The Director-General for State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), Stephen Asamoah-Boateng has expressed disappointment in the fact that Apostle Isaac Owusu-Bempah has been denied bail.
The leader of Glorious Power Word Ministries International was arrested by the Ghana Police and arraigned before Court on September 13, 2021, with four other members of his church.
The arrest was in connection with a scuffle that occurred between one of his junior pastors and some police officers who were at his church premises, on a mission to arrest the apostle.
According to reports filed earlier, the officers were after the clergyman over an earlier altercation that ensued between himself and Patricia Oduro, popularly called ‘Nana Agradaa—a recent Christian proselyte.
In a video that went viral on social media, Apostle Bempah and his men were seen brandishing weapons and intimidating Nana Agradaa, who allegedly dared him to come and attack her in her home.
The police, having seen the footage, sent the officers to his premises to apprehend him, when one of his junior pastors resisted the officers leading to an altercation in which some gunshots were fired.
Reverend Bempah was subsequently arrested and remanded in police custody, and was scheduled to appear before the Accra High Court on September 20, 2021.
Though his lawyers applied for bail, the court refused to grant him it. The SIGA Director-General, speaking on the matter on Angel FM’s Anↄpa Bↄfoↄ morning show on September 15, 2021, described it as unfair, because according to him the offence was a bailable one.
“He was supposed to have been bailed because it is a bailable offense. It is not murder. Even with murder you could stretch it and get a bail. But this one, I don’t know why the Judge treated it that way. Fine, its her work. Probably she has gotten additional information I have no knowledge of.”
Mr. Asamoah added: “Bempah should hold on, maybe the court will review the case and meet his demand.”
