A 29-year-old man of God from Kasoa in the Central region who allegedly attempted to rape the wife of a policeman at a hotel in Aboabo, near Koforidua on Thursday morning, has been arrested by the Koforidua police.

Evangelist Akwasi Oppong allegedly invited 30-year-old Joyce Odame, who recently got married, to his room at Amsterdam Hotel and attempted to rape her. She and her husband, Lance Corporal Elvis Koomson, stationed at Koforidua, got married two weeks ago.

The pastor’s arrest is coming on the heels of a similar sexual assault on a married woman by radio pastor Prophet Nicholas Osei aka Kumchacha, in a Kumasi hotel.

The police in Kumasi are investigating the case, even though Kumchacha has denied the allegation.

Briefing the media after the arrest, the New Juaben Municipal Police Commander, Superintendent David Tefutor, said Joyce went to see the evangelist in his hotel room for counseling in the morning.

The police commander said while at the hotel, the pastor allegedly demanded to have sex with her before the counseling could take place.

He explained that the evangelist then took off his clothes and stood naked in front of the policeman’s wife and asked her to pull his manhood.

The police commander explained that Joyce then excused the pastor to visit the washroom.

He said the woman then called one Emmanuel Mensah, a policeman who is a friend to her husband, since the husband was on duty, and told him about the attempt by the pastor to rape her.

According to the police commander, Lance Corporal Mensah rushed to the hotel in a hired taxi and went straight to the hotel room and forced the door open.

He said Mensah found the evangelist completely naked trying to have sex with Joyce Odame, the friend’s wife.

He said the policeman, who was in mufti, identified himself to the pastor as a policeman who had been informed about his intention to rape the wife of his colleague so he should keep quiet and follow him to the police station.

The commander explained that the evangelist, sensing danger, struggled with the policeman to try and evade arrest.

He said in the process, the evangelist hit the policeman on the forehead with an empty beer bottle in the room and quickly left. The blow resulted in a big cut but the policeman raised an alarm so people around assisted him to arrest the evangelist who was hiding in a nearby bush.

Akwasi Oppong, who claims to be an evangelist for Power of Jesus Church at Nyanyano near Kasoa, for his part told the commander that he already knew the policeman in question and his wife because the policeman, together with the wife, had come to him at Effiduase, a suburb of Koforidua where he had been preaching, to seek spiritual assistance to enable him travel abroad.

He said he demanded GH¢60 to buy special anointing oil which could be used for that purpose, so both of them went to town to buy the oil.

He said later, the wife called him on phone that she also wanted similar help to enable her stunted business to grow.

The pastor said he also charged the woman GH¢70 for special oil and other ‘things’ but the lady was only able to pay GH¢50.

He claimed the woman then pleaded with him to do something so that her husband would not find out that she was seeking spiritual assistance from him since her husband liked consulting oracles.

The evangelist explained that he told the woman to bring some salt to the Amsterdam Hotel where he was lodging yesterday, so that he could do something with it in order for her husband not to find out about her spiritual consultation.

The evangelist said upon further thought, he asked the woman not to come but rather allow him to pray on the salt over the phone; however the woman insisted on coming to the hotel.

According to him, he was about to check out of the hotel yesterday when the woman came and said she badly needed that assistance.

The evangelist explained that when the woman came in, he was in his ‘boubou’ trousers and singlet but the woman sat on the bed and ‘romantically’ tapped him on the arm.

He alleged that the woman then turned her back to him and asked him to unzip her blouse and brassiere for her.

He said all of a sudden, the policeman in the mufti opened the door and told him he was under arrest, stressing that the policeman started slapping him so he also fought back and managed to escape from the room but he realized that a lot of people were pursuing him with machetes after an alarm was raised so he had to surrender.

The police did not give details of the woman’s side of the story or her written statement.

The police said they would conduct further investigations into the case and accordingly charge the evangelist and put him before court.