Death On Our Highways : Bishop BlamesPoliticians

An international Evangelist and Bishop of a fast-growing Pentecostal church, Rev. Sammy Bennah, last weekend blamed politicians for the recent fatalities on our roads, pointing out that what we are seeing is evidence of a "pay back time' for the demons and evil spirits consulted by politicians during the last elections in their quest for power.

The Bishop, leader of Shepherd's Christian Mission International, said he believes the Ways and Means bloody rituals that politicians applied in fighting their electoral battles "cut across' the leading parties.

What we are witnessing, he lamented, is a reflection of what we did during, before and probably after the elections, adding that 'when a nation or individual or church or ethnic group sows to the wind in an orgy of ritual bloodletting,' it is natural that that individual or group 'reap the whirlwind.'

According to the Bishop of the Shepherd's Christian Mission International, the bloody rituals that some of the politicians got themselves immersed in, in order for them to win power, as well as the unfulfilled promises they made to witch-doctors and occultists, are responsible for those fatalities that have claimed over a hundred lives in the last several weeks.

'Yes, we may plug holes at the VELD; send more Police people onto our roads or tighten the laws on drivers for overspeeding…but in this particular case, we cannot blame the drivers…the politicians who sought to buy this nation's soul and direct it their own way for selfish reasons through bloody rituals, stand accused as the ones entirely responsible for the calamities - not the poor drivers.'

He lamented that, whilst peace loving men of God and Christians fasted and prayed to God for peaceful elections and for a God-fearing leadership to take the nation to higher heights in terms of development, a section of the politicians were busy invoking demons in their bid to hand over the fortunes of the nation to Satanic forces.

'What we have got in answer to that prayer is the blood sacrifices we offered handed us many fold, he revealed, adding that even if God chose to forgive, which He will do because he is a loving God, the punishment would still come, affecting in greater measure those who were guilty of that act.'

He is convinced that blaming the Vehicle Licensing Department or vulcanizers or drivers, is passing the buck, because 'we all saw in the papers and national television people, who should know better, invoking Antoa and other spirits to on political platforms and press conferences.'

In the light of those open, brazen platform doom messages, he said we must point acusing fingers at our politicians 'or rather those politicians who brazenly committed those acts of sacrilege, not the poor drivers, who had been using these roads for several years now.'

Words, he revealed, are spirit; and when we knowingly or unknowingly spit them out, they take seed and give birth

'If we shout on rooftops that Antoa will descend on us if so and so, we give Antoa a turf on our political landscape to mess with us, just as he or she has done.'

He lamented that when calamities of such magnitude assailed the nation, it is easy and normal on the part of politicians to blame ordinary helpless citizens, instead of finding appropriate solutions to such problems, some of which is admitting that our leadership have sinned.

Continuing, he predicted that if God doesn"t intervene, what we are seeing may only be the beginning of a spate of woes because, in invoking such spirits, we incur the anger of the Almighty God, who rules in the affairs of nations and who is responsible for granting Ghana the peace that we have been praying for since 2000.

It is sad, he observed, that the punishment did not begin with those who committed those acts or their children and children's children, warning that the saying by the Bible that righteousness exalts a nation and that sin is a reproach to any nation must be taken serious not only by Christians and all religious people but politicians, whose actions and inactions draw the nation into hope or doom.

Explaining why the calamities occurred, in spite of intercessory prayer from Christians, he said every nation deserves the leadership it has; and that God in His wisdom permits men to go in the direction they want

However, when they realize, however, that they had made a mistake, and cry out, he comes in to intervene. 'God will therefore intervene, if we confess and return to Him in humility. But as a nation we must learn from it and not repeat it.'