The witnesses

On the evening of Wednesday, October 21st, a Belgian television programme called Pano aired a forty-six-minute documentary about a church most of its viewers had never heard of. Pano is made by VRT, the public broadcaster for Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The film was called “Undercover bij Go Church” (“Undercover at Go Church”), and it was made with the newspaper De Morgen.

It opened with secret camera footage from a church hall in Merksem, near Antwerp. It ended with a verdict. A young church in Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven, the film said, was manipulating teenagers, taking their money and serving a bishop from Ghana as if he were a god.

Within two days, doors began to close. The city of Mechelen ended a hall contract. The university in Leuven, KU Leuven, stopped the church from using its rooms. Turnhout shut a youth centre to it. Venues in Antwerp and Sint-Niklaas cancelled bookings. No court had ruled against the church. No one had been charged with a crime. The film alone was enough.

It was enough because people trust Pano. Viewers believe what it shows them, because it uses real people, named experts, hidden cameras and a reporter on the ground in Ghana. So the first thing to check is who these people were. The programme told its audience what these people said. It did not tell them who they were. This chapter does.

The investigation did not start with a tip from inside the church. By the programme’s own account, it started with a post on TikTok. An anonymous young religion teacher asked teenagers in Antwerp to send Pano anything they had experienced “that should be investigated”. More than thirty former members answered.

These former members were describing their own lives, and their accounts deserve to be heard. But when you ask for complaints, you get complaints. Go Church says that about four hundred and fifty people attend each week. The film did not give that number. And it did not put a single current member’s experience on camera.

Then the reporters flew to Ghana.

There, the narrator says, they met “six former bishops”. These were men who had worked for years alongside Bishop Dag Heward-Mills. He is the founder of Lighthouse Chapel International, a family of churches that started in Ghana, and Go Church belongs to that family. The six men had spoken about the church to a Ghanaian journalist five years earlier.

“Six former bishops” sounds powerful. It is also wrong. Only two of the six were bishops. The other four were a reverend and three pastors.

Those two bishops give the film its strongest accusations. Lawrence Odonkor says that if the devil walks the earth, he appears as Dag Heward-Mills. Emmanuel Oko Mensah says the church’s money is “channelled to Mills”, meaning it flows to Bishop Dag.

Here is what the film does not tell you. Both men have been suing the church since April 2021. They are the lead plaintiffs (the people who bring the case) in a dispute over pay and pension payments. They are on the other side of a court case against the church that is still going on.

And the film does not tell you what happened to Odonkor in Madagascar.

Odonkor used to run the church’s branch in Madagascar, an island country off the east coast of Africa. The church trusted him with its people and its property. That property included the branch’s official car, a 2003 Toyota Land Cruiser.

In 2022, his former assistant in Madagascar, the Rev. Edmund Amartey, published the WhatsApp messages Odonkor had sent him about that car. “Sell it to the highest bidder pls,” one message says. According to the messages, part of the money from the sale paid for land Odonkor was buying. Another message, sent to the church’s office in Ghana, reads: “This is Bishop Larry! The amount is 19,500,000 Ar.” (Ar is short for ariary, Madagascar’s currency.) The last screenshot shows a receipt for $5,237 paid into his own bank account in Accra, Ghana’s capital, and his reply: “Thank you!”

When the messages came out, Odonkor apologised to Amartey in public, “for how you feel”. The Ghanaian news site MyJoyOnline, part of Joy News, reported that his apology admitted his former assistant’s story was true.

Then the case went to court in Madagascar. According to the Ghana News Agency, the prosecution gave the court WhatsApp messages showing that he “had directed the sale and requested the proceeds”.

On April 18th, 2023, a criminal court in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, found him guilty. The charges were fraudulent breach of trust and embezzlement of the church’s property. In plain words, he was trusted to look after something that belonged to the church, and he used it for himself. The court sentenced him to two years in prison. It ordered him to pay 75 million ariary in damages to the church.

He appealed, which means he asked a higher court to overturn the decision. In May 2024 he lost. He appealed again. In November 2025, three judges dismissed that appeal “as lacking merit”, the Ghana News Agency reported, and upheld the first judgement in full. The agency also reports that there is now a warrant for his arrest. If he enters Madagascar, he is to be detained.

In other words: the man Pano used to tell viewers that this church is about money was himself convicted of taking the church’s property. He has appealed twice, and lost both times.

The second bishop, Emmanuel Oko Mensah, had a different complaint. He said the church had not paid his pension contributions, the money set aside for his retirement.

Ghana’s state pension fund, SSNIT, looked into it. In August 2021 it said the church had paid. Oko Mensah worked as a full-time pastor from August 2003 to November 2018, its statement said, “during which period his contributions were paid”.

So the official body that runs Ghana’s pensions found that the church had paid what he said it had not.

The journalist who brought these men together is Manasseh Azure Awuni. Pano introduces him as an investigative reporter. On camera he says: “There’s still a court case, so I don’t want to say much.” The film leaves it there. It does not say whose court case it is.

It is the church’s case against him. In December 2021, Lighthouse Chapel International sued Awuni11 Graphic Online; Ghana News Agency, Jul 2026 and his publishers for defamation, which means harming someone’s reputation by publishing false things about them. The stories it sued over are the same stories VRT went to Ghana to repeat. That trial is still going on.

In October 2022, the Ghana News Agency reported, the High Court in Accra found Awuni guilty of contempt of court in that case. Contempt of court means disobeying or disrespecting a court while a case is going on. Here, it was for publishing about matters the court had not yet decided. The court fined him. It also ordered him to apologise publicly to the church and to Bishop Dag.

One of Awuni’s most shocking claims, repeated on VRT, is that a pastor tried to kill himself “several times”. In court in January 2025, Awuni was cross-examined, meaning he was questioned by the church’s lawyer. According to reports of the hearing by Citi Newsroom and GhanaWeb, he agreed that he had not obtained the pastor’s medical records before publishing the claim.

And there is one more link. Odonkor, the convicted former bishop, is listed as a witness for Awuni’s defence in that same trial.

So here is the full picture. The journalist is being sued by the church. The two bishops are suing the church. One of those bishops was convicted of taking the church’s property, and he is also the journalist’s witness. Every Ghanaian voice the film used against the church is in a court case with it. VRT told its viewers none of this.

Pano’s experts carried a different kind of authority. Viewers expect an expert to be neutral.

The first is Johan Detraux. On screen he is called a “religious psychologist and former Jehovah’s Witness”. He talks about a “honeymoon phase”, a “rabbit hole” and “a tangle of emotional manipulation”. VRT told viewers which religion he had left. It did not tell them what he has done since. He chaired a Flemish study and advice group on sects (the S.A.S., Studie- en Adviesgroep Sekten). He sat, as a substitute member, on the Belgian government’s centre that watches sects. And he wrote a book that presents sects as a hidden danger inside Belgian society.

In other words: he is not a neutral observer. He has worked against sects for about twenty years. Nothing VRT published suggests he ever studied Go Church. Yet the programme told viewers that the abuse it describes “does not surprise” him.22 VRT NWS, abuse article, 21 Oct 2026

The second expert is a sociologist, Wim Vandewiele. He was more careful than the film around him. On screen he says there are “traces” of a harmful movement, and he adds that such groups “are certainly not banned”.

And the facts behind the film’s word “sect” are simple. No court has ruled against Go Church. No one has been charged with anything.

Last, there is the church’s answer.

Pano contacted the church, and the church replied in writing, in detail, two days before the broadcast. It covered the money, young people, therapy, hobbies, friends, and the case of the former leader.

Near the end of the film, the narrator told viewers that neither Bishop Dag nor the church’s pastor had responded. About a minute and a half later, the film used one sentence from the church’s long reply: the pastor “denies all allegations”, and as for the abuse, “we dealt with it.”

Forty-six minutes of accusation. Eleven seconds of answer. Is that fair? The rest of the reply was put on a webpage most viewers would never read.

vrtnws.be21 oktober 2026

De reactie van Go Church

Waar gaat het geld naartoe dat tijdens diensten en evenementen wordt ingezameld?

Het geld wordt gebruikt om de huur en andere operationele kosten te betalen voor de locaties waar onze kerken samenkomen.

Welk percentage van de donaties van jongeren of van hun uitgaven aan boeken, gaat naar Lighthouse in Ghana?

Go Church België maakt geen percentage van de tijdens diensten en evenementen ingezamelde donaties over aan Lighthouse in Ghana.

Waarom wordt het leden moeilijk gemaakt om uit de kerk te stappen?

Leden zijn vrij om Go Church op elk moment te verlaten. We verplichten niemand om te blijven en verwachten ook niet dat leden hun vriendschappen met degenen die vertrekken, beëindigen. We erkennen dat het verlies van vriendschappen pijnlijk kan zijn, hoewel we ons niet kunnen uitspreken over de persoonlijke relaties van elk individu.

Welke maatregelen heeft Go Church genomen toen de beschuldigingen tegen Kojo* aan het licht kwamen?

Hij was destijds werkzaam als vrijwilliger en was niet de verantwoordelijke pastor van de kerk. Toen de kerk kennis nam van de beschuldigingen, werd hij onmiddellijk en definitief uit de kerk verwijderd. Geen van de betrokken vrouwen was ten tijde van de incidenten minderjarig.

Zijn de beschuldigingen gemeld bij de politie of een andere beschermingsinstantie?

De kerk heeft de beschuldigingen niet bij de politie gemeld. Alle betrokken vrouwen waren op het moment van de incidenten meerderjarig. Ze werden aangemoedigd om de beschuldigingen bij de politie te melden en kregen de verzekering dat de kerk hen daarbij volledig zou steunen. Ze weigerden dit en vroegen de kerk uitdrukkelijk om de zaak niet namens hen te melden. De kerk respecteerde hun wensen. Hun besluit weerhield de kerk er niet van om maatregelen te nemen: Kojo werd onmiddellijk en definitief uit de kerk gezet.

Read all 23 answers, in Dutch and English

The Gospels describe a case that was also built from witnesses. At Jesus’ trial, Mark writes, “the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together” (Mark 14:55-56). The council had already decided what it wanted, and then went looking for people to say it. This chapter does not call anyone a liar. It asks what any fair judge asks first: who the witnesses are, and what they stand to gain.

The people who spoke to Pano had things to say. But viewers were asked to trust them without being told who they were.

Put together, the case looks like this. It started with an anonymous call for complaints. It used “six former bishops”, when four were not bishops. Two of its main voices are suing the church, and one of them was convicted of taking its property. The journalist who found them is on trial for defamation over the same stories. And its main expert has worked against sects for about twenty years.

That is the case. What follows is the record.

Translations from Dutch in this series are ours unless stated otherwise.

Notes

1. Graphic Online; Ghana News Agency, Jul 2026
2. VRT NWS, abuse article, 21 Oct 2026

The file on each witness

Lawrence Odonkor

Former bishop, shown as “ex-bishop Lawrence”

What VRT used him for “The corruption comes from the top”; the devil line; “it’s about money”.

• Lead plaintiff, with five others, in a labour suit against Lighthouse Chapel International filed on 19 April 2021 and still pending.
• Convicted on 18 April 2023 by the Criminal Tribunal of Antananarivo, Madagascar, of fraudulent breach of trust, dissipation and embezzlement, in a case brought by the church’s Madagascar branch. Sentence: two years in prison and 75 million ariary in damages to the church.
• His appeals were dismissed on 7 May 2024 and on 28 November 2025, when the Court of Appeal upheld the judgment in full. An arrest warrant was sent to two national security agencies.
• Listed in July 2026 as a defence witness for Manasseh Azure Awuni in the church’s defamation case.

Sources Ghana News Agency, Oct 2023; Ghana News Agency, Dec 2025; GhanaWeb, Dec 2025; MyJoyOnline, Apr 2021; Ghana Business News, Jul 2026

Emmanuel Oko Mensah

Former bishop, shown as “ex-bishop Emmanuel”

What VRT used him for “Was I brainwashed? Absolutely. 100%”; the money is “channelled” to Bishop Dag.

• Co-plaintiff in the same labour suit against the church since April 2021.
• His public complaint was unpaid pension. Ghana’s pension regulator, SSNIT, found the church had paid his contributions as a full-time pastor from August 2003 to November 2018.
• After he left, the church reported that he had kept its car. The Attorney-General’s office advised against prosecution and wrote to him: “Kindly return the vehicle to LCI.”
• On the money, he told VRT: “What he does with it, I don’t know.”

Sources MyJoyOnline, SSNIT findings, Aug 2021; Citi Newsroom, Jan 2023

Manasseh Azure Awuni

Journalist, shown as an investigative reporter

What VRT used him for The “six former bishops”, the “one-man church”, and “there’s still a court case”.

• Defendant, with his editor, the Media Foundation for West Africa and its director, in the church’s defamation suit over “Darkness in a Lighthouse”, filed in December 2021. The trial is ongoing.
• Found guilty of contempt by the Accra High Court on 25 October 2022 for publishing “issues yet to be determined by the Court”. Fined and ordered to render an unqualified apology to the church and to Bishop Dag Heward-Mills. The defamation case itself is undecided.
• Under cross-examination in January 2025 he conceded he had not obtained medical records for the pastor said to have attempted suicide before publishing.
• In July 2019 Ghana’s National Media Commission ruled his “militia” documentary misleading and sensational.

Sources Ghana News Agency, 25 Oct 2022; Graphic Online; Citi Newsroom, Jan 2025; Graphic Online, NMC ruling, Jul 2019

Morel

Former Go Church leader in Belgium

What VRT used him for “He knows everything” about the abuse, and the film’s last word, “cult”.

• The one line that ties Bishop Dag to the abuse rests on Morel’s belief that “he knows everything”. He gives no meeting, date, message or person.
• VRT ran Anna’s “the prophet was informed” straight into his line, so two beliefs sound like corroboration. VRT’s own written abuse article repeats neither.
• “Cult” is put in his own terms: “my definition”, twice.

Sources VRT NWS, abuse article, 21 Oct 2026; VRT broadcast, 37:55 to 38:22

Johan Detraux

Shown as “religious psychologist and former Jehovah’s Witness”

What VRT used him for The “honeymoon phase”, “a tangle of emotional manipulation”, and the abuse that “does not surprise” him.

• Listed in the 2007-2008 report of the Belgian state’s sect-observation centre (IACSSO) as president of the S.A.S. (Studie- en Adviesgroep Sekten), a study and advice group on sects, and named a substitute member of the centre by the Chamber of Representatives in February 2007.
• Author of “Het verborgen gevaar: sekten in België en hun infiltratie in de samenleving” (2021), which presents sects as a hidden danger in Belgian society.
• VRT disclosed the faith he left. It did not disclose the advocacy role. Nothing VRT published says he studied Go Church.

Sources IACSSO biennial report 2007-2008; UPC KU Leuven; VRT NWS, abuse article

Wim Vandewiele

KU Leuven sociologist of religion

What VRT used him for Megachurches have “a hidden agenda… often it’s money”, placed after the money testimony.

• His line about money was about megachurches in general. It names no church.
• On air he said there are “traces” of a harmful movement and that such groups “are certainly not banned”.

Sources

How the film was made