The concept of the one-man church in Ghana and many parts of the world has its foundation built on the events on the Road to Damascus, captured in the Acts of Apostles. We are told that Saul, on a mission to destroy the base of Jesus’ disciples, was struck down by the Holy Ghost. He converted and became the pillar of Christianity.
Name them! Archbishop Duncan Williams, one of the most powerful voices in charismatic Christianity in this country, stowed away twice – to Italy and France. He was arrested and repatriated back home before he found God. The story is told that he lost two fingers because he was directed by the Holy Ghost to burn them on a candle as a test of his new belief. That is what the official version says. In religion, the doctrine is to believe.
We are told that the man, who rose to become Evangelist Emmanuel Apraku’s journey to the pinnacle of Christian power, began his missionary service with an encounter with the Almighty himself. Apparently, God decided to speak in English to the man who never understood a word of the Queen’s language.
“Apraku my daughter,” the Almighty supposedly addressed the new convert. Apraku my daughter went from there to become one of the most powerful leaders in charismatic Christianity. At the peak of his powers, he controlled 24 churches dotted around the country.
Last week, social media went agog with video footages of the so-called Man of God walking dejectedly and terribly under the influence of alcohol. The next day, his lifeless body was discovered in his room. The jury is out on what might have killed the evangelist. The popular opinion in town is that Apraku my daughter might have taken his own life. ‘Anim Guase Mfata Akani Ba.’ Loosely translated, it means the Akan child does not deserved to be disgraced.
Just when the death of Apraku my daughter was occupying most space in social and main-stream media, it emerged that the all-powerful self-styled Angle Daniel Obinim, Founder and Leader of the International Godsway Church, was under arrest.
The police swooped on the self-styled angel on Tuesday May 19, following a complaint by Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, the maverick Assin Central Member of Parliament, who has resolved to unmask all fake pastors in this country.
The news in the drama was not the arrest per se. The sudden collapse of the so-called powerful religious leader provided all the beef. Virtually wobbling from the knees, Angel Obinim was said to have been conducting a counseling session when the police arrived.
When the police announced that they were in to arrest him, the so-called clergyman, who claimed to feature in people’s dreams and has all knowledge under the sun, suddenly complained that he was terribly ill. He had to be rushed to a medical facility for attention before being taken to the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters in Accra.
This was the same Obinim who forced a middle-aged woman to carry a bag of cement and made her to run around his chapel complex in Kumasi, just because she had failed to stake lotto numbers given her by the so-called Bishop.
Since his release on GH¢100,000 bail, video clips of him sprinkling money in foreign currencies are doing the rounds on social media. Unfortunately, that might not be the end of Obinim’s Wahala.
The Assin Central Member of Parliament has told Joy News that he has also reported the leader of the International Godsway Church to the Economic and Organised Crime Office to investigate Obinim for suspected cases of money laundering.
Mr. Agyapong told the television network that he is not targeting pastors per se. “I am targeting fake pastors,” he explained. According to the MP, the self-styled Bishop Obinim claimed to have bought property in the United States with 110 rooms. “There is no house in America with 110 rooms,” the MP said. What Mr. Agyapong claims to know is that Obinim has some property in Spain. Money was sent from Ghana for those projects. That it would interest EOCO to unravel the money laundering involved,” Mr. Agyapong said.
Meanwhile, another self-styled Man of God is challenging Mr. Agyapong to a contest of powers. Prophet Francis Antwi, otherwise known in the pulpit as Obofour, says he would destroy the Assin Central Member of Parliament if he dared treat him like what he has done to Obinim.
The Member of Parliament for Assin Central has not responded. But Mr. Agyapong has got a helping hand from an unlikely source. A Fetish Priestess, Nana Agradaa, whose source of power is also in dispute, has challenged Obofuor to speak ill of Kennedy Agyapong. Nana Agradaa is a fetish priest who claims to conjure money from thin air.
The festish priestess is also calling on the police to arrest Obofuor. Speaking on her own private station, Thunder TV, the fetish priestess, described by many as fake, alleged that Rev. Obofuor is a fake man of God who is manipulating Ghanaians in the name of Christianity. In the end, he rips his victims off, Nana Agradaa asserted.
Religion in Ghana is becoming an avenue for fake men and women of God to defraud their congregation and live lavishly on their ill-gotten wealth. Suddenly, the pulpit is becoming a goldmine for false prophets. In one instance, a man calling himself Dr. Jesus constructed an anthill in his church’s auditorium.
After each prayer session, the women members of the congregation were mandated to carry portions of the sand dune home and to prepare food with it for their husbands. By so doing, the marriage is supposed to prosper.
It did not take long for Dr. Jesus to visit his ancestors under very strange circumstances. Apparently, his ghost is still directing the church from the bowels of the earth. The word around Kasoa to Budumburam is that the widow of Dr. Jesus has taken over the spiritual direction of the church.
At Sunday services, the widow would address the congregation on the word from the departed leader. “Papa Se…” Father says… Religion is indeed an opiate. In Ghana, most channels on television are controlled by pastors and men and women of God without proper credentials, who have turned the pulpit into a gold mine.
It is unfortunate, but religion, which is supposed to lead to salvation, is rather fleecing the individual and endangering lives in this part of the world.
One would have thought that the National Communication Authority would stamp its feet on the naked robbery on radio and television and sanitise the airways. Rather, the sight is of men and women filling sacks full of national and international currencies.
It is obvious that most these acts are tricks. They end up with people tricked into parting with their life-savings. What was enacted at Adeiso in the Eastern Region recently, when a retired military officer lost his savings as well as his life, should inform the National Communication Authority to act fast.
It is said that Mr. Papafio virtually withdrew entire his life’s savings from the bank and headed for the Power One Herbal and Spiritual Centre. Instead of getting his money doubled, the ex-soldier was shot dead, his head chopped off, and his torso buried in a mass grave at the shrine.
In the name of seeking spiritual power and fortune, many innocent Ghanaians are getting murdered. Impudently, many of the murderers advertise themselves on a daily basis on radio and television.
In this day and age, Mallams and Fetish Priests/Priestesses are advertising their activities nakedly on radio and television, claiming to make people rich overnight.
When Nana Appiah Mensah advertised that his Mensgold could turn people’s investments around quickly, and make investors rich overnight without the necessary documentation, he was arrested. Why is the state looking the other way while tricksters use the name of God to fleece innocent Ghanaians off their hard-earned savings?
Sadly, all these tricks are in the open. We are bombarded daily with false claims from the likes of Nana Agradaa and other compatriots live on radio and television. It is as if the moment God is mentioned, everything is sacred.
The Bible warns of false prophet making themselves loose as Jesus Christ prepares to comeback. But I am of the opinion that we could do something to rid this society of these false men of God, even before the Saviour returns.
In Nigeria, Bishop Oyedepo, Founder of Winners Chapel, claimed to have had an encounter with God at the age of 28. He now has four jet planes. He is also listed as one of the richest men of God alive. His banter with Pastor Agyeman over the repatriation of church revenue from Ghana to Nigeria was played out in the open.
Last month, Prophet T.B. Joshua, Founder and Leader of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, prophesised that the Covid-19 the pandemic bringing sorrow to all parts of the world, would come to an end on 27 March, 2020.
When the prediction failed, he took television cameras to a his mountain retreat and announced that he was in communion with God, and that he would fast and pray until the virus came to an end.
The Coronavirus is devastating the world in the worst manner. The so-called man of God is back home enjoying his ‘Eba’. Does anybody remember Oral Roberts? At one point in time, he was the world’s best know Evangelist. When the Federal Government of America came chasing him over unpaid taxes, he relocated to the tower at his university and threatened never to come down until his congregation paid off the debt. He is now safely in the bosom of the earth, visiting his ancestors.
Religion is in the hearth! I do not think those who founded Christianity intended it to defraud members of the congregation. The state has a duty to act.
I shall return!
The post Criminals in Cassock – Ebo Quansah in Accra appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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