Indications are that the criminal charges levelled against the Founder of the International God's Way Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim and two of his junior pastors are to be settled out of court. Counsel for the accused persons, Mr Kwame Afriyie, dropped the hint in court on Monday, but the judge, Mr Eric Kyei Baffour, said that might not be possible in view of the gravity of the offences involved. Moreover, the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police Mr Reindorf Agyemang, said he was not aware of any such move. According to counsel, negotiations to settle the case out of court started even before fresh charges were levelled against the accused persons. The accused are said to have attacked the studios of Hot FM, an Accra radio station, and vandalised property valued at GH¢130,850. They were earlier arraigned on three charges, but the matter was struck out and the accused persons were discharged and re-arraigned on seven new charges namely, conspiracy to cause unlawful damage and assault, unlawful entry, causing unlawful damage, two counts of assault, causing unlawful harm and use of offensive weapon. Bishop Obinim, Pastor Kingsley Baah and Pastor Kofi Akwetey pleaded not guilty to the charges and the court admitted them to their former bail of GH¢50,000 each with two sureties. Mr Agyemang told the court that since the charge of using offensive weapon was a first degree felony, the prosecution was waiting for a response on the docket, which had been referred to the Attorney General's (A-G's) office for advice. By the criminal procedure rules, a first degree felony is triable by a High Court, but the A-G can advise that the circuit court tries it. The use of offensive weapon, by Section 192 of the Criminal Procedure Act, is a first degree offence and carries a harsher sentence. The facts of the case are that on August 8, 2011, there was a programme on Hot FM dubbed; Nya Asem Hwe, which was hosted by Paul Kwame Ntim Katakyie, the complainant in the case. During the programme, one of the topics discussed was Bishop Obinim's sexual scandal and the playing of a tape recording relating to the scandal, while issues relating to Bishop Obinim's wife and the two accused persons were also discussed. Mr Agyemang said the accused persons; on hearing the programme, stormed the FM station with a crowbar and started vandalising the sliding door to the studio and other studio equipment. The damaged property included a voice processor valued at GH¢7,500; a Telos Hybria (lX6) valued at GH¢18,000; a head phone distributor valued at GH¢6,000; two CD players valued at GH¢4,500; three telephone sets valued at GH¢2,250; a Dell desktop computer valued at GH¢450, and a Toshiba laptop valued at GH¢750. The rest were a Sam sung laptop valued at GH¢1,600; a telephone valued at GH¢800; a console valued at GH¢18,000; an electric voice microphone valued at GH¢3,750; a microphone stand valued at GH¢2,250; louvre doors valued at GH¢20,000, and one K FM transmitter valued at GH¢45,000. According to the prosecution, the accused persons also attacked the host and other panel members and inflicted injuries on them, but a witness in the case, Shadrack Adu, managed to escape to the Adabraka Police Station to seek for assistance.