body-container-line-1
16.01.2002 General News

Central Regional Minister Strikes Again

By chronicle
Central Regional Minister Strikes Again
16.01.2002 LISTEN

...Pursues taxi driver who flees into Church The controversial Central Regional Minister, Mr. Isaac Edumadze, who was involved in a road rage incident 140 days into the new NPP Government (July 2001) and was given a presidential warning, is in the news again. The latest incident involves another incident with a driver and a car chase that ended in Enyan Denkyira Market and caused a panic flight by the driver into a group of praying Christians deeply involved in a Sunday morning supplication to God. Members of the Harris Healing Church (HHC), better known among spiritual church fraternity as ‘awoyo’ or ‘nakaba,’ were rustled from their Sunday 8.30 am worship by the screams of ‘Praise the Lord’, ‘Praise the Lord’ from an intruder who had dashed into their midst almost short of breath. His plea? He had had a brush with ‘Hercules’, the Central Regional Minister, he told the pastor and his bewildered flock in a trembling voice. Even though he had prostrated before the Minister, he was fearful of his fate since the big man was not budging. According to the driver, popularly known as ‘Okyeame,’ his problems started that fateful morning when he was driving his Toyota Carina CR 2516C loaded with plantain and cassava from Assin Koroso to Enyan Denkyira market with her customer, a local trader, who doubles as a farmer, seated in the front seat. While offloading the goods in the market, they saw a four-wheeled vehicle rev up and stop behind them in the market area. A well-built man dressed in resplendent white cloth emerged from the vehicle they were gawking at, motioned at the driver and bellowed: “If you do not want yourself to be blamed move your car and let us go’! It was the Minister ordering the driver, now trembling and telling him that he was under arrest. He was accused of crossing the Honourable Member of Parliament and Minister. Okyeame was dumbfounded. He wondered at what point he crossed the Minister obviously because of the difference in power of both vehicles and not conscious of the fact that he was even being pursued since he had even stopped to offload. The most shocking aspect of the incident was the fact that Edumadze and Okyeame (real name Kweku Aduba) are no strangers to each other. Aduba has been campaigning for Edumadze since 1996 and is very well known within the local NPP. Aduba also drives the President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs and is popular because he is a very jovial person. Okyeame explained that he was going in a direction that was opposite to the direction of the Minister. Not making any headway with the Minister, he did what most Ghanaians often do when confronted with a tough situation, he knelt down and pleaded with the towering Minister for forgiveness and mercies. Incidentally, Edumadze was going to Ajumako Methodist Church where he had been invited as an honorable guest. Edumadze, like the unforgiving debtor in the Bible (Matthew 18 from 23), refused to budge. The woman trader passenger also dropped to her knees and added her voice to the pleas of the driver to the unyielding Minister, who still stood his grounds. Realising the hopelessness of the situation, ‘Okyeame’spotted an opening and made his dash to the church where his dramatic pleas to the pastor roused them and sent the congregation pouring out with him. When the Minister saw the members of the Church come out, he jumped into his car, obviously to prevent creating and drawing more attention to himself, rolled his car’s glasses to maintain the airconditioning, and sped off. The driver had told the pastor ‘ Osofo wo ne woa asorefu mboah me ai, na ma yan asem wo yen ara yen nuah Edumadze eye Regional Minister nsamu na maka biaah nso ote ase inti mu boah me na mu nka bi mame, eyen sa a menim dea ebetume nne,” To wit, “Pastor and the members of the Church, I need your help, I have problem with our own brother Edumadze, the Regional Minister. I have explained my position but he would not understand and to avoid any trouble, I have gone ahead to plead for forgiveness but to no avail.. If you fail to help me or intervene I don’t know what will happen to me today”. The Minister’s next stop was Breman Essim (Nkwantanum ) police station where he left the number of the taxi cab with its registration number with the police and ordered the two police men on duty post to arrest the driver and his car. He further ordered the police not release the taxi driver until they heard from him (Edumadze) with his personal instructions on what action should be taken against the driver. Some 30 minutes later, Okyeame arrived at the station. He was informed that he was being sought after by the police and some of his colleagues started questioning him what might the problem be. He told his story and told them that the Minister had claimed that he had crossed his path with his car, an incident he denied. ‘Since I do not know where that incident took place but he maintains that I have crossed him, I decided to allow the sleeping dogs to lie and pleaded with him to forgive me but to no avail.”. After narrating his story, he reported himself to the police who detained him as directed by the minister. Chronicle gathered that the driver’s car owner was informed of his arrest and when the news got to him he contacted the NPP’s constituency Vice Chairman Mr. Oboubi who also invited some party top men with them to see the minister for the release of the driver. After pleading with the minister Oboubi was mandated to contact the police for the release of the driver. Chronicle gathered that when the Vice chairman and his team arrived at the police station, the police officer handling the case refused to release the driver, citing the strong instructions the Minister left. Oboubi only succeeded in releasing Okyeame when he wrote and signed an undertaking that should the Minister come back he (Oboubi) should be held responsible. Surprisingly when Chronicle contacted the Police officer in-charge of the Essiem police station, he said no such incident had occurred at the station. “We did not arrest any taxi driver. It is not true that such a story has happened here, obviously driven by fear to lie. ‘ I have heard that a certain taxi driver had problems with someone but not in my station,” he lied. Chronicle conducted a field investigation and checked and re-checked all sources and locations and finally reached the Minister last Saturday evening at 8.15 pm. Edumadze confirmed that an incident such as the one described occurred and admitted that he got the taxi driver locked up at Essiem police station, contrary to what the Station officer told Chronicle. According Edumadze, the taxi driver crossed him and was running away but he got himself entangled somewhere else along the line. “If the driver did not cross me, why then did he run away? The route that he used is not the road to the market,” the Minister told Chronicle. He pleaded that the incident was not any thing for people to make hullabaloo about. He explained that indeed he was approached by some constituency executives who after pleading for the driver, he gave them the mandate to approach the police for the release of the driver. He had the power over the Police and could personally determine who stays locked in Police cells and who gets released in complete breach of Police procedure and due process of the law. Chronicle gathered the driver and the trader who hired him have since visited the Church with their thanksgiving testimony to God and the members for their prompt response when he called on the for help. They donated ¢3,000 to the Church. The driver has confirmed the story. Chronicle obtained electronic surveillance registration of the various accounts including the Miinister’s admission. Can Ethiopia change his skin or can a Leopard change its spot? So says the good book Holy Bible in (Jeremiah13:23a).


body-container-line