Noise making: Court orders ICGC, Crossroad Church to pay GHS30K
For some time now, some parts of the capital seem not to go a night without the excessive music from speakers on the streets, at pubs and from some churches. In some neighbourhood, workers barely sleep well at night because of the excessive noise from those huge speakers.
Operators of these joints in the metropolis increase the volumes of their speakers to the extent that one can feel the vibrations while walking past them or notice the movement of items placed on a surface in their homes. They carry out their operations without worry because they do not perceive their activities as illegal.
Accra high court presided over by Her Ladyship Justice Novisi Afua Aryene has awarded damages and cost against the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) and Crossroad Community Church Ministries, both at Haasto in the Greater Accra Region, for nuisance.
The judge ordered the two churches to pay GHS20,000 and GHS10,000, respectively, to the plaintiffs.
The court further ordered the Municipal Chief Executive of Abokobi to pay damages of GHS20,000 to the plaintiffs for reckless disregard of the interests and rights of the plaintiffs to enjoyment the quietness of their properties.
These orders were made after the court found that the activities of the two churches (loud singing, clapping and drumming, accompanied by electronic musical instruments and loud prayers during days and nights, especially) from Fridays to Sundays coupled with the littering of the neighbourhood by congregants and the blocking of the entrance of the plaintiffs houses with their cars, amounted to nuisance.
The plaintiffs, Mrs Patricia Bannerman and Dr Elizabeth Masopeh, dragged the churches and the MCE of the area to court over the continuous disturbances in the residential area.
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