In April 2021, six former pastors of Lighthouse Chapel International filed suits at the Labour Division of the High Court in Accra. Their central claim was that the church had failed to pay their social security contributions over many years. In the same weeks, an online series under the title Darkness in a Lighthouse carried those claims, and others, to a very wide audience.

The church did not respond publicly at the time. The church took the view that the matters were before the courts and that the courts, and the bodies with legal authority over them, should speak first. Several of them now have. This is a plain account of what they found. It contains no argument, only the record.

What SSNIT found

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust is the body in Ghana with authority to determine whether an employer has paid what it owes. The six complaints were lodged with SSNIT on 1 February 2021. SSNIT investigated from May 2021 and issued its findings on 20 August 2021.

•Bishop Lawrence Odonkor.Contributions were paid for June 2005 to June 2010 and for January to April 2020. For September 2010 to September 2017 he was employed by Lighthouse Chapel South Africa, and for April 2017 to December 2019 by Lighthouse Chapel Madagascar — not by the Ghanaian church. For November 2001 to May 2005, no employment with the Ghanaian church could be established.

•Rev. Edward Laryea. For July 2005 to July 2008, SSNIT could not establish an employer–employee relationship with the Ghanaian church, and no supporting evidence was provided.

•Pastors Seth Duncan, Edem Amankwah and Faith Makafui Fiakojo. SSNIT found no evidence that any of the three was employed by the Ghanaian church during the periods they claimed.

•Bishop Emmanuel Oko Mensah.Contributions were paid for August 2003 to November 2018. One month, May 2019, was outstanding. SSNIT asked the church to submit the contribution report for that month and settle it with the applicable penalty.

Six claims of years of unpaid contributions were examined by the regulator. The regulator found one month owed, for one person. The church was asked to settle that month and has done so.

What the court in Madagascar found

Separately from the Ghanaian proceedings, the Public Prosecutor of Madagascar brought a criminal case in Antananarivo, with the Madagascar church joined as a civil party. Lawrence Odonkor was charged with breach of trust under Articles 406 and 408 of the Malagasy Penal Code.

The facts referred to the court concerned church funds entrusted to him in 2018 in his capacity as a pastor: four cheques of 7,000,000, 6,540,000, 8,500,000 and 5,000,000 Ariary, and a transfer of 45,000,000 Ariary some 72 million Ariary in all which the judgment records were given to him under a mandate to use for a determined church purpose, and not to acquire a vehicle in his personal name.

The Court of First Instance of Antananarivo, sitting in correctional matters, gave judgment on 18 April 2023 (Judgment No. 239-MaS2). It found:

•Against Mr Odonkor, the evidence was sufficient. He was found guilty of breach of trust and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, with costs.

•On the civil claim, he was ordered to pay the Madagascar church 75,000,000 Ariary in damages. The church had claimed 85,000,000; the court reduced the figure to what it considered just.

Mr Odonkor did not appear before the court and the judgment against him was given by default. He is not in Madagascar. It has since been reported that his appeals against the judgment were dismissed, most recently on 28 November 2025, and that a warrant for his arrest was issued in Madagascar.

What a Ghanaian court found about the publications

On 25 October 2022, the High Court in Accra found the publishers of Darkness in a Lighthouse and the Media Foundation for West Africa in contempt of court, on the ground that the series was published while the six pastors’ suits were pending before the court. The court imposed fines and ordered an apology to the court. That apology was published.

Conclusion

The record differs from the account given in Darkness in a Lighthouse. SSNIT examined six claims of years of unpaid contributions. Where the Ghanaian church was the employer, contributions had been paid. In five of the six cases, employment with the Ghanaian church could not be established for the periods claimed. In the sixth, one month was outstanding, and the church settled it.

A criminal court in Antananarivo found Lawrence Odonkor guilty of breach of trust over church funds entrusted to him, and ordered him to pay damages. The High Court in Accra found the publishers of the series and the Media Foundation for West Africa in contempt, for publishing while the pastors' suits were before it.

None of this asks anyone to take the church's word over the pastors'. It sets out the bodies with authority to examine the claims found when they examined them. Allegations deserve a hearing. So do the findings that follow them.