Evil! 'Somebody had the audacity to record Akufo-Addo in his office' – Duncan-Williams

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams has revealed that “somebody” had the temerity to secretly record President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his office at the Jubilee House; a situation, which the man of God said, has compelled the security team at the presidency, to stop all mobile phones from entering the President’s office.

The founder of Action Chapel International (ACI) made the revelation during his first sermon on Sunday, 1 March 2020.

He described such secret recordings as evil and urged the government to enact a law that makes such acts punishable.

Although Article 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution has provisions which cater to the breach of privacy rights, there have been several instances in Ghana where secretly recorded audios and videos have flooded social media to tarnish people’s reputation.

While some of them have been revenge porn videos, others have also been of very sensitive political meetings and discussions behind closed doors.

A few recent ones include the video recording of a meeting between the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng and some heavyweights of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in which issues of illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) were discussed and some names such as those of the party’s General Secretary John Boadu and Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) were mentioned.

Prior to that, there was the secretly recorded video of National Security Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah, who was captured modelling in his pyjamas for a lady he was video-chatting.

During his sermon, Archbishop Duncan-Williams condemned all forms of secret recordings, saying the practice is a dangerous phenomenon.

“And hear me: those of you who record people without letting them know; it’s evil, and I think the government of Ghana must come up with a law that: ‘If record anybody without them knowing, you must be punished because it has become a conspiracy where people just record people without them knowing that they are being recorded”, he said, adding: “It’s dangerous to speak on phone now; very dangerous; yes, you set people up”.

“People come and play people to me, they come to my office and I’ve stopped phones from entering into my office”, he told the congregation.

“This society has become a very vindictive society; you record everybody and they won’t tell you they are recording you; they will set you up; that is very bad. People are even recording their fathers and their mothers; their wives and their husbands. What is wrong with you?” he asked.

“I went to the office of the President the other day and they stopped cells phones from everywhere. Why? Somebody had the audacity to enter into the Office of the President to record the President. What is wrong with us? What has become of us now? To that extent, you’re not afraid? Husbands are recording their wives when they are making love, and wives are recording their husbands when they are making love; you record the insults but you don’t record the other things; the other things she was saying and doing – hmmmm …”