General overseer of Lighthouse Chapel International, Dag Heward-Mills
• Lawyer for the former pastors has refuted claims of seeking such a huge amount from the church
• According to Mr. Bentil, such claims are nothing short of cooked up lies by the defendant
• The six ex-pastors have sued the church for failing to pay their SSNIT contributions
Lawyer for some former pastors of Lighthouse Chapel, Kofi Bentil has rubbished claims that his clients have demanded for $12 million from the church.
He insists his clients only asked for the reimbursement of all funds owed them by the church and nothing more unless otherwise decided by the Court.
One can recall that the pastors dragged the church to court for failing to pay their Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions in full while that of others, were not paid at all.
It was also alleged that these pastors laboured from between 42 years to five months, without their pension contributions being paid.
On the back of the issue, rumours went rife that the pastors, among other things, are seeking a $12million compensation from the church.
But responding to this in an interview on JoyNews, Mr Bentil said the defendant cooked up such figures to cast his clients in a bad light in court.
“Yes they mentioned that figure in court and I promptly got off my seat and denied it in open court that they have reported themselves that that figure is not true. Secondly the judge told them that even if we had said so, it is for them to make their counteroffer so they should go and sit down and make their offer and settle this matter because it was in their interest.
“They made a video and mentioned $2 million; that we are asking for $2 million. At another point, they said it was 12 million cedis, and then now they’re saying its 12 million dollars. We have categorically denied it in a statement that we put out. We have not made such a request of them,” he added.
Demands
The six aggrieved pastors, per their statement of claim are seeking for an order compelling the defendant to pay the unpaid SSNIT contributions of Plaintiff to the date of departure.
2. An order to compute and pay plaintiff the balance of salary due him per the human resources manual of Defendant at the Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus levels and interest on same till date of final payment.
3. General damages of breach of contract, pain, and suffering caused as a result of defendant’s bad treatment of plaintiffs across his employment, loss of family health care, loss of opportunities in terms of spouse, as well as severance package.
4. Costs, including solicitors’ fees.