The Accra Circuit Court ‘9’ has deferred the sentence of a businessman who doubles as a Pastor, Seth Kwame Sallah, to today, November 15, 2022.
The court, presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah, pronounced the accused guilty of forgery of judicial documents and possession of forged documents last week Thursday.
However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges, and, therefore, went through almost one and half years of a full trial.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Evans Kesse, according to him, both the complainant, Anang Atoklo, and the accused were businessmen and reside at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region.
He said during the year 2014, the accused had a barter arrangement with the complainant, by which the latter supplied the former with building blocks, and instead of paying him he was offered four plots of land located at Apollonia, with documents covering the said property.
The complainant went ahead to register the land in his name at the Lands Commission. However, in November 2020, the accused went to the complainant and asked him to vacate the land, pointing to a statutory declaration allegedly signed by Anang.
The complainant denied knowledge of the said statutory declaration and submitted the said document to the Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis.
Interestingly, the forensic analysis results validated the complainant’s suspicions, that the signature on the Statutory Declaration was not authentic.
The complainant reported the matter to police, and during investigations, several invitations were extended to the accused, including through his Secretary and his son, but were all turned down by him.
A criminal summons was served on the Pastor before he appeared before the court on August 7, 2021.
