Rev. Obeng Larbi kissing a student at the St Monica’s College of Education
The National Youth Authority (NYA) management has noted a video of a church priest purportedly giving “holy kisses” to St. Monica’s Teacher Training School students with uncompromising disdain.
The Authority condemns in the strongest terms the conduct of the priest in the video whose actions, in our candid opinion, does not augur well and inure to the overall development of our youth, particularly young females who ought to be protected.
“We are by this statement calling on the Ministry of Education to conduct their own internal investigations and the clergy, particularly the Christian Council of Ghana, to immediately take steps to withdraw the said priest from the school even as investigations continue.
We further call on appropriate authorities to conduct thorough investigations and subsequently make their findings public as a matter of urgency.
The Authority perceives the conduct of the priest as an infringement on the rights of the students. Also, it cannot come to terms with the priest’s conduct, especially during this COVID-19 period when we are admonished to abide by strict protocols, especially social distancing.
Additionally, we are of the opinion that the priest’s conduct constitutes an abuse of office, and that must be critically looked at.
“Whilst calling on all stakeholders in the youth development space to come together and, more importantly, continue to partner with the Authority to ensure a systemic and meaningful process of building a resilient and dynamic youth, equipped to contribute to our nation’s growth and development efforts, we unreservedly regret to state that such conduct as exhibited by the supposed priest merely goes to undermine our efforts.
“More so, the noble initiatives and programmes being implemented by the government of H.E Nana Addo Darkwa Akufo-Addo geared at improving a lot of the Ghanaian youth.
“Finally, we wish to reiterate our commitment to continue to ensure that our country’s youth in general, and young females in particular, are well protected in our schools, communities, and places of worship.
“We hereby pledge to continue to work as per our mandate, espoused by the National Youth Authority Act 2016 (Act 939) in the supreme interest of the Ghanaian youth.”