The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, has indicated that the Police Administration was not against prophecies, but their communication.
According to the IGP, the Police Administration had issues with how these prophecies were communicated, because they ended up creating fear and panic.
Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing in Parliament yesterday, Dr. Akuffo Dampare said pastors could go ahead and prophesise, but should do so in a way that would protect the sanctity of the nation.
He advised prophets to ask the God who gave them the revelation to also guide them on how to communicate such revelations in order not to create fear in people, their families, and friends.
“We are not against prophecies. Go ahead and prophesise, but when God speaks to you, carry it in a manner that will ensure the sanctity of our nation called Ghana.
“…If God speaks to you and you go out there, ask the same God to give you guidance as to how it should be communicated that will not affect the lives of individuals in a manner that will put them in fear, put their immediate family in fear, the extended family in fear and the country in fear,” the IGP said.
He made these comments when the Member of Parliament (MP) of Offinso South and a Member of the Committee, Mr. Isaac Yaw Opoku, asked him if there was a ban on prophecies.
The IGP was before PAC to respond to infractions from some of its departments, which had been cited in the 2020 Auditor-Generals report, but was asked to respond to this public interest question.
The MP said he wanted to know what the Police Administration was doing to minimise prophecies, because they were creating fear and panic among the citizenry.
It would be recalled that before the 31st night of 2022, the Police Administration reiterated its warning to the religious community against causing fear and panic with their popular 31st December night prophecies.
The Administration said the law would be applied to punish prophets who abused the rights of people with their doomsday prophetic messages.
This was due to the fact that these prophecies, over years, have usually predicted the deaths of influential people, especially politicians and celebrities in the ensuing years.
I believe in prophecies, but I have families; use proverbs to communicate.
Speaking at PAC yesterday, the IGP stated that he was a Christian and believes in prophecies just like many other Christians.
He said he was also a prophet, because he was a son of God, and God communicates to his children from time about one’s future if only the fellow is ready to listen to the voice of God.
Despite this belief, the IGP said, he had issues with the situation whereby God reveals something to a prophet and instead of that prophet walking to the fellow to disclose his revelation he does not do so, but rather says it in the open for everybody to hear.
He pointed out that what these prophets forget was that the public officials had families and friends who, after hearing these prophecies, would live in fear and panic for the rest of their lives, something he was not too happy with.
“Why should it be such that you find something; God had revealed something to you and you want to share with me, [do] you have to make it a showmanship and tell the whole country that I am about to die…?
“…I have a wife; I have children; I have a parent who is alive and I have family members, so every day I get up around 3am; and today I woke up at 5am; my wife will be thinking that I am dead. And this is something she is going to live with for the rest of her life.”
Dr. Akuffo Dampare said he believed God wanted to spare mankind from this kind of mental torture, and that was why he doesn’t communicate when a person is going to die, hence, questioned why prophets should be doing so.
“If you have prophecies about somebody dying, you have a way in our typical ‘Ghanaianess’ environment [to] put it even in proverb for the person to decipher it, but you don’t put fear and panic in the person, in the person’s immediate family, the person’s extended family, and the whole country,” the IGP said.
Elected officials can make pronouncements, prophets cannot
The IGP also drew a distinction between pronouncements made by elected or public officials against that of prophets.
According to Dr. Akuffo Dampare, public officials including MPs have the right to make declarations over their citizens because they acquired those mandates through elections and such pronouncements are backed by laws.
In the case of Prophets, the IGP said no one has given them the power to do so hence their pronouncements are not lawful and cannot be enforced.
“Honorable Chair, you are all elected to be MPs by our vote 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. Who elected them over my life to just get out there and make pronouncements about me.”
Why not prophesy on your immediate members, but outsiders
Dr. Akuffo Dampare said he found it very surprising that most of these prophecies are not about the members in the church, but outsiders who are not members of the church and may even not believe in God.
“How can a family meet and that family is not thinking about it members, but is thinking about outside people who are not related to the family and be able to get revelation about those people and share it out there to cause fear and panic,” he asked surprisingly.
God is a God of Order
The IGP said that the police are also Christians, but will not sit for people to create disorderliness in the country because God is a God of Order.
Citing an instance to buttress his arguments, the IGP said “imagine someone prophesies that from now until Easter, 90% of markets in Accra are going to be burnt…Imagine how many people will be going to the market everyday thinking that they will not come back?” he asked and indicated the police will not tolerate such disorderliness.
“We are deep-seated Christians who don’t joke with godliness, but we will also not allow anybody to use God to create a mess and confusion, because God is not a God of confusion, and God is not a God of disorderliness.”
PAC commenced public hearings on the Report of the Auditor-General (AG) on the Public Accounts of Ghana -Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the year 2020 on Monday July 16.
Some MDAs including the Ministry of Finance and its agencies- Controller and Accountant-General Department, Ghana Revenue Authority, Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Health and its agencies- National Ambulance Service, Korle But Teaching Hospital, Ghana Health Service have all appeared before it.
Yesterday, aside the Ministry of Interior under which the Ghana Police Service falls, the Ministry of Roads and Highways and its agencies- Department of Urban and Feeder Roads, the Ministry of Gender and Children and Social Protection and its agencies including the Department of Social Welfare as well as the Ministry of Agric and its agencies appeared before the committee.
Today, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and a few others will also appear before the Committee.
