"Man of God" on sex rampage

Mosano (Central Region) -- Prophet Miritaiah Jonah Jehu-Appiah, otherwise known as Akaboha III?s 30 years reign as head of the Musama Disco Christo Church (MDCC) and Omanhene of Mosano, may soon come to an end.

He may be banished from Mosano, the headquarters of the church in the Central Region, following his alleged sexual escapades and adulterous life over the years that has brought the name of the Lord into muddy waters.

Already, the beleaguered bishop is in the second month of his indefinite suspension from carrying out any activity for the church. To ensure the smooth running of the church, a five-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) has been formed, The Ghanaian Chronicle can reveal.

The suspension of Akaboha III, which took effect late December, last year, was the fall out from a report of an internal investigative team set up by the church to investigate allegations of uncontrollable sexual jaunts and adulterous life of the head pastor published by Bold and Beautiful, an Accra weekly newspaper last November.

The Ghanaian Chronicle gathered that after the publication, the leadership of the church met Prophet Jehu-Appiah and set up a team to look into the publication. At the end of that meeting, a four-member team, which comprised Mord Jehu-Appiah, Pastor Jehu-Appiah, Rev J.K.K. Bagyina and Rev Quansah, were delegated to meet the editor of the paper, Kofi Sarfo, a leading sports journalist, over the publication.

Reacting to the allegations, the spokesman for Akaboha III, Mord Jehu-Appiah, denied that the bishop had been suspended. ?What happened is that after the allegations were published against Akaboha, the church decided that he should stay away from all the external activities performs he performs on behalf of the church, therefore, as far as I am concerned he has not been suspended,? he said.

Again, he claimed that the newspaper did not release any names of the said victims his brother was reported to have seduced. He however, admitted a committee had been formed to investigate all the allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against Akaboha. ?I will be surprised if there is any truth in the allegations against the bishop after the investigations,? he said.

The spokesman, contended that the team that went to the offices of the newspaper over the publication was not assigned by the church. ?For instance, I was part of the team that went to see the editor and his publisher but I was not sent by the church. I was there in my personal capacity so nobody should say we were sent by the church to verify what was published,? he stated.

He further denied that Akaboha pleaded with anybody to contact the editor of the paper to stop further publication. Again Mord contended that this year?s L?ODOMEY, the highest body conference, did not witness any trouble that led to an abrupt end of the six-day conference on the second day.

Chronicle is studying a number of resolutions calling for the removal of Akaboha and other documents about his dynasty since 1972. During the meeting with the paper, names of some of the victims Akaboha was alleged to sexually abused were partially dropped.

Coincidentally, when the list of the victims, who are mostly minors, was unsealed, it happened that some of them were the daughters of the two of the pastors who were seated at the table questioning the authenticity of the publication.

When the names were released, the pastors could not believe their ears. As they could not withstand the shock they thanked Sarfo and Bob, the publisher, called off the meeting.

On their arrival at Mosano, the delegation pleaded with the elders of the church who sent them to give them time to do some in-house investigations. The Ghanaian Chronicle gathered that one morning after family devotion, the senior pastors, whose daughters? names were mentioned as victims of the head pastor of the MDCC, confronted their wards. Their encounters with their daughters yielded fruits when the young girls decided to spill the beans.

The girls, sources say, painted a horrifying picture and sordid account of how the man of God and leader of the church, over the years, had been sexually abusing them. At the end of their account their parents, who are all senior pastors, could not help but break into uncontrollable tears.

There was also this sad account by one of the victims (name withheld) who is now 16 years old girl and JSS2 that left the Chronicle gasping for breath. She narrated how Akaboha took her from a preparatory school in the Central Region under the pretext that he was going to buy provisions for her and drove the girl all the way to Accra. He ended up checking into a hotel and seducing her.

This took place when the girl in question was 13 years. ?After abusing me, he warned me not to tell anybody and drove me back to the school but I could not keep the matter to myself because I nearly died that day as blood started oozing from my private part, so I could not hide it, and I told my seniors who, together with the headmistress of the school, treated me. But because of fear of the prophet, the case did not travel outside the campus of the school.

After pleading, he also told the pastors that he was going to keep himself in confinement, fast for 21 days and pray for forgiveness. The Ghanaian Chronicle gathered that after the exposure by the daughters of the pastors, they reported to the preliminary investigative team, which further made their findings known to the elders and Akaboha.

The paper picked from sources that when the investigative team submitted their report and asked Jehu-Appiah whether he was going to contest the newspaper in court and whether he disagreed with the team?s findings, he told the baffled pastors to quickly trace Sarfo and the publisher to plead with them to ceasefire.

To made things known to other pastors, in foreign lands and outside the church headquarters, there was no better occasion than to convene an L?Odomey conference on 23 to 28 this year but the conference ended abruptly on the second day.

The reason! Chronicle learnt, was that when all the pastors and other leaders congregated for the L?Odomey, the IMC informed them what had transpired and why they had been appointed to hold the fort.

After their briefing, it was unanimously agreed that Jehu-Appiah was not morally and spiritually fit to chair the conference since he was already serving a suspension for abuse of his stewardship. But his mother, Matabinian Akatitibi II, who is the queenmother of Mosano, would not agree.

She insisted that her son should be allowed to preside over the L?Odomey conference but the pastors and elders refused and brought the conference to an abrupt end on the second day. ?We all want to go to heaven so we cannot sit down to allow any moral and spiritual bankrupt had to destroy what we have built over the years,? a pastor who spoke to the Chronicle, on anonymity pointed out.