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The High Court in Accra has granted bail in the amount of GH ¢ 200,000 to Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah, chief pastor of Glorious Word Power Ministries International, detained for offensive conduct and threat of death.
Four other people suspected of being members of his church were also allowed to post a bond in the amount of GH ¢ 200,000 with two bonds to be justified.
The court chaired by Judge Comfort K. Tasiame ordered the defendants to report to the police every Friday until the final decision of the case.
Owusu Bempah and four others are said to have stormed the home of Patricia Oduro Koranteng, aka Agradaa, amid alleged threats.
The defendants were, on Monday, September 13 of this year, taken into custody by a circuit court in Accra chaired by Mrs. Afia Owusuaa Appiah.
The other four people who are members of Owusu Bempah Church are: Mensah Ofori, Adu Berchie (in general), Michael Boateng, Frederick Ohene and Nathaniel Agyekum.
Owusu Bempah and the other defendants were jointly charged with offensive conduct towards the breaches of the peace.
Additionally, Owusu Bempah faces a death threat charge.
Boateng, Ohene, Ofori and Agyekum have been charged with assaulting public officials and threatening to kill them.
Other than Berchie, all of the accused have pleaded not guilty.
The facts reported by the prosecution led by Chief Inspector Simeon Terkpetey are that the complainant was evangelist Patricia Oduro Koranteng, aka Agradaa.
He said that on September 9 of this year, around 5:30 p.m., the New Weija Police District Command received a distress call from Godfred Antwi from house number 36, Atta Mills Road, Aplaku, a suburb of Weija, to 3.30 p.m. That same day, Owusu Bempah, along with about 45 well-built men, besieged the Complainant’s Thunder Plaza in Weija to attack it.
The prosecution stated that Owusu Bempah and the men did not meet the complainant at her residence, they went to the complainant’s second home in New Aplaku and threatened her with words: “We are going to kill you ”.
He said police attended the scene and saw the men holding swords and other offensive weapons screaming amid insults at the house.
According to the Prosecution, eight vehicles and motorcycles were also parked in the street in front of the applicant’s house.
He said Owusu Bempah was also seen sitting in a black Toyota Land Cruiser instructing and urging the men to move into the complainant’s house and get her out.
The prosecution said the situation had been brought under control and the complainant and Owusu Bempah had been invited to the police station.
He said Owusu Bempah ignored the police and left with his men (group).
The prosecution said the Weija Police Divisional Command formally wrote to Owusu Bempah to report back to help with investigations, but refused to accept the letter.
On September 12 this year, police identified some of the young men, including Mensah Ofori, an associate pastor at Owusu Bempa Church, as two of the people in a viral video threatening the complainant and wielding a pistol.
Police officers in the Toyota Corolla with registration number NR 9602-20 went to Owusu Bempah Church to arrest Mensah Ofori.
The prosecution said another team of plainclothes police went to arrest Mensah Ofori, Berchie, Boateng and Ohene at Dansoman Police Station.
He said Owusu Bempah, after spotting the police, ordered members of his church to “beat and kill them”.
The prosecution said church members beat police in the midst of gunfire, disarmed police with two service rifles and vandalized the vehicle the police were using.
He said Owusu Bempah also ordered members of his church to go to Dansoman police station to release Mensah Ofori, Boateng and Ohene.
He said in the process, two policemen were injured.
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