From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi.
When an America-based Ghanaian Pastor, Rev. Owusu Boadu, flew home to unite with his family members last year he was determined to use every available means to extract a hidden treasure of gold buried on his family land at Fufuo, near Barekese in the Ashanti Region, to enable him to realise his childhood dream of becoming a wealthy person.
Prior to his return home in 2007, Rev. Owusu Boadu had dreamt that there was a hidden treasure (gold) in his family land at Fufuo and with a firm belief that his dreams always manifested in the real sense, he decided to return home to extract the treasure.
However, the dreams of Rev. Owusu Boadu of becoming wealthy overnight turned into a nightmare when the people he consulted to assist in extracting the gold from the farm land allegedly succeeded in defrauding him of GH¢7,000.
The pastor consulted Mohammed Awal, a soothsayer, and his assistant, Ibrahim Mahamud, a driver’s mate, who allegedly defrauded him. The two are now facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and defrauding under the pretext of digging an ancestral gold for the complainant and his family.
They pleaded not guilty to both charges when they appeared before a Kumasi Circuit Court presided over by Mr Ernest Yao Obimpeh on June 5, 2008. While Ibrahim Mahamud was granted bail of GH¢10,000, Mohammed Awal was remanded into prison custody for two weeks, pending further investigations into his involvement in the case.
The two will appear again before the court on June 18, 2008 for the continuation of the case.
Presenting the facts before the court, Sergeant Dede Donkor affirmed that the complainant is a Reverend Minister based in the United States of America, and in March 2007, he had a dream that there was ancestral gold hidden on his family land at Fufuo, near Barekese.
She said a few days after the dream, the complainant returned home from his base and confided in Ibrahim Mahamud, who is a driver’s mate about his dream.
The prosecutor said Mahamud in turn, introduced the complainant to Mohammed Awal as someone who was proficient in extracting such ancestral treasures from their hidden places in farm lands.
The prosecutor said after convincing Rev. Owusu Boadu that they could be of help in retrieving the hidden treasure from the land, the spiritualist performed some rituals and prepared some herbal concoctions which he placed in a plastic container and covered it with white calico.
According to Sgt. Donkor, the spiritualist ordered his accomplice and the complainant to dig a hole on the farm land and bury the concoctions there, assuring them that the container which contained the concoctions would be filled with the hidden treasure anytime they did what he ordered them to do.
The prosecutor said after they had buried the concoctions in the farmland, they went there the following day as directed by the spiritualist and found that the container was filled to the brim with shiny objects which they believed to be gold.
She said on the orders of the spiritualist, the complainant hid the shiny objects in his bedroom but was asked never to touch it until it was fully blessed.
The prosecutor further told the court that the process of burying concoctions in the farm land and uncovering it the following morning continued for some time, and anytime it was uncovered, the shiny objects was appeared.
This, she said buoyed the confidence of the complainant, making him have a firm belief that the spiritualist was God send, who was helping him to realise his dreams.
Sgt. Donkor said in the process, Mohammed Awal and Ibrahim Mahamud succeeded in collecting a total of GH¢7,000 from Rev Owusu Boadu. After some time, they assured the complainant of blessing the shiny objects to enable him make use of it.
She said after waiting for sometime without the assured blessing of the objects the complainant became alarmed and therefore decided to test the objects to ascertain their quality. To his dismay, the test proved that there was not an ounce of gold in all the objects sent to his bed room.
According to the prosecutor, a report was made to the police who arrested Mohammed Awal and later granted him bail, but he jumped bail and escaped to Sibiso where he was traced and re-arrested .
She said police also arrested his accomplice and after their investigations, they were charged with the offence.
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