PASTOR DENIED MEDIA REPORTS (SEPT 15, PAGE 20)

THE Head Pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Kumasi, Rev. Dr Kojo Osei-Wusuh, has denied the allegation that he has swindled the widow of his late brother, leaving her in a state of confusion and poverty.
A Kumasi-based weekly newspaper, which carried the allegation in its issue of August 24-30, 2009, alleged that Rev. Dr Osei-Wusuh had gotten hold of the bank accounts of his late brother, and also pocketed all the donations made during the brother’s funeral.
Besides, the reverend minister has refused to allow the woman to sell the house of her late husband to enable her cater for the education of her children, the paper added.
But at a news conference in Kumasi, Rev. Dr Osei- Wusuh said the allegations were baseless and only meant to tarnish his hard-won reputation as a minister of God.
He explained that his late brother, Mr Ernest Peter Osei, who died in 2005, left behind a wife, Madam Sussana Osei, who was the alleged architect of the allegations, and five children, two of whom were from a different mother.
The head pastor stated that when his late brother retired from teaching service, he (Rev. Osei-Wusuh) contributed a substantial amount of money to enable him to put up a two-bedroom house in their hometown at Kotei, near Kumasi, where the late Mr Osei and his family lived.
He said on the death of his brother, he again provided money for two additional rooms to be built at the site.
Later, Sussana approached him with the request to sell the house, because the eldest son of his late husband had threatened to kill her.
“I rejected her request because selling the house would mean throwing the two children, who were not her children, out onto the streets,” Rev. Osei-Wusuh said.
The matter, he said, went to court and the court ordered the sale of the building with instructions to allow any of the stakeholders who wanted to buy the first option.
Rev. Dr Osei-Wusuh said he decided to pay off the widow, so that the late brother’s children would take charge of the house, but the woman quietly sold the building without his knowledge, “and I have decided to go back to the court to get the sale reversed”.
On the proceeds from the funeral, the reverend minister denied ever pocketing anything, and also taking hold of his late brother’s bank accounts.
He said as a minister of God and crusader against injustice of any form, he would be the last person to be involved in such acts as alleged by the newspaper.