Bishop Daniel Obinim, Leader and Founder of the International God’s Way Church, says he has been appearing on the front pages of some newspapers in the country for ‘bad reasons’ because he is popular and matters about him sell fast on the market.

According to him, his main rival, Prophet Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom Opambour aka ‘Prophet One,’ of the Ebenezer Miracle Worship Centre at Ahenema Kokoben in Kumasi, is not as popular, that is why the newspapers are not reporting negative stories about him.

He said a reporter of a certain newspaper which published a story about him (Obinim) last Saturday, openly confessed to him that the newspaper had nothing against him, but they were reporting negative stories about him just to record more sales on the market.

Bishop Obinim therefore urged his congregation at Kenyase Bosore near Kumasi not to believe the falsehood that the newspaper had been peddling about him since they were doing so just to sell their newspapers and get more money to pay their workers.

The leader of International God’s Way Church was preaching to his church members last Sunday when he intermittently paused to make this revelation.

The congregation welcomed this news with joy as they were seen shouting in admiration.

Bishop Obinim, who was wearing a flashy designer suit and a nice pair of shoes to match, was also seen beaming with smiles after making these remarks to the congregation.

A reporter of DAILY GUIDE was present at the church service which lasted several hours.

The front view of the International God's way Church at Kenyase Bosore near Kumasi

The front view of the International God’s way Church at Kenyase Bosore near Kumasi

Bishop Obinim, it would be recalled, had been slapped with eight fresh charges alongside two of his associate pastors for assaulting two presenters of Accra-based Hot FM and vandalizing property of the station.

The fresh charges include unlawful entry, causing unlawful damage, causing harm, conspiracy to commit assault and three additional charges.

DAILY GUIDE published a story about the beleaguered bishop, headlined ‘Bishop Obinim Slapped With 8 Fresh Charges’ last Saturday when he appeared before an Accra High Court for attacking the radio station.

Interestingly, Bishop Obinim did not talk directly about these fresh charges levelled against him. He also did not mention the exact falsehood that the so-called newspaper wrote about him.

He only told the congregation that “yesterday a certain newspaper published a false story about me which made me angry, so I called the editor of the newspaper to ask why they were tarnishing my image.

“Immediately I introduced myself as Bishop Obinim, this news newspaper editor said he was not the one who wrote the story, so he handed the phone to the writer of that concocted story about me.

“When I asked the reporter to prove the authenticity of the story, he said ‘Bishop we have nothing against you, I wrote the false story because we know that you are popular and stories about you always help our newspaper to accrue bumper sales on the market’.”

He added that the reporter then said “stories about Opambuor do not record the sales that your stories generate for the paper that is why we have not been writing negative stories about Opambuor any longer because he is not as popular as you are.”

Fascinatingly, Bishop Obinim strategically refused to mention the name of the particular newspaper and the reporter that made these revelations to him.

But the congregation, made up of mainly women and children, seemed happy and convinced about the narration of their spiritual leader, so they shouted in admiration.

He said again that this same reporter, whose identity he refused to make public, added that whenever “Obinim’s picture appears boldly on our front page, no matter the number of copies of the newspaper that we send to the market on the day, they would all be sold within a short time.”

According to him, he was initially furious about the manner in which that particular newspaper was tarnishing his image with false stories when he made the phone call, “but the reporter’s open confession calmed me down, so I dropped the phone without taking any further action.”

Bishop Obinim said now that his congregation had been told the reason he was attracting negative and sensational stories in the newspapers in recent times, they would henceforth treat such negative stories about him with the contempt they deserve.