"I�ve Forgiven Asiedu Nketia"

THE MODERATOR of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, has said he has put the recent fracas between him and NDC General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketia, which saw the latter hurling unprintable words at the cleric, behind him. As a Man of God, Rev Martey said, it was not right for him to resent his fellow human being as the word of God did not encourage that, stressing that he had forgiven and forgotten whatever Mr Asiedu Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, said against him, especially in the media recently. President John Mahama had begged for forgiveness for his garrulous general secretary and chairman of his campaign. Rt. Rev. Martey said, �I love Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia who is my church member�, indicating that as a staunch Christian, the Bible stipulated that he should forgive anybody that sinned against him. �I don�t have any bad motives or hatred against Mr. Asiedu Nketia following what happened recently,� the Man of God said in an interview on Kessben FM. He added, �As a father, if your son sins against you, it is prudent that you forgive him for peace to prevail�, noting that he had decided to forgive the NDC general secretary for peace to prevail. Asiedu Nketia, it would be recalled, recently took the Presbyterian Church Moderator to the cleaners in the media after Rev. Martey had expressed his opinion on pressing national issues, especially the creation of the controversial 45 new constituencies, which the NDC guru did not take lightly. Rev Martey noted that what he said, which the NDC kingpin did not take lightly, was nothing but the truth, stressing that he was an honest person who always spoke the truth; therefore he would always try his best to say the truth, especially on national issues. According to him, he was yet to meet Asiedu Nketia personally since the seeming fracas between them, disclosing, �I travelled outside the country and if God permits then we shall meet soon now that I have returned.� Rev. Martey emphasized that he stood for the truth and frowned on insults so no matter how much he was insulted, he would never retaliate with insults, stressing, �I love Asiedu Nketia irrespective of what happened between us.� Applauds Nana, Rawlings Rev. Martey was full of praise for former President Rawlings and NPP Presidential Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo for their decision to meet and discuss matters bordering on ensuring Ghana�s peace, urging other politicians to emulate the shining example of the duo. According to him, the historic meeting between the NDC founder and the NPP leader could go a long way to deepen Ghana�s peace and also help to make the upcoming polls peaceful. He said, �The meeting between Nana Akufo and former President Rawlings is a practical demonstration of the peace that we are talking about�, urging politicians in the country to also demonstrate publicly their intentions of contributing to make the elections peaceful. The meeting between the two leaders, the Moderator stated, should give strong signals to the mass followers of the NPP and NDC that there was no need for them to engage each other in a brawl just because of politics. Rev. Martey noted that all the political leaders were friends who behind the scenes talked to each other in a nice and peaceful manner, so the grassroots members of the parties should also learn to accommodate their political opponents. The Moderator entreated Ghanaians, notably Christians, to begin to pray fervently to God to make the coming elections an incident-free one, reminding the populace that they had no country aside Ghana; therefore it was incumbent on them to contribute to help the country stay peaceful.