A self-styled pastor who has allegedly been exploiting a three-year-old sick boy to make money around the Takoradi Market Circle has been arrested by the police.
The alleged pastor, Nicodemus Ackah, 49, claimed to be the head pastor of Miracle Life Gospel Church in Kumasi.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the alleged man of God was arrested on Friday December 27, 2013 at a hotel after a Takoradi-based non-governmental organization (NGO), Acqabross Peace Foundation, had uncovered the purported dubious deeds of the pastor and reported to the police.
Narrating what led to the arrest of the alleged man of God to DAILY GUIDE in an interview, Fredrick Acquah Ainoo, Chief Executive Officer of the NGO noted that pastor Ackah had for sometime been preaching at the Takoradi market with the boy by his side.
According to Mr Ainoo, �The motive of the self-styled pastor is to always parade the little boy around, whom he claimed is suffering from �narrowing oesophagus� and so had a tube inserted in his stomach though the abdominal wall.�
He narrated that every morning after preaching at the Takoradi Market Circle, the pastor would then introduce the sick child to his listeners and tell them that the little boy needs money for a surgery at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi asking them for contribution towards the course.
The CEO of the NGO stressed that his outfit, therefore, monitored the activities of the pastor at the Takoradi Market Circle for some days and detected that he was exploiting the little boy to make money.
He mentioned that investigations conducted revealed that the pastor after using the boy to solicit funds from the public would give part of the money to the mother of the child, use some to pay hotel bills and keep the rest.
Mr Ainoo indicated that one day, as the pastor was raising funds to as it were, to support the little boy, he approached the pastor and told him that his NGO would like to assist the boy.
�Then he showed me a document allegedly prepared and signed by a paediatric surgeon at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to solicit money to help the little boy undergo the surgery,� he narrated.
Trick
The alleged document from the hospital stated, �The boy is diagnosed with esophageal stricture (narrowing of the esophagus) after taking in caustic soda two years ago which has rendered the patient unable to swallow food.�
It continued, �He had a feeding gastronomy (injection of a tube into stomach) via the abdominal wall done. Definite surgery (colonic bypass) replacing the strictured esophagus with the colon, yet to be done.�
Mr Ainoo noted that after reading what was written on the document, he suspected a foul play so he reported the case to the police in Takoradi who picked the pastor from his hotel.
A source at the Takoradi Police Station confirmed the arrest and indicated that checks at the Komfo Anokye Hospital in Kumasi revealed that the hospital had not given any document to anybody to raise funds for any surgery in that regard.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that after realizing that he could be in serious trouble, the pastor began to plead with the police for forgiveness. The paper also learnt that when a search was conducted on the pastor, an amount of GH�600.00 was found on him.
The pastor had been detained at the police station pending further investigations.
However, the mother of the boy, Adwoa Nyarko, had denied any allegation levelled the pastor, saying, �He is not using my son to make money.�
She insisted that it was the hospital authorities who gave the document to her to go out there to solicit help to enable her son to undergo the surgery.
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