Pastor who advised JHS girl to stop sexual relations and focus on education arrested

Police at the Achimota Police Station in the Greater Accra Region yesterday March 15, 2022, arrested and detained Pastor John Winfred, Senior Pastor of Lovereign Bible Church at Christian Village in Accra.

The Pastor was arrested by the Achimota Police after a gang of 25 men led by Michael, the boyfriend of the 15-year-old JHS girl assaulted him and his members at the house of the girl.

According to Michael the Pastor had ruined his sexual relationship with his 15-year-old JHS girlfriend.

Background

On March 7, 2022, Pastor Winfred together with some of his junior Pastors and members decided to pay a visit to the 15-year-old girl’s (name withheld) father who lives in Kisseman -near the Church to fellowship with him.

One man by the name of Michael popularly known in the area as Kuda who apparently is the boyfriend of a 15-year-old girlfriend stormed the house (around the same time of the Pastor’s visit) with about 25 men wielding clubs and sticks.

Michael together with his men ruthlessly rounded and assaulted the church members, Junior Pastors and The Pastor who managed to escaped and quickly place a phone call to the Police Station (Westland and Achimota Police) to come to the rescue of his members.

When the Police officers from Westland got to the scene, they managed to arrest just one of the gang members while the others fled.

The gang led by Michael later upon hearing that one of their members was arrested thronged the church with the aim of kidnapping the Senior Pastor and vandalizing the church. They fled again when a police patrol team coincidentally arrived at the scene.

After the first and second attacks, The chief of the area placed a call to the church and the area boys with the intention to broker peace between them.

The Pastor who’s obviously scared for his life decided to honour the Chief’s invitation but with some form of protection so he went with some military friends of his.

Upon arriving at the scene the Soldiers who accompanied the pastor met one man from Michael’s camp faking as the military officer too. When they interrogated him of his ranks and division and got to know he was lying, that degenerated into another scuffle stalling the peace talk.

Meanwhile, before the second attack, The Pastor and his members had gone to the Achimota Police Station to file a complaint and do medical checks as directed by the police.

When this portal reached the CID officer handling the case on Friday, March 11, 2022, to ascertain the police perspective and investigations, she got angry and ended the call.

It came rather as a surprise to this portal that the Pastor who has been a victim of assaults was arrested and detained while the perpetrators are let loose.