Court remands evangelist for defilement

Mampong (Ash), Jan. 27, GNA – A self styled evangelist, who allegedly defiled a 14-year girl, under the pretext of healing her of epilepsy, has been remanded into prison custody by the Asante-Mampong District Magistrate Court.

The plea of Kwadwo Danquah, 26, was neither taken nor the facts of the case read in court.

The Magistrate, Mrs Joyce Bamfo, ordered that he should be brought back on February 7.

Police Inspector Lawrence Okou, Officer in-charge of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) in the Asante-Mampong Municipality, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the accused together with another evangelist, Emmanuel Kofi Acheampong, now on the run, arrived at Mampong from Kumasi on January 23, at about 2030 hours.

They went straight to the local FM Radio Station, bought air time and preached for 30 minutes, during which they invited the sick and those afflicted with social problems to visit them the next day at the Video City Hotel for spiritual healing and counseling.

Police Inspector Okou said the victim's mother, Mrs Sharifatu Adams, advised the victim, who is an epileptic, to visit the suspects at the hotel for assistance.

On arrival, Acheampong took the victim to the room where he was lodging under where the said praying and healing through the use of anointing oil, would take place.

While in the room, the suspect laid her on the bed, undressed, and massaged her private parts with some of the anointing oil and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.

Inspector Okou said after the act, Danquah the accomplice, also took the victim to his room and had sex with her.

Danquah then ordered the victim to wash down in a bath tub in the room because she had been completely healed of all her sicknesses and go home.

On the way home, she met the mother and narrated her ordeal to her.

The mother informed a police officer in a nearby rented police quarters, who accompanied them to the hotel to arrest them but Acheampong managed to escape.

GNA