Bishop Obinim was said to have demanded the said amount from the yet to be named man under the pretext of assisting him retrieve an amount of GHC78,000 paid to a fetish priest to perform some form of rituals.

According to the Police, Obinim has since June this year when he collected the money, which is proceeds from a family gold, failed to retrieve the GHC78,000 from the fetish priest, Okomfo Gyakpata.

Obinim is again said to have failed to perform a spiritual ritual for the man as was agreed on before the amount was handed over to him.

The pastor already faces a possible abuse charge after whipping two teenagers of his church last Wednesday before a packed congregation for indulging in acts of fornication which resulted in pregnancy.

Bishop Obinim had turned himself in to the Tema Police Command to assist them investigate the whipping incident but was arrested and transferred to the headquarters of the Police Criminal Investigations Department.

“Well, I must say that we have just commenced investigations into this fraud issue. Now when we are done with this investigations, we will hand him over to our DOVVSU to also investigate the domestic violence issue,” ASP Joseph Benefo Darkwa told Accra-based Joy FM.

Background

According to the Police, in November last year, the man gave GHC 78,000 to one Okomfo Gyakpata of Mampong  Nkwanta near Koforidua to help him in some spiritual matters.

However, the man claimed after sometime, the Okomfo was unable to help and also failed to repay the money.

He then turned to Bishop Obinim to assist him retrieve the said money from the Okomfo, and also go ahead to do the rituals for him.

“So it was based on this that Bishop Obinim asked him to bring the rest of the gold money which belongs to the family, which amounted to 11.6 million Ghana cedis. The complainant gave this amount to Bishop Obinim for him to do the ritual for him,” ASP Darkwa said.

The Police say the man claimed ever since Obinim collected the money, he has failed to do fulfill his part of the bargain, and also failed to pay him back his money, following which he lodged a complaint.

“We are investigating the fraudulent aspect of it,” ASP Darkwa said.

By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh_TV3