Doomsday prophecies: Who elected you over my life to be making pronouncements over it? – Dampare quizze prophets

Dr. George Akufo Dampare, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has for the first time explained his decision to ban 31st watch night prophecies.

The IGP indicated that only constitutionally authorised individuals, like Members of Parliament (MPs) are entitled to make pronouncements over others.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament today Thursday, January 19, Dr. Akufo Dampare noted that he won't tolerate people acting as Men of God to cause fear and panic among people with doom prophecies.

"You are all elected to be Members of Parliament by our votes, and therefore you have been empowered by the constitution and other laws to make certain proclamations, which is acceptable.

"But those who are prophets, who elected them over my life to just go out there and make pronouncements about me, where I'm not your family member, I'm not your church member," the IGP said.

If God can tell the prophets to publicly pronounce death on people, then the IGP questions why the same God doesn’t tell those individuals directly.

Dr. Akufo-Dampare noted that it is better for the prophets to be more diplomatic about how they convey their supposed God-given messages in order not to put people in constant fear.

"Why is it that God himself decided not tell us when we are going to die? It means a lot... even then if you have a prophecy about someone dying... you have to put it in proverbs for the person to decipher it, but you don't put fear and panic in the person, in the person's immediate family, in the person's extended family and in the whole country," he said.

According to the IGP, the ban on the 31st-night prophecy doesn’t mean the police service is “against prophecies."

He urges prophets to "go ahead and prophesy, but when God speaks to you, carry it out in a manner that will ensure the sanctity of our nation, Ghana.”

For the past two years, the Ghana Police Service has been cautioning prophets to be careful about how they communicate prophecies, particularly those that spell doom in plain language in order not to put them in more danger.