‘We’re Not Robbers, Forgive Us’ – Siblings Arrested For Brandishing Guns In Viral Video
Three siblings from the Obuasi suburb of Gausu arrested for flaunting guns in a viral video on social media say they regret their action.
They maintained their innocence in any alleged criminal act.
One of them, Apostle Alfred Dakurah, who has been speaking to JoyNews on how they acquired the guns, says they regret their actions.
“We don’t blame anybody because we ourselves, we did the video. But rather, we blame ourselves for doing such a video,” he lamented.
“We truly regret because we didn’t know such video will come out and bring a lot of issues in the country and also affecting the country. And for that reason, we truly do regret recording such a video.”
The video recording shows the siblings brazenly displaying pistols and a pump action gun.
Apostle Alfred Dakurah, Richard Suleman and Emmanuel Dakurah, aged 43, 28 and 26 respectively, reported themselves to the police after heavy public condemnation.
Though police are yet to receive any public complaints against the three, one of them has since been granted bail.
In his interview after the arrest, Apostle Alfred Dakurah, head pastor of Obuasi-based God’s Time Prayer Ministries, says he and his brothers are already reeling under the criminal tag imposed on them.
“Now the entire family everybody is crying because we have been tagged that we are armed robbers and it’s a bad family,” he explained.
According to him, the arrest of the siblings has affected his church’s membership as well.
“Even for myself as a pastor, even yesterday I was in church to preach. Only a few people came because many people say that the man of God is an armed robber. In my life, I have never stolen before.”
Apostle Dakurah also explained how he and his brothers got the guns, stressing that the video was recorded on November 26, 2020, at Takpo in the Upper East region.
“The Pump Action gun is my own gun. It’s my registered gun. And also where I come from in my culture as Dagarti in Wa, during funerals, we do shoot guns and other things for our rituals. So my grandmother died and as a leader of the family, it’s my duty to go there with a gun so that I can use the gun to perform the funeral so that’s the reason why I took the gun from Obuasi to Wa.
The funeral was 26th November 2020.” According to him, he only used his licensed Pump Action gun at the funeral of his late grandmother in a performance of traditional Dagati rites.
His brothers, together with other residents of Takpo in the Nadowli Kaleo District of the Upper West Region seized the pistols without magazines from people who wanted to take over a ‘galamsey’ site in that community.
“Those my younger brothers are galamseyers. Recently, there had been galamsey works going on in my village, that is, Takpo there so they had a grudge with some of the galamseyers and retrieved those guns from them after the fight because they always come there to force them just to sack them from the site because of the gold.
“So they too [my brother’s group] decided that they will fight them”.
