Kennedy Ohene Agyapong is MP for Assin Central
• Kennedy Agyapong has a long list of people he has publicly insulted and or threatened
• Journalists appear to be a ripe target for the Assin Central lawmaker
• Employers of his latest victim, Erastus Asare Donkor, of LUV FM want his threats formally investigated
Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has in the last few years fought to clear his name with respect to the murder of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale.
He had shown a photo of the undercover journalist on TV, disclosed his place of residence and made comments that suggested that Ahmed was a ‘bad boy’ and anyone who sees him could aggress him.
When Ahmed was eventually murdered by unknown gunmen months later, Agyapong became one of the first to be accused of complicity in the incident.
In a bid to clear his name, Agyapong has accused Ahmed’s boss, Anas Aremeyaw Anas of knowing who the killers were. He has also hit out at the police for doing little to nothing to accost the ‘known’ murderer hence leaving room for people to continue to accuse him.
In his recent tirade against police, he claimed to have given the police photos of one Eric Ansu-Gyeabour, the alleged murderer who is very much known to the Ashanti Regional Police but they continue to do nothing.
Inciteful comments against LUV FM journalist
So whilst the Ahmed Suale murder issue remains unresolved, one would have least expected Kennedy Agyapong to go down the same route of making inciteful comments against another journalist.
That is exactly what the lawmaker did last Friday (July 9) on NET2 TV when he said among other things that a journalist with Kumasi-based LUV FM should be beaten mercilessly for the manner in which he covered recent disturbances in Ejura.
Erastus Asare Donkor’s employers, the Multimedia Group, have since written officially to the Ashanti Regional Police Command lodging a complaint over Agyapong’s pronouncements, calling for a probe and security for their employee.
Kennedy Agyapong’s threats on journalists is however not restricted to these two personalities.
GhanaWeb looks back at instances where the Assin Central MP has gone hard on journalists
Manasseh Azure Awuni
In 2020, the investigative journalist – incidentally a former employee of Multimedia – had cause to issue a press statement announcing his intention to sue the lawmaker over consistent attacks in the media.
Agyapong has among other invectives called the journalist ‘corrupt and evil’- words that he has consistently used in attacking journalists.
Manasseh’s statement read in part: “My attention has been drawn to a sustained smear campaign of outright lies by Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyepong, against my person. This started when I published the “Contracts for Sale” documentary that implicated and resulted in the removal from office of the CEO of the Public Procurement Authority, Adjenim Boateng Adjei.
“It is within his right to stand by Mr. A.B Adjei, who defended Kennedy Agyepong’s wife’s contract with the Ministry of Energy worth over 100 million cedis when questions were raised about the propriety of the contract.
“However, it is unacceptable to continue to lie blatantly when he knows that there’s no truth in his malicious and defamatory claims that I sought a bribe in the investigative report.”
Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Kweku Baako
Agyapong has never seen eye-to-eye with Anas Aremeyaw Anas arguing repeatedly that the modus operandi of the journalist was unethical and dangerous.
A number of Anas’ projects notably ‘In The Eyes of God’ – about judicial corruption, ‘Number 12’ – about corruption in Ghana football and particularly Galamsey Fraud expose, only upped the ante relative to attacks from the lawmaker.
It was with the galamsey piece that Agyapong dragged Anas’ boss Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading GUIDE into the picture, relative to attacks and accusations of corruption and complicity in galamsey.
Baako eventually won a defamation suit against Agyapong when an Accra High Court awarded him GH¢130,000 in damages, way below the GH¢25 million he had sought.
Agyapong vs Mugabe Maase, Kevin Taylor, Alhaji Bature
In the case of Mugabe Maase, one of the infamous Montie 3 who were jailed for contempt in 2012, the two men have in the past traded insults with Agyapong among others threatening to close down the radio station that Maase worked for.
Like Mugabe, Agyapong has a similar relationship with two other media personalities, US-based commentator Kevin Taylor and the late Alhaji Bature of the Al-Hajj newspaper.
The case of Alhaji Bature usually played out on Adom TV’s Badwam program where both men disagreed sometimes violently when they appeared as panelists on the morning news analysis program.
Bature is on record to have irked Agyapong reporting on an publicly alluding to claims that the lawmaker was complicit in cocaine trade whiles questioning his source of wealth.
Another topic that created friction between them was Ibrahim Mahama – brother of former president John Dramani Mahama.
In February 2017 for example, Bature accused Agyapong of being jealous of Ibrahim’s achievements in life hence his incessant attacks on the businessman.
Agyapong has serially accused Ibrahim of profiteering from contracts when his brother was in charge.
Responding to Bature’s claims that he simply could not match Ibrahim, Agyapong said: “Of course, I canot match him because I cannot steal from the nation like he did. What do you mean?
“He will be jailed, how can a foolish person like him look after my children? Who born dog? He is a criminal,” Agyapong added.
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