"I can't defile my daughter," - Jesus One Touch"

Accra, Oct. 25, GNA - Nana Kofi Yirenkyi, aka "Jesus One Touch", Founder and General Overseer of the Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry at Oblogo in Accra, on Monday told an Accra Circuit Court that he could not defile his own daughter.

According to Yirenkyi, a pastor with nine years' experience, his 10-year-old daughter could not stand him for a minute if it came to sex. "It is not true that I had sex with the victim. I will show my penis to everyone here to prove that I cannot have sex with the victim." Yirenkyi, denying the charges of incest and defilement, indicated that he had never engaged in sexual intercourse with his wife three times in a week.

Opening his defence before the court, Yirenkyi denied defiling her daughter on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays before going to church, adding that his wife was always around and there was no way he could sleep with his daughter.

Yirenkyi, a father of six, who was led in evidence by one his counsel's, Mr Paul Owusu, recounted that he and his wife slept in a room while the victim and her other siblings slept in a different room. "I can't allow my daughter to see my penis; God will even penalise me over that ah, ah, I can't do that. I have never used any white handkerchief to wipe my own sperm," he said.

Narrating his schedule to the court, he said on Tuesdays he leaves the house at 0400 hours for Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, to preach between 0515 to 0540 hours.

He said after the sermon, he and his entourage wait at the radio station until 0700 where he counsels people. He then leaves to his church to continue with consultations before returning to the house at 2000 hours.

The accused said on Saturdays, he goes to Hitz Radio to preach the word of God at 0400 hours and leave for his church at 0800 and return at about 1900 hours.

According to him, his children were not taken to church on Saturdays because that was the time they did their homework. "I have never sat in the same car with the alleged victim to any church," he added.

Yirenkyi said on Sundays he goes to church in the morning in the company of his wife in a car, while the children are driven in a van to the church premises.

Yirenkyi, dressed in a light pink shirt and a pair of brown trousers, admitted knowing all the prosecution witnesses. He told the court that he met the victim's mother at Dawu in the Eastern Region and proposed love to her.

Yirenkyi said during the relationship, the victim's mother, Ama Bernice, became pregnant.

The accused said he, therefore, followed up to Bernice's parents to perform the marriage rites but this was rescheduled by the family. Yirenkyi said later, Bernice told him that her mother had asked her not to give the pregnancy to him because he was poor. Rather, she should give it to a Tema-based mechanic. He, therefore, did not marry her because the pregnancy was not given to him.

However, when he bought a car and started visiting Dawu, his home town, and people noticed that he was no longer poor, the victim was presented to him as his daughter.

Quoting Psalms 118: 22, Yirenkyi told the court that he was once the rejected stone that had become the cornerstone after he had purchased a car, adding, "My daughter's mother. came to me pleading that I should take the child."

Yirenkyi said when the victim was brought to him, he asked that she should stay with her sister because he had not informed his wife about the victim.

According to him until he informed his wife, there was no way he (Yirenkyi) would send the victim to his house. Yirenkyi said the victim stayed with his sister for a year until her sister complained that she was always wetting her bed and could no longer tolerate her.

"The victim, therefore, came to stay with me in my house," the accused said.

Yirenkyi rejected claims by the prosecution that one Sisi Maame, the third prosecution witness, whom the victim was said to have confided in, was a relative.

Narrating how he was arrested, Yirenkyi told the court that on March 2, this year he received an invitation from the Police at Odorkor to come to the Police Station.

"At the Police Station I was accused of defiling my daughter but I denied it," he remarked.

Yirenkyi said the Police at Odorkor told him that because of the allegation he was needed at Akropong Police Station in the Eastern Region.

Two days later, Yirenkyi said, he in the company of his wife drove to Akropong where a policeman known as Bala was present when his statement was taken.

The following day he was escorted to the Police at Mampong. He denied ever kneeling and pleading with the victim's mother to "drop" the charges. According to him he rather told the Police that it was one Efo, a watchman in his house, who defiled the victim. Yirenkyi said he got to know of the case involving Efo, when T.T., his step son, reported that Efo had been sleeping in the same mosquito net with the victim and he had been beating her buttocks and inserting his fingers into her private part.

The accused said after Efo's confession to the crime he pleaded for forgiveness. However, following that disclosure, he (Yirenkyi) lodged a complainant with the Police at SCC Police Station in Weija, Accra. Yirenkyi said after lodging the complainant, Efo the watchman escaped.

The accused said one Quannor, a relative of the victim's mother and a prosecution witness, told him that he was aware that he did not defile the victim. However, because he (Yirenkyi) allowed Efo to escape, Quannor would replace him for Efo.

When his counsel, Mr Owusu, asked him whether he had anything to say Yirenkyi said: "I have sworn by the Bible which is being used universally; if I defiled my daughter I challenge God to let me rot before I die so that people would make mockery of me. "I charge all Muslims and Christians to pray against me if I have defiled my daughter."

Yirenkyi, who has been accused of defiling his 10-year daughter, was expected to open his defence on Tuesday before the Circuit Court, but that was rescheduled. He has pleaded not guilty to incest and defilement and has been remanded in police custody. The prosecution's case is that the victim, born out of wedlock, lived with her mother, Madam Asamaa, until 2005 when she left to live with the accused at McCarthy Hill in Accra to attend school. It said between 2008 and 2009, the accused started defiling the victim each time he attended church service. In November 2009, the accused granted an opportunity to the victim's mother to talk to her because she was misbehaving. It was during the interaction that the victim revealed her ordeal to her mother. The victim was initially examined by a medical doctor and later transferred to the Police Hospital for further treatment. The case has been adjourned to November 3.