Religious, traditional leaders called upon to prevent violence in Ghana

Most Reverend Philip Naameh, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale has called on religious groups and traditional leaders to support security personnel to prevent violence by terrorists in Ghana.

According to him, kidnapping has become one of the security threats in the northern sector, which must be addressed before it becomes violent extremism in the country.

Most Reverend Naameh, who is also Chairman of the Northern Regional Peace Council, made the call at a joint dialogue meeting with religious leaders and the media in Tamale.

The event, organised by Northern Regional Peace Council and supported by USAID/OTI Littorals Regional Initiative (LRI) programme, was to deepen understanding and collaboration between religious leaders and the media as part of efforts towards deepening intra-religious coexistence and promoting good reportage on religious issues in the country.

Most Reverend Naameh appealed to the traditional authorities to make a written resolution of all land and resource to related conflicts available to Regional and District Security Councils to be guided to avoid conflicts.

He urged the citizens to be law abiding by respecting the state institutions in the maintenance of law and also should enhance the relations between them and the security personnel  to work in collaboration  to fight against conflicts in the region.

He advised that those, who shared false information to disturb public peace or endanger the safety of any group of people, should be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others as one of the efforts to prevent violent extremism.

Islamic Sectarian Leadership in Tamale gave their commitment to support sustainable peace in the region.

The memorandum of agreement signed by Alhaji Abdul, Chief Iman in Tamale indicated that the Islamic Sectarian groups have agreed to encourage dialogue and settling issues behind the scenes with leadership to avoid conflicts in the region.

They also promised to encourage intra-religious sectarian harmony and support to peace building to promote developmental agenda in the Northern Region.

Sagnari-Naa Ambassador Yakubu Abdulai, Chief of Sagnarigu in the Northern Region urged the media to fight against false information publication and adopt gate keeping policies for their media houses as one of the keys to end false news.

Caption: Most Reverend Naameh speaking at the dialogue meeting