Lighthouse Chapel brawls with dismissed bishop over car gift

A misunderstanding has yet again rocked the United Denominations Originating from Lighthouse Group of Churches (UD-OLGC), popularly known as Lighthouse Chapel, in which a former bishop of the church has refused to return a car given to him by the church.

Bishop Kwame Yirenkyi Ampofo (aka Mr. Kwame Ampofo), who was the Nsawam area bishop of the church, was dismissed by the church in December 2022 after serving as a minister for 25 years.

Lighthouse Chapel has yet to disclose the actual reason for ousting the minister, but according to a communication from the church to Mr. Kwame Ampofo dated July 4, 2022, “the reasons for your rightful dismissal are abundant and are based on multiple church documents, meetings, and the values of our organization”.

On parting with Mr. Ampofo, the church made a presentation of GH₵ 300,000, representing three years salary, to him and a 2014-registered Chevrolet Tahoe.

The church noted in the letter that following his dismissal, Mr. Ampofo refused to submit to discipline procedures as other ministers of the church had done in previous cases, resorting to denigrating the church, including openly destroying the books of its Founder, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills.

Accordingly, Lighthouse Chapel made the decision to withdraw the supposed gift.

“The car Chevrolet Tahoe was offered as a gift verbally at the meeting, and it was stated to you categorically…That the car was initially offered to you as a Gift is no secret…The earlier letter from our lawyers in January 2023 also stated so clearly. However, before we could actually effect the transfer of the ownership of the car to you legally, you began to attack and insult the church which has been so benevolent to you. This was both a surprise and a shock to the Lighthouse Chapel International in the light of the long history of kindness and honour shown to you. The church then had a change of mind and decided NOT to transfer the ownership of the car to you anymore as it had originally intended to do,” the church indicated in the July 4 letter.

Additionally, the church, through their lawyers, Goshen Chambers, observed that Mr. Ampofo initially stated that the GH₵ 300,000 and a Chevrolet Tahoe given to him were a compensation package for his dismissal.

The lawyers argued that Mr. Ampofo has rejected the gift based on Mr. Ampofo’s description of the gift as compensation.

“By your decision to take the car as compensation, instead of a gift, you have expressly repudiated the offer of gift to you, compelling our client to accept your repudiation and, thus, nullifying the offer of a gift.”

According to the lawyers, Lighthouse Chapel expected Mr. Ampofo to reject the gift and refund it to the church if he believed he was wrongfully dismissed.

They noted that they have reported the matter to the police to determine the rightful owner of the car.

“Since you refuse to hand over our bonafide property we have referred the matter to the Police who we believe are better suited at determining the true ownership of the car at this time.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Kwame Ampofo, in a series of Facebook posts, insists he is the bona fide owner of the vehicle, stressing that the vehicle was given to him as a gift.

Two years ago, Bishop Larry Odonkor, Bishop Oko Mensah, Rev. Edward Laryea, Pastor Seth Duncan, Pastor Edem Amankwah, and Pastor Faith Makafui Fiakojo brought suits at the Labour Division of the Accra High Court seeking an order to compel Lighthouse Chapel to pay their unpaid SSNIT contributions, among other compensation packages.