Was the Former Lighthouse Pastor acquitted and Discharged? The Madagascar proceedings: the full record
A report published on 21 June 2022 described an early ruling in proceedings that were then
at their beginning. It has not been updated since. What follows is the rest of the record.
The ruling it described was given by a lower court in Antananarivo on 23 February 2022, in
a civil claim brought by the church, which the court dismissed. Those were neither the only
proceedings concerning these funds nor the last.
The Public Prosecutor of Madagascar brought a criminal case in Antananarivo, with the
The Madagascar church joined as a civil party. The charge was breach of trust under Articles 406 and 408 of the Malagasy Penal Code, concerning church funds entrusted to Mr Odonkor 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. The judgment records that the money was given to him under a mandate to apply it to a determined church purpose, and not to acquire a
vehicle in his personal name.
On 18 April 2023 the Court of First Instance of Antananarivo, sitting in correctional
matters, gave judgment (No. 239-MaS2). It found the evidence sufficient, convicted him of
breach of trust, and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment with costs. On the civil claim
it ordered him to pay the Madagascar church 75,000,000 Ariary in damages, reduced from the
85,000,000 claimed. He did not appear before the court, and judgment was given by default.
He appealed twice. The first appeal was dismissed on 7 May 2024. The second was dismissed on 28 November 2025 as being without any merit. It has been reported that a warrant for his
arrest was issued in Madagascar. He is not in Madagascar.
The report of 21 June 2022 remains an accurate account of a ruling given in February of that
year. It has not been an account of these proceedings as a whole since 18 April 2023.
https://www.adomonline.com/court-dismisses-pastors-appeal-against-jail-term/