My husband battled with a serious illness not poisoning – Lilian Kumah

The widow of the late Dr. John Kumah, deputy finance minister and New Patriotic Party (NPP) member of Parliament for the Ejisu constituency in the Ashanti Region, has stated categorically that her husband did not die as a result of food poisoning as has been circulated by sections of mainstream media and social media but he battled with a serious illness for over a year.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Asaase News’ Wilberforce Asare in her marital home in Chantan, a suburb in Accra, Apostle Lilian Kumah said her late husband had been battling with a terminal disease for nearly a year now since it was discovered by his doctors in Germany and that is what her husband succumbed to on Thursday, 7 March 2024, and not food poisoning.

Stop the speculation

In a very sobering and grieving voice, Apostle Mrs. Lilian Kumah, who is also the General Overseer of Disciples of Christ Ministries, asked all those speculating about the cause of the death of her husband to put a stop to it because it is exacerbating the pain of his immediate family and the larger Kumah family.

She also called for swift police action against known persons such as Blessed Godsbrain Smart, popularly known as Captain Smart, who has publicly stated that her late husband was poisoned but has not been made to provide any evidence to prove the wild claim he has made about the death of John Kumah.

“Why is it that someone (referring to Captain Smart) has been this bold to claim that he knows for a fact that a person like John Kumah who has serviced his country virtually all his life, was poisoned, while he was working for his country and party (New Patriotic Party, NPP), why should we sit down and not bring that person to book.

“If it is true that a person who is not dead but alive claims that he knows how my husband (John Kumah) died and that he was poisoned, and that person is still moving around for the past three weeks, it hurts me, it saddens me and I do not know how best to express my frustrations about these false claims by Captain Smart,” the widow of John Kumah, Apostle Lilian Kumah said.

“If there are laws in this country concerning such false claims, I think this is the time for the leadership of the land to bring that wicked person (Captain Smart) to book to prove his false claims and to point out the persons who were involved in the poisoning of my late husband,” Mrs. Kumah further stated.

The August diagnoses

Speaking about the real cause of the death of her husband, Apostle Lilian Kumah pointed out that John Kumah was diagnosed with a blood-related disease sometime in August 2023 in Germany when she accompanied her husband for a medical check-up.

Mrs Kumah added that throughout all the medical check-ups of her husband in Germany and Ghana, not once did any of the medical doctors they encountered, ever mention the issue of poisoning in the blood vessels of her husband, the late John Kumah.

“My husband went through pain but he never showed that he was in pain. He went through all the pain to do everything he needed to do during the period of his ill-health.

“He was motivated by a particular motto that he always operated by which is, “We don’t do what is convenient, we do what we are commanded to do”. So [despite] all the pain, he endured,” Mrs. Kumah remarked.

“Right from day one since he was diagnosed in Germany, I have been part of the medical processes my husband went through, and no one, none of the doctors ever told me that my husband’s medical situation was because of poisoning.

“I have all the medical reports both from Germany and Ghana and food poisoning has never been mentioned in any of the reports,” the late John Kumah’s widow added.

Last moments

Dr. John Kumah died at about 12:40 PM at the Suhum government hospital after an ambulance he was traveling in together with his wife and medical doctor, from Ejisu to Accra was diverted to the Suhum medical facility when the doctor on board noticed that Mr Kumah’s condition was fast deteriorating.

On arrival at the hospital, a little after 11:00 am on Thursday, 7 March 2024, the medical team moved straightway to try and stabilize him so could continue with his journey to Accra for his onward planned journey to Germany where he has been receiving treatment for his health challenge. However, the Suhum government hospital’s efforts failed to keep him alive.

John Kumah’s profile

The late Dr. John Kumah was a lawyer in private practice and an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in leadership, creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness in creating jobs and supporting youth development.

As the first chief executive officer for the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), he successfully positioned the NEIP as the enabler of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Ghana.

Under his leadership, the programme trained the staff of seven thousand (7,000) start-ups in 2018 under the Presidential Business Support Programme and supported one thousand, three hundred and fifty (1,350) beneficiaries with funds.

Before he began working for the government, Kumah was the founding member and managing partner of the law firm Aduaprokye Chambers. He also worked as the founder of Majak Associates Ltd, a building and construction company.

In November 2020, Kumah received a doctorate in business innovation from the Swiss Business School in Switzerland. Before then, he had acquired a Master’s degree in applied business research from the same business school in 2019.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra

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