Ghana: Minister causes arrest of pastor over noisy night prayer session

A regional minister in Ghana caused the arrest of a pastor in the country’s resource rich Ashanti region. The cause of the arrest was die to excessive noise by the House of Bethel Ministry during an evening church service.

The minister, Simon Osei Mensah, in an interview with local media portal, Citi FM, said the arrest was necessary because the church had refused to heed a caution to turn down the volume of their equipments.

According to him, “Yesterday [Friday], around midnight, they were making a lot of noise. I entered the church and I told them the level of the noise was too high.”

“The moment after I warned them and left, it [the noise] became even worse. Maybe I annoyed them so they rather increased the volume and I had no other option but to report them to the police,” Mr Osei Mensah stated.

He subsequently requested police assistance who ordered that the church service be truncated before detaining the pastor, one Reverend Kwame Takyi. He has since been released by the police, local media confirmed.

Secretary to the church held that the minister has always known that the particular church service was held every last Friday of the month.

The Ashanti region is seat of the powerful Ashanti kingdom and is famed for its abundance of natural resources like gold and timber. It’s capital, Kumasi, is a metropolitan area and most of such areas have by-laws that frown on excessive noisemaking.