The Living Faith World Outreach Centre (LFWOC) also known as Winners Chapel International, has expressed dissatisfaction over a ruling by an Accra High Court pertaining to a dispute between them and Winners Chapel Ghana, headed by Bishop George Adjeman.
According to Winners Chapel International, (WCI) the court failed to resolve all the issues under contention after nearly thirteen years legal battle.
WCI had battled Bishop Agyemang over the ownership of properties of Winners Chapel Ghana (WCG), a breakaway church from WCI.
WCI had argued that Bishop Agyemang whom they trained, employed and later deployed from Nigeria to head Winners Chapel International and the church’s missionary agencies in Ghana, outsmarted them, registered the church with a new name, Winners Chapel Ghana, and took over assets of his employers.
But after 13 years of battling the case in court, the Accra High Court presided over by Mr Justice K.A. Ofori-Atta, on July 28, 2017 ruled in the favour of Bishop Agyemang.
According to the court, WCI “was not duly incorporated as a legal entity and, therefore, cannot own any property, including the name “Winners Chapel.’’
The court held that WCG had been registered in accordance with the law and, therefore, had the legal backing to operate.
“On the available evidence, I am satisfied the name Winners Chapel Ghana has been duly registered for business in the country,’’ Mr Justice Ofori-Atta said.
The court was of the view that although WCI was not duly registered and, therefore, could not lawfully claim any properties being contested, it had members who contributed to the acquisition of those properties.
In that regard, it ordered that any property acquired between 1996 and 1997 when the church was established until 2004 when WCI and WCG went their separate ways be valued and shared among the two bodies.
It, however, said after the valuation and sharing of the properties, WCG should buy out those allocated to WCl, since WCG had been in possession of the properties since 2004.
Meanwhile, in a publication WCI circulated to its members on Sunday, September 3, 2017 and sighted by citifmonline.com , the leadership of the church expressed some misgivings about the ruling.
“Winners Chapel’s leadership is of the view that the judgment did not resolve all the controversies presented to the court for resolution. Its lawyers have, therefore, been given instructions to take the necessary steps to ensure a full resolution of all the matters in controversy before the appropriate forum,” WCI added.
WCI in the publication further stated that, “The issue before the court were amongst others: whether or not the members of the WCG ceased to be members of Winners’ Chapel when there was a split in July 2004;
“Whether or not Bishop Adjeman and the other defendants are entitled to retain possession of Winners’Chapel and WMA’s properties and premises and whether or not Bishop Adjeman’s allegations against Bishop David Oyedepo, Winners’ Chapel and WMA justified Bishop Adjeman and his followers’ actions. Rather strangely, the court did not determine any of the above mentioned issues.”
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