David Oyedepo Wins Landmark Case Against Ghanaian Clergy

03 Oct David Oyedepo Wins Landmark Case Against Ghanaian Clergy

Bishop David Oyedepo, the presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, otherwise known as Winners Chapel, recently clocked 69 and nothing could have been a better birthday gift than the judgement of Ghana’s Supreme Court in his favour over a long drawn legal battle that lasted 19 years against Ghanaian-born cleric, Bishop George Adjeman.

The Supreme Court of Ghana in its judgement last week, ordered Adjeman to vacate the premises of Winners Chapel, Ghana used by him for the last 19 years. The Court also varied the decision that Adjeman render an account of his stewardship to Winners Chapel International from January 16th 2004 till date and pay any money due the church with interest at the prevailing commercial bank interest rate by reducing the rate to be paid among other decisions. However, it set aside an order by the Court of Appeal that restrained Adjeman and others from using the name Winners Chapel for their breakaway group.

The Supreme Court upheld the following orders as made by the Court of Appeal;

• Firstly, the Living Faith World Outreach Centre recovers possession of all that piece and parcel of land situated at Winners Chapel No.16 Otublohum Road, Industrial Area.
• Secondly, the court upheld the grant of H/No. 5, situated at Arko Adjei Street adjacent to Miklin Hotel, East Legon, Accra to the plaintiffs.
• Adjeman and his group were restrained from disturbing the Plaintiffs’ quiet enjoyment of their properties, places, and items of worship.
• Finally, the order for the Registrar General to delete the names of all the defendants as directors and/or subscribers to the Regulations of 1 and 2 Plaintiffs.

On the other hand, the appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal was granted in part.

• The court set aside the order directed at the Registrar General’s Department to remove the name Winners Chapel from the Registrar of Companies.
• Secondly, the order that Winners Chapel should not be used by Adjeman and others because it belonged exclusively to the Living Faith World Outreach Centre was set aside. This implies that even though the name Winners Chapel Ghana can operate within Ghana, it will be almost impossible to operate with exactly the same name in any country outside Ghana.

Trouble began when Adjeman thought it wise to rebel against his former boss. A Ghanaian chartered accountant and protege of Oyedepo, he was considered a faithful servant and even held sway in those days whenever Oyedepo was on mission trips.

Adjeman was the only non-Nigerian consecrated Bishop in the history of the Living Faith Church. In recognition of his faithfulness as well as a new indigenisation policy of the Living Faith Church, he was transferred to Ghana in 1996, later recalled to Nigeria and then sent in 2002 to head the network of 14 churches spread across Ghana.

Unknown to Oyedepo, Adjeman re-registered the church in his own name. When government authorities in Ghana called for churches to be registered as companies, Adjeman went ahead to re-register the church in his own name and excluded the names of all the Nigerian trustees without informing the Nigerian church of the new regulatory development nor asking for their consent.

In 2004 the headquarter of the church in Nigeria decided to transfer him to Ibadan Diocese when he refused to continue remitting the $60,000.00 monthly church income that was initially remitted to the Nigerian headquarter.

For those who may not understand, remitting of money from all branches of the world to headquarter churches usually to fund various programmes of the Church was practised by Winners Chapel at the time. This is not in any way a bad practice. Infact, the Catholic Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG and many other Christian organisations still practise this. After the monies have been remitted, certain percentages would be returned to the branches.

Adjeman told members of the church that he was being transferred because of his refusal to remit money to Nigeria. Some members cheered him on and encouraged him to disregard the transfer and this gave him the courage to stage a hostile takeover of the Ghanaian branches of Winners Chapel and thereafter declared independence.

And thus began the drama.

While some Ghanaians felt it was wrong for a church in Ghana to remit money to a church in Nigeria, others felt Adjeman was disloyal to his former boss in Nigeria and should leave the church the right way and not take over any of the church’s properties, members or name. The Ghanaian Pentecostal Fellowship (GPF) tried to intervene. It ordered Adjeman to vacate the Winners Chapel premises since the church was built with seed funding from Nigeria.

While attempts were being made to resolve the crisis of ownership, Winners Chapel International quickly moved to establish another place of worship. They were now referred to in Ghana as the Oyedepo original body (WCI Ghana) and the Adjeman’s faction referred to as Winners Chapel Ghana (WCG or Winners’ Ghana).

Thus began a long legal battle that would last the next 19 years, the longest in the Ghanaian judicial system.

But as the crisis metamorphosed, the GPF equally admonished Oyedepo to settle Adjeman so he could go and start his own ministry. Oyedepo initially disagreed, querying if that wouldn’t be tantamount to a bribe. Adjeman made a demand of $50,000 as severance, along with the church mission house and a car. Oyedepo vehemently opposed this, but the GPF encouraged him to see it as a way of setting up a son.

After due consultation with the elders of the church, Oyedepo agreed to approve the sum of $100,000 as severance benefit for Adjeman but without a car or mission house. This didn’t go down well with Adjeman and he decided to help himself with the church. But seemingly feeling remorseful after six years, Adjeman visited Oyedepo in 2010 against the wishes of his lawyers. There, Oyedepo reportedly agreed to let Adjeman have all the properties but should drop the ‘Winners’ Chapel’ tag from his church name, which was the root of the contention. Adjeman agreed to drop the name and even the church properties but surprisingly changed his mind as he got back to Ghana, especially because his congregation was unhappy that he took such a decision without its knowledge. Today, despite having to start all over again after the unfortunate split, Winners Chapel International currently has a network of over 250 churches in Ghana and is about to get its own university. And the Adjeman church? Reduced considerably in number as many of his members who cheered him on then have abandoned him to his fate.