You have punished Reverend Owusu Bempah enough, forgive him - Edudzi Tamakloe to govt

A Private Legal Practitioner who doubles as a Special Aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe is pleading with the government to settle the criminal case between Rev Owusu Bempah and the state out of court.

Rev. Owusu Bempah, the leader and Founder of Glorious Word Power Ministry International has been hit with fresh charges by Circuit Court 1 in Accra together with one Mensah Ofori and Berchie. They pleaded not guilty to four fresh charges to wit Offensive Conduct Conducive to the breach of peace and threat of death.

But reacting to the fresh charges against Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe pleaded for cool heads to prevail in moving on with the matter.

He noted that in our criminal justice delivery system, out of court settlement is permissible; thus, Rev. Owusu Bempah aside from the fact that he has shown remorse has also been punished enough for spending three days in police custody.

“But for me, the long and short of it all is that, as we move on with this matter, cool heads must prevail. Even in our criminal matters, they are allowing out-of-court settlement and so that possibility exists,” he pleaded.

As a criminal defence lawyer, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe insisted on exploring the option of out-of-court settlement among the parties since the essence of criminal prosecution is to ensure that the person who has wronged the public is punished.

He, however, suggested that Rev. Owusu Bempah can go through the various forms of punishments by signing a bond of good behaviour as well as instructing him to stay out of trouble for some months, and failure to comply with it will attract a certain punishment.