‘Pastors’ who confess to crimes on radio and TV programmes must be punished – Rachel Appoh

Former Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Rachel Appoh, is calling on law enforcement agencies to deal with persons who appear on radio and TV programmes to confess to committing various crimes on grounds that they have repented.

Rachel Appoh believes that the police and its affiliated institutions must invite some of these persons –who are usually Pastors confessing to doing wrongs in the past – and interrogate them on some of the stark revelations they make.

“It has become too common to hear these so-called men of God on radio or watch them make very chilling revelations on our airwaves. So can’t the CID [Criminal Investigations Department] invite them?” she quizzed.

Ghana’s local language media houses are making these “confessions time” a regular programming initiative.

Usually the person – usually a spiritualist or pastor – is invited by producers of the show to speak on the various roles they played to hoodwink people, break the law or even take the life of another person.

But producers of the show stress that these persons have turned on a new leaf and are only making the revelations to guide and educate the public.

In the video that caught the attention of the Rachel Appoh, Apostle John Blessed Blay, popularly known as Odiifo Obotan, is heard saying that he has in the past obtained water that has been used to bath dead bodies from mortuary attendants and sold to restaurant owners who then use it for cooking because food cooked with that liquid draws customers.

The pastor, who said he has repented from his occult ways, said the practice was so common among occultists who pretend to be pastors.

According to this pastor, the practice was so common he has wondered why it has not raised suspicion.

However, the former Deputy Gender Minister and a former Legislator for Gomoa Central, said although the revelations may be false and could just be a way radio stations are using to draw in listeners, she has observed that Ghana’s media is gradually being inundated by these programmes.

“This must stop because it put innocent people at risk. It is the vulnerable in society, who are usually women, who are at risk of being swindled. The police must act,” she stressed.

She said these "confession time" programmes are flooding Ghana’s media landscape because the people who make the so-called confessions usually go unpunished for their criminal claims.