Frank Kwaku Appiah, popularly known as Appiah Stadium, a Kumasi-based political activist and serial caller of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken a swipe at the clergy, describing them as “hypocrites who will be whipped on judgment day.”
This happened on Wednesday afternoon after he [Appiah Stadium] accosted a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana and Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante at the funeral grounds of the late Paramount Chief of Offinso, Nana Wiafe Akenten, in the Ashanti Region.
In what initially appeared to be the exchange of pleasantries, Appiah Stadium a friend of former President John Mahama veered off and queried the Reverend Minister over what he describes as the clergy’s “silence on national issues under President Akufo-Addo, unlike it happened under his boss, John Mahama.”
Strangely, a diabolic Appiah Stadium would have none of the explanations Rev Prof. Asante sought to give to his questions.
With a clear intent to subject the Reverend Minister to public ridicule, Appiah Stadium got his friends at the funeral grounds to record the episode with their phones, as he dished out the insults to the good old Reverend Bishop; shortly after which he released the footage on social media which has since been celebrated by NDC members.
Below is what transpired in the video:
“I wasn’t speaking in my capacity as a Ghanaian then”, he explained to Appiah Stadium, clarifying: “I’m not [Rev Dr] Asante-Antwi” as he was referred to by the Kumasi-based serial caller.
Appiah Stadium then asked Rev Prof Asante if he was no more a Ghanaian now.
He then pointed out to the Reverend that the cost of a one-hour flight of the President alone can build a whole school block, contrasting that with the situation under former President John Mahama, who, he said, never embarked on such luxurious trips.
He then asked the man of God: “Are you sure you are not a hypocrite?”
A riled Rev Prof Asante then parried the hypocrisy charge leveled against him saying: “I’m not a hypocrite”, and then lunged at Appiah Stadium thus: “You’re the hypocrite”, explaining: “So far as you do your bidding, I will not do your kind of politics”.
The recriminations continued between the two with each of them aggressively pointing accusing fingers at the other as they parted company amidst a dispersing crowd of mourners at a funeral ground.
Appiah Stadium told Rev Prof Asante that God would, one day, question him on his silence, to which the cleric retorted: “God will judge you more than me”, adding: “He [God] will cut your head”.
Appiah Stadium would have the last word, responding: “He [God] will cut your stomach; liar!”
BY Daniel Bampoe