A former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey, has described as “cruel” and “monstrous” the violence that occurred at the La-Bawaleshie electoral area during last Thursday's Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.
Many civil society organisations and individuals have been condemning the act which led to the injury of some NDC members. They have also condemned the use of fear and intimidation tactics by national security operatives looking fierce in police protection balaclavas.
Wading into this unfortunate incident, Rev. Martey was of the view that the violence and attacks have ridiculed the 'democratic credentials' the country is noted for.
In a statement he said: "I am still shocked at the presence of masked heavily-built men under the guise of National Security at some polling stations. The participation of these men at the by-election was unnecessary and no amount of security explanation can justify such a cruel and monstrous display of security.
Are we ridiculing the rule of law in this Country? How could Members of Parliament—also leaders of this Country—be assaulted for no crime committed and guns shot in private house on an election day to disrupt voting at the La Bawaleshie Presbyterian Polling Station near the house where the guns were fired? When good people keep quiet, evil people take over.
Enough is enough! We are not in a jungle state".
Below is the full statement:
A PRESS RELEASE
On my handing over as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, I decided not to continue speaking on national issues as I was frequently doing while in office. This practice, I believe, is to allow and give the incumbent Moderator the full space to represent the church’s views on issues of national development and democratic values.
I have always believed that leadership is like a relay race, and when one gets the baton one runs as fast as one could until he hands over the baton to another person. As soon as he hands over the baton, he then stops running and continues to cheer to victory. That is why I have restricted myself, since handing over as Moderator of the oldest and continuously existing church in this country, in actively speaking in public functions where my views on national issues may be sought.
However, I have to painfully depart from this stance because of the unfortunate and violent attacks that occurred at the by-election at the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency. The violence and insecurity that day ridicule the democratic credentials of this Nation and I am still shocked at the presence of masked heavily-built men under the guise of National Security at some polling stations. The participation of these men at the by-election was unnecessary and no amount of security explanation can justify such a cruel and monstrous display of security.
Are we ridiculing the rule of law in this Country? How could Members of Parliament—also leaders of this Country—be assaulted for no crime committed and guns shot in private house on an election day to disrupt voting at the La Bawaleshie Presbyterian Polling Station near the house where the guns were fired? When good people keep quiet, evil people take over.
Enough is enough! We are not in a jungle state. I join many Ghanaians in totally condemning this barbaric act of violence which has dented our democratic credentials as a nation.
Experience has demonstrated that investigations into such wicked and dastardly acts never see the light of day due to political interference and many people, including myself, have little faith in the current criminal investigation system to do any good job. Security in this country has been too politicised. Those in security must not be controlled by political parties.
I call on the President of the nation to act swiftly to end all acts of vigilantism in this country. I want to believe that the President’s support for a speedy investigation into this matter will lead to a conclusive investigation so that the perpetrators of this crime will be punished.
There is the urgent need to assess the current security structure and leadership in the security sector since events over the last year and the current event reflect a lack of tact and professionalism shown by most security chiefs and security-related ministers.
We must protect the stability of this country with patriotism and employ modern approaches to security and, I daresay, that if the current evil trend of party vigilantism is not axed, the nation will greatly suffer from the activities of these bullish deviants, employed by some political parties.
All Ghanaians must not be complacent, especially those who have been given the mandate to govern; and we must not take any peaceful atmosphere in the country for granted. This country is ours! Such a lawless act must never happen again to destroy our country. God bless Ghana.
REV. PROF. EMMANUEL MARTEY
(Former Moderator, Presbyterian Church of Ghana)
Dated: 4th February 2019.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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WE DO NOT LEARN FROM THE PAST
Please i definitely know you are uninformed, this man was never a council of state member in JM admin please, just check your facts. When did humans became non-entity, as a reminder the entities like your whole family has each one vote just like the non-entities, this is to show you that we are all equal in the law but humans like you manipulate the law. I just want to see your father how entity like he is
That is why Ghanaians are always described as hypocrites because Reverend Martey was President of Council of State during Mahama's term but did not find the electoral violence that time to be wrong. How can he be forgiven by God? As for the young men supporting JDM they are either disgruntled Ewes or people who are no longer getting free money from the national kitty and they will continue to support Mahama. A warning to them - if they think fighting for Mahama is an honourable thing, they must not forget that beating and slapping them will never sieze and they will always be humiliated like their non-entity MP DZata George.
The youth of Africa must not wait for retired Rev who has served his people well to come back from retirement to fight this corruptt leaders of today. Fight for your own gold and oil don't fight for political parties. Don't fight amongst yourselves fight the taxes that makes cost of living so high fight the exchange rates, fight for your children and not the children of Nana Addo and mahama, you are more important to you than them put pressure on them don't sit there like a fuuuulllllll go out and change the system that impoverish you and make few leaders rich, take the phone and speak for yourself and not weak leaders. Let leave the Rev to enjoy his retirement, let's fight for the wealth of Africa. We will never fight each other again but we will fight the white man's system that makes us poor!
This is not a democracy! How can the same president appoint head of police, head of judicial service, head of public service, head of military and heads of every single department in this country. This is not the kind of democracy in Europe. The president don't even pay tax, the president is not accountable to any one, no one can even send him to Court. The youth of Africa must overthrow the white man's government in Africa!
Africa has only one problem, and the problem is our inability to confront leaders to do what is expected of them. We leave them to do what they like and we expect some one like Rev martey to come to our aid, what can the Rev do alone? Every year utility rates go up, every year taxes go up, every year government barrows more, every year the cedi loses its value to the most common currency in the world, our own military is used to stop us from mining our own gold and you think is a retired Rev. The youth of Africa must do what the youth of Europe do when leaders misbehave.
Seriously! I am surprised you are now coming out to complain about this government, Nana started deliberately closing down indigenous banks and you never said a word, he keeps on borrowing even more than mahama did and I don't say anything, his finance minister has kept his fortune at an offshore account to avoid paying taxes and yet he's always inflicting on Ghanaians more taxes, Nana is taking 5 percent from the ExxonMobil oil deal, Nana is given tax exemptions for whites to take our gold and oil away and at the same time inflicting on Ghanaians heavy taxes. Please, if it was wrong in mahama's time it is wrong even if it is Nana who's doing it.
This man came to power preaching (all die be die) and some of us supported him, now he's showing us the true meaning of all die be die. I wonder if any sensibble Ghanaian would go to vote for any of these two parties. I suspect voter will be the lowest since 92.
Why an MP attacked police with lies and abusive words? He said two people have been killed, where were they? NDC intentionally sent Asorka boys from Temale to course trouble. I saw them in STC buses on Kumasi Mampong road. Four buses in all. The police response was swift and decisive to stop their evil plans. Why should the police opened fire on innocent civilians, if they were indeed innocent? The NDC boys started the shooting so why should the police stand aloof to be killed? There is nothing wrong to wear musk in police operations. They do them everywhere in police operations. People who are worried about the police operations should advice Sam George and Ablakwa to behave well as MPs and not lie to create confusion.
PROF MARTEY! GOD PUNISH YOUR MOUTH!