- Nana Antoa Nyamaa on...a Publicity Stunt or a Hoax?

? It is not long ago that one Lawyer Adreba Abrefa Damoah from Wenchi, though resident in the UK, proceeded to Ghana with intent to seek the assistance of the Deity - Nana Antoa Asuo Nyamaa. He was peeved of the rumoured possibility of the Supreme Court judges presiding over Election 2012 case accepting bribes, and hence, influenced to twist the truth, deciding the case in favour of the otherwise guilty party.

Subsequently, in the glare of TV cameras, presence of radio presenters giving him live coverage, he invoked the Deity. He obliged the fetish to deal drastically with any of the judges who accepts bribes, and consequently is influenced to decide the case in line with the conditions of the bribery but not the truth.

What I personally find bizarre is his lack of imploring the deity to strike down any recipient, in which case, is a judge, that receives the offer of bribe purporting to influence his or her decision. Why should he seek to permit any of the judges that receives bribe to live to declare their verdict, before the deity dealing him or her the death punch?

I had expected him to challenge the deity to be more proactive, sending such a judge to the land of the dead, prior to the final declaration of the Supreme Court verdict. If any such thing happened, and the rest of the living judges knowing he, Adreba, had invoked the deity, they would be scared shitless to tell nothing but the truth following the evidence available to them.

Is there any good in any salt that loses its sweetness? No! It is therefore not worth keeping but to throw away. Similarly, does it worth fighting over spilled milk? No! What then will be the usefulness of Adreba’s invoked curse on the judges to discerning Ghanaians if it does not prevent them from acting collusively irresponsibly in the first place? If the curse comes actively into play after the judges have caused the harm, then I personally do not see the sense in invoking the deity in the first place. When the die is cast, there is no turning back. Therefore, when the harm is already done, reversing it has not always been good if not impossible.

? Mr Adreba goes on air to allege that he knows of a place up North in Ghana where the deity can deal with the culprits just at the crack of the finger. It will cause lightning to strike the offender in a broad daylight even in the absence of rain. Why did he not go there then, or ask Nana Antoa Asuo Nyamaa to strike down any offender just at the receipt of bribe with the ulterior motive of twisting the truth before the truth gets twisted? I hope you see the logic in what I am dragging at, oh Dear Adreba.

? For the sake of clarification, I will reproduce below an article I published on Ghanaweb, Modernghana and SpyGhana on or about Monday, 22 July 2013 under the Feature Articles entitled, "Could Judges Taking Bribes be Punished by Invoked Deities?"

Rumours are rife that the NDC government and party sensing defeat in Election 2012 writ filed in the Supreme Court to overturn the results declared in favour of John Mahama, have embarked on bribery spree. It is alleged that they are seeking to, and are bribing some, or, all of the nine-member panel Supreme Court Justices sitting on the case.

? ? I am not sure bribing them, though a possibility, can change the judges’ decision to live above reproach. If the sittings had not been telecast live, then the NDC propaganda machine could have churned out lies to support and cover up any attempts to buy the judges through bribery. Now that the whole world has watched the proceedings live on television, online on the internet, and listened to live radio coverage, any attempts to influence the judges to decide differently other than the truth, is a far cry. I am not sure the judges will take any bribes in this landmark case that is being watched by the whole world, courtesy of the Chief Justice, Mrs Theodora Georgina Wood.

? ? Are the invoked fetishes, that is, deities, powerful enough to deal with people acting in contravention of issues of which the deities have been invoked to bear witness and punish the defaulting party? If they are, how do they go about it? How do we invoke them to act to the invoker’s expectation? ?

? Not long ago, one Lawyer Adreba Damoah Abrefa from Wenchi in the Brong-Ahafo region, although resident in London, proceeded to Ghana to seek the assistance of the deity, Nana Antoa Nyamaa. He invoked the deity to punish any of the nine-member panel of Supreme Court Justices sitting on Election 2012 petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the election results due to alleged irregularities, malpractices, omissions and violations.

? ? I do not want to go into the details of how he constructed his sentences with his chosen words to ensure effective results. How one chooses and frames their sentences when invoking the deities do count. One should also challenge the deity to act within a defined timescale outside of which you should count the deity as having not achieved the request placed before them. Do not give them unlimited time else they become opportunists, ascribing to themselves achievements of which they may have done absolutely nothing towards. ?

? I shall cite two true instances to buttress my contention. In the mid or late 1970s, a certain woman died in Kumawu in the Ashanti region. She lived in Apebiakyere, one of the areas in Kumawu. She frequented and completed her elementary school education at Kumawu Presbyterian School. Her brother was one Koo …..(full name withheld). The name has been withheld in order not to hurt the feelings of her family. I am not trying to revisit the pains and bad memories of her death. Her father was the late Opanin Akwasi Am…. (full name withheld).

? ? This woman died on one sunny afternoon allegedly been killed by the deity at Antoa (Nana Asuo Nyamaa). She was married to a fellow Kumawu citizen who used to live and worked in Kumasi but frequented home as often as he could on weekends. She heard and knew her husband to be a womaniser. In short, she invoked the Antoa deity in the hope of stopping her husband from penetrating any woman who crossed his path. In the invocation, chanting over an egg in her hand, she said, "Any woman that you (mentioning the husband’s name) sleep with (meaning have sex with), and give her money should be killed by Nana Antoa Nyamaa". She afterwards smashed the egg on the floor. ?

? The man slept with her as a husband would do to a wife. Prior to returning to Kumasi early Monday morning, he gave her what is called "Chop money" (dinner money). She accepted the money. Little did she know that by her choice of words and how she framed them during the invocation, she had not excluded herself from the curse. She is a woman. The man has slept with her and she has accepted money from him be she the wife or not. She was struck dead two days after invoking the deity. The reason being, penetration (sexual intercourse)had taken place. "Whether Mohammed went to the mountain or the mountain went to Mohammed, there was a WENT". Sex had taken place and money has exchanged hands, period! ?

? In another case, one gentleman asked his grandfather to help him secure a permanent residence abroad by consulting the deities on his behalf. His grandfather did as requested by putting the grandson’s request before a deity. The grandson morphed several times over a period of about eight years after placing his request before he finally was granted residence permit as hoped.

? ? In a nutshell, the grandfather attended the funeral of someone he knew in the village where the fetish shrine is situated. It was from this fetish that he had sought some help for his grandson. The person had been struck dead by the deity for being a witch. In the course of the funeral, the grandfather fell and broke his leg. He never recovered from the injury. He died with, but not from, the injury, a few years later. When the fetish priest became possessed, he said he pushed the grandfather down for failing to honour his promise to pay a fee after helping his grandson secure "Abrokyire nkrataa".

? ? The grandfather had forgotten about it because it took too long to realise. However, he remembered having once put such a request before the fetish. He arranged for his grandson that he had not heard from for years to confirm if indeed he had got his papers. He answered in the affirmative. The grandson said he even never thought it was the deity that had helped. It had taken him eight solid years, undergoing unusual metamorphoses before getting the paper. How could the deity have helped? What was the deity waiting for all these years without acting in time but after eight years with all the hassles he went through? Was the deity on siesta or gone into hibernation?

? ? The above story is to emphasize the need for obliging the deities to act within time limit to avoid taking advantage of favourable acts of God. This will prevent possible disagreements and undue punishments as inflicted on the grandfather.

? ? The invoked deity by Adreba should punish those accepting bribe with intention to twist justice. This should be done as soon as money has exchanged hands with the intention established. The deity should not wait for them to deliver a verdict based on the influence of bribe than on truth before punishing them many years later. The harm would already be done.

? Are the deities of today as powerful as those of ancient time? I do not know. Are the fetish priests of today not as corrupt as any other ordinary Ghanaian of NDC "Ede bii keke" mentality? Deities can main, kill and destroy so be careful. They always seek the truth and would not hesitate punishing those lying before him/her.

? ? "Thou shalt know the truth and the truth shall set you free". ? ? I dedicate this publication to the Supreme Court judges. ? ? Rockson Adofo