SDA branches file writ against expulsion

Sunyani, March 3, GNA- The Board of Trustees of 12 branches of Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Brong Ahafo on Tuesday filed a writ at the High Court in Sunyani seeking the order of the court to declare as null and void their purported expulsion from the church. The respondents are the Board of Trustees and Mr. Frederick Kofi Agyei Baah, Executive Secretary, of the Mid-West Conference in Sunyani and Pastor Paul Osei Mensah, President of the Ghana Union Conference of the Church.

In their statement of claim filed by Nana Obiri Boahen and Associates, Sunyani-based legal practitioners, the 12 branches are seeking a declaration from the court that their purported expulsion " breaches the natural justice rule".

They stated that the purported expulsion from the mainstream Church "sins against the tenets, teachings, doctrines etc of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, more especially the practice and procedure, contained in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Manual, revised - 16th edition 2000".

The writ is also seeks an order of the court compelling the Board of Trustees of the Mid-West Conference to implement all recommendations so far made in the second report of the Ghana Union Conference Executive Committee (Sub-committee on financial malfeasance in the Mid-West Ghana Conference.

The statement seeks an order of perpetual injunction on the defendants.

The plaintiffs are the branches of the church at Techiman Zongo, Kato, Senase, Biadan, Kutre, Benkasa, Jejemireja, Namasua, Nyamebekyere, Berekum estates, Berekum Continental and Kyeremasu.