- The attention of the Apostles Revelation Society (ARS) Gbedzi, has been drawn to a story published by your (Spectator) Newspaper on 8th October 2022, particularly on page 26 of the said publication under the above headline.
- The church finds the said publication inaccurate, unfortunate, offensive, misleading and denigrating to the church that has an administration and leadership, more so that the church was never contacted by the reporter for the church’s reaction to the said story.
- It is an undeniable fact that since the death of its Founder Prophet C.K.N. Wovenu on 10th April, 1999, there has been division in the church leading to the emergence of two factions namely “Gbedzi” and Ekporme”. These two factions are well known to members of the church as they operate with separate organisational, management arrangements and leadership.
- We emphasise that in spite of all the issues affecting the Church, the church administration continues to run through the Administrator of the Church with great experience and institutional memory and the church continues to operate from the headquarters of the church at New Tadzewu.
- It is also an undeniable fact that the two main factions have separate organisational, management arrangements and leadership which have been in operation for some years now for which reason there is, therefore, no ambiguity about the leadership of the two main factions and this is known, recognised and accepted by members of both factions.
- It is our case that the group your news article portrayed as the executive committee of the general conference does not exist and it is an attempt to draw undeserved publicity to those persons who participated in that purported meeting subject matter of your newspaper’s publication and to cause further confusion in the church through the impugned story which was handed to your newspaper to be published.
- A simple background check would have revealed to you that there was never any General Conference held by the Church or any of the two factions as was portrayed by your story.
- Additionally, the so-called Chairman Togbui Avli IV as stated in your publication of 8th October, 2022 does not represent any of the two factions since he belonged to the Ekporme faction but has been out of favour with the said faction and, to the best of our knowledge, is currently in court with that faction’s leadership.
- Togbui Duklui Attipoe V and Apostle A. N. Tehn-Addy are also, to the best of our knowledge, currently in court with the Gbedzi leadership.
- It is not in doubt that the so-called group has no constituency in the church, no branches under the church nor control over any property of the church, and above all has no authority to call a meeting let alone a conference of the church.
- We are fortified in our case herein because we do know that the ethics of your profession impose responsibility on you to check your stories before they are published. The interrogatories which arose from your story are:
i. Where is the headquarters of the group you portrayed as the church?
ii. Was the purported conference held at any of the conference facilities of the church and if yes; which facility?
iii. What is the source of the group’s authority to call for and organise a general conference of ARS?
iv. Did you check at the headquarters of ARS and especially with the Administrator of the Church to verify the truthfulness of your story before going to print?
v. Did you give the church leadership or at least the supposed secessionists any hearing so as to present a balanced publication?
- We wish to emphasise that the Gbedzi faction is interested in the unity of the church and has made several attempts and overtures and accommodated all peace initiatives, some of which have been abused by some proponents who have hidden agendas. In spite of these setbacks, we are still open and prepared to make all sacrifices to achieve this. The desired unity we believe, cannot be decreed, rail-rolled or imposed as this group is seeking to do but can only be achieved through dialogue, negotiations and prayers.
- The harm and damage done to the reputation of the Church and the Gbedzi faction by this publication is regrettable.
- We are prepared to sit with you to discuss and provide our (Gbedzi) side of the story and our continuing attempts to bring about unity and harmony into the Church.
- We are sure that the Ekporme faction is also prepared to do the same with you in your pursuit to arrive at the truth and advance peace and harmony in ARS Church.
Spokesperson,
Gbedzi faction,
Volta Region
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme