A Uganda-based preacher has denied charges he tried to import an electric shock machine to make people believe he could pass on the Holy Spirit.  "This is a toy. It was sent for my daughters' birthday," Ghanaian Kojo Nana Obiri-Yeboah told the BBC.

The machine was seized at Entebbe airport and police are investigating.

There has been a massive growth in churches set up by charismatic preachers in Africa in recent years, amid fears some could be fraudsters.

The pastor told the BBC that during his prayers, members of the congregation "act as the spirit comes in them".

The website of the company Yigal Mesika, which makes the "Electric Touch" machine, among other magic tricks, says:

"Charge a spoon, keys or coins and watch as it shocks a volunteer!

"They will believe you have supernatural powers!"

LINK TO FULL STORY ON BBC