How Ghana football helped Kwabena Agyepong when his father was kidnapped by military officers

Football’s ability to give people break from the harsh realities of the world is a reason millions if not billions of the world’s population are hooked on it. The game and its stars are loved as they offer an escape route to people in moments of adversity and sorrow. For most people, football or sports becomes the go-to point when they are dealing with tragic moments and in the case of the Kwabena Agyei Agyepong of the New Patriotic Party, the sports he loves most came through for him when he was dealing with the abduction of his father, Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyapong who was one of three High Court who were kidnapped and subsequently killed by military officers under the Provisional National Defence Council regime in June 1982. Young Kwabena Agyepong’s father had gone missing for four days and the family was in an apprehensive mood with search parties deployed to find him and two other judges who had also gone missing. Kwabena Agyepong turned to football by watch a Hasaacas match at the Accra Sports Stadium to help him deal with the moments. “It was Wednesday evening and I had just arrived home from watching a game between Hearts of Oak and Corner. Because of the coup, there was curfew so we slept around 8pm. He was eating and I was writing a letter. His chamber was close to Justice Koranteng Addo as the Supreme Court. Someone came to inform him that Cecelia Koranteng Addo was sick and being sent to Ridge Hospital so they needed my father. His last words to me was that I will be back soon. “We went to sleep thinking that the situation had become severe so he didn’t return in the night. The following day, the wife of our next door neighbour who was Justice Poku Sarkodie came to our place to inform my father that soldiers came to pick her husband. So I went upstairs to look for my father but he was not around. It took another four days for us to find out he was killed. Those four days were the worst days of my life. We kept looking for him until we found out that he was killed with other ages.” “On Sunday, I went to the stadium to watch another match. You know football always help you to deal with such issues. It was a WAFU that Hasaacas was playing. Upon returning home after the game, I saw lot of people who had gathered at our house, beckoning to hurry up and come home. It had been communicated to them to that the bodies had been found at Bondase. The military range around Afienya.” A common narrative that often follows the story about The Martyrs of the Law is that Justice Cecelia Koranteng was a nursing mother but Kwabena Agyepong has clarified the story, stating that it was his mother rather who was nursing a baby. “It is a myth. It was my mother rather who had just given birth to our last born who was just three months,” he told Deloris Frimpong Manso in the latest edition of the Delay Show. Watch the latest edition of GhanaWeb Mundial, Sports Debate and Sports Check below