Prophet Akaboha seduces woman & daughters

THE AGONA Swedru High Court was last Thursday told how the de-frocked Prophet Miritiah Jonah Jehu-Appiah, Akaboha III, of the Musama Disco Christo Church (MDCC) seduced two daughters of a woman with whom he had been in sexual relationship.

The woman (name withheld) made this revelation when she gave evidence at the hearing of a suit brought against the former Akaboha by the leadership of the church.

In the suit, filed in March 2003, the church is seeking, among other things, a declaration that the defendant had been lawfully and permanently removed from office as the leader and General Head Prophet of the MDCC on February 2003.

Narrating her story, witness who is married to one of the senior pastors of the church, told the court that she considered what the prophet did to her and her two daughters by having sexual affair with them as a taboo and inhumane.

She said that she and the Akaboha were in a relationship for six years but when everything was pointing to a marriage he left her in the lurch and married another woman.

She told the court that she later got married to her current husband and she could not believe it when it was discovered that her two daughters had fallen victim to Akaboha's seduction. She said she had since been going through pains over what the Prophet had done to them.

In her testimony, one of the daughters (name withheld) narrated how Prophet Jehu-Appiah drugged her and sexually abused her.

She told the court that the Akaboha got her transferred from Nsuaem Secondary School in the Western Region to Agona Swedru Secondary School after he told the school authorities that her father, a Pastor of the MDCC, had been transferred to Abidjan to head the church there and he lied to her that her mother had also passed away.

According to the witness, Akaboha told her that since her mother was dead and her father had been transferred, he was going to look after her in school and would therefore want her to be released to Agona Swedru, which was not far from Mosano, the headquarters of the Church.

The witness, then in SS 1, said upon what the school authorities heard, she was released to Akahoha who brought her to Swedru Secondary School where she was admitted without the knowledge of her mother and father.

She said some weeks after her arrival at Swedru Secondary, the school went on midterms holidays and the Prophet arranged for her to be picked to Mosano.

On reaching Mosano she was sent to the Prophet's house and was served tea which turned out to be laced with drugs because when she took it she became unconscious until the next day when she woke up around 4.30am to discover that she had been sexually abused and was being given medical treatment by a doctor.

The witness said she felt pains all over her body and discovered that she was no more in her school uniform but rather she was covered with a big towel.

She also discovered that cotton wool had been inserted in her private part.

According to the girl the Akaboha later sent some one to invite her uncle to his house when he realized that her condition was getting bad.

Witness rejected defence counsel's suggestion that she was lying to the court, insisting that Prophet Jehui-Appiah himself was aware that what she was telling the court was the total truth.

Messrs Keddey, Bodza-Lumor and Asempah of AMETA chambers at Takoradi are representing the Akaboha while the leadership of the MDCC has Messrs Charles Bentum, Kofi Frimpong and Fredrick Nii Quaye of W.A. N. Adumua-Bossman chambers as their counsel.

The case was adjourned to October 21, 2004 after the judicial vacation.