A Priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra, Rev. Fr. Ebenezer Hanson, has accused the Church of behaving like Judas when one of its own, former Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, was hounded out of office over his anti-corruption fight.
In a commentary on YouTube, Rev. Fr. Hanson puts the Church’s silence over the Domelevo persecution by the Akufo-Addo government to fear and cowardice.
“As a Catholic, you can’t be afraid. Catholic priest, you can’t be afraid. Catholic Bishop, you can’t be afraid. No, it is guilt that is inflicting us. If that wasn’t the case, our own Domelevo, a Catholic won’t be doing good by protecting the public purse and we won’t support him,”
“I am sure if Domelevo decides to come and audit the Church for free from NCS to the parishes, he would be even “killed” before he starts work. It’s true. Maybe that’s why we couldn’t fight for him because he is our own son. Even if he wasn’t a Catholic and was doing good, we needed to support him. Christ said whoever witnesses before men about me, I shall be his witness before my father,” he said.
The former Auditor General became an enemy to the Akufo-Addo government when he surcharged former Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, over the latter’s shady payment of US$1million to a UK company, Kroll and Associates for no work done.
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Domelevo surcharged Osafo Maafo after his request by the Senior Minister to justify the payment had been snubbed by the Senior Minister.
First Domelevo was forced to take accumulated leave against his will to remove him from a court case that had resulted from Osafo Maafo challenging the surcharge in court.
Then, when he returned from leave, the government told him that he was due for retirement, claiming he had been born in 1960 rather than 1961 which is captured in Mr. Domelevo’s employment details.
The Akufo-Addo government had even declared Domelevo a Togolese as part of the hounding. Through it, some Civil Society Organizations and social commentators fought in the corner of Domelevo but the Akufo-Addo government roguishly saw the forced retirement through.
Rev. Father Hanson accused the Catholic church of hypocrisy pointing out that when he was being hounded the church was quiet but the same church attended his thanksgiving.
“We abandoned him when he needed us most but priests and bishops were at his thanksgiving. Where were they? He did say something that we need to think about. He said through all he went through, nobody came to him. He mentioned the few who supported him but where were we Catholics? What are we afraid of? Or the president is our candidate? If he is, they should let us know,” he said.
He said the church will have to shirk its cowardice and stand up to power as Christ expects it to.
“The church will become the unshakable Church of old. Where we speak the truth and we die for it. We should not allow Kaaka and others to suffer when they have children. We as Catholic priests and bishops don’t have children. That is why we should go all out and die for the truth and for the generation but we are rather moving backward,” Fr. Hanson said.
Source: whatsupnewsghana