Do not be deceived by Nana Agradaa – the reflections of a Ghanaian journalist

A few years ago, while working as News Editor for one of Ghana’s leading radio stations, I had the unpleasant obligation of encountering the self-styled, controversial juju woman, Nana Agradaa, who now claims she is “Vangelist” (Evangelist) Patricia Oduro Koranteng. Pardon the Vangelist – Nana Agradaa has done worse when it comes to pronunciations.

On that occasion, some of her numerous fake juju money victims had gone on a sister station to claim she took their money and promised to multiply it and make them rich, but it never happened.

They also alleged that when they went back to her shrine for their money, her macho men manhandled them and threw them out of the shrine.

It was not news to me, because prior to that and even after that, several other victims of hers came to me with same complaints about her.

The sad thing is that the script did not change, but the characters kept changing. It only meant Ghanaians were either too gullible or too greedy and lazy, and that is something fraudsters love, because those three ill attributes plus fear, make one vulnerable to the social engineering tactics of people like Nana Agradaa.

Indeed, those are the same attributes the forces of evil also capitalize on to hold people in bondage.

Nana Agradaa came to my station demanding to see “the bosses” because, as she put it “I have been defamed and slandered on your station without evidence”.

I was called to go see her in my capacity as News Editor, since the program on which she was allegedly slandered, was a news and current affairs program.

She was in a full traditional warrior regalia and one of her boys was with her. They were both seated in a “ready to fight” and “we are in charge” posture when I got there. I just sat with folded arms and introduced myself and asked for their mission. The boy with her said the most arrogant thing ever.

He said “we don’t deal with news editors – we want either the Programs Director or the Manager.”

At this point, I was boiling within, but calmly I told them “I need to first hear your case and then I will decide if it is a matter for me to deal with or take it to a higher authority.” But the guy insisted they will only speak with “the bosses”. Apparently, I was not boss enough!

So, I asked them to leave the premises if they are not ready to speak with me. That was when the guy said some people came on one of our stations and slandered Nana Agradaa so they want to seek redress from the bosses directly.

I assured them I could address the issues if they gave me details but they refused, so, I told them to leave. Nana Agradaa then spoke for the first time and said to her boy, “let’s go” in anger, while standing up. Then she looked at me and said “you will see.”

The last word

I have learnt from Eve’s encounter with the old serpent in the Garden of Eden, and also from Jesus’ encounter with Satan in the wilderness that if you allow the evil one to have the last word, you will be defeated. Eve lost because she allowed the old serpent to have the last word.

Adam also lost because he allowed Eve to have the last word. But Jesus won because he always had an answer for Satan, no matter how the latter twisted the word of God. So, I replied Nana Agradaa and said “you don’t scare me one bit – leave my office.”

When they left, they met one of my colleagues outside and started narrating something to him. I immediately called that colleague of mine and asked him to leave them immediately and get on with his work. They wandered around for a while in front of the office, only God knew what they were looking for, and left. That is how the devil operates.

He tried to create fear and appearance of eminent danger. Once you fall for it, you become his victim. Nana Agradaa has used that trick on many victims but she met her match in moi!

For those of you who remember my encounter with Vickie Hammah, who also portrayed herself as some demonic creature and threatened to kill me and my family spiritually, I refused to let her have the last word throughout our dialogue.

Being an agent of the devil, she understood what it meant to have the last word, so she kept threatening me with lines like “if you reply again and if you report to the police, I will kill your son”.

But I replied to everything she said and actually reported to the police. In the end she came begging me at midnight and eventually, she run into trouble and got fired as Deputy Minister. Never let the devil have the last word. Never!

The Evidence Game

But that was not the last I would have to deal with a Nana Agradaa issue. More of her victims kept coming to me to report how she defrauded them but I kept turning them away to go get evidence, and they never returned.

Apparently, it was part of her modus operandi, to make her macho boys take your phones and any gadgets on you, and search you thoroughly to ensure you have nothing on you to record your encounter with her before allowing you to meet her face to face.

So, none of her victims had any evidence of giving her money and she making any promises to multiply it for them.

Indeed, one of her very cardinal responses to people who allege she defrauded them is that “you cannot take juju matter to the police because you need evidence” and none of her victims have evidence.

She goes to every length to ensure that you don’t get the evidence to support your claim; and that is what gives her the confidence to fight back when people expose her in the media.

She is on her TV channels daily, promoting a charm she calls “Sika Gari”, by which she promises to multiply any amount you give to her. She has been doing this for years with law enforcement and regulatory bodies looking on unconcerned.

And yet when people claim she took their money but they never saw any results, her convenient response is, there is no evidence so she cannot be held accountable.

In law she is right. But it also goes to show that she is a hardcore fraudster who has a well-crafted strategy to cover her tracks.

In the past, she had boasted of going to all the countries famed for having the strongest juju and evil powers, such as Benin, India and some other Asian countries, to bring back more powers to defraud her victims some more.

But recently, she was on a Youtube Channel called Aggressive Interview, and she actually admitted there are no such powers from Benin or India or anywhere for that matter.

Indeed, she admitted to many things in that interview – including the fact that her fake money doubling practice was more lucrative than many jobs in Ghana because she rides solely on the gullibility, greed, fear and laziness of people.

That is clearly how the devil works. She said people are often unwilling to donate so much for church projects, but are more than willing to pay any price she mentions for charms, so she will continue to take their money so long as they keep coming to her.

To some extent, the victims deserve their lot because if things go well with them after meeting Nana Agradaa, they will not run to radio stations and tell the world she is the reason for their wealth.

Come to think of it, I am yet to see even one person give testimonies of how Nana Agradaa helped him or her to become rich.

In fact, Nana Agradaa even quoted a supposed bible verse which said “a fool shall labor and give his earnings to the wise to spend.”

In other words, she is using wisdom (cunningness) to lure fools into giving her their hard-earned money to spend by feeding on their gullibility, greed, fear and laziness. She indeed said that such people do not deserve pity.

Again, that is a clear attribute of the devil. No mercy, no pity, just exploit people till they are destroyed. Only God knows how many Nana Agradaa victims ended up in their graves because they gave her money and got nothing back.

“Vangelist” claim

Now coming to her recent trick about converting and immediately becoming an Evangelist – she set the tone during the Aggressive Interview, saying that the only reason she is still in the fraud game is because she keeps getting customers, and that the day she will go to her shrine and get no customers, that would be the sign that God is calling her to preach the gospel.

So, I am not at all surprised that the one time openly fraudulent juju woman is all of sudden telling the world she is now an angel of light. It is pure propaganda and a well calculated, well planned move by a dying cockroach gasping for breath and seeking to belong for her own selfish interest.

The other big reason why this move is the fakest and most demonic ever is that she was recently arrested for her fraudulent ways and she is facing possible jail sentence if she is tried and convicted.

She is on bail and she has decided to use her bail period to announce to the world, that overnight, she has crossed over from her hardcore evil ways to this angel of light who will lead people to Jesus Christ.

I am utterly scandalized by how cheap the gospel has been made – that all kinds of characters are parading around as preachers of the gospel, such that a hardcore fraudster could imagine that she can just come up one day and say that she is not just a Christian, but she is all of a sudden supposed to be addressed with one of the five gifts of Jesus Christ.

No one has to tell a discerning listener that it was a pure charade, a big fat lie, and just one more trick (Azaa!) on Ghanaians on many levels:

Azaa Number 1:

She knows that her arrest would mean people will stop visiting her shrine, so she set us up by saying the day people stop going to her shrine would be the day she will start preaching Christ.

Azaa Number 2

She is trying to look good so that the law enforcers will think she has turned a new leaf and she deserves pardon. This was the same woman who said her victims do not deserve pity because they brought it upon themselves. But now that her cup is full, she is trying to use propaganda to win sympathy.

Azaa Number 3

She is trying to get the Christian community, particularly, those who are like her but are now preaching the gospel (supposedly) to come to her aid and advocate for her.

Take note, that she reportedly called on Prophet Isaac Owusu Bempah to intervene on her behalf. Remember that not long ago, she openly donated GHC10,000 to Prophet Owusu-Bempah’s church and she was given a microphone to address the entire church like some dignitary.

On the occasion, Prophet Owusu Bempah kept referring to her as “our mother Agradaa”. So, she felt comfortable in her ways and now she has the effrontery and the impudence of a dying cockroach to demand payback from the man she donated money to. The devil does not give anything for free. There will always be payback time. Remember that.

Azigiza, Lord Kenya, Papa Shee, All4Real

We have examples of people who claimed they have converted from their past ways and turned to Christ and how it all played out. The genuine ones played out well, but the ones who think converting to a Christian is the same as becoming a pastor and running a church instantly, we saw what happened to them.

To name just a few – Azigiza Junior and Lord Kenya turned out well because they submitted to authority as baby Christians (not instant evangelists) and were brought up into what they have become today – true preachers of the gospel, trained and nurtured.

They did not deceive themselves to think because they were crowd pullers in their old lives, that was a sign of readiness to lead congregations.

I don’t know who fathered Papa Shee when he got converted. But he has become this supposed firebrand self-styled evangelist, not necessarily abusing God’s word, but he seems to criticize any and everybody, and tend to spiritualize any and everything.

Him, I think can get better when properly nurtured. But he seems to have a genuine conversion and a genuine passion for God.

On the contrary, we also saw Ofori Amponsah (Mr. All4Real) and his instant church planting move, and how it ended. He has gone back to secular music and abandoned the church.

In several interviews, he could not even quote a single biblical verse, not even the verse he claimed was his favorite verse. So, one wonders who made Agradaa an instant evangelist without the necessary nurturing every baby Christian goes through.

Clearly, her claim is so fake, it is not even funny. The bible says no one can take that office upon him or herself lightly. But the devil has no respect for the word of God. Do the math.

Zacchaeus Factor

The bible says, by their fruits you shall know them. Not by their claims. So, wild propagandist claims at a press conference is not the proof of what one truly is.

When Zacchaeus met Jesus, he proved his conversion by actions not by claims. He returned all the moneys he stole from his victims and even gave them way more than he took.

Nana Agradaa needed to have invited her victims and returned their moneys. If she did that, without even making any claims at a press conference, her conversion would have been obvious to all of us, and she would have probably won our admiration like Zacchaeus is today hailed in Bible history as one who truly got converted.

In fact, I really wonder what kind of journalists attended that charade of a press conference she organized. What kind of questions did they ask or were they just hired and paid to serve as extensions of Nana Agradaa’s PR outfit?

So they were just under obligation to highlight her final fraudulent trick on us, rather than asking the probing questions to expose the obvious Garden of Eden style old serpent tricks.

Thou shall not judge?

Typical of humans, when they do all the wrong things and get away with it, it is fair. The day their ills create a huge problem and you speak up, they throw the cheap cliché at you – thou shall not judge. This is a case in which the “thou shall not judge” cliché should be spared.

We all, including regulators, law enforcement and the Christian community, sit by and watch this kind of nonsense go on unquestioned and gradually, we are turning into a society where fraudsters like Nana Agradaa can command so much resources as to own two TV channels to promote nothing but their fraud and when their sins catch up with them, they conveniently turn round and say they are now angels of light.

And when you question their motive, they say “thou shall not judge.”

The fetish priestess who is alleged to have shepherded the two teens to go kill the 11-year-old boy at Kasoa recently for ritual money, can also come out today and claim she has converted and she is a Prophetess from today and that prophets in this country should see her as one of them and rally behind her to be freed from judgement so she can do the work of God. That would not bring the boy back to life though.

But Nana Agradaa wants us to believe that the interest of her victims don’t matter because they chose to be defrauded even though she also chose to be a fraudster, she deserves our sympathy and acceptance as an overnight angel of light.

My Bishop once said that the most evil people are very good at begging for clemency when their cups get full. They have a way of whipping up sympathy in people. Let’s not allow Nana Agradaa deceive anybody that she has converted and she is now a preacher. The only person whose interest she is seeking with this move is hers.

She has the means to call a press conference, hire (paid) pastors to go perform some charade rituals at her shrine, even though she claims there are no spirits involved in what she has been doing all this while; and then use her paid for connections with some questionable preachers to demand for support from the Christian community.

Nana Agradaa should fall on the powers she had served for all these years and also call on the juju and fraudsters community to support her. She should leave Christianity alone.

And why at all do such people always claim to have converted to Christianity, but not any other religion? Ponder over it, but do not be deceived by this trickster and fraudster of a woman who is only in her elements yet again, taking all the right steps to serve her interest and not the interest of Christ.

I leave it here.