Church petitions Interior Minister over attack on members by thugs

Lawyers for Saviour Church of Ghana have petitioned the Minister of the Interior to help conduct thorough investigations into an attack on members of the church by the Saviour Church at the Asante-Akyem North in the Ashanti Region.

The petition was contained in a letter written and signed by Mr Atta Akyea, an Accra-based legal practitioner and copied to the Ghana News Agency at Gomoa-Nyanyano.

According to the petition, bringing the perpetrators to book would serve as a strong warning to the followers of the Saviour Church at Akyem Osiem in the Eastern Region.

The petition said in the democratic dispensation which is under-pinned by the rule of law, it is reprehensible for thugs organized by “a so-called rival church” to visit their violence on a solemn church.

The petition stated that the Church reported the incident to the Police at Konongo and invited them to intervene in the acts of lawlessness.

It stated that the church scheduled a convention between September 27 and September 30 at Juansa in Asante-Akyem and obtained Police permit to go ahead with the church activities.

The petition expressed regret that the Police showed up and virtually supervised the continuation of the mayhem and violence without arresting the attackers.

It said the thugs, wielding cutlasses, stones, pistols and gallons of petrol besieged the open-air church service destroyed the platform, chairs, tents and  battered some of the members.

The thugs also vandalized five vehicles; two belonged to Opanin Elia Asirifi Badiako, Spiritual Head of Saviour Church of Ghana.

The petition therefore appealed to the Minister to bring the attackers to book since this was not the first time the perpetrators had caused mayhem and lawlessness against followers of the Saviour Church of Ghana.

The petition said records at the Register General’s Department showed that it was only Saviour Church that had registered as a body to organize church activities.

Source: GNA