Religion of Friday, 14 August 2009

Source: GNA

Pastor Whips Church Member To Death

...Pastor in remand for Murder
Pastor Kwame Kussi, 30, of the Warriors of Zion Prayer Camp at Asante Kwaku near Nsawam has been remanded into prison custody at Nsawam, for allegedly lashing Madam Esther Ayeley, 40, a farmer at Asante Kwaku to death.

Briefing the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the Nsawam Police Station, Chief Inspector Redeemer Kumah said Pastor Kussi on Sunday, August 9, this year, testified during a deliverance service that the deceased and her two daughters were witches.

Inspector Kumah said the pastor with the help of some of the church members allegedly laid the woman and canned her till she collapsed and died the following day, in an uncompleted building near the church. The Police Officer said pastor Kussi would be arraigned before the Nsawam Magistrate Court on August 21.

The body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Police Hospital in Accra for autopsy.

Inspector Kumah said the police are still investigating the case to enable them arrest the other members of the church, now at large, who assisted in canning the deceased.

Caution

Nsawam, Aug. 14, GNA - Apostle Emmanuel Opare Adarkwah, Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the Ghana Association of Faith Healers and Traditional Birth Attendants has cautioned pastors who chain and lash their patients at prayer camps to desist from the act.

He warned that the habit amounted to the violation of the rights of patients.

Apostle Adarkwah, who is also the leader of the New Testament Church at Nsawam, gave the warning when he led the executive officers of the Association to the Warriors of Zion Prayer Camp at Asante Kwaku near Nsawam, where a 40-year-old member, Esther Ayeley of the church died through an alleged canning by Pastor Kwame Kussi.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Apostle Adarkwah called on healing churches to register with the Association so that their activities would be regularize and coordinated.
Rev Amoah Agyare, an executive member of the Association, inaugurated a five-member regional taskforce to check Identity Cards and license of healing and prayer camps.
He said pastors and ministers of churches who operated illegally in the area would be sanctioned when caught.
Pastor Kwame Kussi who alleged lash the church member to death is in Nsawam prison custody 14 Aug. 09