Bishop Daniel Obinim, the founder of Godsway International Ministry, yesterday told an Accra high court that he compensated the panelists of Hot FM – an Accra-based radio station – who were at the studio when he and his boys stormed there in 2011.
The bishop, who said this in a court presided over by Justice Abdulai Iddrisu, where he is on trial for assaulting Kwame Katakyie – host of a programme at the time – said his church elders informed him that the panelists had asked that he should compensate them.
Obinim said this under cross-examination by Mrs. Joyce Buerko Debrah and explained that the elders said the people, who included Kwame Katakyie, one Shadrack Adu, a certain Amoaku and another, said the court case rested with them and that they could decide the outcome so he should compensate them.
He said he consequently compensated them through the elders but fell short of telling the court the amount involved or in what form the compensation was.
When asked by Mrs. Debrah why he compensated persons who he claimed were hostile to him, he explained that even Jesus faced a similar fate and further said he had decided to forget about what had happened and that was why the panelists got compensated.
When asked whether he had ever preached at the said radio station, he answered in the affirmative and said he had preached there years back.
The state attorney asked Pastor Obinim why he decided to enter the studio when he knew of the processes one had to go through before entering a studio. He stated that he was given permission by the security to go in.
Mrs. Debrah gave the bishop the August 4 2011 edition of DAILY GUIDE in which he was reported to have admitted sleeping with his junior pastor’s wife and asked him to read the headline of the said story, which he did.
However, further questions on it were objected to by Ralph Adu Poku, counsel for Bishop Obinim, on grounds that it was not authenticated and that the state had not tendered the said publication in evidence.
When asked further what he went to the studio to do, the accused person maintained that he went there to explain himself after being informed by his wife about what was being discussed on air, which he said concerned him.
The state attorney put it to him that he went to the studio in anger, to which he said he spoke in a loud voice when he went there but was not angry.
She further asked if he was not angry why then did he shout as evidenced by the recording of his voice at the studio? Obinim replied that it wasn’t every case of shouting that meant one was angry.
The case has been adjourned to May 8, 2015, for the bishop to bring a new witness.
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