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An accomplice of pastor Daniel Obinim, founder of the International God’s Way Church (IGWC), in an alleged forgery case, has been granted a bail of GH¢50,000 by a Kaneshie District Court in Accra.
The suspect, Kwabena Okyere, aka Kobby Fireman, a hospital administrator, was arrested on Monday, August 10, and put before the court charged with publication of false news and forgery of document contrary to Section 159 (c) of 29, 1960. But he pleaded not guilty.
According to the prosecution, Mr. Okyere, with the intent to commit crime, forged a police persons wanted form in November last year for the arrest of one Isaac Opoku, a resident of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, for Bishop Obinim.
Obinim Link
Bishop Obinim is before the court for allegedly forging and publishing a police persons wanted form against a man in Kumasi without official endorsement.
The said wanted persons form bearing the details of the supposed fugitive called Isaac Opoku, according to court documents, was circulated on social media platforms of certain individuals who are linked to Obinim.
The alleged forgery of police documents by Bishop Obinim, according to the prosecution, resulted from some GH¢51,280 he reportedly deposited in Mr. 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.
It was the back-and-forth that followed efforts by Obinim to retrieve the money which led to the alleged forgery of the police document.
Mr. Okyere was then arrested by the police after it emerged that the alleged police persons wanted forms appeared on his Facebook page under the name ‘Angel Obinim Ba Kobbyfireman’.
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 complainant then reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of Obinim who told the police that he knew the owners of the Facebook pages as members of his congregation but had nothing to do with them.
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 them.
Mr. Okyere is alleged to have gone into hiding until his arrest in Kumasi.
“A subsequent check on Facebook during interrogation of accused person revealed that the Facebook account, ‘Angel Obinim Ba Kobbyfireman’, had been deleted,” the court document revealed.
Bail Argument
Lawyer for the accused person, Dela Blagogee of BlackSword & Co, in requesting a bail, said the charges levelled against the accused person were misdemeanours which he had denied and was entitled to bail.
The court, presided over by Rosemond Agyiri, granted him a bail of GH¢50,000 with three sureties who must be earning not less than GH¢3,000 monthly.
—Daily Guide
