The Attorney-General’s (A-G's) office has taken over prosecution of the case against the founder of God's Way International Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim, and his junior pastors for allegedly vandalising and attacking the host and panel members of Hot FM, a private radio station in Accra.
Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr Reindorf Agyemang, until Monday the prosecuting officer, told the Accra Circuit Court that the case had been assigned to a substantive prosecutor, Ms Cynthia Lamptey, a State Attorney, who would take over from the police.
Following that, Mr Agyemang prayed the court for a short adjournment to enable the substantive prosecutor to take over.
The court, presided over by Mr Eric Kyei Baffour, therefore, adjourned the case to November 7,2011.
At the court's last sitting, the case had been adjourned because the prosecutor said the docket had been sent to the A-G's Office for advice. That was after the court had turned down an appeal by Mr Kwame Afriyie, counsel for the accused persons, that the matter be withdrawn to enable the parties to try an out-of-court settlement, the outcome of which would be communicated to the court.
The other accused persons are Kofi Akwetey, 35, and Kingsley Baah, 27.
Counsel had told the court that negotiations for an amicable settlement had begun before the accused persons were arraigned.
Bishop Obinim and Pastor Kingsley Baah, as well as Pastor Kofi Akwetteh, are jointly facing charges of conspiracy to commit crime, unlawful entry, causing damage to private property and assault.
Bishop Obinim, however, is charged with two additional counts of using an offensive weapon and causing unlawful harm.
They have, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges and have been admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢50,000 with two sureties each.
The facts of the case are that about 9:40.p.m. on August 8,2011, there was a programme on going on Hot FM, “Nya Asem Hwe”, being, hosted by Kwame Ntim Katakyie.
One of the topics discussed was the alleged sex scandal involving Bishop Obinim, following which the accused person's name was mentioned in the course of the programme, with his alleged tape recording of the issue being played on air.
According to the prosecution, the programme highlighted issues concerning Bishop Obinim's wife and an associate pastor.
The accused persons, on hearing the issue being discussed, stormed the FM station with a pinch bar and started vandalising the sliding doors and other studio equipment, the prosecutor told the court.
Studio equipment destroyed by the accused persons included a voice processor, valued at GH¢7,500; telos hybria, GH¢18,000; head phone distributor, GH¢6,000; two CD players, GH¢4,500; three telephone sets, GH¢2,250; one Dell desktop personal computer, GH¢450; one Toshiba laptop, GH¢750, and one Samsung laptop, GH¢1,600.
The rest of the items were one phone, valued at GH¢800; one console, GH¢ 18,000; one electro voice microphone, GH¢3,750; one microphone stand, GH¢2,250; glass doors, GH¢20,000, and a KFM transmitter, GH¢45,000.
The total cost of all the items was put at GH¢130,850.
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