Executive Director and Project Coordinator of the National Cathedral of Ghana Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah has apologised to the Coalition of Muslims, Ghana (COMOG) for statements he is said to have made on GTV on Sunday, June 12.
According to the Coalition, Dr Opoku-Mensah had indicated on Talking Points on GTV that the state contributed resources to the construction of the National Mosque at Kanda.
Dismissing the claims, the Coalition called on the CEO of the National Cathedral to “come out and retract that deliberate falsehood and apologise to the entire Muslim Ummah Ghana”.
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Staying true to the Christian faith and statutes, the Executive Director of the National Cathedral has retracted and apologised and “deeply regret the pain it might have caused COMOG and the Muslim Ummah in Ghana”.
He had, however, pointed out that at no point during the TV programme did he say government spent state resources in the construction of the National Mosque.
He said what he had on hindsight was “state facilitation”, which per his telephone conversation with COMOG President Hajj Abdel-Manan Abdel Rahman did not even happen.
Dr Opoku-Mensah, therefore, apologised for the use of the phrase “state facilitation”.
“In making this retraction and apology, I want to highlight what I said in the interview, and repeated in my telephone conversation with Hajj Abdel-Rahman:
“We should not equalise the discussions on the National Cathedral and the National Mosque as they are separate projects.
“We should be very careful as a nation not to disrupt the unique peaceful relations that exists between Muslims and Christians. The Chief Imam, His Eminence Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu through, among others, his inspiring personal support for the National Cathedral project, continues to show us the way.
“The National Mosque and the National Cathedral provide a historic opportunity for these two Abrahamic faiths – Islam and Christianity – whose adherents constitute almost 90% of Ghana’s population, to have the national platforms from which to work together in support of the nation’s peace, cohesion and transformation.”