Ghana’s Inspector General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, has urged religious leaders and the public to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence after a series of incidents involving inflammatory comments about Christianity and Islam.
Speaking at a meeting between the Ghana Police Service and religious bodies in Accra on Friday, 14 August, Mr Yohuno warned against violence, retaliation and vigilante action in response to remarks considered offensive.
“Violence will not fix what words have broken, and vigilante retribution will never replace the rule of law in Ghana,” he said.
His appeal comes amid growing concern over religious tensions in the country following several recent incidents.
On Wednesday, 12 August, the Ghana Police Service arrested an Imam who allegedly called for attacks on people who had made offensive comments about Prophet Muhammad.
The police also arrested a pastor over an alleged offensive comment about Prophet Muhammad. A man later captured in a video assaulting the handcuffed pastor inside a police station was subsequently arrested.
The incidents have raised concerns about the potential for inflammatory language to trigger confrontation between Ghana’s Christian and Muslim communities.
Mr Yohuno said that while the police had a responsibility to maintain law and order, religious and community leaders also had an important role to play in reducing tensions and preventing a further escalation.
He called on religious bodies to use their moral authority to encourage restraint and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims.
“Ghana’s peace is not an accident of history. It is a divine blessing born of the sheer realisation that Christians and Muslims in this country are not strangers to one another,” IGP Yohuno said.
He said the country’s religious communities had lived alongside one another for generations and should work to preserve Ghana’s reputation for religious tolerance.
The police chief also urged citizens to allow legal processes to take their course whenever religious sentiments were offended, rather than seeking personal retaliation.
He assured the public that the police would continue investigating the recent incidents and would ensure that anyone found culpable faced the law.
Mr Yohuno’s comments come as the authorities seek to prevent offensive statements and acts of violence from deepening religious divisions. The arrests involving the Imam, the pastor and the man accused of assaulting the pastor are now part of the police investigations.
The IGP said maintaining Ghana’s peace required more than police intervention, stressing that religious and community leaders must help calm their followers and discourage responses outside the law.
