Why hotel in a Mosque

A desire of the Assets Committee of the Kumasi Central Mosque (KCM) to demolish shops within the confines of the mosque has met a stiff resistance from owners.

The demolishing is expected to pave the way for the reconstruction of a hotel and other shops to befit the new look of the area.

The mosque was renovated with support from the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

That left the responsibility of renovating the shores to reflect the new look on the committee.

But, the shop owners within the confines of the mosque at Akwatialine, in Kumasi, have objected to the move, demanding compensation and citing the promotion of immoral activities.

According to the shop owners, the construction of a hotel may promote activities considered ‘haram’ (immoral and indecent) to Islam.

A meeting held last Tuesday between the Assets Committee and the shop owners ended abruptly when the latter kicked against the exercise, saying that they would not move until they were paid compensation.

The Chairman of the KCM, Alhaji Ahmed Rashid Yakubu, when contacted stated that there would be no compensation for anyone.

He added that the promotion of immoral or indecent activities should not be the headache of the shop owners, adding that the KCM was capable of handling it.

This has generated a misunderstanding between the committee and the shop owners.

He admitted that somewhere in 1998, the owners of the shops were asked to use their own monies for the construction after which they should occupy for 10 years to defray the costs and hand over to the authorities of the Mosque.

He explained that some of the real owners have sold their stores and others have rented them out for about 25 years and paid nothing to the committee.

Alhaji Yakubu urged the store owners to cooperate with the Assets Committee so that they would work out how to get back their stores upon completion and not use force to stop the reconstruction process.

Spokesman for the store owners, Muntali Mohammed, on his part said they used their own money to build the stores when the place was in a bad state.

According to Mr. Mohammed, all they needed was for the KCM to compensate them.

“We are not moving an inch, they should pay back our money used to construct the stores… we cannot let our monies go waste; we are prepared for any action,” he intoned.

From Kingsley E. Hope, Kumasi