When news broke and video emerged of outrageous bishop, Obinim whipping young lovers at his church premises many were rightly incensed about the gross abuse inflicted on the two.
Obinim was peeved when he was informed the young lad, Illiasu had been chopping down another young lady Gyasiwaa, also a member of his flock leading to pregnancy and an attempted abortion.
Florence Obinim’s hubby who is said to offer financial support to Illiasu, who had lost the dad and is being catered for by a poor mum who has little herself. Apparently he supports Gyasiwaa as well since she is also from an improvised family.
Surely young fellows ought to stay away from sexual liaisons because they are not equipped to handle the repercussions, be it emotional or financial.
So Obinim must have been right when two people his money supports should breach his trust in a wanton way but unlike a true leader who takes charge of a situation, Obinim’s open shaming in the full glare of congregants and eventual whippings of the young lovers with belt exposed his immaturity and tactless thinking way.
Sur the two lovers needed to be chastised for after all a baby costs money, money they both lack but counselling them and putting in measures that the girl successfully delivers and the boy concentrate on his studies to excel ought to have been the immediate consideration not beating which would serve little purpose. After all Obinim himself had been reckless in having an affair with a junior pastor’s wife but was spared whippings he deserved.
I have seen young girls let curiosity take the better part of them leading to pregnancy and births but who with the right guidance from mothers, fathers and other family relations ensured the girls continued their education even to the university level eventually attaining gainful employment or becoming entrepreneurs.
But Bishop Daniel Obinim of the International God’s Way Church in Kumasi with branches in other cities chose brute force to ventilate his anger much to the chagrin of any right thinking member of society.
Obinim who prefers to be called angel instead of just bishop had claimed many supernatural abilities. Perhaps his followers believe in his powers as well and might explain why despite many scandals, they still fellowship at his shrines.
Just last week Saturday on Metro TV, I stumbled on his weekly show after a long while. In that episode, Angel Obinim had testifiers arranged before the congregation narrating how he intervened mystically to resolve their conundrum.
There was a confession by a lady explaining how Angel Obinim manifested in her dream giving her two beans adding that she will deliver triplets. She added that Obinim informed her to add one corn herself for the boy child since the beans represented two girls.
True to form, the confessor explained when she awoke from her dream she found two beans on a table in her room. She drew the attention of her husband to the items and explained everything to him. He then purchased the corn and added to the beans. After 9 months, the woman who has elder children and could not properly feed them delivered the triplets because God willed it so.
There were other revelations of how Jesus’ younger brother appeared in the dream of his congregants as a dog or other objects and either gave them cash, babies, travelling documents, healed them of sicknesses or blessed them with his special anointing.
If Angel Obinim does all this for his congregants and they find fulfillment in his works, then I wouldn’t have a say but the simple question I ask is how is it that a man who appears in the sleep of his congregants and can strike anyone who dares challenge his authority just as Afia Schwarzenegger was threatened fail to have seen it when his two wards started ‘chopping each other’.
I would assume with all his powers and his special access to his dear Jesus Christ he so often mentions, it would have been revealed the very moment Illiasu removed his rod to penetrate Gyasiwaa such that mystically he would have appeared on the act and stopped it.
The narratives conflict, with one claiming that the deed of the young lovers got revealed to Obinim by papa Jesus the very moment he ordered them to the brought forward for punishment while another version is that the lovers’ deed was disclosed to the Angel Obinim by a someone in the church who felt the good bishop ought to be informed about the attempted abortion the girl had unsuccessfully tried before things got out of hands.
Whether Obinim is a charlatan or genuine is subject to interpretation. What is without doubt is that Angel Obinim would not have me consult him or be among his flock for it needs to be noted that the great magician Houdini could well have been a prophet, bishop or angel had he mentioned Jesus as the power behind his wondrous acts.
Already Amnesty International, Who Will Hear My Cry Ghana (WWHMC), Institute of Human Rights Studies (IHRS), the gender, children & social protection ministry and lawyer Francis Sosu have all demanded Obinim’s arrest for abusing the human rights of the young lovers and endangering their feeble lives.
A good number of Ghanaians contend the bizarre acts of the bishop of the International God’s Way Church ought to be stopped at a point and now seems a good time.
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