The 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana makes room for freedom of worship, association and movement. Because of this, neither the state or any government in power can stop individuals from practising the religion that he or she believes in. This does not, however, mean that because there is freedom of worship, one can commit heinous crimes and use religion as a subterfuge to escape punishment.
For instance, one cannot kill a fellow human being and use the body as a sacrifice to the gods that he or she worships. That, certainly, is not freedom of worship, because where one’s rights end, another’s also begins. Unfortunately, this senseless killing of human beings with aim of sacrificing their body parts to the gods is becoming the order of the day.
Regrettably, we, the media houses, in the name of generating revenue, have been giving airtime to some of these criminals masquerading as idol worshippers to perpetrate their crimes. It is only here in Ghana that magicians will be allowed to sit on national television purporting to be doubling money for people. In so doing, they manage to capture the minds of the uninitiated, invite them to their shrines, and either dupe or kill them for rituals.
As we have earlier alluded to, the Constitution guarantees freedom of worship. The Chronicle cannot, therefore, condemn one’s religion, but at the same time, we, as a state, should not be seen to be condoning the ills in our society because of the fear that in so doing, we may be looking down upon the religious faith of others. A religion that leads to the killing of fellow humans should be condemned in no uncertain terms.
Yesterday, The Chronicle carried a story about the arrest of two fetish priests at Adeiso in the Eastern Region, who have reportedly killed some of their clients for ritual purposes. According to the story, these fetish priests lure their clients to the shrine under the guise of doubling whatever money they have for them, but end up murdering and secretly burying them at the shrine.
Since the police have started investigations into the case, it our hope that they would delve deeper into it and unearth other hiding agenda of these fetish priests, and use the evidence gathered to deal with them in the court of law.
These ritual killings were common in the 1980s, where many innocent people lost their lives. We can indeed recall the sad case of little Kofi Kyinto, who was killed by his own uncle for ritual purposes.
But when death sentences were handed down to the criminals, it somehow helped to stop the negative practice. This is the goal we expect the police to pursue – do proper investigations and successfully prosecute some of these cases in court to serve as a deterrent to others.
What has even driven us crackers is the fact that the Adeiso suspected ritual killers are not even Ghanaians – they are economic migrants who have come to settle in the country and seem to have taken our leniency to be our weakness.
This must not be allowed to continue anymore, and that is why we are urging the police to nip the practice in the bud.
The post Editorial: Religious murders must be halted appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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