I have no witness -Obinim

Bishop Daniel Obinim, the founder of Godsway International Ministry, has told an Accra High Court where he is on trial for assaulting a radio panelist that he has no intention of calling any witness to testify in his case.

The bishop told the court presided over by Justice Abdulai Iddrisu that he had no witness and consequently closed his case.

The trial judge then ordered the state to file its address by May 22, 2015 and said Obinim should file his within two weeks after the state has filed its address.

The case has been adjourned to May 27, 2015.

The suspect had told the court that he compensated the panelists who were at the studio of Hot FM, an Accra-based radio station, when he and his boys stormed there in 2011.

The bishop said his church elders informed him that panelists asked that he should compensate them.

Obinim said this under cross-examination by Mrs Joyce Buerko Debrah and explained that his elders said the people, who included host Kwame Katakyie, Shadrack Adu, a certain Amoako 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 his church 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 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 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 why he decided to barge into the studio when he knew of the processes one had to go through before entering a studio and he stated that he was granted permission by the security.

The bishop had in his evidence in chief stated that he went to the station to clarify issues regarding an alleged marital infidelity involving him, which was being discussed on the station. He said he was however assaulted and pushed out of the station.

The pastor said he neither saw any crowbar at the station nor had any physical contact with Kwame Ntim, the panelist who alleged he caused him harm.