Anglican Bishop adds to the call for more pressure on Gbagbo

Kumasi, Dec. 15, GNA - The Right Reverend Dr Daniel Yinkah Sarfo, Anglican Bishop of Kumasi, has appealed to the international community to put more pressure on Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo to cede political power. He said everything must be done to ensure that the decision made by the majority of people in the country's presidential run-off was respected and not subverted.

Cote d'Ivoire is in a political stalemate as President Gbagbo refuses to concede power to Mr Allasane Ouattara, who has been recognized by the United Nations (UN), United States (US), European Union (EU) and the sub-regional body ECOWAS as the winner of the poll. Bishop Yinkah Sarfo said true democracy should be allowed to take firm root in Africa and that any talk about power sharing should be repudiated. He was addressing the opening session of the 15th Synod of the Diocesan Anglican Church in Kumasi on Wednesday. The four-day synod is under the theme: "God's people for God's mission, Stewardship" and is being held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Bishop Yinkah Sarfo said it was important that Ghana drew lessons from what was happening in the sister country and ensure further strengthening of the capacity of the Electoral Commission.

He also advised that elections should not become "a do or die affair", and that those, who put themselves up for elective offices, must accept the reality that there would always be winners and losers. Setting up militant groups to intimidate and brutalize political opponents was certainly not the way to go.

The Anglican Bishop urged Ghanaians to remain united and jettison the ethnocentric tendencies and political intolerance creeping into the body politic.

Mr Samuel Sarpong, the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), urged the church, as an agent of transformation, to help to maintain discipline in the society.

He said as Christians they were supposed to be the "light in the dark" and therefore they should become good example to the rest of society. Mr Sarpong urged the church to help to ensure the success of the December 28th District Assembly elections, by encouraging its members to vote.

In an address read for him, Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, the Ashanti Regional Minister, called on the church to sustain its partnership with the Government in the fight to reduce illiteracy, diseases and ignorance. Nana Adu Gyamfi, the Adontenhene of Kumasi, who represented the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, said the Church should focus on helping to reduce immorality and bad conduct among the youth. 15 Dec. 10