Exclusive: Radio presenter Ohemaa Woyeje kidnapped "asana" seller for allegedly snatching husband

- Ohemaa Woyeje, a radio presenter based in Accra, kidnapped a woman she suspected was having an affair with her husband

- Ohemaa undertook the operation with the aid of two men in August 2018

- The radio host was then working for Adom FM, which is owned by the Multimedia Group

- The victim, Kakraba, operates an "asana" joint near the offices of Multimedia

Popular radio presenter, Ohemaa Woyeje, kidnapped and assaulted an "asana" seller she suspected was having an affair with her husband, YEN.com.gh can exclusively report.

The incident occurred in August 2018, barely a month after Ohemaa threw a party in Acra to celebrate the first anniversary of her marriage to Emmanuel Yaw Owusu Kusi.

The presenter was then working for the Multimedia Group as the host of "Work and Happiness" on Adom FM. (She recently left Multimedia for Angel FM.)

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The victim, Kakraba, is a single mother of two children, who operates an "asana" joint near the offices of Multimedia. The "asana" - a locally-made beverage derived from maize - is heavily patronised by the staff of businesses in the area.

This account of the brazen kidnap and a subsequent street fight between Ohemaa and Kakraba, which was previously unreported, was provided by multiple people familiar with the matter. These individuals requested anonymity in order to freely discuss a sensitive topic.

The extraordinary episode unfolded on the night of Saturday, August 18, when Ohemaa, angered by an unsubstantiated gossip that her husband was dating Kakraba, recruited two men to kidnap the beverage seller.

At about 7pm that night, one of the men contacted Kakraba and introduced himself as an events organiser who urgently needed to purchase 200 cups of "asana" for a programme he claimed would hold the next day.

Kakraba told the man that she did not have maize - the main ingredient for preparing “asana” - at home and that it was too late to go to the market to get it. She then offered to buy the maize early the next morning and prepare the beverage. But the man convinced her to meet him that same night around Tesano in Accra to finalise the arrangements for the deal, according to an account she provided after the kidnapping to close friends and the management and staff of Multimedia.

When Kakraba arrived for the meeting, the man who had reached out to her on the phone directed her to his car, which was parked in a poorly lit area. As soon as she arrived, the man and his male accomplice bundled her into the car and held her down. A third person who was already seated behind the steering wheel then took off at full speed.

Under the cover of darkness, the car headed for a destination that Kakraba could not determine.

When YEN.com.gh reached out to the "asana" seller for a comment, she declined to go on the record, saying she had moved on and was focused on caring for her children and growing her business.

But people familiar with Kakraba's state of mind at the time of the kidnapping told YEN.com.gh that the single mother was shocked, confused and horrified as she lay helpless in the speeding car.

The mother of two, out of fear for her life, desperately tried to determine what could have gone wrong or who she could have offended to merit her kidnapping but could not think of anything untoward that she had done.

When the car stopped, the driver - a female - turned to face Kakraba and immediately attacked her, accusing the beverage seller of having an affair with her husband.

The sources said Kakraba was stunned and angry - but slightly relieved - to discover that driver was Ohemaa Woyeje and that she was the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

A furious Ohemaa angrily demanded to know what was going on between Kakraba and her husband. And when Kakraba denied an affair with Owusu Kusi, Ohemaa ordered the "asana" seller to hand over her phone to enable the celebrated broadcaster to determine if her husband's number was saved on it, these individuals added.

With her fear giving way to outrage and disgust, Kakraba replied Ohemaa's demand with insults, prompting the radio presenter to suggest darkly, after a while, that the beverage seller would not leave the place alive if she did not cooperate fully with Ohemaa's demands, according to these well-placed individuals who briefed YEN.com.gh on the ABC of the matter.

Shaken by that threat, Kakraba handed her phone to Ohemaa, who examined it and deleted all the contacts on it. The radio host proceeded to warn the "asana" seller never to communicate with her husband, Owusu Kusi, again. Then she ordered her men to remove the mother of two from the car. Kakraba was thrown onto the floor in a dark and deserted area as her kidnappers drove away.

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In the days following the kidnapping, Kakraba told multiple friends and sympathisers as well as some staff members of Multimedia that Ohemaa and her accomplices assaulted and humiliated her as they sought to understand her relationship with the radio presenter's husband.

The beverage seller said that despite strenuously denying a romantic relationship with Owusu Kusi and stating that they were not even friends, her kidnappers refused to let her leave, detaining and interrogating her for several hours.

Kakraba said it was after 1am on Sunday that they finally released her. Her hair and clothes were covered in sand as she picked herself up from the floor.

Oblivious of her surroundings and lacking money, the terrified mother began to run in the direction of Ohemaa's speeding car, calculating correctly that the path would lead to a major road.

Her plight was worsened by the lack of contacts on her phone, a circumstance that prevented her from calling for help.

Kakraba said she had continued running until she stumbled upon a male friend who transported her to safety.

According to her account of the kidnapping, the man who helped to rescue her had been driving around Tesano that night when he saw that two men had violently pushed Kakraba into their car. Sensing that something was wrong, he had sped after the car in the hope of intercepting them and rescuing his friend. However, he had lost track of the vehicle along the way.

He had then parked by the side of the road and waited for several hours until he saw the kidnappers' car returning and heading towards town. His instinct, Kakraba said, had been to chase and intercept the car, but he had abandoned the idea when he saw that she was not in the vehicle. A while later, he spotted his friend approaching, looking dishevelled.

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The next day, an angry Kakraba attacked Ohemaa as soon as the presenter arrived at the office.

The "asana" seller quickly tackled Ohemaa to the floor as the radio host tried to exit her car, according to multiple individuals who witnessed the encounter.

Kakraba held the neck of Ohemaa’s cloth and dragged her from the car onto the floor, seeking to exact revenge on the radio presenter for kidnapping her at the weekend.

The fiery fight between the women instantly drew people, including staff members of Multimedia, to the scene. The two were separated, after which Kakraba explained her action to the crowd that had gathered. She was later ushered into the Multimedia office to tell her story.

YEN.com.gh understands that the "asana" seller's story was met with consternation and outrage by the Multimedia management members who sought to mediate the fight between the women.

The company’s leadership was so alarmed by Kakraba's harrowing account of the kidnapping that it moved with speed to limit the fallout from the embarrassing episode, pleading with her not to report the case to the police and promising a swift and decisive investigation into the conduct of their star broadcaster.

However, no meaningful action was taken by the company to rein in Ohemaa. And exactly three weeks later, the presenter again attacked Kakraba at her joint, insulting her and accusing the single mother of continuing to date her husband despite her warning not to.

Ohemaa’s action created another chaotic scene that drew dozens of people and temporarily brought some business activities in the area to a halt. Onlookers had to physically restrain the two women from inflicting harm on each other, according to three people who witnessed the incident.

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It is not clear what prompted Ohemaa to believe that her husband was capable of cheating. But she appeared to have formed the view that he was involved with Kakraba after another trader in the area reportedly gossiped to the presenter that Owusu Kusi was spending a lot of time at the “asana joint” and that she should take action before Kakraba snatched him, YEN.com.gh understands.

However, a source close to Kakraba denied that the ‘asana” seller was in a relationship with Ohemaa's husband.

This individual said although Ohemaa’s husband used to visit the “asana” joint and sit there sometimes, Kakraba never paid particular attention to him or became friends with him. The source portrayed Kakraba as someone who was focused solely on her work and family and did not have time for men, much less married ones.

The allegation of husband snatching, this individual added, had amused Kakraba, as she did not deem herself worthy of competing with Ohemaa, who she considered to be far more educated, richer, popular, and generally of a higher social class.

The source said Ohemaa did not raise the accusation with Kakraba before kidnapping her, adding that if popular radio personality had investigated the claim, she would have determined conclusively that the allegation was baseless.

“It was shameful. She [Ohemaa] is not a child. As a popular and respected person, she should have investigated. It [the allegation] was false,” the individual told YEN.com.gh.

At Multimedia, Ohemaa Woyeje's conduct sparked horror and disbelief among some members of staff, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named in order to discuss private internal deliberations. Her colleagues, they said, could not understand why a popular, highly respected and celebrated broadcaster would feel so threatened by an "asana" seller that she would resort to illegally kidnapping, fighting and threatening her on the streets in order to send a message.

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Describing the developments as "shameful and embarrassing", these individuals said Ohemaa's actions dramatically eroded her professional standing within the company.

It is not clear if this contributed to her decision, this year, to leave Adom FM for Angel FM.

YEN.com.gh could not reach Ohemaa Woyeje for a comment. When our reporter called her on phone, the presenter did not pick our calls or respond to our text messages.

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Source: YEN.com.gh