Accra, Nov. 8, GNA – Some residents at Dansoman, a suburb of Accra are calling on the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA)) to take action against Daniel Nii Ayi Okine, Leader and Founder of Success International Gospel Church over excessive noise making.

The residents are also asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step up its activities in the Dansoman, Last Stop area, where the church is located, to clamp down on the incessant ear-piercing activities the mission have been churning out.

Ghana News Agency (GNA)’s inquiries revealed that residents cannot carry out simple conversations or make a phone call during the hours that the church operates on Sunday and Tuesday mornings and Friday evenings.

“Sometimes the church carry out all week revivals, all night services and prayer and singing practices aside their weekly meeting days,” Yaw, a married man with two children, told the GNA.

According to him when the church started its operations, some members living on the Acalypha Street, a street before the church’s premise is sited, reported their activities to the Dansoman Police Station, but few days later the religious group intensified its noise nuisance in defiance to both the police authorities and the affected residents.

“Since then, Nii Ayi has been insinuating and rebuking us during his preaching and prayers,” Yaw said, adding “he calls down holy ghost fire and thunder to consume us”.

Kofi, a young teacher told the GNA that to receive a call, he sometimes had to go outside the house to have his telephone conversation on the street, where the noise is bearable.

“Sometimes Daniel Nii Ayi Okine refers to us as demons working against the success of the church and its members,” a middle-aged widower said.

He said “at times, the church carry out prayers at dawn and during that time you cannot do anything but keep awake and lie in the bed, restless”.

Another family, leaving next door, said “we had an infirm father who needed rest. During one of the church’s noisy service, we called on the pastor to lower the volume of the public address system so our father can rest a bit, but this enraged him such that he urged his members to carry out increased shouts and clapping”.

She said though the father had passed away, the family remembers the agonising pain he suffered as a result of the excessive noise before he died.

The GNA paid a fact-finding visit to the area on Sunday where the church members, though few in number carried out prayers, song ministrations and offertories in an excessive manner.

The wooden church structure which is roofed with aluminium sheets has no noise proof and it is sited at the backhouse to the host estate building.

After few words from the leader Nii Ayi Okine, the congregation burst into frenzy “tongue speaking” and name-calling recitals and screams.

The church service which began at 0800 hours officially ended approximately 1330 hours, after which the leader offered special prayers to some congregants to exorcise them of demon possession and to make them materially prosperous.

The affected residents are therefore appealing to the AMA and EPA to take the necessary steps to forestall the situation from escalating, stressing that the health and lives of their children and students in the area are being compromised.

Until recent times, Dansoman Estates, the acclaimed largest Estates in West Africa, had been known for its peaceful, serene and quiet environment.

Residents now are inundated by series of uninterrupted noise nuisance carried out by drinking bar operators and spinners with some charismatic churches being the worst offenders.

Noise making have been identified to pose health risk to victims and these dangers include hearing impairment, deafness, hypertension, sleeplessness, mental disorder and abortion.

Some health experts indicate that exposure to excessive noise can induce premature ejaculation and lead to cardio vascular illness.

GNA