevant question is where is the evidence? Erroneously, most people think that evidence is only what is written or documented, but this view is very far from truth.
There are different types of evidence under our legal system and documentary evidence is just one of them. Others are video, audio, pictorial, etc. We also have oral evidence, where a person takes an oath and enters the witness box to give oral testimony against somebody. Thus, two or more members of Agradaa’s congregation who gave out money, can take an oath and testify in court against Agradaa and what happened during the service. The court does not have to take documentary evidence at all cost to know what actually transpired during the service.
Let’s wait to see how the court proceedings will unfold. The police has to prove three things in court for Agradaa to go to jail:
- That during the church service Agradaa made a promise of giving money to some persons after receiving money from them;
- That at the time Agradaa made the promise she knew she was not going to give any money to any person; and
- That some persons gave Agradaa the money but did not receive any money from her.
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So educative