A Director and Elder of Saviour Church of Ghana has, on behalf of the church, applied to the Supreme Court to cite four members of the church for contempt and punish them accordingly.

An affidavit deposed to by Elder Peter Kwabena Adjei of Akim Osiem in the Eastern Region says Messrs Opanyin Abraham Kwaku Adusei, Jacob Asirifi Senior, Enoch Ofori, and Daniel Mensah, being the respondents in the contempt case, have conducted themselves contemptuously by taking steps to overreach the court.

The four are accused of changing the signages, symbols and name of the church from its properties to outsmart the enforcement of orders of the court “with intent to misappropriate the said properties and render the orders of this court nugatory.”

The contempt application follows a ruling of the Supreme Court which affirmed that Saviour Church of Ghana was entitled to acquire, keep or recover any of its properties in the possession of the respondents or any other persons.

According to the affidavit, the church filed an entry of judgement and a writ of possession in order to enforce the judgement and orders as affirmed by the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, but when court officials and police attempted to execute the writ of possession, they were prevented by agents of the respondents, albeit with their tacit support, and thus prevented the officers from carrying out the orders of the court.

The affidavit also alleges that the court officials and representatives of the church, including the deponent, were also assaulted.

The respondents subsequently filed an application at the Court registry for an interpretation of the court orders, but before the application could be heard, the respondents issued notices to members of the church to attend a convention, at which instructions were allegedly issued for the removal of signages and symbols while the church was to be renamed The Saviour Church of Ghana.

The affidavit says these acts of the respondents were calculated to conceal other properties of the church in their possession, contrary to the judgments and rulings of the superior courts and that they were deliberately intentioned to overreach the Supreme Court in a contemptuous manner.

The plaintiff also says that the respondents’ conduct is wilful and a flagrant disregard and disrespect for the authority of the Court and same is calculated not only to overreach the hearing and determination of their own application pending, before the Court but, more significantly to undermine the authority of the court and the judicial process, and unless punished, the respondents will not desist from their contemptuous act but shall be emboldened to perpetrate similar acts.