The founder of Great Fire Pentecostal International, Bishop Dr. Bonegas, has opened out about his challenges in the fight for his territory after taking a long sabbatical from the public.
The Bishop, who became well-known in Ghana between 2012 and 2014 for the types of miracles he worked, has finally opened out about how his former Darkuman church was forcibly removed from its grounds.
Bishop Bonegas claimed that former Accra Mayor Alfred Oko Vanderpuije was the driving force behind his removal in a GhanaWeb-reported conversation with presenter Captain Smart. Bishop Bonegas claimed that Vanderpuije only carried out the order after receiving it from “powerful people up there.”
Despite his several meetings with the former Mayor of Accra, the Bishop said, he was told it was an “order from above,” hence nothing could be done about the situation.
“I was pressured to move my church from Darkuman, very serious pressure. At the time, Oko Vanderpuije was the major of Accra during the NDC era. I went to him several times to intervene for me, but he told me it was an order from above.
“The order was for me to move from the land. The land was given to me by the chiefs because my church had a membership of about 10,000. We were having the service under canopies in the park…I went to the Mayor’s house near the Bank of Ghana to discuss the eviction issue with him, but he didn’t listen to me.
“He said it was an order from above, and that there were even reports my church building was weak, so I should do a restructuring. He gave us an engineer to assist with the restructuring but changed his mind at the final stage when I had spent huge sums of money to purchase the building materials. He told me I could now use the park, but after a few years, the same order from above evicted me,” he told the host.
The prophet added that when he finally pulled resources to purchase the 50 acres of land around Kasoa Broadcasting, for $1 million, he was constantly harassed by some officials from the BNI, National Security, EPA, Roads and High Way Ministry, Ga South, and others.
These officials, who normally came to his church premises in 15 Land Cruisers, contended that there was another order from above for the Bishop to relocate.
“When I eventually moved to Broadcasting on the Kasoa road, I also faced lots of intimidation from the Roads and High Way Ministry, EPA, BNI, National Security, and others who surrounded my church with about 15 Landcruisers. They mostly did this while service was in session. Their mission was that I should move from the land, which I bought for $1million. They frustrated me a lot,” he reiterated.
The man of God told the host that he believes all the challenges he went through were orchestrated by some of his colleague pastors, who felt threatened by his success.