Sammy Ankrah (2nd from right) with Dr Pauline Long (1st from right) and some of the cast
Sammy Ankrah, the writer and director of the much-anticipated Christian movie, Divine Intelligence, which is due to premiere at the Odeon Cinema in Greenwich, London, on 22nd July, has cleared the air by stating categorically that the movie has no links whatsoever, with either the NPP or NDC as rumoured in the media a short while ago.
He dismissed the rumour during a LIVE TV interview on BEN TV in London, where he was in attendance with eight of the cast of Divine Intelligence, for an interview about their upcoming movie premiere.
Show host Dr Pauline Long took Sammy Ankrah unawares by asking him to explain what he knew about news that were going on in the media a few months ago that his movie had links with some two major political parties in Ghana, namely NDC and NPP.
Responding, Sammy Ankrah said he heard and read the news, but that the movie was an independent work which had no links whatsoever with any of the political parties the host mentioned.
He explained that he believed the root of those allegations stemmed from the use of a Nissan Micra car in the movie whose registration bore the abbreviation of one of the two political parties she mentioned – the NPP. That, he said, was purely coincidental.
Sammy Ankrah further explained that his home country, Ghana, was going into an election this year and it was not a surprising occurrence that some political fanatics would take advantage to play politics with irrelevant issues such as this, so long as they believe it would be beneficial to them.
He, however, conceded that his photographs published with some leading members of the NPP and NDC in those news stories were authentic because he has close associations with some of the leading members of these parties but not in political terms.
Host Dr Pauline asked whether he did not realise that would be the possible outcome for using such a controversial car in the movie, to which Sammy Ankrah replied it never occurred to him because he was overwhelmed with more pressing issues about the movie’s production.
Pauline Long joked that Ruva Masiyanise, who played an undercover police officer role in the movie and was on the show, could have investigated, as part of her role, whether Sammy Ankrah really knew the likely impact of using that car in the movie, to which they all laughed.
When news about the movie hit the media a few months ago, some NDC and NPP supporters in the UK alleged that Sammy Ankrah, the creator of the movie, belonged to their respective parties.
An argument to that effect was alleged to have occurred between some members of the two party supporters on one such occasion. To prove their allegation, the NPP supporters went ahead to publish photos of Sammy Ankrah with party bigwigs such as ex-president Kuffuor, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and some of their top UK executives while the NDC guys also published photos of the man with NDC’s former Ghana High Commissioner to the UK, Professor Danso Boafo. Some members of the public heavily criticised those supporters of the two parties as being petty and childish in their actions.
The movie will be premiered at the Odeon Cinema in Greenwich, London, on 22/07/2016 and expectations are very high.
Tickets for the premiere could be obtained from www.divineintelligence.eventbrite.com.
Click below to watch the movie’s trailer below.
