Widow, 63, On Hunger Strike

...in Defence of late Hubby.

The German widow of Dr. J.B. Kankam of blessed memory embarked on a five day (February 22 -26) hunger strike in defence of her late husband's reputation when ECG personnel touched on her sensitivities.

Mrs. Gelda Kankam, 63, could not simply eat those days in protest against abuses hurled at her late husband in particular and Ashantis in general who were described as cheats.

She ate something small on the sixth day (February 27) on the promptings of her lawyer, Mr. Asumadu Sakyi, and this reporter.

Mrs. Kankam lost concentration all these days and had her car smashed by another car on Sunday March 2, this year.

She said cheating is not part of her late husband and would not allow anybody to disgrace the Kankams. "He did so much for me and I will defend him because he would have done same for me if he were around," the widow said.

The late Dr. Kankam, a native of Jachie in Ashanti, is famous for bringing development to the community. A product of Adisadel in Cape Coast, Dr. Kankam was a renown surgeon and an internationally acclaimed apostle of the New Apostolic Church. He is said to have established about 300 churches in the Northern sector, including the one at the Stadium Traffic lights in Kumasi.

It is for these achievements and hard won reputation that Gelda would go without food if anybody dared speak ill of her late husband.

According to the grieving widow, some two persons who, she believed, were ECG personnel came to her No.52/53 Block 5 residence at Ahodwo in Kumasi and inspected her Meter No.0000003775 on February 5, this year.

Unknown to her, these people had tampered with it and left. Then another group of personnel from the Loss Control Unit of the ECG also came there on February 22 and found out that the seal of the meter had been tampered with.

Not only did the group draw Mrs. Kankam's attention to it, but also accused her of tampering with the meter, with the alleged intention of cheating the ECG. Even though she argued that she did not know anything about meters and that she had a private electrician who manned her power generating plant, these guys would not listen to her.

To penalise her, therefore, the team decided to disconnect the power supply and charge her for illegal connection and tampering with a ECG meter.

The team then embarked upon an inspection of all sockets in the premises, including the bedrooms and washrooms, to make sure that there was no illegal connection as perceived.

In the process, a member of the team, mentioned as Reuben, reportedly claimed that they were a Special Squad from Accra sent to monitor power consumption of Ashantis perceived as cheats.

Reuben is also said to have told Mrs. Kankam that since she had been married to Dr. Kankam, an Ashanti, for a long time, she could as well be a cheat and therefore a thorough inspection for possible illegal connection was necessary.

In the end, power was disconnected, in spite of pleas, though the German did not owe ECG a pesewa. Of course, she had settled the last bill of ?101,990 for the month of January on February 14, this year.

Mrs. Kankam followed up to the offices of the ECG with her lawyer to plead for the restoration of power since it was a weekend. Indications are that ECG did not cooperate until she paid a total of ?2,735,030.63 in full as a formalised assessment of the supposed illegal conncetion.

Mrs. Kankam has since February 24 paid the penalty (Receipt No.A2806006) on account of unauthorised power connection out of which sum ?774,445.00 was for meter maintenance.

It took the ECG five days (February 28) upon receipt of the amount to supply and fix a new meter on Mrs. Kankam's premises. The Regional Directorate of the ECG is taking a serious view of the alleged utterances of Reuben.

Chronicle has gathered that a Committee of Enquiry would be appointed to investigate the conduct of the team. The committee is also to recommend sanctions which could range from suspension through transfer to dismissal.

The management is also arranging a meeting with Mrs. Kankam to formally render an unqualified apology to her, even though Reuben insists that he never uttered those remarks attributed to him.