Mortuaries not priority of Muslim communities - Accra Mayor

The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah, has disclosed that the priorities of Muslim communities in the country are far from mortuaries.

According to the Accra Mayor who believes in the Islamic faith, Muslim communities are desirous of education, employment and capacity building rather than processing the final rite of a departed soul.

Nii Adjei Sowah has therefore asked former President John Dramani Mahama to come up with better ideas instead of settling for mortuaries.

“A couple of days ago, I read about candidate John Mahama talking about constructing mortuaries in Muslim communities. That is not…a priority for Muslims,” Nii Adjei Sowah told Citi TV.

“The point is, what is the priority? And your priority could be to provide them with education, employment and capacity building. That’s what is relevant to Muslims and even we (Muslims) do not keep our corpse for more than 24hours.”

However, the former president’s statement on mortuaries has been subjected to arguments with many calling for better ideas from John Mahama.

Although John Mahama is on record to have made statements on filing a befitting burial for departed relatives of Muslims, the NDC campaign team have cleared the misconceptions.

According to them, the NDC flagbearer rather intends to “facilitate the establishment of mortuaries in accordance with Islamic custom and practices and collaborate with the Ministry of Health to set up focal teams responsible for procedures that are compliant with Islamic custom and practice at all public mortuaries.”