Otabil calls for ‘dramatic’ solution to ‘senseless’ road carnage
The General Overseer of International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) has described recent road accidents on the Kintampo and Cape Coast roads that claimed about 90 lives as a senseless development.
Speaking at the Christ Temple on Sunday, Pastor Mensa Otabil called for immediate pragmatic action to curb the menace.
“It is gruesome for our nation to lose these number of people in one accident, it is just unbelievable…there is no need for anybody to die on the road…we need to do something dramatic because human lives are very important and certain things don’t make sense,” he said.
He wonders why travelling in a small country like Ghana be such a big risk with people always praying for travelling mercies.
The man of God says families and loved ones are always sitting on tenterhooks once a relation or a friend is travelling.
“Much of our prayers are for journey mercies when you hear that somebody you know is travelling you pray and intercede from the time they leave to the time they arrive. Then when they arrive and they call to say so, you are very happy. Another intercession begins when they say I am returning.
“I am not saying we should not pray for people to have safe journey but safe journey shouldn’t become a major prayer topic…there are other things you should pray for, for souls to be saved but not for safe journey,” he said.
About 90 people were confirmed dead in two separate road crashes in the Bono East and Central Regions on Friday.
Police have confirmed 55 died in the gory head-on collision between two passenger buses on the Kintampo-Techiman road. Fifty-three others are seriously injured and 35 of the deceased could not be identified.
Hours after the first accident, 30 people also died in another fatal accident which occurred at Ekumfi Abor on the Winneba-Cape Coast Highway in the Ekumfi District of the Central Region.
Commenting on the unfortunate incidents, the man of God commiserated with the bereaved families and said he wondered where the country was headed.
“For all you know, they could have been a whole family that is wiped out because sometimes families travel together…Father, mother children could all be wiped out instantly for no sensible purpose or reason than they were in a vehicle and it just crashed. It is not good,” he lamented.
Equally worried about the development is the founder and president of the World Miracle Outreach Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, who has attributed the recent carnage on our roads to reckless driving and indiscipline.
According to him, a lot of the drivers have no knowledge about the traffic regulations, road signs or have not gone through the needed training.
He added that many drivers also fail to check their health while others get intoxicated but still sit behind the wheel.
“If you look at most of the road accidents that we have suffered, it is because people are reckless, they take the law into their hands,” he stated.
Rev. Lawrence Tetteh believes regulating some of the drivers could reduce accidents in the country drastically as they are preventable but for the recklessness of some people.
“We have a collective responsibility. What is bad is bad so, if you see a drunkard when you sit in a trotro or a bus take the wheel, call the police and let them breathalyze him, it will save your life, it will save my life,” he said.
The Pastor called on the nation to wake up and put a check on some of the careless driving habits on the roads.
Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh discouraged people from putting the blame of many of these unfortunate accidents on the devil.
He said the notion of attributing things to the spirit sometimes is not fair, as “people’s foolishness is being attributed to the devil.”
Source: Myjoyonline