COMOG appeals for calm and tolerance over recent communal and ethnic conflicts

The National Executive Council of the Coalition of Muslim Organizations, Ghana (COMOG) has appealed for calm and the need for utmost restraint and compromise by all sides in the recent impasse at Hohoe and other conflict areas in the country.

The Council also called on all parties, member institutions and civil societies to join forces to support the peace initiative being undertaken by the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharabutu and other notable figures, particularly in and around Hohoe in the Volta Region to promote peace in the area.

Dr. Al-Husseini Zakaria, Vice President of COMOG in a statement issued in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday, said the National Executive Council on behalf of its entire 151 member institutions and organizations expressed their deepest regrets and condolences to the families of all the victims.

“It is in our view that, to cohabit in peace, there is the need for us all as Ghanaians to mutually respect and uphold the dignity of each other and every citizen irrespective of status, cultural or religious beliefs”

The statement added that “in the past, we were able to live together in the same communities and tolerated each other as brothers and sisters, it should be possible to pre-empt and scale down all challenges that tend to threaten our peaceful co-existence by agreeing to iron out our differences at a roundtable meeting”.

Dr. Zakaria said that the vicious destruction of properties and desecration of burial sites could not and should not be tolerated and as such COMOG strongly condemned such utterly reprehensible and deliberate provocation of religious and cultural sensitivities.

COMOG appealed to the security agencies to increase their patrols in the hot spot areas and to raise their alert levels to prevent any further escalation of violence.

It recalled that in recent times, communal rifts and ethnic conflicts had hit parts of the country with the resultant loss of lives and property in such areas as Wa, Nabdam, Nakpanduri, Tishigu in Tamale and recently in Hohoe, among other places, and called on all to work for peace in the run up to the December polls.**