A 42-year-old car duster hawker, Enoch Appiah Agyei, who was gifted GHC19,000 to make his life better is back on the streets tattered.
Appiah Agyei’s struggles appeared to have been over when Crime Check Foundation (CCF) gave him money from donors.
But he could not make good use of it.
Two years after receiving the money, his life has even become worse.
According to Appiah Agyei, he has now become mentally challenged.
Background
In 2020, Crime Check Foundation met Appiah Agyei selling car dusters on a hot afternoon when it was embarking on its Street Charity Series programme on the streets of McCarthy Junction.
He was given Six Hundred Ghana cedis as support for his business.
He wept uncontrollably when he received the money because after selling on the streets for 10 years he had never raised such an amount.
Appiah Agyei said he started his business with an amount of One Hundred and Twenty Ghana cedis which could buy a few dusters because he could not afford the whole set estimated at Six Hundred Ghana cedis.
He said he could only make Twenty Ghana cedis daily on which his family of five depended.
His story touched donors who made contributions for him to the tune of Nineteen Thousand Ghana cedis when his story was aired.
When Appiah Agyei was given the money, CCF guided him to open a bank account to save the money.
However, after everything had gone through, he came back to the Foundation’s office demanding the money, which had been deposited in his own account.
Appiah Agyei stormed CCF’s office and rained insults on staff and its Executive Director, Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng in his absence.
He even went to the branch of the bank at Lapaz and caused a scene.
He successfully withdrew the money but did not invest it in his business. He said he gave it to his wife for safekeeping.
Appiah Agyei said his wife’s pastor whom they prayed, influenced him when they told him about the money.
He told crimecheckghana.org that the pastor alleged CCF only gave him the money just for the screens.
Appiah Agyei said he did not realize that their ‘spiritual father’ had an interest in his gain.
“The pastor told me that CCF interviewed me and took pictures of my deplorable state to make fame out of it. He then asked me to go for the cash.
“I went for it and handed over the money to my wife. I asked her to use some of the money to pay for the children’s fees and keep the rest,” he said.
Appiah Agyei said subsequently when they were finding it difficult to keep the money, his wife suggested they give it to the pastor so that anytime they needed it they could go to for it.
He said later, they went for a sum of the money from the man of God but taking the full amount was proving difficult. “We successfully took all the money and that was how the money started dissipating. But the pastor told me that I will go back to the street and my wife will also sell in the market and the money would go to a wise person,” he said.
Appiah Agyei said he fell sick which caused him mental illness and his wife ‘dumped’ him in his village.
“I roamed in the village like a madman,” he recounted.
He indicated that when he came back to his senses and returned to Accra, his wife had packed out.
Subsequently, he got back on the street to sell car dusters but this time round not with his own business capital. More worrying is that he said he suffers from an unstable mental condition.
Appiah Agyei said his wife also sells vegetables at the Kasoa market just as the pastor foretold.
“I cannot boast of even a pesewa of the money. Life has become even more difficult. I now live at the mercy of my friend whom I have helped before,” he said.
He said when he confronted his wife on what she used the money for, she said she did not know what happened to it.
Appiah Agyei believed that the pastor had deceived his ex-wife and taken the money from her. This he said is because when he went to where the pastor lived he had moved out without any trace.
Appiah Agyei asked for forgiveness and appealed for help to undergo medical treatment.
The Street Charity Series
The programme is meant to support industrious people on the streets.