The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong says he became an MP after he helped about 1000 Ghanaians within his constituency to travel to the United State of America.
Kennedy Agyapong became a Member of Parliament for the then Assin North constituency after winning the parliamentary elections in 2000, on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Following subsequent demarcation of constituencies in Ghana, the Assin Central constituency was created.
Kennedy Agyapong has since been the MP for Assin Central.
Recounting how he succeeded in entering Parliament on Citi TV’s lifestyle variety show, Upside Down, Kennedy Agyapong said: “I won election in 2000 because I took 1,000 people in Assin alone to America with the USA lottery.”
About the source of his wealth
The Assin Central legislator on the show also denied perceptions that he made his wealth on the back of drugs.
He said he has never peddled drugs not to talk of making money from it.
According to him, the source of his wealth which many people struggle to fathom is a result of his active work in the 1980s processing amnesty documents for undocumented immigrants in the US.
“In 1989, [US President] Ronald Reagan had introduced an amnesty program so I was fortunate to work with a lawyer. He is called Kwadwo Afram Asiedu. He recruited me and I started working with him. That is the cocaine money. That is where I made the money. I made a lot of money. We did about 2,500 applications and everybody paid $2,500. I did all the documentation and my boss, because he is a lawyer, will go and present the documents at the immigration [office]. Out of the $2,500, my boss will get $700 and I will get the rest and use some for the documentation. So when we finished, I had made a lot of money,” he said.
Facilitating each documentation for $5,000, the outspoken member of the governing New Patriotic Party said, by the end of the program that year, he had made over $1 million including his personal savings.
“When people don’t know your background and they think that you are a drug dealer, it is so painful. To the second chance of my money… A lot of Ghanaians had won the US lottery and they didn’t know how to process it so I went back to America and this time another boss, Lawyer Fofie, I went there and told him that I have a connection in Ghana…He was interested in the cash right there. He took $500…I bought the applications for $48,000, that’s about 96 applications and brought it to Ghana.”
About Upside Down
The ‘Upside Down’ show is a lifestyle variety show that seeks to entertain families and viewers with inspiring and compelling conversations.
It airs every Sunday on Citi TV at 7 pm and repeats at 4 pm on Monday as well as 2 pm on Fridays.
Upside Down is hosted by Frema Adunyame and Ato Kwamina Essuman.
