Arrest Religious Leaders Whose Divine Directives Lead To Loss Of Life

Managing Editor of �Insight� newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., wants State Prosecutors to arraign religious leaders before court when innocent Ghanaians die as a result of their divine instructions backfiring. He noted with much seriousness the impunity of some religious leaders who take refuge by quoting the scripture verse �Touch not my anointed and do my Prophet no harm�. He therefore wants the �so-called� men of God to be prosecuted for murder anytime they issue directives to patients who on the sick-bed. Contributing to a panel discussion on �Alhaji and Alhaji� on Radio Gold, the Senior Journalist recounted the ordeal of a mother of three who followed blindly the directives of a man of God. He narrated that the woman had been taken ill and was rushed to the SSNIT hospital for treatment. Her doctor prescribed some medications to cure her sickness but according to Mr. Pratt, the woman discontinued the usage of her medicines after receiving a divine word from her Pastor who claimed God wants her to quit using the drugs because He had already cured her. Her refusal to take her drugs eventually claimed her life but the Pastor was not ensnared by the laws, though his falsity landed the mother of three children in her grave, Mr. Pratt said. �Now, if a Pastor behaves this way. If a so-called man of God conducts himself in this manner. That man of God is no different from somebody who had administered fake drugs to a patient and killed that patient,� he emphasized. He therefore insisted that Pastors who contravene the constitution should not be left off the hook but be made to face the full rigors of the law since to him, they are not superior beings. �I want to insist that Pastors who break the law in this manner leading to the death of innocent citizens and so on should be dealt with according to the law. They should be prosecuted for murder.� This, he held strongly, will ensure that �that crime is punished� in the nation.