Winners Chapel Battle Begins

The legal rumpus over the ownership of the Winners Chapel properties between Winners Chapel Ghana and Winners Chapel International yesterday formally began at an Accra Fast-Track High Court.

Members of both churches, who stormed the court premises, filled the courtroom to capacity while some stood outside in anticipation of the proceedings.

They were however disappointed when the case had to be adjourned to October due to the legal vacation which is just a couple of weeks away.

Bishop George Agyeman of Winners Chapel Ghana who broke away from Winners Chapel International, the mother church and one of the defendants in the case, looked calm and well composed when the case was called in a court presided over by Justice K. Ofori-Atta.

Bishop Agyeman and fifteen other church elders have been sued by the Winners Chapel International, founded by Bishop David Oyedepo, with its headquarters in Nigeria, for still occupying the church building after they broke away four years ago.

Bishop Agyeman, reportedly, was a pastor of the church in Nigeria serving under Bishop Oyedepo, till he was transferred to Ghana by the founder to help propagate the gospel and form another branch of Winners.

The bishop arrived and spearheaded the growth of the church, which became very popular in the country till things took a nosedive.

Allegations of incompetence were raised by some elders of the church in Nigeria against Mr. Agyeman, who also said the church in Ghana had been paying $100,000 a month to the mother church, a development which sparked a national debate on whether churches should pay taxes since they could contribute so much for a mother church outside the country.

Some of the church members sided with the resident bishop in the heat of the altercation after he was said to have been dismissed from the church and opted out of the mother church to form Winners Chapel Ghana but refused to leave the church premises.

The mother church moved to another location and took the matter to court and now wants an order to take back the church which it claims is its property.

Bishop Oyedepo's church as well wants a declaration that Bishop Agyeman is illegally using the church and is a trespasser.

The mother church was represented by the resident pastors of the Ghana branch and had Thadeus Sory as their counsel, while Bishop Agyeman and his co-defendants had lawyers from Quarshie Idun Chambers in Accra representing them.

After the adjournment members of both sides were seen in groups discussing the case.

A woman donning a Winners Chapel Ghana T-shirt who pleaded anonymity told DAILY GUIDE that there was no way Winners Chapel International could come all the way from Nigeria and claim properties that they as church members in Ghana had contributed to own.

According to her everything in the church was bought with contributions from the members of the church, and not from Nigeria.

A pastor, believed to be from the mother church, refused to comment on the matter, saying once the mater was in court everything should be left to the Judge.

By Fidelia Achama