Why passengers fled a ‘trotro’ when young man with a rare medical condition tried to speak

It is one of those stories that automatically draw a person to tears, or if not, surely into an emotional fix, even if only momentarily. And that was the confession of the journalist who put together the report on Samuel Akonnor.

“I was told a student, Samuel Akonnor, wanted to meet me, to tell his story to the world. What I did not know was that meeting him would affect me emotionally,” TV3’s Portia Gabor said in the opening words of her report titled, ‘When Words Fail.’

With a condition that triggers seizures whenever he speaks, Samuel has become what he says "an evil person" to people such that they run away from him.

A case in point was when he said all the passengers in a public transport fled when he tried to tell the bus conductor that he would alight.

Unable to continue the interview after Samuel introduces himself, the journalist had to call off the voice interview: rather, she resorted to text messaging with him so that he no longer had to strain in trying to speak.

For years, the second-year student of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has had to deal with this rare medical condition that makes him have constant seizures, enduring falling and hitting his heads against hard surfaces such as walls and trees countless times.

He is currently reading a course in art education at the UEW.

But Samuel is not entirely unable to communicate; he does that through art.

He is hopeful that people can support his art so that he is able to finance his education.

Watch the TV3 video below:

You can also watch this edition of People & Places here:



AE/WA