[ 2016-08-24 ]

Obinim Not ‘Criminal’ To Be Handcuffed – Atta Akyea
Bishop Daniel Obinim’s lawyer, Mr Samuel Atta
Akyea, has said handcuffing his client like a
“common criminal is not dignifying at all.”

Bishop Obinim was arrested on Tuesday by the
Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana
Police Service. He is being investigated for
defrauding a complainant of GHS11.6million by
false pretences. “This is the story for which he
is being charged and for which they said he would
not be admitted to bail,” Mr Atta Akyea told
Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive
Breakfast Show on Wednesday.

He spent Tuesday night in cells and has been going
through the bail process on Wednesday at the Nima
Police Station where he was transferred. Hundreds
of his church members massed up at the station to
demand his release. He was subsequently taken to
an undisclosed location believed to be the Bureau
of National Investigations (BNI) after his fans
struggled with the police during his transfer to
the CID headquarters.

Mr Akyea, however, expressed strong reservations
about how his client has been treated. “…What
was very sad for me was that the man [had]
voluntarily gone to the police station and you
handcuff him. You could see today he’s been at
the front pages of the Ghanaian Times and the
Daily Graphic as if the nation hasn’t got
anything serious to discuss, as if they need this
kind of pictures to overshadow the Montie FM
issues and I’m embarrassed by it. I don’t
think that the nation should stoop that low; we
have more serious things to look at, not
Obinim’s matters,” he said.

In Mr Atta Akyea’s view, fraud allegations are
normal issues which need not be blown out of
proportion for propaganda purposes. “They are
normal things; if you’ve practised criminal law
before, they are very normal – fraud and, even,
murder. So, if you look at priority and what is
important to Ghana, do not make normal things
extraordinary. If you did that then you have a
motive.”

“If you look at what is topical, it’s as if
this is supposed to overshadow issues concerning
the pardoning of these individuals [Montie 3], so,
please, this is my view and I think they’ve made
it too melodramatic. A man who is known and
notorious should be handcuffed? What for? Where is
he running to? Do you know who is supposed to be
handcuffed? The hardened criminals who they’ve
been searching for years and when they are so
arrested, for fear that they might bolt, they
handcuff them. So, what is the drama about? What
is it that somebody is trying to secure? I don’t
understand.”

According to Mr Atta Akyea, although “due
process was followed” in effecting the arrest of
his client, “the drama and propaganda was
needless”.

“You don’t handcuff somebody who you know is
decent, that’s what it is. …He is not a
hardened criminal to be handcuffed and then used
on the front pages of newspapers as if this is the
most important issue that happened to Ghana.
Treating him like common criminal is not
dignifying,” he added.

Source - classfmonline.com

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