Pastor lied; we need our money – Disgruntled Customers cry to ‘fraud Pastor’

Members of Zoe Outreach Embassy Sunday June 23, 2019, stormed the premises of the church during its service to demand their monies from the Pastor.

According to the members, Kelvin Kwesi Kobiri founder and leader of the East Legon-based church convinced them to invest hundreds of cedis with EL Real Estates and Tikowre Capital.

One of the aggrieved customers

Read full articlenarrated how they drove all the way from Tarkwa to Accra in order to retrieve his monies.

Adding that all the monies he got from his mining business an amount of GHC50,000 was invested at the EL Real Estates Company with the assurance from the pastor whom they trusted.

All efforts to recover both their principal capital and dividend they say has proved futile. According to them, Mr. Kobiri lied to them constantly, giving them false information that their monies will be refunded but till date nothing has been given.

“We invested our money with EL Real Estates and the pastor promised on paying us on quarterly bases. From September last year he has not been paying, giving us promises upon promises and every Friday he says he was going to pay till date.

In his church auditorium, he told the whole world that he is going to pay us the Friday…so if anyone doesn’t get his money, they should report to the office.

In Tarkwa that we are, the office is closed and they don’t have church so we have to come here to take our money. We came all the way from Tarkwa, overnight drive. So we are here to take our money, we need our money.

I invested GHC50,000, I was working in the mine but not anymore, so when they paid us we put all our monies in there.” He said.

Meanwhile, the accused pastor has been escorted by police to the Criminal Investigative Department for investigations over the subject.
Background

Some members of the Zoe Outreach Embassy church and other customers have since last week been protesting and demanding for proceeds from their investments with EL Real Estates andTikowre Capital reportedly owned by Head Pastor of the church; Kelvin Kwesi Kobiri.

They say all attempts to withdraw their dividends, principal from the two entities allegedly owned since last year have proven futile. Recent attempts to reach the man of God also through phone calls they maintain have also failed.

The disgruntled customers who said they invested because of the trust they had for the man of God say he betrayed their trust.

They added that even when other Microfinance institutions were going through crises, Pastor Kelvin Kobiri, owner of the companies and head pastor of Zoe Outreach Ministries was able to honour his companies’ financial obligations to them by paying¢90,000 of the invested capital,¢150,000.

They, therefore, had no reason to doubt the pastor when he promised to pay them the rest later. That, however, failed.

During church service at the Zoe Outreached Embassy on Sunday, June 16, some customers butted into the tongues-speaking congregation and startled solemn worshippers with their shouts, insults, and threats.

The chaos took several minutes to quell. The disappointed customers have promised to use every legal means to redeem their investments.