General News of Saturday, 5 January 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

We can't arrest people who prophesy; we can only caution them - ACP Eklu

ACP David Eklu, Director-General in charge of Public Affairs play videoACP David Eklu, Director-General in charge of Public Affairs

The Director-General in charge of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, ACP David Eklu has said that the police can do little about the raging “31st December prophecy brouhaha”

According to him, the laws of Ghana is very silent on the repercussions meted out to individuals who make such pronouncement all in the name of prophecy
“In terms of arresting somebody for their pronouncement, the law is not too clear on it, so what we do is to caution people to be aware of the implications of their pronouncement,” he said.

According to him, the mandate of the police is to prevent crime and identify some of these early warnings and take steps to stop them.

“We believe that if our warnings and cautions are taken seriously, we can nip these things in the mud and avoid this wide publicity that can cause fear.”

Explaining further, ACP Eklu said, such prophesies can cause people to react ruthlessly because they may not agree to it and that has the potentials of ruining the peace Ghanaians are enjoying now.

“If someone gets angry and takes up an arm to act then it will lead to a breach of the peace the country is enjoying now, which is not good for all of us,” he said.

According to him, the police is handling the situation in a very professional manner in order not to raise eyeballs and tempers especially as tempers are already heightened.

“If one person is invited now, I am sure the person will run to the media that I have been invited and the media will run to mount their cameras here to monitor things, we do not want that to happen so we are talking to them through third parties to let that know that their actions can lead to brutal consequences” he said

He said the police is doing its best to avoid dramatizing the whole situation.

“The media must take into account how the receivers of such publications will react before putting out issues like this," he cautioned.