Zoe Embassy pastor picked up by police

Police investigators have begun looking into how scores of investors got their monies locked up with EL Real Estates and Tikowre Capital.

The owner of the two schemes, pastor Kelvin Kobiri who is the founder of the Zoe Outreach Embassy has been taken to the Police CID headquarters for interrogation.

This was after scores of aggrieved customers stormed his East Legon-based church for the second time in one week to demand locked up cash.

The customers were met with a security blockade of police and soldiers who denied them access to the church premises.

The security officials assaulted the customers who resisted attempts to stop them.

A Joy News cameraman was also assaulted while covering the fracas and his camera was temporarily seized.

After his church service, Pastor Kobiri was escorted to the CID headquarters along with some of the aggrieved customers.

The aggrieved customers say the police have taken statements from them.

How the investment worked

They customers, made up of Pastor Kobiri’s church members and some outsiders say they were convinced by the preacher and or his assigns to invest in the scheme for returns.

Many of them including Mustapha Alor and Thompson Agyeman who spoke to Joy News said they neither sought professional advice nor checked the registration status of EL Real Estates and Tikowre Capital with the regulator, Securities, and Exchange Commission (SEC) because their trust in the head pastor was sufficient.

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

However, for the past few months, things have come to a head and the customers have not been paid any interest or been able to retrieve their invested funds.