The administrator of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, Mr Prince Odoom, has refuted claims that the government spent over $30,000 to sponsor members of the Council on a round trip to Israel on a prayer mission to secure the position of President Evans Atta Mills as president in the December 2012 elections.

Stories have been making rounds that the Mills administration had sponsored a trip for 30 executives of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, with the agenda of coercing participating pastors to preach ill against the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flag bearer, Nana Akuffo-Addo, upon their return to their various churches.

The story also had it that while in Israel, the Ghana embassy doled out $10,000 to each of the 30 pastors.

In an interview with The Finder, Mr Odoom confirmed the trip to Israel, but said it was part of a year-long prayer programme declared by the Council.

He stressed that the visit had nothing to do with the government.

“We organised the trip to Israel because we declared this year a year of prayer. All our pastors who went on the trip paid for themselves. There wasn’t any contribution from anywhere,” he said.

Mr Odoom said that he was “in charge for payment and I collected all the payments myself.”

He said each participant paid $2,500 for the trip, which was facilitated by Maxy Travel and Tours and another counterpart agency in Israel.

The administrator said at no time did the Ghana embassy visit any pastor in their hotel room to offer them the alleged $10,000 or sponsor their return trip.

“If government or the embassy had sponsored us or even given us some concession we would have had more participants. So maybe let me appeal to government to help us the next time. We only went there on a special retreat to reflect and pray on the programmes we want to implement this year,” he added.

Mr Odoom explained that the purpose of the visit was to pray for the nation as it geared up towards election and also to take advantage to sightsee while in Israel.

He said the Council’s next prayer session would be in Bawku from the 30th of this month.

He described as absurd allegations that a Council that preached peace to its congregation at all sermons would accept to take money from government to defame another “child of God.”

“In fact our office is here at East Legon and I would be very happy if you can provide the name of any pastor who is preaching anything which can lead to violence. We have always preached peace and as a Council we will not tolerate that.”

The group returned to Ghana a fortnight ago at 8:30pm on Turkish Airlines.

Dr Opoku Onyina is president of the Pentecostal Council and led the team which also included Apostle Daniel Aubuyn of Holiness Pentecostal Church.