[ 2011-11-15 ]

Pastor arrested for holding noisy Church activities
The head pastor of the Accra branch of the
Ebenezer Miracle Worship Centre, Mr Richard
Newman, has been arrested by the police for
allegedly holding noisy church activities in
breach of an interim injunction placed on the
church by the Adjabeng Court.

Mr Newman is currently in the custody of the
Ministries' Police Station in Accra.

On September 27, this year, the Adjabeng Court
placed an injunction on the church's activities
until the final determination of a case regarding
excessive noise nuisance.

The case, which should have been heard on November
11, 2011, was adjourned.

The church, located at Flower Pot on the Spintex
Road with headquarters in Kumasi and headed by
Reverend Ebenezer Adarkwa-Yiadom, popularly known
as Opambour, aka Prophet One, was closed down by
the the Public Health Department of the Accra
Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on October 4, this
year.

Explaining further the rationale for Mr Newman's
arrest, the Director of Public Health Department,
Dr Simpson Anim Boateng, stated that the
leadership of the church continued to hold church
activities in contempt of the court's order even
after they had posted on the church premises the
court's order which restrained them from doing
so.

Consequent to that, Dr Boateng said he wrote to
the Accra Regional Police Command stating among
others that "contrary to the court's order, the
pastor is organising a big church service today,
November 8, 2011, on the church premises. In fact,
the church has completely disregarded the court's
order and has been holding church service twice a
week ever since the order was given. I wish to
solicit your support to arrest the church leaders
and seize their instruments for use as exhibits at
the court".

When a six-member team from Monitors, a unit under
the Accra Regional Command, arrived on the church
premises about 11 a.m. on Sunday, November 13, it
was time for offertory amid loud praises, which
called for the immediate arrest of Mr. Newman.

A statement from the District Magistrate, Mrs.
Faustina M Addington, which issued the restraining
order, states: "The accused person and his other
pastors are hereby restrained from doing any act-
acts, that is, holding church services, prayer
meetings to disturb the peace of the
residents/complainants till the final
determination of the case. It is hereby further
ordered that, failure to comply with the orders of
this court, accused to be with the police".

Readers will recall that in the October 5, 2011
edition of the Daily Graphic, the AMA Public
Health Department posted the court’s Order on
the premises of the church after securing the
injunction.

On February 22, 2010, a team of personnel from the
AMA Public Health Department was dispatched to the
premises of the Ebenezer Miracle Worship Centre to
investigate complaints of excessive noise-making
levelled against the church to the Mayor of Accra,
Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, and Dr Boateng by some
aggrieved residents on the Spintex Road.

“Upon reaching the church premises, the accused
person and his congregation, who were then
worshipping at a high noise level, were asked to
stop and produce relevant documents permitting
them to operate as a church but they refused to do
so,” the report said.

The report indicated that on July 13, 2010, a team
of officers from the department carried out
another investigation when the church was having
one of its evening services with a digital sound
level meter and measured the noise level to be as
high as 88.5 decibels while the permissible noise
level as enshrined in the Environmental Protection
Agency Noise Level Guidelines is 48 decibels in
the night for residential areas.

Source - Daily Graphic

... go Back