Hundreds of Muslim worshipers at the Koforidua Central Mosque on Friday, offered prayers and gave thanks to Allah for his goodness to Ghana in its 55 years of independence.

Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, took part in the ceremony that formed part of the activities planned to mark the 55th independence anniversary of the country, celebrated two weeks ago.

The religious event was aimed at showing appreciation to God for his mercy in granting the nation freedom and peace for the past 55 years.

Mr Terlabi said it was through the collective tolerance and maturity of the people that Ghana had been able to hold five successive elections without tearing the country apart.

He said it was unfortunate that “today Ghanaians sense of commonality had been destroyed by disunity, extreme political partisanship, provocative phone-in-calls on radio stations, ethnocentrism and unguarded journalistic practices.”

Mr Terlabi appealed to Muslims to join the campaign against politics of insults and the use of inflammatory utterances on the airwaves in recent times.

The Deputy Minister advised Muslims to participate in the biometric voter registration exercise which begins on March 24 this year.

He said this was the only way they could vote for their favorite candidates in the December elections.

The Eastern Regional Chief Imam, Alhaji Yussif Amdani Sulemana thanked the Government for his efforts to ensure peace in the country.

He pledged that the Muslim community would help sustain peace before during and after the election.

The Regional Chief Imam cautioned Muslim youth across the country not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to foment troubles during the elections.**