Seventeen Years in Court, Then the Excavator: A Ghanaian Congregation Watches Its Church Demolished

• A Christ Apostolic Church building at Akim Akroso, Ghana, was demolished
• A court had declared the Mpaebo Church the rightful owner after 17 years of litigation
• Members said they had bought and developed a waterlogged site over years of contributions
• The case was a church-versus-church land dispute

Members of the Christ Apostolic Church in Akim Akroso, in Ghana’s Eastern Region, watched an excavator tear down their building on a Wednesday morning in July 2025. Starr FM reported that the demolition followed a court judgment declaring another congregation, the Mpaebo Church, the rightful owners of the land after a legal battle lasting 17 years.

The court ordered the building removed as part of its judgment. According to the report, the land had once been a waterlogged area that the Christ Apostolic Church members bought and then developed over years of contributions. That investment of money and labour did not survive the ruling on who held the better claim to the ground beneath it.

Members struggled with the fact that the other side was also a church. “I feel bad that, someone who claim to be a man of God will look on for a Church building to be pulled down. Are we not serving the same God?” one asked. Another took a more resigned view: “The God we are serving knows what is best which he allows to happen. The ways of God not the ways of man…”

Disputes between congregations over land are not unusual in Ghana, but this one shows how long they can run and how final the ending can be. Seventeen years is long enough for a congregation to pour new money into a building while the question of ownership is still unresolved in court.

Jamaican churches and land buyers can take a practical lesson from Akim Akroso. Buying land, even in good faith and with the congregation’s hard-earned money, is not the same as holding clear title to it. Before a church builds, it should have a registered title or at least a thorough search showing there are no competing claims, and it should be cautious about pouring more money into a site while a dispute is before the courts. Diaspora members funding building projects back home should ask to see the title first, because a building can be lost even when the land was paid for.

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