Rev. Owusu Ansah should disrobe, join NPP - NDC Propaganda sec.

Deputy National Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Solomon Nkansah, has launched a blistering attack on the Head of Religious Broadcast at Multimedia Group Limited, Rev. Yaw Owusu Ansah, asking him to disrobe and be the official mouthpiece of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) since it is becoming increasingly clear that he is siding with the opposition.

Mr. Nkansah claims the regular preacher on AdomFM has the penchant of making snide remarks about the NDC in general and President Mills in particular, and has banded together with the Daily Guide newspaper to discredit the good deeds of the NDC.

The Daily Guide newspaper in its Friday, November 19 edition, published that the NDC government would start taxing churches and mosques in the coming year quoting the Finance Minister’s Budget Statement as its source.

Presenting the budget in almost two and half hours in Parliament, Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor pointed out that government was facing a lot of challenges, compelling it to increase taxes in almost every sector of the economy including churches and mosques that were not taxed but are engaged in commercial activities.

“Some institutions enjoy tax-free status because of the original non-profit motive that established them. However, in recent times, some of these institutions have expanded their scope of operation to include commercial activities, thereby making substantive profits but not paying taxes on them…Government will amend the law to allow the Commissioner-General to tax all commercial activities undertaken by the affected institutions,” the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning stated,” Dr Duffuor said.

But the self-styled radical preacher, during his normal pre-dawn religious programme, censured government for that intended move, if indeed the newspaper report was true.

However, speaking in an interview on Asempa FM’s “Ekosii Sen” program, Mr. Nkansah accused the renowned Man of God of joining ranks with the Daily Guide newspaper to constantly disparage everything President Mills does.

“Owusu Ansah has joined up with the Daily Guide newspaper which has made up its mind to publish speculative and useless stories about the NDC. Because he (Rev. Owusu Ansah) is in league with Daily Guide, he has come to say that it was right for Daily Guide to complain about taxes on churches and business...What right do they have to complain, when you (Owusu Ansah) know exactly what the Minister of Finance read in the budget… that government is going to tax churches who are involved in other businesses?” he asked.

An incensed Solomon Nkansah then ripped into Rev. Owusu Ansah for dabbling in politics and called on him to disrobe and take up the position of Director of Communications for the NPP.

“He should stop the Pastoral work and go and take up the Director of Communications position for the NPP since there is a vacancy. So that we will know he is a full member of the NPP and regard him as such and know how to reply him when he talks,” he fumed.

To him, the Resurrection Power and Living Bread Ministries Pastor should rather be commending President Mills for restoring interfaith meetings with the seat of government, a feature which the NPP administration abandoned. He added that the significant seasonal changes and unprecedented cocoa harvest are pointers to the fact that God has blessed Ghana through President Mills.

“Rev. Owusu Ansah is giving room for people to lambast pastors and the work of God. President Mill has honored Pastoral work and restored interdenominational meetings after the NPP abandoned it…He (Prez Mills) should be lauded…The President recently met with Pastors at the Peduase Lodge and he is doing all this for God to bless Ghana. Consider the rain patterns in the country; the excess foodstuffs and unprecedented cocoa harvest…they are all indicators that Mills is a blessing to Ghana…,” he stated.

The NDC Deputy National Propaganda Secretary who described the Rev Owusu Ansah as a politician masquerading as a Man of God, also indirectly accused him of being a sham.

“So if you are a man of God, you should be working with this truth. But because it is not God he is serving and he wants to do his own politics; when it is ‘A’ he says it is a ‘Z’, and you think you will be seen as a man of God?” he rhetorically quizzed.