National Cathedral CEO retracts ‘state facilitated’ claim about National Mosque Construction

The Executive Director for the National Cathedral project, Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah has rendered an unqualified apology to the Muslim community for his claims that the state facilitated the construction of a National Mosque located at Kanda, Accra.

Dr. Opoku-Mensah said he regrets the pain his comments might have caused the Muslim community.

“I retract and apologise for the use of ‘state facilitation’ in my reponse and deeply regret the pain it might have caused the COMOG and the Muslim Umma in Ghana,” he said in a press release on Monday, June 13.

This follows a press release issued by the Coalition of Muslims Organisations, Ghana (COMOG) challenging the claims.
Dr. Opoku-Mensah had made the statement on Sunday, June 12, 2022, when he appeared on GTV’s Talking Point programme saying that, “the government of Ghana spent state resources in the construction of the National Mosque.”

Dr Opoku-Mensah stressed further that he has been informed that the state also did not facilitate the construction as he had previously said.

He has therefore apologized for the claim, saying that “What I had been informed was ‘facilitation’ – but not ‘state resources’ – did not actually happen.

On June 13, the Coalition of Muslim Organizations, Ghana (COMOG) released a statement calling out the Executive Director of the National Cathedral for stating on GTV that “the state contributed to the construction of the National Mosque.”

COMOG emphasised that the state under no political regime contributed a pesewa to the construction of the National Mosque.

They called on Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, Executive Director of the National Cathedral to retract and apologize to the entire Muslim community.

It is on the back of that statement that Dr. Opoku-Mensah has today apologised and retraced his comments.

Below is the full statement