5 times Koku Anyidoho has been controversial in his utterances

Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Koku Anyidoho is currently in the grips of the police.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will be arraigned before court on Thursday, March 29, on the charge of treason.

Koku's arrest and treason charge comes from a recent statement he made concerning the tenure of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

YEN.com.gh has compiled a list of some of the many controversial utterances that have come from him

1. Heads must roll:

Koku, the Communications Director at the Presidency, made this infamous statement in June 2012 in the wake of a system failure and malfunctioning floodlight at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi which put on hold a 2014 World Cup qualifier between the Black Stars and the Crocodiles of Lesotho.

In an interview after the incident, Mr Anyidoho disclosed that heads were rolling, starting with the Ashanti East Regional Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) under whose jurisdiction the stadium was.



"This is unacceptable and the president is highly upset and so those who are in the line of fire will be fired…the president of the Republic is in charge of upholding whatever is in the supreme interest of this Republic.

"These kinds of things have been going on for far too long and President Mills shall no longer accept these kinds of things,” he said.

But it turned out the then president, John Atta Mills, had not sanctioned to this statement and it led to a lot of public backlash.

Many Ghanaians saw Mr Anyidoho's gaffe as an embarrassment to the government and asked for him to be sacked.



2. Bawumia is 'mutum banza':

During the launch of the NDC's 2016 campaign in the Ashanti Region in October 2016, Koku Anyidoho while addressing party supporters described the then Vice Presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, as 'mutum banza'.

When he got on the campaign platform he said, "when I say Dr Bawumia, say "mutum banza." So he charged: “Dr Bawumiaaaaaaaaaaa” and the crowd, including Vice President Amissah-Arthur, responded: “Mutum Banzaaaaaaaa."

“Mutum Banza” is a Hausa expression used to describe a person who cannot be used for anything meaningful.

This caused a stir in the public domain as people condemned him for engaging in personal attacks.



3. Comfortable lead:

One of the most popular statements that came out the 2016 election was the "comfortable lead" phrase.

While results were trickling in after voting on December 7, the NPP held a press conference to release results that had collated suggesting they had taken a commanding lead in the polls.

The NDC countered the press conference with their own and it was addressed by Koku Anyidoho who emphatically stated that the NDC was in a "comfortable lead" and were cruising to victory.

At the end of the day, it turned the NDC had woefully been defeated in the elections and Koku's statement has become a meme in Ghana. Koku suffered a lot of criticisms as his statement was deemed deceptive and a possible source of conflict.

4. Attacks on clergymen:

Koku Anyidoho has reputation for 'attacking' clergymen who criticized the NDC in times past.

Notable among these 'men of God' are General Overseer of the ICGC, Pastor Mensa Otabil and former Presby Moderator, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey.

Koku is record to have described Rev. Prof. Martey as an NPP propagandist and a bribe taker after the latter's revelation prior to the 2016 elections that a political party tried bribing him with $100,000, a V8 and a mansion at Trassacco Valley.

Koku also recently attacked Pastor Otabil over a statement by the head of the ICGC that he had stopped watching Ghanaian TV.

His constants attacks in this direction has often not been well received by general public.



5. Akufo-Addo will be overthrown in a coup d'état:

Speaking in an interview on radio, Koku had suggested that Ghana's political history will soon be repeated and that President Akufo-Addo "will end up like his father, who was overthrown together with Dr KA Busia in 1972" if he signs he US-Ghana military cooperation agreement.

This led Koku to arrested on Tuesday at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra where he was addressing a press encounter and has been subsequently charged with treason. The statement has been deemed controversial to the extent of NDC party dissociaiting themselves from it.