Fides Media Living the Faith
By Josef Ishu
Following allegations of ritual killing of an 11-year-old boy, Ishmael Mensah Abdallah, in Kasoa town within the Archdiocese of Cape Coast, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has feared that such act is a threat to the national security of the country.
The Conference, in a recent statement obtained by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Media Office, condemned the “horrid action” of two teenagers who reportedly lured the boy to his death.
It will be recalled that on April 3, 2021, two teenage boys aged 16 and 17, lured Ishmael Mensah Abdallah from his home to a nearby uncompleted building and killed him after a fetish priestess encouraged them to bring to her a human body as well as GH¢ 5,000 (863USD) in exchange for riches.
The Ghanaian Catholic Bishops, however said in a statement signed by GCBC President, Archbishop Philip Naameh of Tamale Archdiocese, that: “It is important for us to see these developments as a national security threat and act speedily to deal with this threat. The horrid action of these teenagers should serve as a wake-up call for us to find out what has gone wrong with us as individuals, as a people, as a nation and why we are where we are today”.
The Conference noted with dismay that: “Perhaps, we have lost our moral compass as individuals, a people and a nation, even as the Bishops expressed concern that the teenagers’ actions were “derived from watching some of the audio-visual content on television with the promise to make people wealthy within a short period of time,” GCBC members call on Ghanaian authorities to regulate media content.
“We, therefore, call on all major stakeholders, especially the Regulators of our media space, to clamp down on activities of these fraudulent spiritualists, mallams, pastors and others who through their audio-visual content continue to propagate evils and their ‘get-rich-quick’ activities on our television stations and social media platforms”, they appealed.
(SOURCE: NIGERIA CATHOLIC NETWORK)