Accra, May 8, GNA - The Greater Accra Regional Security Council and the Permanent Conflict Resolution and Management Committee have met to study the trend of monitoring religious conflicts during the period of the ban on drumming and decrease in noise. This was to ensure that peace, harmony and national security is maintained throughout the period of the ban on noisemaking in the metropolis.

A statement signed by Sheikh Ibrahim Codjoe Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, on Friday said after careful deliberations the regional security has advised that the ban on drumming in the Greater Accra Region should be observed under the guidelines, which has been in place since 2001. It said churches should confine their worship to the church premises and "noise level should be minimised to the prescribed decibels."

The statement said the religious community and the traditional authorities must show respect for one another and restrain their followers from making derogatory and inflammatory remarks about the beliefs and practices of one another. "All persons should refrain from taking the law into their own hands by entering churches and other premises to enforce noisemaking since such actions are punishable by court fines and/or by imprisonment," the statement said quoting the meeting.

It said the positioning of loud speakers outside church premises should be discouraged. This applies equally to all sections of other communities within the Greater Accra Region. The meeting asked the National Commission on Civic Education to intensify education on religious tolerance, social harmony, and plurality of cultures, for peaceful co-existence in the country. The statement warned that there was permissible level of noisemaking in society, apart from the ban on drumming and noisemaking. "In this regard, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and other District Assemblies and the Police Service have been instructed to be proactive and ensure that the laws on public nuisance, on our statute books are enforced throughout the year and not just during the period of the ban."

It said all problems and misunderstanding relating to the ban on drumming and noisemaking should be reported to the Joint Task Force on Noise Nuisance Control of the AMA or to 021-662441 and 021-666859 or the nearest police station.