December polls: Don’t sell your conscience to politicians - Rev. Dr Markwei tells voters
The Founder of the Living Streams International, Rev. Dr Ebenezer Markwei, has asked the citizenry not to sell their conscience to politicians by resisting all forms of inducements intended to influence their votes in this year’s elections.
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He said anytime politicians wanted power, they made efforts to induce people with money and other items to vote for them but once they won, they failed to promote the interests of the masses.
“It is disrespectful for politicians to bring you money to influence you to vote for them.
When your vote is bought, it is disrespectful to you, and that means your destiny can be bought,” he stressed.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview in Accra, Rev. Dr Markwei said it was critical to maintain the sanctity of the elections by ensuring that the people voted for men and women with integrity to lead the country.
The clergyman cautioned people against taking up arms against their fellow citizens, stressing that “we are only going to express our political decisions, and it is not a reason to kill ourselves”.
“Ghana does not belong to politicians; it belongs to all of us as our motherland, and it is a reason nobody should raise a fist against his or her brother over elections,” he stressed.
Cherish your life
Making reference to the Bible, Rev. Dr Markwei cited the scripture where the men of Judah said to the men of Samaria to come and engage with one another.
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He said the men from both sides then began to kill one another with swords, a bloodshed that was triggered by their leaders.
“The leaders who ordered the fight were sitting somewhere drinking, and the people were killing themselves.
“When violence occurs, watch the people who die, and when they die who goes to look after their families, pay their children’s fees.
They die for no reason,” he stated.
Eight lives were lost during the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The eight included three minors.
The police identified the victims as Zakaria Samira, 12, Musah Fuseini, 14, Botwe Tackie, 16, Abdallah Ayarek,18, Tajudeen Mohammed, 41, Dompreh Emmanuel, 36, and Abass Ibrahim.
While giving a situational report on the violence that characterised the elections, a Commissioner of Police (COP), Isaac Ken Yeboah, who was the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service at the time, disclosed that 15 other electorate had sustained varying degrees of injury, mostly from gunshots.
The police established that the violence was recorded in Tamale, Techiman, Odorkor, Ablekuma and Savelugu during collation of results after the election.
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, seven persons were critically injured and many others sustained minor injuries during a by-election at the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency in the Greater Accra Region when some gunmen invaded the La-Bawaleshie residence of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate in the by-election, Delali Kwasi Brempong.
Some masked men also invaded a polling station at La Bawaleshie and unleashed mayhem on persons believed to be supporters of the NDC candidate.
The NDC Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George, was assaulted by one of the members of the supposed security force which was captured in a video circulated in both the traditional and social media.