I was held hostage in my home for 3 hours – MP recounts ordeal

November 3, 2020, will be a exactly one year Member of Parliament for Nhyieso, Kennedy Kwasi Kankam, narrowly escaped death, the legislator has recounted.

In an interview with JoyNews’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo, the MP said he was held hostage with his family for about three hours in his Kumasi residence in 2019 and doesn't wish anyone has that experience.

“By November 3, this year will be exactly one year when I was attacked by armed robbers. The experience was very terrible; it is something that I cannot describe it by words. In fact, I don’t wish it on anybody, it is something quite bad,” he said.

The legislator who believes the attack was targeted, said his attackers only spared his life because of his children.

“I think it was a targeted thing because if you look at the way my house is built, the walls and security systems in the place... it is something that, if it is not well planned, it won't be easy for any robber to just break into the house. The robbers told me that, ‘you are the target, but for the sake of your children, you have a very very young family so we can not do this to you’ and they demanded something and we paid the ransom before my life was spared on that day,” he narrated.

The MP was speaking on the back of the murder of his colleague for the Mfantseman Constituency, Ekow Quansah Hayford.

The latter was shot dead by unknown assailants around 1:00am Friday on the Abeadze Dominase-Abeadze-Duadzi-Mankessim road whilst returning from a campaign.

According to eyewitnesses, the robbers who first shot at the back of the MPs car, forced him out of the vehicle and shot him twice, killing him on the spot.

His driver who was also shot at the scene, later died in the hospital the same day.

This incident has caused serious restlessness among parliamentarians with some of them reviving their calls for police protection.