Rev. Dr. Stephen Y. Wengam, General Superintendent of Assemblies of God Ghana, recounted the sequence of events in a sermon this week, crediting a last-minute change in travel plans—and an urgent call to prayer—for keeping the former president off the doomed flight.

According to Rev. Wengam, President Mahama had originally planned to attend an Independence Day celebration in Côte d'Ivoire as a guest of honor. But in a phone call received the week before the incident, the President’s Secretary, Dr. Callistus Mahama, informed Rev. Wengam that the president would miss a scheduled church program due to the international engagement.

“I said, ‘Thank you, Dr. Callistus,’ but I was not at peace,” Wengam told his congregation. He said he immediately called a fellow pastor, Rev. Bawa, to mobilize a prayer team, insisting that the travel plans be reversed. “I said, ‘I don’t accept it.’”

Tensions escalated the following Monday. Rev. Wengam described a heated phone conversation with the First Lady, Lordina Mahama, who reportedly objected to her husband’s travel plans, arguing that the church event had long been on the calendar.

“It was a battle on the phone,” Rev. Wengam said, noting that during the call, President Mahama himself tried to reach him. The pastor ended the call with the First Lady to speak with the president and later received a message from her confirming that they would attend the church program on Wednesday instead—delaying the president’s departure to Côte d’Ivoire.

That delay may have saved his life.On Wednesday, the same day the Mahamas attended the church event, a military helicopter crashed en route to a separate destination, claiming the lives of key officials. Details surrounding the crash are still under investigation by Ghanaian authorities.

“If he had come [to the church program] today, he would have travelled yesterday,” Wengam reflected somberly, suggesting that Mahama could have been aboard the fatal flight had plans not changed.

The Assemblies of God leader used the moment to urge fellow clergy to remain prayerful and attentive to divine promptings. “You must be prophetic,” he said. “Not necessarily a prophet—but prayerful.”

Neither the Office of the  President nor the Ghana Armed Forces has publicly confirmed whether Mahama had been scheduled to be on the downed helicopter.