Six pastors of the Divine Healer’s Church have dragged their General Overseer and five other leaders of the church to court to challenge their continuous stay in office.
The plaintiffs claim that even though the term of the General Overseer, Apostle Isaac Kwabena Adade, expired in 2016, he had indicated that “the Holy Spirit has revealed through prophecies that he and his team should remain in office.”
According to the plaintiffs, Apostle Daniel Mensah Attakpah, Rev. Philip Attakpah, Johannes Ollenu, Rev. Jonathan Nyabu, Pastor Solomon Amenyo and Pastor Ebenezer Nartey, though Apostle Adade had made claims that his stay in office was as a result of prophecies, when his own cousin a Reverend Minister of the church also claimed that the same Holy Spirit had revealed to him to open a prayer camp, he sacked his cousin and told him that “go and work with the Holy Spirit outside the Church.”
The writ that was filed on 15th February this year, in a High Court in Accra, noted that after the death of the Founder of the church in 1989, the leadership and membership of the church, which has over 1,900 branches in Ghana, developed a Constitution in 1999.
The Constitution of the Church indicates that the term of office of members of the National Executive Board shall be five years, and members shall be eligible for re-appointment for a second term.
The plaintiffs noted that the second term of Apostle Adade and the five other defendants, the trustees, Apostles, Maxwell Aryeetey Foster, Kenneth Ashaley Addo, Emmanuel Acquaye and Dora Edith Osekre, had ended.
“Apostle Adade attained the age limit of 65 years in 2011 and having remained in office unconstitutionally in office for a second term as General Overseer and member of the National Executive Council, which ended in 2016, the defendants have succeeded remaining in their positions indefinitely by spiritual subterfuge in the name of purported prophecies by Apostle Adade.”
They stressed that “Any attempt to challenge the purported prophecies is considered as lack of religious faith in God and belief in God’s word, in short and abominable act.
The plaintiffs maintained that having realised that tension is mounting on them, the defendants have, without any consultations with the membership of the church, engaged a lawyer to amend the constitution of the church to remove the term limits and age limits on election of church leaders.
The plaintiffs are therefore seeking from the court, among others, a declaration that the continuous stay of the defendants is unconstitutional and an order to direct them to render audited accounts to the new leaders who will be appointed.
In their statement of the defense, the defendants argued that various amendments have been effected on the constitution hence their continuous stay in office.
They emphasized that according to Article 9.16 of their Constitution, “the retiring age of all serving officers shall be 65 years, nevertheless if in the opinion of the National Executive Board an officer is healthy enough to continue in the full Ministry, he may do so on contract basis subject to the approval of the congress, if a Minister’s health or circumstances will not permit him to continue in the full-time ministry, he may prematurely retire.”
