Prophet Nkansah tape pops up

The trial of Prophet Daniel Yaw Nkansah, a failed presidential hopeful and founder of the New Vision Pentecostal Church took a dramatic turn when a video recording was tendered in evidence yesterday.

Stephen Ped Andam, the complainant and tenant of Prophet Nkansah’s store at Atico Junction in Accra, told an Accra Circuit Court that a Close Circuit Television (CCTV) camera captured the accused issuing threats to the complainant.

Led in evidence by Inspector Emmanuel Afful, the witness (Ped Andam) said the video captured the time Prophet Nkansah came to the shop in the morning after his (Prophet Nkansah’s) son had telephoned him to inform him (Nkansah) of the presence of the tenant.

But counsel for the accused persons, C.A Chambers and C.K. Hoeyi, in a quick rebuttal, objected the tendering of the video tape, insisting they could not authenticate the genuineness of the tape and urged the court to reject it.

As a result, the trial judge, Francis Obiri, asked the prosecution to return the tape on July 4 for both parties, together with the court, to watch and assess it in camera.

The ‘controversial’ man of God cum politician is facing six counts of conspiracy to rob and robbery with his son, Daniel Boahene Nkansah Jnr., and eight others – two of who are currently at large.

They were said to have robbed Andam on February 1 of his Samsung S4, iPhone, Dell laptop with charger, cheque books, international driver’s licence, certificates, 32GB iPad and cash of Ghc55,000.

Prophet Nkansah, in connivance with his son and the 10 others, were also alleged to have made away with a Blackberry Q10 mobile phone and cash of Ghc500 belonging to one Geshon Essel, while another person, Billy Apeku Ken, also claimed his Samsung mobile phone, Dell laptop and Ghc750 were missing.

The fourth complainant, Isaac Tetteh Korgbey, was also accusing the Prophet Nkansah and the 11 others of the disappearance of his Dell laptop and Sony video camera. One Emmanuel Nana Kwaku Badu had also complained of his missing wallet containing Ghc1,000 and ID cards.

Prophet Nkansah, his son and the others had all pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.

According to the prosecution, all the complainants – Geshon Essel, Billy Apeku Ken, Isaac Tetteh Korgbey and Emmanuel Nana Kwaku Budu – are workers of XY Canis Majoris Company Limited with the first complainant, Stephen Ped Andam, being the Chief Executive Officer of the company located at Atico, a suburb of Accra.

According to Inspector Emmanuel Afful, Nkansah Jnr. is a student and that Andam, during December last year, rented four stores from Prophet Nkansah for a period of 10 years and paid Ghc111,680 as rent advance.

The prosecutor told the court that on February 1, 2014, Andam and his workers approached Nkansah Jnr as agreed with Prophet Nkansah, to vacate the store to enable them to move in, but this resulted in an exchange of words among them. Andam and his workers finally went back into the three stores to start the day’s work.

Nkansah Jnr. called to inform his father, Prophet Nkansah, who rushed to the scene and left after discussions with his son.

The prosecutor said Prophet Nkansah returned a few minutes later with a group of young men numbering about 10, onboard his pickup vehicle. Armed with cutlasses and other lethal weapons, they attacked the complainants in their shop, robbing them of items and money in the process.

The case was reported to the police and Nkansah Jnr was subsequently arrested on February 4, 2014.

During investigations, the Sony video camera was retrieved from him.

Inspector Afful further told the court that on April 4, 2014, Joseph Tetteh, James Quansah Afful, Otukunor Sackey and Emmanuel Salami Azumah, being the 3rd,4th, 5th and 6th accused persons, were arrested.

He said on April 13and 29, the 7th and the 10th accused persons – Samuel Kweku alias Sammy Tuga and Richard Annor Baidoo aka Anold respectively, were also arrested.