Muslims accept apology from Nat’l Cathedral Boss

Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG) has written to acknowledge receipt and acceptance of apology rendered to Muslims by the Executive Director of the National Cathedral of Ghana, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, over his untruthful remarks on GTV’s Talking Points.

Dr. Opoku-Mensah peddling falsehood on the national broadcaster, GTV on Sunday, June 12 that Government of Ghana offered financial support for the building of the National Mosque at Kanda. This received a backlash from Muslims who issued statement, accusing the latter of being economical with the truth.

But he later denied making such a statement and indicated that he rather used the phrase “state facilitation”.

Nat’l Cathedral Exec. Dir. apologises to Muslims

In a statement on Tuesday, June 14, Dr Opoku-Mensah apologised for the use of that phrase and indicated that he had called the President of COMOG, Abdel-Manan Abdel-Rahman, on phone over the matter.

In a response on Friday, June 17, COMOG wrote: “Having analysed the circumstances under which you made that statement, we have come to a firm conclusion that, you meant no harm to the sensibilities of Muslims in that statement but perhaps, got carried away by the euphoria of the moment.

“We therefore unreservedly accept the apology on behalf of the entire Muslim Ummah hoping that such, or similar comments will not be made by anybody subsequent to this banter.”

Meanwhile, the National Cathedral Secretariat on Friday indicated that the project, though personally proposed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is state-owned and has been registered as such under the Companies Act of Ghana.

In a sharp reaction, North Tongu MP Okudzeto Ablakwa says the 7-page statement issued by the National Cathedral Secretariat failed to address burning issues of procurement breaches, huge sums of taxpayers cash released for the project, payments to Architect Adjaye & Associates, the roles of the Board of Trustees including churches, the presidency, non-payment of compensations to owners of properties demolished at the site of the project among others.

Contributing to the debates, Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa Bright Simons has accused the book runners of National Cathedral including presidency and Board of Trustees of breaching standard protocol of paying 10% of the total project cost to Architect Adjaye & Associates which is beyond UK’s threshold of 3%.