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Newly formed political party, the New Labour Party [NLP] is calling on the Catholic Bishops Conference to render an unqualified apology to President John Dramani Mahama for their - “Compassion goes with common sense” statement.

The interim General Secretary of the party, Listowell Nana Kusi-Poku, described the comment by the bishops as “unfortunate” and “unhealthy” to the president.

The Catholic Bishops Conference dismissed President Mahama’s call for compassion on the Gitmo ex-detainees, insisting that compassion needs to be balanced with common sense.

“The argument for compassion here does not hold. Certainly the bible talks about compassion. We need to be compassionate to people and so on but compassion goes with common sense as well,” The bishops said.

The argument of the Catholic Bishop follows President Mahama’s call to Ghanaians to show compassion to the two cleared terrorist suspects who were held for fourteen years in America’s popular prison bay, Guantanamo.

But in a statement signed by Listowell Nana Kusi-Poku, the NLP noted that – “We find the statement i.e. “The argument for compassion here does not hold. Certainly the Bible talks about compassion. We need to be compassionate to people and so on but compassion goes with Common Sense as well.” made by the President of Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference, Most Rev. Osei Bonsu, as insulting and uncouth to the integrity of H.E the President of the Republic of Ghana.”

Read the full statement below

APPOLOGISE TO H.E. PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA

We the members of the New Labour Party have carefully and analytically looked into a statement that has come from the Catholic Bishop conference as response to the statement made by H.E President John Dramani Mahama as regards the two former detainees of the Guantanamo bay and we wish to respectfully state as follows;

1.That the Catholic Church, the first to spread Christianity to the world, is one of the respectable religious institutions in the world.

2.That there is nowhere in the Doctrine and Policy of the Catholic Church that teaches that compassion must be shown with common sense.

3.That we find the statement i.e. “The argument for compassion here does not hold. Certainly the Bible talks about compassion. We need to be compassionate to people and so on but compassion goes with Common Sense as well.” made by the President of Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference, Most Rev. Osei Bonsu, as insulting and uncouth to the integrity of H.E the President of the Republic of Ghana.

4.That it is quite obvious that the Catholic bishop conference were so naïve of what the issues were and had not read and acquainted themselves with the available information in relation to their arrest, detention and subsequent investigations that were conducted by their detainers.

5.That it will always serve the common interest of all Ghanaians to get much acquainted with the facts of every information before we comment.

6.That the Catholic Bishop Conference had not read none of the publications and the report from the United States of America who detained these two gentlemen and just listened to the propaganda of a political party and just drew their conclusions that that one of the two men fought for Osama bin Laden and another trained with al-Qaeda, judging that they pose a threat to national security.

7.That the Catholic Bishop Conference should read wide and know that Ghana is not the ONLY country that have received former detainees of the Guantanamo. Countries like Albania, Ireland, France, Hungary, United Kingdom, Bermuda, Palau, Switzerland, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal, Georgia, Latvia, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany, El Salvador, Qatar, Uruguay., Kazakhstan, Oman, Estonia, United Arab Emirates have all received some of these former detainees.

8.The Catholic Bishop Conference should know that as the leadership they require to be decorous in their language as Christ exemplified even when as the only begotten son of God, he had come to die on the Cross to save mankind.

9.That the Catholic Bishop Conference should desist from the politics of discrimination where dangerous events that happen in this country like acidification and stabbing of human beings are not spoken about but are quick to naively talk about issues like the Gitmo.

10.That in Romans 13 which talks about Respect for Authority states it clearly that “everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.”

We are calling on the Catholic Bishop Conference to openly apologise to H.E. the president of Ghana and hence forth have respect for Authority.

LONG LIVE NEW LABOUR PARTY!!!
LONG LIVE OUR DEMOCRACY!!!
LONG LIVE GHANA!!!!
3Y3 NSA ARA NA 3REKC

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LISTOWELL NANA KUSI-POKU
INTERIM GENERAL SECRETARY