Bishop Daniel Obinim
A Kaneshie District Court in Accra yesterday discharged controversial pastor, Bishop Daniel Obinim, founder of International God’s Way Church (IGWC) and his accomplice who were arraigned last year over allegations of forgery of police document and publication of false news.
The prosecution, led by Detective Sergeant Richard Amoah, appearing before the court, indicated that they wish to withdraw the charges levelled against Bishop Obinim and Kwabena Okyere.
Defence counsel Louis Yiadom Boakye, who held brief for Dela Blagogee Esq. of Blagogee, Blacksword & Co., told the court that from the very beginning they had maintained that Bishop Obinim was innocent and the prosecution needed to withdraw the case.
The court, presided by Her Worship Rosemond Agyiri, subsequently struck out the case as withdrawn and discharged the accused persons who had been going before the court for about 11 months without the case proceeding.
‘Threat’
The withdrawal of the case came few weeks after the court had threatened to discharge the accused persons if the prosecution failed to present anything concrete for the case to be heard expeditiously.
This was after the prosecution led by Detective Sergeant Richard Amoah had told the court that they were unable to proceed due to some challenges they encountered in their investigations into the matter.
The controversial pastor was being tried over allegations of forgery of police document and publication of false news.
Court Date
He was put before the court in May last year but the prosecution was not able to make any progress in the case as some of the alleged suspects could still not be traced and arrested.
Bishop Obinim and Mr. Okyere were separately put before the court but the case was later consolidated by the prosecution and the accused were granted bail by the court.
Main Trial
Bishop Obinim and Kwabena Okyere were separately put before a Kaneshie Magistrate Court in Accra and both charged with publication of false news and forgery of document contrary to Section 159 (c) of the Criminal Offences Act (ACT 29), 1960.
The two, together with three others at large, were facing four counts of conspiracy to publish false news, conspiracy to forge other documents, publication of false news and forgery of documents.
The accused persons are alleged to have forged and published a police persons wanted form for the arrest of one Isaac Opoku, a resident of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The said wanted person form bearing the details of the supposed fugitive called Isaac Opoku, according to court documents, was circulated on social media of certain individuals who are linked to Obinim, including Mr. Okyere.
Obinim Deposit
The alleged forgery of police documents by Bishop Obinim, according to the prosecution, resulted from some GH¢51,280 he reportedly deposited in Isaac Opoku’s bank account.
According to court documents, Bishop Obinim transferred GH¢49,160 out of the amount into his Kaizer Bank account in Spain, but it was later returned into Opoku’s bank account in Ghana.
Opoku then used the money, claiming he did so because of a promise Obinim made to him in front of his congregation to buy him a car.
Police Document
The back-and-forth that followed efforts by Obinim to retrieve the money, led to the alleged forgery of police document.
Okyere was then arrested by the police after it emerged that the alleged police persons wanted form appeared on his Facebook page under the name ‘Angel Obinim Ba Kobby Fireman.’
The complainant in the matter, according to court documents, made a follow up on the publication at the Police Headquarters but was told that the police did not issue any such form.
The alleged forged publications were subsequently deleted by the owners of the Facebook pages but the complainant, according to the prosecution, had already taken screenshots of the page.
Okyere is alleged to have gone into hiding until his arrest in Kumasi and “A subsequent check on Facebook during interrogation of accused persons revealed that the Facebook account ‘Angel Obinim Ba Kobby Fireman’ had been deleted,” the court document revealed.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak