The followers of the Islamic religion in the Sunyani Municipality have observed the Eid-Ul-Fitr festival with a call on government to institute stringent measures to end drug peddling and its intake by the nation’s youth.

Alhaji Baba Seidu, the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Deputy Chief Imam made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the eve of Eid-Ul-Fitr festival in Sunyani and cautioned the youth to desist from the menace.

He noted that the abuse of drugs among the youth was becoming a norm and if authorities, teachers, preachers, religious groups and other agencies like the National Youth Authority kept mute, the country would not have a future with responsible leaders. Alhaji Seidu expressed worry about the presence of weed (marijuana) and other drugs ghettoes in the Sunyani Municipality.

He, therefore, pledged the support of the office of the Chief Imam and the entire tribal chiefs in the Sunyani Zongo community if the Police in collaboration with the other security agencies would mount swoop on the ghettoes and arrest the drug peddlers and abusers. Alhaji Seidu therefore suggested the need for the Sunyani Municipal Assembly to clear away “the age-old mountain heap of rubbish called Sunyani Zongo Bola Down” in the Zongo area where the drug peddlers and weed smokers have created their hide-outs to perpetrating their nefarious activities.

He proposed that if the ‘Sunyani Zongo Bola Down’ was cleared, the Assembly could develop the area by building a multi-purpose physical infrastructure to contain a shopping mall, schools, and others.

Alhaji Seidu stated that the Ramadan season “is a period on the Islamic calendar to give Muslims a solid spiritual foundation for everyone to be a saint in the sight of God” and urged Muslims to continue with the good behaviour exhibited during the period of fast.

On this year’s objective of the Ramadan fasting and prayers, he said Muslims in Sunyani aimed at promoting education because “education is the key to the progress of any community globally”.

“Our priority was teaching the youth in the Zongo communities on the need to refrain from social vices and take their education serious because they are our future replacements and if we don’t teach them from now, our future is doomed,” Alhaji Seidu emphasised.

He commended the government on efforts to promote equal and quality education as well as Islamic education in the country and prayed for “Allah’s perpetual blessing for the prosperity of the country”.