Head Pastor of the Zoe Outreach Embassy Church, Kelvin Kwesi Kobiri has been detained at the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service following protests by disgruntled customers.
Pastor Kobiri was escorted by police vehicles to the CID Headquarters Sunday after some members and customers who claim to have invested with two entities allegedly belonging to him; EL Real Estates and Tikowre Capital, besieged the church’s premises Sunday morning to demand for their investments.
According to them, monies worth millions which they invested in these companies have been locked up as several attempts to reach the man of God and retrieve their monies remain futile.
Holding placards with inscriptions including; ‘Pay us Kelvin’, ‘Criminal’, ‘Duab) benya Kelvin’, they chanted and rained curses on the man of God, demanding for their monies amidst strong military presence at the church premises.
Though they weren’t allowed into the premises by the security personnel, they insistently made their points, outside the gate where several of them had gathered.
Mr. Kobiri was, few hours after service, put in a police vehicle and escorted to the CID Headquarters for investigations. According to the police, the protests were not warranted because official permission wasn’t sought through writing from the police.
They therefore asked that the customers formally lodge a complaint at the CID Headquarters so due process is followed and subsequently, they are granted access to the man whom they say they have tried to reach in recent times.
This would be the second in two weeks that these customers have thronged the premises to register their grievances. They on the 16th of June stormed the church whilst service was ongoing and threatened to do their worse if their monies weren’t released.
They say all attempts to withdraw their dividends, principal from the two entities allegedly owned since last year have proven futile. Recent attempts to reach the man of God also through phone calls they maintain have also failed.
The disgruntled customers who said they invested because of the trust they had for the man of God say he betrayed their trust.
They added that even when other Microfinance institutions were going through crises, Pastor Kelvin Kobiri, owner of the companies and head pastor of Zoe Outreach Ministries was able to honour his companies’ financial obligations to them by paying¢90,000 of the invested capital,¢150,000.
They, therefore, had no reason to doubt the pastor when he promised to pay them the rest later. That, however, failed.
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