President John Dramani Mahama has made a passionate appeal to Ghanaians and Muslims in particular to always tell the truth as it is required of them by God.

Addressing Muslims marking this year’s Eid-Ul-Adha celebrations at the Independence Square in Accra Monday, the President warned against persons who take advantage of people’s ignorance to misinform them for their parochial gains.

His caution is coming on the back of a controversial public lecture by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate to NPP’s flagbear Nana Akufo-Addo.

There have been mixed reactions to Thursday’s lecture with the governing National Democratic Congress doing its best to punch holes in the address which centered on the economy. National Organiser of the NDC, Kofi Adams accused Dr. Bawumia of developing penchant for lies. Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur indicted Dr. Bawumia for misrepresenting the facts to the public and promised to school him on economics. “…we shall respond in full measure to all the lies that have been told,” Mr. Amissah-Arthur who is a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana said about the lecture by Dr. Bawumia who is also a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

President John Mahama also took advantage of today’s address to Muslims to offer a subtle jab at Dr. Bawumia who is a Muslim.

“Allah requires of us to speak the truth and not to deceive people for our own selfish reason,” he said. He further charged the gathering that “Allah would want us to continue working hard and trust him to take us to our expected destination that he has planned for us”.

The President maintained that the country is closer to realizing its full potential to serve as a launch pad for its development agenda.

“Across all sectors we are laying a solid foundation for our imminent take off, of what I call an economic transformation, God willing in my second term in office,” he said.

“We are extending clean drinking water to many communities, we are creating more opportunities for our young students who have had their education truncated at the JHS level if it were not for the 123 community-based senior high school…We are developing our oil and gas resources to guarantee power and energy supply, we are investing heavily in restoring our railways and together we have come very far,” he noted.