Director General of the GHS, Dr. Nsiah Asare
Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Dr. Nsiah Asare has warned spiritualists, pastors, and parents to desist from turning the campus of Kumasi Academy (KUMACA) into a prayer camp in quest to ward off evil spirits they believe might have been the cause of the recent deaths of students of school.
Speaking in an interview with OTEC NEWS, Dr Nsiah Asare stated that even though the GHS is not against prayers as they believe prayer is essential in the daily activities in every human, the prayers could be said from outside the school without entering the school's premises.
According to the GHS Director General, the presence of parents and their pastors can compound the situation. “The students are being quarantined in order to treat them quickly so the presence of parents and their spiritual leader scan spread the illness” he added.
KUMACA has recently witnessed series of mysterious deaths claiming about 14 lives of students only this year.
Parents and guardians of the school besieged the campus demanding for the release of their wards from the school in order to avoid further deaths as some went with pastors to pray for their children.
School authorities and the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly together with the Ashanti Regional health service, however, were able to calm situation and tempers down as they identified the H1N1 viral influenza as the cause of the deaths.
Students of the school have since been receiving vaccination and treatment from the Ashanti regional health directorate and World Health Organization (WHO) as part of measures to end the death.
Dr. Nsiah Asare called on parents not to end prayers for their wards, the school, teachers, and doctors who are currently attending to the students as the disease according to him is very infectious.
He added that the necessary treatment and arrangements are being made to ensure the safety and well-being of the students.
Meanwhile, the Founder of World Miracle Outreach, Dr. Lawrence Tetteh has also chided men of God and individuals, linking the recent deaths at Kumasi Academy to spirituality and occultism.
He believes rather than ‘spiritualising’ the recent deaths at KUMACA, authorities consider it a wake-up call to delve deep into the issues to ascertain the actual cause and deal with the crux of the issues.
“I think there is some irresponsibility somewhere. It should rather be investigated to see the source of the problem so we can solve it instead of attributing it to spirituality."
"I believe in healing, I believe in miracles, I think I’ve been one of the longest Ghanaian preachers on TV and in the media but I can tell this from experience and from fact that it is not everything that should be attributed to spirituality, we should correct the wrong….it’s not everything that is spiritual, we come from the flesh before we go into the spiritual,” he told newsmen.