Four people were killed and scores injured recently in a stampede at a church in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
Four people were killed and scores injured recently in a stampede at a church in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
Thousands of worshipers at a branch of a powerful evangelical Synagogue Church of All Nations rushed for “holy water”, which is said to contain healing powers, being distributed at a service on Sunday 19 May.
Ghanaian police said no foul play was involved and that the incident caught both police at the venue and the organisers by surprise. “No-one knew the crowd will be so huge, ” said a police spokesperson who also told the BBC’s Newsday programme that “nobody can apportion blame at this stage”.
Metro Éireann wonders if the Ghanaian police really know what they are saying in that statement, which effectively exonerates the church before an official investigation has even begun.
We believe the most imperative fact has been established already: the church failed to properly plan for and accommodate the number of worshipers that came to the event. The right thing to do would have been to suspend the sharing of holy water as soon as they witnessed that an unprecedented number of people had arrived – or better, distribute it from several locations, which seemed not to have happened.
Unless both the Synagogue Church of All Nations and its owner and operator Pastor TB Joshua – one of the richest pastors in the world – are held accountable for this tragedy, there is no guarantee that the same will not happen again.
