My recent internet publication on a Ghanaian false prophet in France has caused consternation among the Ghanaian community in Paris. Even though no names were mentioned, some individuals felt they were those being discussed – oh wonderful, as DJ Sources of Sources radio often says. How could they magically arrive at the conclusion that they were those alluded to?

Anyway, information reaching me indicates that the prophet I had in mind when writing my article is no more in France, he has vamoosed long ago. However, all those with guilty conscience, alleging that they were those spoken about should please check their ways, if they fall short of true Christian values, qualities and expectations. Should I say, who the cap fits must wear it? No, I won’t.

Who is a prophet by the way? A prophet by dictionary definition is, “A person who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of a god is expressed or a person gifted with profound moral insight and exceptional powers of expression”.

How does one become a prophet? Is it through the inspiration of God necessitated by His abundance of mercies upon those that He selects for such special duties to reassure, warn and help His children?

I do not want to go into details about how one earns the title, prophet, but I strongly believe it is not bestowed on them haphazardly by fellow human beings for dubious reasons. It is by one’s faith in God through his works and the purpose of God that one comes to earn the prophetic title.

I always write to educate people by sharing personal experiences and the practical encounters of other people as have happened, or are still ongoing. I do not take any acts of pretences by whomsoever kindly, especially, when they are to do with false fetish priests or Christian/religious prophets.

My own grandmother (Nana Gyamfuah) that I never had the opportunity come into this world to meet, met her untimely death owing to the falsehoods fed to her family. She died about sixty-five to seventy years ago. Unfortunately, the fruits of her womb were tormented by infant mortality. All her children died except my mum. Subsequently, her siblings (two brothers) and other extended family members thought she was a witch, killing her own children. When she fell seriously ill, she was taken to “Moronkom so”, a fetish shrine at Wawaase in the Ashanti region. By then the father of the late Kwabena Akwaboah, the renowned Ghanaian musician was the fetish priest.

While the fetish priest claimed he had spiritually arrested my unknown grandmother (struck her down) for being a witch, my grandmother was tearfully, persistently requesting her siblings and family to take her to hospital instead of keeping her at the shrine. She said, “I am not a witch. I am ill so please take me to hospital. If you take me to hospital, I shall be well”, my mum told me what her mother was constantly asking of her brothers and family. My mum, the only daughter of about twenty years was helpless before her uncles and other family members who were imbued with fetishism. Finally, my grandmother died and was buried at the shrine, far removed from her home in Juaben.

Had it not been for the lies told by that fetish priest, I would have been born to meet my grandmother.

About six years ago, my younger brother travelled home from Europe. When he arrived in Ghana, a younger sister of ours testified about the wonders/miracles being performed by a certain pastor/prophet living in Asokwa by the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, formerly Kumasi Sports Stadium. She said the prophet was too good.

My brother went to see the prophet for personal reasons. When he called at the prophet’s residence, a multitude of sign seekers, waiting for the prophet to reveal, and assist them to solve, their hidden problems, was there. A junior pastor who works with the prophet called my brother aside, inquired about where he has come from, his name and other things. The junior pastor then moved a distance away from my brother, went under the shades of some plantain trees nearby, and got on his mobile (Cell) phone.

My brother could hear him talking to someone on the receiving end of the phone, telling him about everything my brother had just told him. He never knew my brother could overhear his conversation.

Then was the turn of my brother to see the prophet who was indoors. As soon as the prophet saw my brother who had gone inside with one Adu, who at the time was suffering from itchy eyes, scratching them repeatedly, he said, “The witches in your house will cause you to become blind. Have you seen your red eyes? They are causing it”.

He then mentioned the name of my brother. He asked, “Have you not come from (name of town withheld) and live in (name of country in Europe withheld)? Have you not come to Ghana on (date withheld)? He kept telling him the exact information the junior pastor had earlier obtained from him as though God had revealed them to him.

Straight away, my brother told him, “Don’t tell me lies. Do you think I am stupid? When that junior pastor retreated to where the plantain trees are, I could overhear all that he was telling someone (you) about me on the phone. You are a liar” He then asked Adu, “Let us go home. He is a bloody liar”. The prophet could only look at my brother with mouth agape. All he could venture to say was, “Please come back to see me on Sunday”. My brother retorted, “I am coming back no more, a liar”. He then stormed out of the room with Adu. He warned both my sister and Adu never to visit that so-called Man of God, a prophet he calls himself, again.

Have my readers now seen how these fake fetish priests and prophets can cause harm to people, or may cleverly exploit those visiting them for the manifestation of miracles in their lives?

All I can tell Ghanaians is this, be as wise as the serpent. Read your bible to cross-check whatever a pastor or a prophet tells you. And by their fruits, ye shall know them. “For lack of knowledge, my people perish”, so God says in the bible. My readers please do not deceive yourselves so that you are not deceived. If you are a miracle seeker, be ready for disappointments in life. Crooks will prey on your life.

I rest my case. As we speak, the fake prophet in France is no more.

Rockson Adofo