A woman accused of defrauding a businessman of GHC80,000 in a bogus land transaction has been granted bail by the Amasaman Circuit Court. Fifty-three-year-old Faustina Boatemaa, a house help, was released on a GHC100,000 bail with two sureties after pleading not guilty to the charge. She is scheduled to reappear before the court on August 7, 2025.
According to police accounts presented in court, the complainant, Samuel Tweneboah, a businessman residing in Satellite, was introduced to the alleged deal in September 2023 by a woman named Lydia Tweneboah. Lydia had been informed by Boatemaa that her brother, Patrick Darko—currently believed to be in South Africa—had a parcel of land measuring 0.12 acres, including an uncompleted church building, available for sale.
Lydia passed this information on to Samuel, and both of them later met with Boatemaa, who took them to inspect the land in Satellite. Following some negotiations, Boatemaa agreed to sell the land and the structure for GHC80,000. The buyer then made an initial part payment of GHC40,000.
The court heard that on September 15, 2023, a bank account number was sent by Darko to the complainant’s father-in-law, Richard Kwadu Sam, into which GHC20,000 was transferred. A separate GHC20,000 was again paid on October 2, 2023, into another bank account sent by Darko to the complainant, bringing the total to the agreed GHC80,000.
Boatemaa later handed over a land indenture to the buyer, which was later discovered to be fake. In December 2023, Tweneboah began preparing the land for development and delivered 1,000 cement blocks to the site. However, he soon received a voice message—reportedly from Darko—through his father-in-law, instructing him to vacate the land.
Upon returning to the location, Tweneboah discovered that a warning had been boldly written on the uncompleted structure, declaring it the property of the “Marbel family” and advising all others to keep off.
After unsuccessful efforts to contact either Boatemaa or Darko, the complainant reported the matter to the Adjen Kotoku Police. Investigations led to Boatemaa’s arrest. During police questioning, she admitted showing the land to the complainant and acknowledged receiving GHC40,000 as part of the total payment.
The police are now pursuing a court order to compel the banks involved in the transactions to release the identities and photographs of the account holders connected to the payments, in order to advance the investigation.