Residents want noisy pastor out!

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) -- Normally, for fear of being branded the anti-Christ', affected residents dare not complain against being kept awake by the din of songs and prayers sometimes associated with the entrenched culture of all-night church services in the country. Residents of an Ashanti suburb are finally saying to one such church that enough is enough.

The people of Ahenema-Kokobeng in the Bosomtwi-Atwima-Kwanwoma District in the Ashanti Region have appealed to the District Assembly to boot out a pastor who is gaining a reputation as a victim of eviction-Reverend Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom of the Ebenezer Miracle Center. His 'sins' appears to be for causing too much noise and obstruction in the area.


The resident contend that since the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Maxwell Kofi Dwumah, dislodged Rev. Yiadom form Santasi in Kumasi he has now put up camp at Ahenama Kokobeng, subjecting his new neighbours to a lot of unreasonable nuisance. A petition made available to The Statesman by the residents, stated that the Man of God has converted his house to a center of worship, causing residents to suffer a barrage of decibels-breaking cacophony and other health hazards on a daily basis.


He is, according to the petitioners, treating a key link road in the area as his personal property. They complain that he denies the public access to the road by putting up canopies when he conducts his ice. In addition, no toilet facilities have been provided by Rev. Yiadom and worshippers urinate on the walls of residents whilst children and infants also defecate indiscriminately around the area.

A visit by The Statesman confirmed the claims by the residents as this reporter was met with a repugnant smell in the vicinity of the worship-center. This gives the impression that the 'Man of God' may not fully appreciate that ''cleanliness in next to godliness’’. According to residents, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Bosomtwi-Atwima-Kwanwoma District, Bridget Addai Mumunkum, has been petitioned but nothing concrete has come out of it. Rev. Yiadom remains, in the words of the one local, a menace to our neighborhood,'' hence their appeal.


The Residents said those who have vehicles are force to park them several meters away from their houses when the Rev. Yiadom Miracle Session” is in progress because they cannot have access to their homes. Their hope is that the KMA boss will come to their aid with the sort of miracle sanction that will free them from his anti-social practices, so to speak.


In the same locality, the Asokwa Police have arrested Kwabena Badu, alias “Butchers”, a ‘matchoman’ who allegedly assaulted workers putting up a building at Ahenema-Kokobeng. In his cautioned statement to the Police, Butcher” alleged that he and two others, now on the run, were recruited by Rev. Yiadom but Pastor denies the accusation.