Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah
The prosecution in the trial of the General Overseer of Glorious Word Power Ministry International, Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah, and three others, has called its first witness in the matter.
The popular cleric is accused of allegedly abetting his co-accused persons to assault some police officers and causing damage to a police patrol vehicle.
The prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Dennis Terkpetey, called its first witness, Inspector Rudolf Welbeck, after the defence failed to secure an adjournment.
Daniel Amankwah, who held brief for Gary Nimako Marfo, counsel for the accused persons, had told the court Wednesday that the substantive counsel in the matter had petitioned the Attorney General in respect of the case.
He said counsel was hoping that the court will put the trial on hold, pending the determination of the petition by the Attorney General.
Chief Inspector Terkpetey opposed the move and argued that the petition to the Attorney General does not operate as a stay of proceeding.
He said the petition was addressed to the Attorney General and therefore he, as the prosecutor, has not received any instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions nor his superiors; and because of that, they were ready to call their first witness.
The court, presided over by Her Honour Rosemary Tosu, in its ruling, held that the petition to the Attorney General was not a motion hence could not operate as a stay of proceeding.
She said if counsel for the accused wanted to file a motion then he should do so formally on notice and serve the prosecution to respond.
She, therefore, ruled that the case can continue. The prosecution subsequently named Inspector Rudolf Welbeck as their first witness.
His witness statement, together with the attached exhibits, was admitted as his evidence-in-chief without any objections from the defence.
The case was adjourned to February 22, 2022 for the defence to cross-examine the witness.
Trial
Rev. Owusu-Bempah is on trial for allegedly instigating an assault on some police officers who attempted to arrest the accused persons as a result of events flowing from alleged threat of death issued out to fetish priest-turned-evangelist, Patricia Oduro Koranteng, aka Okomfo Agradaa.
Court documents indicate that following the events at Agradaa’s house, the police identified two of the accused persons in an alleged viral video as brandishing pistols during the commotion.
The facts of the case indicated that the complainants who are police officers had visited Rev. Owusu-Bempah’s church at Sakaman, Accra, to arrest Mensah Ofori and Bright Berchie but when they got there, another team of plain cloth officers have already arrested Mensah Ofori and taken him to the Dansoman Police Station, near Accra.
“The first accused (Rev. Owusu-Bempah) on seeing the police personnel ordered his church members to beat and kill them. He further ordered the church members to march to Dansoman Police Station to free Mensah Ofori,” the facts of the case indicated.
It continued that “some of the church members set upon the police and beat them up amidst firing of gunshots, disarmed the police of two service rifles and vandalised Toyota Corolla saloon car with registration number NR 9602-20. Four police men were injured in the process and admitted at the Police Hospital for treatment.”
It added that investigations led to the retrieval of one of the service weapons from a church member while the second weapon was retrieved through the help of the station officer of Dansoman Police.
By Gibril Abdul Razak