‘Apostle’ Kwabena Owusu Agyei
The activities of the so-called clergyman, ‘Apostle’ Kwabena Owusu Agyei, 56, whose blood-curdling remarks and death threats on the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) earned him an arrest by the National Security operatives, are unravelling.
Nana Target
From his utterances and actions, the EC boss appears not to really be his target but rather the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He has an avowed hatred for President Akufo-Addo and has not stopped raining curses on him at any given opportunity.
He appears to have started the ‘hatred’ project as far back as the 2000s when Nana Akufo-Addo was nursing an ambition to lead the country after former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Several video recordings of the so-called apostle, some of which have found their way on to social media, depict the extent of hatred he harbours for the President.
In the run-up to the crucial 2016 general election, he, with tacit support from the then ruling Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, tried to push the agenda to dissuade Ghanaians from voting for Nana Akufo-Addo to be President.
He frequented radio stations with his warped claims that God had told him Nana Akufo-Addo could not be President once he, ‘Apostle’ Kwabena Owusu Agyei, was alive.
Fake Prophecies
He even said that he would stop preaching if Nana Akufo-Addo was not the obstacle for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after a prayer challenge.
He once said the NPP should ‘eliminate’ Nana Akufo-Addo before they could win the 2016 election.
“2016 is for the NPP but the obstacle is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. If the NPP will win, then it is two things. Either Nana Addo will have to step aside for a new training or he would have to die. Case closed!” he declared.
“Nana will never be President; he will not win,” he said it with vicious emphasis and even went further to spew more hatred about the then NPP presidential candidate, who eventually defeated massively the incumbent Mahama and his NDC that the so-called apostle was working for in 2016.
“Already, there is stroke hovering like a bird over his (Akufo-Addo’s) head and any moment from now the stroke could hit him and attack him,” he said with an air of arrogance as if he was the one to determine when a person could die.
He even lied that he had told Nana Akufo-Addo what to do; when the host challenged him about his claims, he quickly changed his statement that he personally told Nana Akufo-Addo about it to “as for me, he (Akufo-Addo) has heard it.”
‘Apostle’ Agyei has not relented in his hatred for the President and continues his agenda after Nana Akufo-Addo had overcome his doom prophecies and won the 2016 election to become President.
Akufo-Addo Statue
For instance, he went to the statue of the President’s father, Edward, at the Akufo-Addo Intersection close to the Togo Embassy in Accra, and pretended to be praying for the President but in reality ‘Apostle’ Agyei was raining curses on him.
He pretended to be protecting the President ‘spiritually’ whilst pouring what looked like wine in a green bottle and after the prayers, which looked like the pouring of libation, he smashed the bottle to symbolize the so-called protection he claimed he was offering the President.
Court Appearance
Already, ‘Apostle’ Agyei has been remanded in custody by an Accra Circuit Court for threatening to kill the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, if she goes ahead to compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary election.
He threatened Mrs. Mensa to stop the compilation of the new register or die young at midnight, although he did not mention any specific day.
‘Apostle’ Agyei was arrested yesterday morning by some officers of the National Security, while he was granting an interview to a journalist from Hot FM.
In a video circulating on social media, some men, who claimed to be from the National Security, were seen moving into the house of the pastor to arrest him.
Wee Found
Things took an interesting twist when a video went viral which suggested that security officers found parcels of a substance suspected to be marijuana (wee) allegedly on the pastor.
A few hours after his arrest, he was put before a Circuit Court in Accra and remanded for two weeks.
Charge Sheet
He was charged with three counts of threat of death contrary to Section 75 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, (Act 29) of 1960, offensive conduct conducive to the breach of the peace contrary to Section 207 (1) of the same Act and possession of Narcotic Drugs contrary to Section 2 (1) of PNDC Law 236/90.
He pleaded not guilty to all three charges and the court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Essandoh, a High Court judge sitting as an additional Circuit Court judge, remanded him to reappear on June 23.
During interrogation, he said he did not have a wife but said he had four children.
He claimed he was from Asokore in the Ashanti Region and gave his age as 56.
Arrest Drama
In the course of his ranting spree from his home on an Accra-based radio station, he was picked up by National Security operatives.
The movie-script style security operation was executed just when the suspect appeared to have reached what sounded like the climax of his vitriolic outbursts in a part of his house identified as a place near Greda Estates, Indomie Junction, at Nungua in Accra.
Occasionally wiping the balls of perspiration from his forehead and adjusting himself on the plastic chair on which he sat, he insulted almost everyone in government or at the EC, some of the words, too harsh to be repeated.
There was no letup in his ranting, which was beamed live on Facebook, when four persons immediately turned up as if waiting for him to make one of his infamous remarks.
Arrest Warrant
One of them dangled a document which obviously authorized them to make the arrest of the so-called apostle.
He was visibly deflated as the eerie words rang through the portion of his house where the recording was taking place, “We are from the National Security and we have a warrant to arrest you.”
One of the operatives reached out to him to physically get him to stand up, but he managed a “don’t touch me” caution even as he eventually gave up to the awesome authority of the state.
He was taken to one of the three Toyota V8 Land Cruisers waiting outside in an uncomfortable harbour-hook mode, his ranting ceased for now.
NDC Assignment
Before he was pounced on by the National Security operatives, the ‘Wee Apostle’ had started the interview by making incendiary statements and was daring the state to arrest him.
He said boldly that Elohim (God) had asked him to speak his mind, exclaiming “my instruction is to lead the NDC to victory and that is what I am doing.”
He then catalogued unsubstantiated accusations, all of them defamatory in substance, against known personalities in politics.
By Ernest Kofi Adu