VIDEO: Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, MP, other NDC executives survive heavy rainstorm on Afram Lake

Delegation of NDC executives survive heavy rainstorm on Afram River

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah gives testimony at church

The Director of Elections for the opposition National Democrati Congress, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, has recounted how a 23-member crew including himself and the Member of Parliament for Afram Plains North, Betty Krosyby Mensah survived a serious rainstorm during a boat trip on the Afram River.

The Director of Elections, between Wednesday, April 27 and Friday, April 29, 2022, led a delegation of NDC executives on an outreach to the Afram Plains North Constituency.

The delegation, on the first day of the outreach, travelled to Dodi, an Island community within the constituency but were met by a heavy rainstorm during the return of their boat trip to the island.

Sharing his testimony in church after returning to Accra, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, in a video sighted by GhanaWeb, attributed the survival of the 23-crew member to sheer grace and mercies of God.

According to him, the crew along the journey encountered heavy winds, which forced them to dock at another community and seek shelter.

“We found an island called Gbadagba, docked on the island and waited for some time to see if the winds would go down. Around 1:30 am, the winds were still howling and threatening to rain with thunder and lightning. So we were advised to leave the boat and go ashore. We went ashore, and then we found a Divine Healers Church; we spent the night there. No sooner had we entered the church than there was a heavy downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning. So you can imagine what would have happened to us if we were still on the lake,” he explained.

While the crew were seeking shelter in the church building, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah narrated that he reached out to his family and some men of God to support him and the team with prayers while struggling to maintain stable reception.

“At a point, we lost contact with everybody, so we wouldn’t know what was going on. But apparently, everybody who heard about it was praying, and I believe that helped, that in the morning, the weather had stabilized, and so we were able to come back to Donkorkrom safely.

“I am sharing this because it is just by the grace and mercies of God. As I said earlier, the previous week, there had been a similar incident, the boat had sunk, and 53 people had died. We are not more righteous than them, I am not more righteous than them, but they just perished. Many greater men have had accidents, probably they prayed. But they died, what will you do? If you die, you are dead. So it is just by the grace and mercies of God that our lives have been saved,” he added.

Other members of the 23-member crew included Kwame Lawson – National Organizer of the NDC Cadres front, Hackman Kabore – Eastern Regional Organiser, Prosper Galino – Constituency Chairman, Tahidu Mohammed – Constituency Secretary and Senyo Adinkyira – Constituency Organiser.

The Afram Plains area, which a 100-kilometre long Afram River surrounds, is also dotted with several island communities which have, over the years, recorded several incidents of boat accidents.

Some three weeks ago, the Ghana News Agency reported an incident on the Afram Lake where over 40 persons were feared dead in a boat accident.

According to the report, the said boat was travelling across the Lake from Tongor-Dzemeni in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region to Havorkope in the Kwahu Afram Plains North District of the Eastern Region when it encountered a storm leading to the accident.

“If you are not a man, you can’t see the bodies; they are many. This is painful,” an eyewitness at the scene told GNA.