Politicians Bait Pastors With Bribes—Prof Martey

The former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana Rev. Professor Emmanuel Martey has pointed to a trend of politicians blackmailing fire brand pastors with secret recordings of gifts they offer them as a way to prevent them from condemning corruption in public office.

According to Professor Marty, some men of god had been unwittingly trapped with gifts from politicians who secretly record such private events and threaten to tender in the tapes as evidence that the victims are bribe takers.

Professor Martey who has once been accused of accepting a hundred thousand dollar bribe and a V8 Land Cruiser gave the caution speaking at a public lecture organized by the Christian Service University College on the theme “Institutional corruption in Ghana causes and effects.”

His thought provoking lecture touched on the flaws of the constitution, culture and the church and how these three entities have not helped in rooting out the age long scourge of corruption in Ghana.

Offering reasons for what he called the prophetic silence among the clergy, Professor Martey said, “Some pastors naively and innocently accept gifts that turn out to be baits or bribes which subsequently muscles them from preaching prophetic messages with power. Sometimes such so called gifts and the accompanying conversations are secretly recorded and they spell doom for the pastor.”

“If you make one utterance they will just send you or send somebody to play the tape to you and tell you if you don’t shut up, we will expose you to the public. “

Rev Professor EMMANUEL MARTEY urged the church not to be unsettled by such plots but rather challenged leaders of the church to be assertive in condemning corruption which he says has become both “endemic and systemic” in Ghana

Prof Martey indicated that the New Patriotic Party administration “has started showing signs of corruption” and urged the President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo “to be very careful with his appointees.”

Referring from St Augustine’s books, he quoted “a nation, a state, a people who are corrupt and disregard justice are a gang of criminals on a large scale. So if I look at Ghana according to St Augustines all are a gang of thieves and it says not on a small scale.”

The event was chaired by the president of the Christian Service University College Professor Samuel Afrane and the General Secretary of the Christian Council, Dr Opuni Frimpong.