Rev. Professor Emmanuel Martey, the immediate past Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, must give up his position with the National Peace Council, a group known as Strategic Thinkers Networks (STRANEK) has said.

According to the group, until investigations are completed as to whether the outspoken clergyman received $100,000 and a V8 as bribe as alleged against him, he should not be made to sit as member of the Peace Council.

Prof Martey has suffered backlash from a section of the Ghanaian public for claiming at a press conference on Tuesday, 30 August, that a party he refused to name attempted bribing him with $100,000, a V8, and a mansion at Trasacco Valley. According to him, the party wanted to buy his silence with the goodies but he rejected the temptation.

However, a statement co-authored by Nii Tettey Tetteh and Charles Kwadade, both Executive Directors of STARNEK, said: “STRANEK sincerely makes a clarion call to the Peace Council and urges Rev. Prof Emmanuel Martey to step aside as a member of the council. This is because the council ought to be made up of members who hold morality, ethics, and standards in high esteem but [the conduct of] Prof Martey goes contrary to these traits, which is one of the factors that make up the fulcrum of the council.”

The statement added: “STRANEK fervently urges that until investigations are completed and justified as to whether Prof Martey indeed took the alleged bribe, i.e. 100,000 dollars, V8 vehicle among other items or not, he should not be made to sit as member of the Peace Council. Bribery and corruption are frowned [upon] everywhere in this world and the act Prof Martey is being accused of is an example of bribery and corruption. Bribery and corruption are even against Christian values and morals as Christianity is seen as the gatekeeper of these values.”

“As a think tank that fosters the social welfare and security of all Ghanaians, we religiously hope, pray, and appeal to the Peace Council to expedite action or better still ask Prof Martey to step aside as his membership is questionable and treacherous to the council and country as a whole. Going into the 2016 elections, Prof Martey doesn’t deserve to be a member of the Peace Council until these allegations are proven to be false. We will at this juncture support our appeal and passionate call to the Peace Council with a biblical verse, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people’, Proverbs 14:34.”