A criminologist is criticizing the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for deploying what he describes as revolutionary tactics in the case of Bishop Daniel Obinim.

Ken Attafuah says the Police acted unprofessionally when they cuffed the Bishop in the full glare of the public knowing too well the Bishop will not escape.  

The criminologist said the conduct of the police smacks of an old revolutionary tactic.

"It is a throwback to primitivity. It is a moribund policing tactic which belongs to the medieval period," he said, adding, "this is the kind policing that was commonplace with the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) period." 

The leader of the International God's Way Church has been charged with assault and defrauding by false pretense of some GH¢11.6 million cedis.

He was to be arraigned before the Accra High Court Thursday on charges of assault after days of interrogation and transfers between the CID headquarters and the Nima Police but did not show up. 

Related: Video: Obinim arrested for fraud

However, Mr Attafuah said the manner in which he was handled shows a "perverse form of power play in contemporary Ghanaian society."

He said the whole saga is a troubling perversion where the good purposes of the criminal law are abused to serve other collateral inappropriate purposes.

Mr Attafuah confessed to being one of those who criticised the Bishop for the pubic humiliation of youngsters he flogged before his congregants.

“There is nothing wrong with arresting him, there is everything wrong with the manner of arrest. There was no need to humiliate the man the way he humiliated the youngsters. That was a degradation ceremony through which the police took him [Obinim],” he said.

He said it was unnecessary to handcuff him, parading him on camera for the world, transporting him from one police station to the other, distabilising the man and causing unnecessary social tension in the country. 

Mr Attafuah explained that the handcuffs are used as an instrument of restraint when there is a cause to believe the suspect might escape, questioning how Bishop Obinim who turned himself to the police would escape.