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Sheikh Mustapha Hamid, Spokesperson of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Flagbearer Nana Akufo Addo has described as reckless and unfortunate comments made by Local Government Minister that Nana Akufo-Addo will discriminate against Muslims if he is elected President in December.

Alhaji Collins Dauda while addressing some Muslim youth in Koforidua in the Eastern region claimed that Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP have a long history of discrimination against Muslims and will repeat it if they won the next elections.

“They are accusing several Muslims of not being Ghanaians. In 2000, they claimed that over 631 Muslims were not Ghanaians in Adeiso. Today, that same person is in the Zongos trying to convince you and telling you things. The NPP that is talking to you today cannot be trusted. If you give them the chance to come to power again, they will do the same things to you.

“The NPP looked into my face and told me that because I am Morsi, I am not a Ghanaian and they challenge me to go to court until the court cleared me. These are the people we are talking about. My brothers and sisters, must you entertain someone who has hurt and deprived you in the past? These UP people are not people that the NDC and Muslims must listen to and trust,” he stated.

He continued: “The battle is between the NPP and the NDC in this election. Everyone must learn about their history so they can be guided into the future. Some speakers here have already spoken about the Aliens Compliance order and all those things.

But speaking on Peace FM morning show 'Kokrokoo', Thursday, Sheikh Mustapha Hamid stated that the assertion by the Minister is baseless and unfortunate. According to him, there is no one that loves Muslims than Akufo Addo.

He said: “It's not true...he is just trying to bring division into our politics...I will put Akufo Addo as the number one non Muslim who loves Muslims in Ghana, I’ll use myself as an example…I’ve been his spokesperson for the last 10 years. I can boast that across the world nobody has spoken for a leading political figure consistently for that long, not even in the White House, they don’t last two or three years. Even when I left to lecture in the University since 2009, Akufo Addo has stuck by me. Nobody in Ghana’s political history has repeated his running mate not even once, it is only Akufo Addo who has repeated this Muslim man, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia for three times.

“Currently the longest serving people around Akufo Addo is Victor Newmann, Mustapha Hamid and Dr Bawumia, two of these three persons are staunch Muslims, on the basis of proportionality, we can say that Akufo Addo loves Muslims, he trusts Muslims. It was only under NPP that a Muslim held Quran to be sworn in as the second most powerful person in Ghana, when Alhaji Aliu Mahama was Vice President. During President Kufour’s regime, NPP paid Arabic school teachers as our commitment to Muslims and Islamic education in Ghana, when NDC came to power they’ve canceled that package. From these many examples it cannot be said that the NPP is anti Muslims” he added.