Six persons seek to injunct Divine Healers Church emergency congress

Six people have filed an injunction application against the Registered Trustees of Divine Healers Church and five other apostles of the church for holding an emergency congress.

The six plaintiffs are seeking an order of injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from holding, organizing, or attending an emergency church congress that would take place purportedly to adopt and approve an amended constitution of the church prior to the convening of “an election congress in October 2024 to elect a new general overseer and other members of the National Executive Board.”

They also want the court to halt the “formal handing over to a new General Overseer and his National Executive Board in February 2025, as contained in the consent judgment of the court dated June 6, 2023, pending the determination of the suit.”

The Plaintiffs are also seeking an order of the court directing the defendants to immediately dissolve any committee or committees purportedly formed pursuant to the consent judgment and, as purportedly provided for in the said judgment, to play any “road map” role for the current General Overseer and his National Executive Board (NEB).

They are also praying to the court for an order directing the formation of a Consent Judgement Implementation Committee made up of three of the defendants’ representatives, three of the plaintiffs’ representatives, and a member of the leadership of the General Pentecostal and Charismatic Church (GPCC) to serve as chairperson.

The plaintiffs also asked for costs and damages.

They said if the defendants were not stopped from holding the Annual Church Congress as scheduled, it might be “inviting an uproar, resistance, and violent rebellion involving the destruction of church and personal property.”

The plaintiffs are Apostle Danel Mensah Attakpah, Chairman of the Pastoral Council of the Divine Healers Church.

The other plaintiffs, namely, Reverend Philip Attakpah, Johannes Ollenu, Rev. Jonathan Nyabu, Pastor Solomon Amenyo, and Pastor Ebenezer Nartey, are all pastors of the Divine Healers Church.

The first defendant is the administrative body of the Divine Healer’s Church.

The second defendant, Apostle Isaac Kwabena Adade, is the current General Overseer of the church; the third defendant is Apostle Maxwell Aryeetey Poster, the deputy General Overseer, who assists Apostle Adade in the day-to-day administration.

Apostle Kenneth Ashaley Addo, the fourth defendant, is the General Secretary of the church; the fifth defendant, Apostle Emmanuel Acquaye, is the chairman of the National Youth Ministry of the church; and the sixth defendant, Apostle Dora Edith Osekere, is the Women’s Fellowship Leader.

In a statement of claim, the plaintiffs said that in February 2023, they issued a writ of summons and an interlocutory injunction against the defendants for holding themselves in certain positions pending the determination of the suit.

The defendants also filed their affidavit in opposition. However, the GPCC, of which the church was a member, intervened and offered to attempt an amicable settlement.

After a series of meetings, issues between the two parties were resolved, the terms of the settlement were reduced to writing, and the same was adopted by the court as a consent judgment.

The plaintiffs said the very day the court entered judgment through the adoption of settlement terms, the defendants entered the church premises and proclaimed victory over the “devils” in reference to them (the plaintiffs).

According to the plaintiffs, the defendants resorted to referring to them as devils, made their lives miserable in the church, and victimized church members who also aligned with them.

They held that in less than two months, the defendants wielded unparalleled authority and started initiating plans to render the consent judgment of the court dated June 6, 2023, "nugatory.”

To torpedo and circumvent the Consent Judgment, the defendants organised a National Executive Board and National Trustees Meeting on July 18, 2023, and they ran all affairs.

The plaintiffs held that the defendants had abandoned the consent judgment, and they were busily changing the church’s constitution to prolong the second, third, fourth, and fifth defendants in office.

“The defendants have finalised their agenda to frustrate the consent judgment and render it nugatory by stamping the church with an emergency church congress slated for Friday, June 21, 2024, to approve amendments to the Constitution of the Church.”

In the secretly prepared document, plaintiffs averred that a copy of the Constitution of the Church was for adoption at the Emergency Congress on Friday, June 23, 2023.

According to plaintiffs, defendants have ridiculously made self-serving changes to the age limit to the effect that the retirement age must be 70 years and those already 70 and above must serve three additional years before retiring.