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General News of Sunday, 24 January 2016

Source: The Finder

Mahama’s savior: A forgotten hero

Charles Antwi was jailed for illegal possession of firearm and later released Charles Antwi was jailed for illegal possession of firearm and later released

While President John Dramani Mahama has offered a house to a taxi driver who knocked down two armed robbers a fortnight ago, for an act which has been described as heroic, nothing was ever heard of the man who saved the President from a gunman who had gone to where the President worships to kill him.

Mr Charles Antwi on July 26, 2015, was overpowered at the Ringway Branch of the Assemblies of God Church, where the President worships. Mr Antwi was in the possession of a fully loaded gun.

The ingenuity of a man whose identity remains unknown to many saved the day and averted what could have been an assassination attempt on the life of the President.

The man, whose name was given only as Ebo, the driver of the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, was said to have spotted Charles Antwi, the gunman, in the church auditorium.

He quietly lured the gunman out of the auditorium while the sermon was in session and apprehended him outside the chapel, where he succeeded in disarming him at the blind side of the congregant.

A member of the church who claim to have witnessed the incident told Weekend Finder that Charles Antwi on that faithful Sunday, sat on one of the first seats at the church in an unusual dress code, spotting a track suit and a white long-sleeve shirt.

The source narrated that because some members of the church had earlier on in the morning gone on evangelism, it was thought that Charles Antwi could be one of the new converts.

While the sermon was in session, a member of the church, who was sitting adjacent Mr Antwi in the next row, spotted something that looked like a gun in Mr Antwi’s shirt.

The member got out and informed some other church members who were then outside the auditorium.

The source said Ebo, who sometimes acted as an usher in the church, was informed about what the member had seen.

Ebo is said to have quietly walk to Mr Antwi’s seat and whispered into his ears and then walked him out with his hands around his shoulders.

“Just when they were out of the auditorium, he (Ebo) removed the gun from the man’s pocket and held him until a security man came around, from whom he took a handcuff and cuffed him”, the source narrated.

The source further explained that where Antwi sat on that day could have made the President an easy target if he was in church.

“If the President was in church, he would have just walked into Antwi after giving his offertory,” the source disclosed.

The source who provided Weekend Finder with this information said it was important that persons who have acted with such good faith should be equally recognised.