Winneba (C/R), Aug. 16, GNA - Christians have been urged to abide by, and give equal respect to both Divine and secular laws. Failure to do so now would definitely spell the doom of the nation in the not too distant future, Mr Solomon Kwashie Abbam-Quaye, District Chief Executive for Awutu-Effutu-Senya, has said. He said he did not understand why Christians could not blend Divine laws with the laws enshrined in the Constitution to make life better for all to accelerate national development.

Mr Abbam-Quaye was addressing a large congregation of Catholics at a special church service organised by leaders of the Winneba Parish of the Catholic Church at Winneba on Sunday.

It was designed to climax the official visit to the Winneba Parish of the Church by His Eminence Peter Cardinal Apppiah-Turkson. Mr Abbam-Quaye called on Christians to accord the same respect they gave to the hierarchy of their churches as well as the laws that governed the churches, to government appointees working with the laws promulgated to guide the administration of the country. This way, the DCE noted, Christians would be putting into display the right teachings of Christ for others to copy, adding that the laws that governed almost every nation the world over derived their roots from natural laws.

He told the congregations that the joy and the educative lessons they acquired and the deep inner feelings they obtained at church services would be a mirage if they failed to translate such vital divine qualities outside the four walls of their various temples. Mr Abbam-Quaye lashed at Christian parents, particularly those in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District, who had turned blind eye to the education of their children and advised them to change for the better. The DCE asked Christians, who condoned and connived with close relations and other people to intentionally put up residential houses on waterways, evade taxes and put the laws of the land into their own hands to desist from such acts.

He cited the space around the new Kasoa Market complex, which individuals and groups of people, who called themselves macho men, had virtually measured and sold to traders most of whom were Christians and Muslims at between one million cedis and 1.5 million cedis depending on the size of one's container.

Mr Abbam-Quaye said statistics made available to his office indicated that the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District ranked last in girls' education in the Central Region.

He said many girls in the area painfully ended their education between the ages of 12 years and 14 years with pregnancies, adding that this should seriously wake parents and all stakeholders in education in the District up to devise collective means to curb it. He asked parents in the District, who were confronted with abject poverty to take advantage of the Free Universal Compulsory Basic Educational programme to send their children to school.