Widana (U/E), July 6, GNA - Mr Boniface Gambilla, Upper East Regional Minister, has cautioned religious leaders not to look at religion as practice pertaining to particular ethnic groupings, as that might heighten religious and ethnic intolerance and violence in the area.

He reminded them that the country's constitution guaranteed freedom of worship and added that God (Allah) was the Creator of all persons and as such, religions should not be based on tribal or any other considerations.

Mr Gambilla, who said this at the inauguration of a 430 million cedis mosque at Widana, near Bawku, advised religious leaders to accommodate divergent views in the worship of the God they profess. He said, religion, aside of providing spiritual needs of the people, it was a platform to seek peaceful co-existence among its adherents from different tribes and race for the integration and harmonisation of societies.

Mr Gambilla urged them to strive to redeem the image of Islam as perceived by others and advised them to be law-abiding and live by the tenets of their religions.

He said an electrification project in the area was on course and soon the area would be hook onto the national grid and expressed the hope that they would make maximum use of it by establishing small-scale businesses to improve their lives.

He called on them to take advantage of the capitation grant and feeding programme to enrol their wards in schools to serve as their future collateral in time of hardship. The Widana-Naba, Naba Alale Ibrahim, commended the people for their self-help initiatives for putting up the mosque and expressed the hope that this would be translated to communal activities. 6 July 06