Two pastors of Ghana New Life Evangelistic Association remanded by an Accra Circuit Court over alleged forgery of documents have each been granted GH¢500,000 bail.
Alex Osei, 52, and Peter Enyo, 45, were arrested on December 21, 2021, and January 24, 2022, after a complaint was lodged with the police.
They were said to have filed a suit against the church director at an Accra High Court, and forging the signatures of some other pastors of the church without their consent.
The accused persons, who were on remand, were granted bail by the court presided over by Emmanuel Essandoh to reappear on April 4, 2022.
Giving the brief facts of the case, police prosecutor Chief Inspector Eric Pobee stated that the complainants in the case are Kwaku Twumasi Asante, a resident of Tabora-Accra; Jonathan Bannerman, a resident of Mendskrom-Accra; and Appiah Kubi, a resident of Asante Bekwai.
According to him, the accused persons and the complainants are pastors and members of the Ghana New Life Evangelistic Association headquartered in Germany, where they used to receive financial assistance from.
He narrated that the pastors and the affected members detected that their signatures had been forged on a number of documents by some group of pastors, including first and second accused persons, with intent to take over the association and its property from the German founder, Rev. John Andre.
Inspector Pobee said this act compelled Rev. John Andre to suspend the financial remittances, beginning from February 2020.
As a result, a meeting was held at Kasoa for all the members, including the complainants, in an effort to have the issue addressed.
“In the course of the meeting, the first accused person (Alex) insisted that all the members present at the meeting, including the complainants, write their names and also append their signatures in the attendance book,” the prosecutor pointed out.
Inspector Pobee added that some months after the meeting, the complainants realised that first and second accused persons had forged their signatures to bring a legal action against one of their directors.
On December 21, 2021, a complaint was lodged with the police leading to the arrest of the first accused person, who admitted the offence, and mentioned the second accused person as one of his accomplices who assisted him in preparing the said forged documents.
The prosecutor stated that on January 24, 2022, a second accused person was also arrested, but the duo failed to lead the police to reach other accomplices.
After investigation, the two were charged with the offence of forgery and arraigned thereof.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey