A crowd of men, women and children instantaneously thronged the Saviour Church at Akyem Osiem, Eastern Region, on Friday, 17 December 2021, which is headed by a former Council of State member Opanyin Abraham Adusei, to mob former President John Mahama, who had visited to celebrate a court victory with the leader of the church.

Opanyin Adusei won a long-drawn case by a 3-2 majority decision at the Supreme Court.

The crowd sang victory-themed songs and danced on the compound, as the 2020 flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), waved at them and danced along in the company of the party’s National Chairman, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and other national executives.

Mr Mahama later wrote on Facebook: “I was very pleased to visit Opanyin Abraham, Head of Saviour Church, to congratulate him on a recent victory in a long and protracted legal tussle at the Supreme Court”.

“Opanyin Abraham served as a Member of the Council of State when I was President”, he added.

The Supreme Court Bench was presided over by Justice Yaw Appau.

The other members include Justice Gabriel Pwamang, Justice Avril Lovelace-Johnson, Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga, and Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu.

The apex court ordered the Registrar-General to cancel and expunge from the records of certificate of incorporation No. G19550 dated 7 February 2007, in the name of Saviour Church of Ghana, on the claims of fraud.

The court also perpetually restrained the plaintiffs, their directors, privies, and associates from holding themselves as having anything to do with the church.

The court, however, said the defendant, on the terms set by the [plaintiff], may readmit any member of the Elias Asirifi faction back into the church.

The case has been in court for 24 years.

It started after the death of one Isaac Asirifi Asante.

The plaintiffs, Asante Asirifi and two others, run to the court and praying that Opanyin Adusei be restrained from holding himself as the General Superintendent of the church and from using the name of the church for anything.

They alleged that the church was incorporated in 2007, as a limited liability company, and insisted they alone had the legal right to operate with the church’s name.

According to them, Opanyin Adusei had exceeded his legal mandate and had been using the name of the church wrongly.

However, in 2014, a ruling in a High Court presided over by Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, dismissed the application.

The court held that the church was established in 1924 with its general headquarters at Osiem, where Opanyin Adusei had, over the past years, been operating.

The court, therefore, dismissed the application and awarded a cost of GHS10, 000.00 against the appellant, Mr Asirifi, and two others.