LAWYER DISCHARGED BY COURT

Dr Kwaku Nsiah, a lawyer and also head pastor of the Prevailing Prayers Ministries International in Accra has been discharged by an Accra circuit court on alleged charges of defrauding a Ghanaian resident in the USA of $16,000, under the pretext of securing US visas for two of his sons in Ghana.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Frank Manu, the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal Chairman, who sat as an additional circuit court judge, however, convicted and sentenced Ekow Davis, the man who was said to have received the money from the lawyer, to five years imprisonment for the offence.
The court said that it could not wait for the convict to locate someone he called Cosmos alleged to have received the money from him and held him responsible and convicted him on his own plea.
Ekow told the court that he should be given time to pay the money in bits since he could not locate Cosmos.
Dr Nsiah, the court said, paid ¢30 million to the complainant.
Dr Nsiah managed to secure a visa for one of sons of the complainant, Prosper Kwabena Agyei, but he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by Immigration officials who found the visa to be fake.
According to the facts of the case, Dr Nsiah attended a conference in the USA where he met Anthony Gyamfi, a Ghanaian based in America.
During their conversion, Dr Nsiah was said to have suggested to Mr Gyamfi that he could secure a visa for any of his relatives back in Ghana to join him.
It was agreed that payment would be remitted to the accused person for the necessary documents for the two men.
On December 17, 2005, Mr Gyamfi wired the $16,000 to Dr Nsiah who on January 26, 2006, presented a Ghanaian passport with number H1608933, in which the US visa had been embossed, to Agyei to board a North American Airline flight to the US.
Agyei was, however, arrested at the airport by Immigration officials for possessing forged travel documents.
It was Agyei’s father who authorised one Immigration official, Kyei Asiedu, to lodge a complaint for Dr Nsiah to be invited to the criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters for interrogation.
In his explanation to the court, Dr Nsiah said after the agreement with Agyei’s mother in the USA, Davis who was a member of his church could procure the visa.
He said the arrangement was the payment would not be remitted until the deal had gone through and within one week Davis brought the visa, a photocopy of which was sent to the USA, before he purchased a ticket for Agyei.
According to him, he did not know that the visa was fake and, therefore, he even accompanied Agyei to the airport.
He said that since the incident, Davis stopped attending church and also vacated where he lived. He was later arrested from his hideout
*Picture of Dr Nsiah