Obinim Strikes• With Curses & Thunder• Lover’s Son Crippled

The embattled head pastor of the International God's Way Ministry, Bishop Daniel Obinim, seems to have entangled himself in a controversy that has attracted condemnation from other pastors nationwide.

Yesterday, three of those pastors including the General Secretary of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, General Secretary of the Christian Council (CCG) and the Founder of the Word Miracle Church International, Apostle Samuel Antwi, Reverend Dr Fred Deegbe and Bishop Charles Agyin Asare respectively had cause to express disappointment at the conduct of Bishop Obinim who openly admitted having sex with one of his own pastor's (William Fobih's) wife, Gifty Pokua.

Apart from that, he has also conceded having cursed and crippled a three-year-old child of Gifty, and proceeded to vandalise the studios of Hot FM, Accra-based radio station where the issue was being discussed on Monday evening.

The son of Pastor Williams Fobi, a leading Bible reader of his church, has since childhood not been able to walk or function as a normal person.

Just yesterday, after being granted bail by an Accra court for assaulting the staff of Hot Fm, Bishop Obinim told Peace FM that he paralysed the innocent child because his parents were blackmailing him.

According to him, he rubbed his hand on the head and legs of the innocent boy to render him mentally incapacitated and paralyzed. 'I passed my hands through his head, so his mind is completely destroyed and I held his feet and paralysed him so that the child can never walk,' he boasted.

The Kumasi-based bishop said he took that action because the woman he allegedly had sexual intercourse with had deliberately embarked on a mission to malign him with the view to collapsing his church and marriage to gospel singer Florence Obinim.

He pointed out that because Gifty had an agenda to destroy him, she secretly recorded every conversation they had had and had also released them to radio stations.

Bishop Obinim revealed that his wife and children had been worried by the tapes.

He noted that what hurt him the most was that when he was taken to court in handcuffs, his wife could neither come to the police station nor the court following the accompanying embarrassment.

Obinim is facing criminal charges and he is on a GH¢50,000 bail.

He raided the studios of the radio station, got arrested, charged for conspiracy, causing unlawful harm and causing unlawful damage, and later granted bail by a court.

He has since thrown an open challenge to his colleague men of God to a spiritual contest to see who is more powerful, threatening to invoke thunder and lightning to strike anyone who shows up.

Speaking on various networks yesterday, the other pastors criticised the supposed 'man of God' for the despicable act, describing it as scandalous.

Agyin Asare's admonition
Bishop Charles Agyin Asare did not mince words when he asked Obinim to bow his head in shame for putting up what he described as an 'unruly behaviour' which is inconsistent with pastoral principle.

He did not want to go into the details of what transpired at the meeting held at his office between Obinim and his former lover's husband and family since some of them were extremely despicable.

'Instead of him going round the radio stations or trying to be talking on radio, he should have sought a place to pray and bow down his head in shame, because his behaviour is a behaviour unbecoming of a man of God,' he said.

He recalled that 'at a point the lady's (Gifty) step-mum got angry at Obinim. We expected that Obinim would apologise, repent, ask us to ask for mercy. He wasn't doing any of that, instead he was just throwing his weight about like the way he was throwing his weight about this morning when he was being interviewed.'

On the issue about Obinim's proposed spiritual contest, Agyin Asare said, 'What he is saying is neither here nor there because if you are a man of God, it is not miracles that will prove you to be a man of God', adding, 'By their fruit, you will know them because there are a lot of people who don't know Christ.'

'I feel what Obinim is doing is not helping him, his church, Christianity and bring peace.

What he should have done by now was to go and hide somewhere and pray to God for forgiveness to let people realise he has regretted  what he did but not hopping from radio station to radio station and keep talking from one place to the other,' he said.

Bishop Agyin Asare said it was some of these reasons which compelled him to stop mentoring Bishop Obinim some two years ago.

Fred Deegbe's Concern
Head Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Adabraka, Rev. Fred Deegbe, described Obinim's behaviour as 'sad, scandalous and disgraceful', saying that 'gifting is not the same as character'.

Much as he appreciated that as a human being, Obinim might have been provoked to have done what he did, the General Secretary of the CCG said, 'You shouldn't be provoked to that extent' and stressed the need for him to be made to face the consequences of his actions.

'If you can be provoked to that extent and do the things he has done and get a backlash and the consequences, and then you know that your actions were not justified. I have heard him speak and he is saying he has received counsel. If you are provoked and you take the law into your own hands, and do the things that you did as a man of God, as a pastor, as a preacher who speaks to people, I think he should have been more circumspect about what he was doing than what he did,' he said.

Obinim Disowned
General Secretary of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, Apostle Samuel Antwi, denied claims that Obinim was a member of the Council.

That notwithstanding, he described Bishop Obinim's action as 'disgrace to the Christian fraternity'.

He was however not the least surprised at the conduct of Obinim because when the issue about the sex scandal was brought before them, and they invited the 'man of God', he did not show any respect to them.

This, according to him, was when they met him at the office of Bishop Agyin Asare to look for a possible solution to the problem.

In the course of the meeting, he said Obinim became furious and stood up angry and invoked curses. It got to a point where he (Apostle Antwi) virtually had to walk out of the meeting because he could not contain some of the things Obinim was saying and doing.

In spite of that, he indicated that Bishop Obinim's victim, who happens to be his (Obinim) own junior pastor's wife, was  able to prove beyond doubt that he was having an affair with her after they got married and even had sex with her at the time she was pregnant for Pastor Fobih.

He however noted that Obinim failed to accept responsibility.

Hot FM victim
One of Obinim's victims in his raid of the studios of Hot FM and host of the programme 'Nya asem hwe', Kwame Ntim Katakyie, recounted how he managed to escape death that fateful Monday evening.

He was discussing the issue with two other studio guests, Rev. William Amoako Atta Jnr, and the producer, Shadrack Adu on a live programme when Obinim and two of his men stormed the studio around 9:50pm when he heard loud noise of shattering glasses.

Before he could say jack, Katakyie said he saw a furious-looking Bishop Obinim approaching with a crowbar, threatening to kill him.

By that time, he said his studio guest and producer had taken to their heels.

At the time, Katakyie said he was behind the console and so he could not run.

According to him, Obinim then tried to hit him with the bar but he used his hand to block it since it could have hit his head.

He narrated that Obinim then hit his ribs with the bar by which time he decided to run for his life.

Katakyie said he had to escape through the back door and scale the wall of the station before he could go to the Adabraka Police station to lodge a formal complaint since some of Obinim's men were still outside the premises.

He is still nursing his wounds.
Though he considered the incident an occupational hazard, Katakyie prayed not to fall victim to such a dastardly event again since it could have claimed his life.

He however wants the law to take its course, believing to get justice at the end of the day.

The management of the radio station yesterday issued an official statement that it was determined to pursue the case to its logical conclusion and would not entertain any out-of-court settlement as being speculated in some quarters.

It however expressed gratitude to the Ghana Police Service especially the Adabraka station, the Greater Accra Regional Police Command and the judiciary for the speedy handling of the case.

It commended the clergy for their useful pieces of advice and wise counselling.

Management of the station also took the opportunity to assure its numerous listeners, sympathizers and clients of its determination to discharge its duties with all the necessary professional conduct in accordance with the ethics of journalism.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu & Morgan Owusu, Kumasi