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The police on Sunday ‘rescued’ the Founder and Leader of Zoe Outreach Embassy, Pastor Kelvin Kobiri, when angry customers of the Tikowre Capital, an investment company he owns, stormed the East Legon-based church to demand their locked up capital.

The customers were mostly from Tarkwa in the Western Region.

It was the second time in two weeks that the customers had gone to the church to demand payment of their mature investments.

Safety

A source at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service told the Daily Graphic on Sunday that “we took the pastor away to ensure his safety”.

According to the source, the police had a distress call from the church that a number of people from Tarkwa had besieged the church to demand their locked up capital with the company.

That was at the time the pastor of the charismatic church was leading the congregation in the Sunday Service, it said.

It added that the information was that the aggrieved customers were threatening to lynch the pastor for deceiving them.

It said a team of policemen was dispatched to the scene, where they rescued the pastor and sent him to the CID Headquarters.

Pastor Kobiri, according to the source, was made to write a statement before he was allowed to leave.

It said the pastor, who is already under investigations, was released on his former bail and would report himself to the police today for further interrogation.

Church members disrupt service at Zoe Outreach Embassy over locked-up investment
I wanted to make people rich, but I didn’t know it was stupidity – Pastor Kobiri
Scene at church

A source at the church told the Daily Graphic that the scene on the church premises when it was besieged was “nasty”.

It said moments after the service started, a number of people, including members of the church who said they were customers whose capital had been locked up with the investment company, emerged on the premises, demanding to see the pastor for their investments.        

Security men at the place tried to keep the customers at bay, but they would not budge, as they shouted on top of their voices, calling on Pastor Kobiri to come out of the church building.

As the security situation worsened, police reinforcement was called in to escort Pastor Kobiri to the CID Headquarters.

Chaos

Some of the angry investors said they were convinced by their pastor to invest in his companies, EL Real Estates and Tikowre Capital, but Pastor Kobiri had failed to pay them their mature investments since last year.

On their second attempt, the clients thronged the Ogbojo premises of the church with placards, some of which read: “Pay us Kelvin”, “Criminal”, “Duab) benya Kelvin”, among others.

According to reports, a news cameraman and one of the aggrieved customers were assaulted by the security men who were providing security at the church.

I wanted to make people rich

Meanwhile, Pastor Kobiri has said his intention of setting up the investment companies was to help people get rich.

Speaking to his congregation the Sunday before the chaos at his church, Pastor Kobiri told them he would repay them by the end of the week.

In a video published on Facebook, Pastor Kobiri told the congregation that although he did not have the money to repay customers, he trusted that “God will pay everybody this week.”