11 controversial people in Ghana

The most controversial Ghanaians are well-known individuals who have attained notoriety for engaging in acts that sometimes outrage, shock, disappoint or divide members of the public.

Here are 11 of the most controversial people in Ghana:

11. Asamoah Gyan

The 30-year-old, who plies his trade with Shanghai SIPG, has courted one controversy after another in the last five years.

The first occurred when his friend and co-musician, Castro, went missing (probably died) in Ada in July 2014.

Gyan, who had taken Castro and other friends on a weekend rendezvous at Ada, failed to speak for two months on the circumstances leading to the disappearance of the hiplife artiste and his lady friend, Janet Bandu, when they went for a boat cruise on the Volta River.

His loud silence on the matter sparked a rumour that he was responsible for the musician's death. When a Daily Graphic journalist, Daniel Kenu, asked Gyan what he made of those rumours at a press conference in Kumasi, the Black Stars captain attempted to assault him but was restrained.

Two days later, Gyan's senior brother, Baffour Gyan, led thugs to assault the journalists at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, provoking public outrage.

Gyan also made headlines for the wrong reasons in 2015 when a 22-year-old University student, Sarah Kwabla, accused him of raping her and forcibly having anal sex with her.

The Black Stars striker again sparked public anger when he reportedly slapped a worker of Alisa Hotel hotel in Accra February over a misunderstanding.

10. Afia Schwarzenegger (Valentina Nana Agyeiwaa)

The radio and television personality based in Accra is no stranger to controversy, which some say she resorts to sometimes to try and boost her popularity.

In 2015, she was arrested in Accra for reportedly beating a man who reportedly stole her iPhone.

She also made headlines when she engaged the Member of Parliament of Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, in caustic tit-for-tat verbal attacks in the media.

Her conduct, subsequently, got her sacked by her employers, Despite Group of companies. This year, Afia made headlines when her estranged husband, Lawrence Abrokwah, released a video of her in bed with an unidentified man.

9. Wanlov Kubolor (Emmanuel Owusu Bonsu)

The musician and member of FOKN Bois group is a very controversial figure who takes delight in angering Ghanaian Christians by mocking Jesus at the slightest opportunity.

An eccentric fellow, Wanlov dresses by wrapping a towel around his waist and walking bare-footed.

This dressing style recently caused him to be denied entry into the Kempinsky Hotel in Accra in January, as the management of the facility deemed him improperly dressed.

He also drew the ire of the public when he told reporters in 2014 that he had slept with over 300 women.

However, Wanlov's most controversial act till date came in 2012 when he displayed his private part of television station, TV3.

The incident provoked a firestorm of controversy and outrage that compelled TV3 to issue an apology and suspend the 'Delay Show' which had hosted the musician.

8. Kennedy Agyapong

First, the member of Parliament for Assin Central has, for many years, had to fend off allegations that he is a drug baron.

His propensity to resort to insults when expressing himself has got him into trouble with members of the public so many times - the latest being in February when he and media personality Afia Schwarzenegger took each other to the cleaners.

His most controversial act came in the run-up to the 2012 general elections when he made statements on his Accra-based radio station, Oman FM, that were interpreted to mean that he had called for members of the Ga and Ewe tribes to be killed in the Ashanti Region.

His remarks provoked outrage, with many calling for him to removed from Parliament. The police also charged him with treason, genocide and terrorism, but an Accra Circuit Court later acquitted him of the charges.

In 2016, he sparked public anger when he suggested that the EC chairperson, Charlotte Osei, got her job by granting sexual favours.

7. Mzbel (Belinda Ekua Amoah)

The hiplife musician angered Ghanaian Christians when she said in an interview last year that Jesus did not exist and that he was made up.

"Trust me I don't believe in that anymore," she said of Jesus on TV3's Restoration show.

"I don't want to offend anybody. I used to believe in it but I did my own research and I think it was made up but I might be wrong, but by my own research, it was made up."

As expected in a country where Christians constitute the majority of the population, the comment triggered condemnation.

The singer was again in the news after she admitted a sexual relationship with founder of UT Bank, Kofi Amoabeng. Asked on the the Delay Show if she’s ever slept with the businessman, Mzbel responded: “Oh yeah, a lot of times."

6. Delay (Deloris Frimpong-Manso)

The media personality and businesswoman egged on Wanlov Kubolor to display his private part on her Delay Show on TV3 in 2012 by daring the musician to do it.

She is also a outspoken personality whose tendency to talk openly about sex does not sit well with some members of the public.

5. Sulley Muntari

The former Black Stars player is not new to controversy. From slapping GFA officials to assaulting referees, Muntari has done it all.

4. Prophet Isaac Owusu Bempah:

The founder and leader of the Glorious Word and Power Ministry is notorious for prophesying the deaths of popular figures in the country.

Owusu Bempah's prophecies are usually distasteful and unpopular, prompting people to question if he is a real man of God.

One of such prophecies said in January that Perez Chapel founder, Bishop Charles Agyin Asare, would die this year.

He also prophesied this year that a coup would occur in the country ahead of planned December 2016 elections.

Owusu-Bempah also frequently gets into fights with others pastors.

3. Opambour (Prophet Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom) is the founder and leader of the Ebenezer Miracle Worship Centre at Ahenema in Kumasi.

The controversies his actions have sparked are too numerous to recount. The biggest came in 2008 when he and fetish priest Nana Kweku Bonsam challenged each other to a spiritual contest at the Jubilee Park in Kumasi.

On the agreed date, Kweku Bonsam arrived at the Jubilee Park for the spiritual battle, but Opambour was nowhere to be found.

The prophet later announced that he thought the agreed venue was the Independence Square in Accra, so he had travelled all the way from Kumasi to the capital for the show.

Opambour constantly gets into confrontations with other pastors and makes wild claims, such as having raised people from the dead. Last year, an audio of him insulting a presenter of Accra-based Adom FM, Adjoa Yeboa Asuama, emerged.

In that audio, he said his wife's butt was nicer than the presenter's face, sparking outrage in a section of the public.

2. Nana Kwaku Bonsam

He frequently challenges pastors to spiritual battles. He claimed in 2008 that that he had given over 1,000 pastors in Ghana the power to perform miracles.

A video emerged online in 2010 of Kweku Bonsam storming a Pentecostal church in Bergkamp in the Brong Ahafo Region and retrieving a “god" which he apparently gave to the church's pastor to enable him perform miracles.

In 2014, the festish priest made international headlines when he claimed that he was responsible for Cristiano's Ronaldo's knee injury, which threatened to prevent the Portugal and Real Madrid striker from playing in the Brazil World Cup.

Kwaku Bonsam – whose name translates literally as 'Devil of Wednesday' – said he had sacrificed four dogs and used them to create a special spirit called Kahwiri Kapam, which he said would rule Ronaldo out of the World Cup or at least prevent him from playing against Ghana.

"This injury can never be cured by any medic, they can never see what is causing the injury because it is spiritual. Today, it is his knee, tomorrow it is his thigh, next day it is something else," he told Kumasi-based Angel FM.

1. Bishop Daniel Obinim

The founder of the International God’s Way Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim, is number one in this list of the most controversial Ghanaians. He has been accused of being a false prophet by a section of the public.

He provoked national outrage this year when told his congregation that he possessed the ability to spiritually transform into a snake and bite people.

Prominent among those who mocked Obinim for his remark was the British high commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, who asked the pastor to transform into a snake on live TV.

Unfazed by the criticism and mockery that trailed his comments, Obinim reiterated to his congregation that he could transform into a horse, a pig, a dove, a cat, a tree and even a white man. In 2014, Obinim was widely criticised for stomping on a pregnant woman while supposedly praying for her in his church.

In 2011, the nation was stunned when leaked audio recording suggested that Obinim was sleeping with Gifty Pokua, the wife of one of his junior pastors.

He later admitted it in an interview with Accra-based Peace FM, but provoked further controversy when he said that he had placed a curse on the child he fathered with Gifty to punish her for allegedly releasing audios of their private conversations.

"I passed my hands through his head, so his brain is completely destroyed and I held his feet and paralyzed him so that the child can never walk… I used the power of Jesus that is in me. I wanted to prove to her that she [Gifty] cannot destroy the work of God that I was doing because I am not the only man of God who has slept with another woman".

Obinim went on, that same year, to storm the premises of Accra-based radio station, Hot FM, where he allegedly attacked panelists of a live discussion on his infidelity.

Obinim also challenged a fetish priest, Okomo Yaw, to a spiritual contest at the Jubilee Park in Kumasi that would have seen both men take turns to sleep in a coffin for 30 minutes.

The pastor recently provoked outrage when he asked his female church member to bring their bras and undies (pants) to church.