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Former Central Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Allotey Jacobs has appealed to the national Chief Imam Sheik Osman Nuhu Sharabutu and Islamic scholars to incorporate the spirit of nationalism into residents in Zongo communities.

He called on the Chief Imam and Islamic scholars to talk to the Zongo communities to stop fanning violence in the country.

According to him, the name "Zongo" has become synonymous with violence and so residents in Zongo communities are usually found to be causing mayhem in the country.

This, he said, doesn't paint a good picture about the settlers in the community.

“They will need to talk to our brothers in these Muslim communities. They need to be talked to. We need to educate them. We need to orientate them. We need to conscientize them that Ghana first and not about individuals and not about political parties . . . It’s very disturbing and there’s the need for a change,” he said.

He was commenting on the recent shooting incident at the NDC office in Kumasi where one person was shot dead and another seriously injured and receiving urgent medical attention.

Allotey Jacobs, who seemed to have had enough of the behaviour of residents in Zongo communities, appealed to the Chief Imam to add his voice to his (Allotey) calls for Zongo to be expunged because it creates a bad mental picture about the indwellers.

“I want to make a personal appeal to the national Chief Imam, my very good old father, the man of God and the Supremo of Islam in Ghana [I want to appeal] that every evil thing is associated with Zongo but the meaning of a Zongo is a market place . . . for our northern neigbours to come and trade; so the place they settled is where we call Zongo.

"But now Zongo has become something that anything about party violence, assault, destruction means they’re people from Zongo. My appeal to him is that it is high time we remove the name ‘Zongo’ from our body politic . . . We should remove Zongo out of our system. It doesn’t create a good picture,” he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'.

He also called on the Akufo-Addo government to change the name of the Zongo Ministry to "Ministry for Muslim Development" to make the communities neighborly.