The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has filed an affidavit at the Supreme Court in support of an amicus curiae brief regarding the ban on hijabs and other Islamic rites by Wesley Girls’ Senior High School.
Reports suggest the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference affidavit was filed on behalf of the bishops’ conference by Most Rev Fr Joseph Kwaku Afrifah-Agyekum, the Bishop of Koforidua and Episcopal Chairman for Education of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
According to the Catholic Bishop, their affidavit is expected to assist the court in its determination of the matter, contending that such directives violate provisions of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, particularly those guaranteeing freedom of conscience, religion, and belief.
In the affidavit, Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum detailed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Guide Religious Tolerance in Schools, Agreed and Adopted by the Government-Assisted and Private Mission Schools, which was validated on April 15, 2024.
The Catholic Bishop argued that the MoU was adopted in April 2024 by government-assisted and private mission schools to promote mutual respect and accommodation of diverse religious practices.
Part of the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by the conference reads, “I am advised by the Church’s lawyers and verily believe that my present affidavit is required to verify the facts and documents relied upon in the amicus curiae brief. I hereby depose to my instant affidavit verifying the facts contained in the statement of case filed for and on behalf of the Church.
“The only document referred to in the amicus curiae brief is the Memorandum of Understanding to Guide Religious Tolerance in Schools, Agreed and Adopted by the Government-Assisted and Private Mission Schools, validated on April 15, 2024, which is marked CS”.
It will be recalled that the debate was once again ignited following Dominic Ayine, Attorney General and Minister for Justice, responding to a legal challenge over religious rules at Wesley Girls’ Senior High School (SHS).
According to the Attorney General, Wesley Girls is not a public school in the ordinary sense. It is a school owned by the Methodist Church but managed and funded by the government of Ghana.
In December 2024, Shafic Osman, a Ghanaian lawyer and PhD candidate at the London School of Economics, sued Wesley Girls’ Senior High School and the Government at the Supreme Court.
The case filed cited Wesley Girls’ restricting Muslim students from wearing the hijab, fasting during Ramadan, and practising other aspects of their faith.
Shafic Osman argued that a public school cannot lawfully restrict the religious rights of Muslim students nor compel them to practise a faith they do not subscribe to.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has ordered the Wesley Girls Senior High School to formally respond to allegations that it prevents Muslim students from practising their religion in the school.
In related news, President John Dramani Mahama has finally broken his silence concerning the Wesley Girls‘ Muslim students’ brouhaha.
According to President John Mahama, he does not see any point of dispute, as faith-based organisations have already agreed in their own MoU to make room for the recognition of different faiths.
Speaking during a meeting with the National Peace Council on December 10, 2025, President Mahama stated, “There is a matter before the Supreme Court which is yet to be determined. If you read what the faith-based organisations agreed in their own MoU, I don’t see any point of dispute.
“They all accept that if there is a mission school, it has its faith orientation, but within that faith orientation, there must be recognition of diversity. It is right there in the MoU. I don’t want to suggest it, but I think the Supreme Court has its work cut out for it because the same people signed that MoU, so I don’t see what the contention there is,” he said.