The Lighthouse Chapel International sued Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Media Foundation for West Africa, its Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah and co-editor, Edwin Appiah on December 10, 2021, for what the church considers unjustified and illegal attacks against it, and its founder Bishop Dag Heward-Mills for the publication of the 3 articles titled “Darkness in a Lighthouse”.
The sole witness for the Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI), Marcel Aboagye, has testified that the defendants have failed to present any evidence to the court to support the several defamatory allegations they made against LCI in the 3 articles.
He urged the court to take judicial notice of the current era of media terrorism in Ghana where media houses rush to publish all manner of stories about institutions and personalities without any proper investigation.
Appearing before the General Jurisdiction 13 of the High Court presided over by Justice Joseph Adu-Owusu Agyemang the witness said the articles said that LCI owed some former pastors of the church over 42 years of Social Security ( SSNIT ) contributions.
The witness referred to the SSNIT investigative report on the matter dated 20th August 2021 and said SSNIT had exonerated LCI of those allegations. He said those allegations are false and defendants have no evidence that LCI owes the former pastors any SSNIT contributions.
The witness further testified that the defendants falsely published in the articles that through a policy named BECOME WHO YOU CAN BECOME, some of the former pastors ie Larry Odonkor, Edward Laryea, Seth Duncan and Faith Fiakojo had been exploited by the church to put up church buildings and schools in Wa, Kade, Paga and Fumbisi with their own resources; after which the church illegally took over the buildings and forcibly transferred them.
The witness referred to a 2008 mail that introduced that policy and testified that the mail says that as part of the policy LCI will continue to buy and build church buildings.
He said the defendants from their exhibits offer no evidence to support the allegations that those buildings whose pictures were colorfully displayed in the articles were built with the personal resources of those pastors. He said the church put up those buildings with its own resources. He said even in the case of Wa, the buildings which were referred to in the articles as having been built by Larry Odonkor with his personal resources were actually built by LCI long after Larry Odonkor had left the Wa Mission.
The witness added that the articles falsely said that one of the former pastors named Seth Duncan had claimed that due to maltreatment by the church he had attempted suicide 3 times. He said the church did nothing wrong to Seth Duncan and that in case those suicide attempts ever happened there is no evidence before the court linking the church to it.
He said Manasseh Azure & co entered into an unholy alliance with these former pastors and made the publications out of malice and now that the publications are being challenged they have no evidence to support them.
Cross-examination of the witness ended on 8th April 2024. The case was adjourned to 13th May 2024 for the continuation of the trial.