Abusuapanin Judas talks of Santo

..and says “I’ve lost a great friend”

Accra woke up last week Thursday to be greeted with the shocking new that actor and comedian, Bob Santo, was dead!

Ironically, and perhaps justifiably, the announcement was first broadcast on Peace FM, the radio station which Santo helped to promote with his very popular commercial, “Have you heard the news?”

To say that Accra was stunned by the news of Santo’s death will be stating the obvious. Many people could just not comprehend the news and some of those who called to the radio station were rather skeptical about the authenticity of the news. A lot of people have come to fall in love with this diminutive actor who had brought laughter to them through radio plays, television movies and live shows over the last decade.

But no one has been so affected by Santo’s death as his mate, friend and fellow actor, Abusuapanin Judas. “I’ve been shattered,” he told Graphic Showbiz at his Kasoa home last Friday. “We had planned so many things to do together,” he said. Close friends and partners in performance for over fourteen years, it is perhaps just appropriate that it was Judas who saw Santo through his last days of sickness before his death.

Recounting events that led to the death of Santo, Judas said it all started while they were on an European tour. “We left Ghana for Europe on 8 February this year and returned on 24 April. The tour took us to The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark. Santo’s sickness started in Sweden and he got well after some treatment but re-occurred and became even more serious in Belgium. He received medical attention in Amsterdam and Berlin but all to no avail.”

Seeing how serious the sickness was becoming Judas decided that he would bring his friend back home for local treatment although they were left with a few weeks more to spend in Europe.

They arrived in Ghana on Friday and on Sunday he was sent to the West End Clinic in Kumasi, “a facility owned by his own brother.” It was there that Santo passed away after being on admission for one month.

According to Judas, the productions that would always remind him of Santo above all others, are ‘Atro Adiyifuo,’ and the mosquito coil advert. “God’s plans are different from those of men, Santo is no more but the group he led for all these years, Omintiminim, is alive. “We would need the support of everybody to bury our brother and to continue with the work he left behind,” Judas said.

Born John Evans Kwadwo Bosompem, the comedy-actor rose to stardom in 1990 when the drama wing of Nana Ampadu’s African Brothers Band came out with their first cassette tape recording. The play titled Ntwatosuo saw Santo playing the role of a deviant servant in the palace of Nana Konfanko with his friend and confidant playing the role of Abusuapanin Judas.

Before they could come out with the second and third parts of this production Santo and Judas had become household names. “I met Santo in 1988 and he got me to join African Brothers Band, an obviously disturbed Judas told Showbiz, “a few months after that he left the group but I managed to bring him back. Then in 1990 we came out with our first release of the trilogy Ntwatosuo, a play written by Nana Ampadu.

“I left African Brothers in 1994 after we had come out with a third release. There was this man who agreed to produce a film that I had written, ‘Onyame Tumi So.’ So I invited Santo to help me in that production making him to leave African Brothers as well.”

He said after the video production the man who produced them suggested that they form a concert group to perform at the Key Soap Concert Party. “That was when we formed Ominitimininim Concert Party together with most of our colleagues from African Brothers.

“I was to become the leader of the group but I suggested that Santo be made the leader as he was older and had a lot more experience than all of us,” he said. Thus Santo became the leader of Ominitiminim.”

Judas went on to narrate how they began to get roles to play in several video productions after they had established their popularity in concert party theatre circles. Some these productions are ‘Double Sense,’ ‘419 I and II,’ ‘Banker to Banker,’ ‘Marijata and Asem.’ They also had roles to play in the TV drama series ‘Efie Wura’ as well as several commercials and radio jingles.

“We try to create conflicts in every production that we are involved in,” referring to Santo and himself, “knowing that it is what the audience want. In any production I choose an opposite character from what he chooses so that we can battle it out with each other. This notwithstanding, we are the best of friends off stage and off camera: we are just like brothers. My brother, I have lost a great friend.”

Santo died at the age of 67 and he left behind a wife, Naa Adjeley, also an actress, and three children. He lost his first wife about a year ago and lost his mother while on the recent tour. He is related to Dr Adjei Marfo, Dr Kwakye Marfo and Finance Minister Osafo Marfo of Awisa.