The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has vowed to close down ninety percent of the churches in Accra. AMA Chief Executive Alfred Vanderpuye said the assembly cannot continue to tolerate the presence of what he described as “illegal churches” in Ghana’s capital city. The decision comes not long after Dr. Tony Aidoo, the Head of the Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency, said Christians who speak in tongues are mad persons. The Accra Mayor said his decision to close the said Christian centers was because they had not been given permit to operate and moreover most of them are situated in residential areas where they make too much noise. “The city authority does not grant permit for churches to build in residential areas. Before we grant permit for the location of a church, we take several things into consideration; if it is a zone for residential area we don’t allow churches but what has happened is that so many churches especially these small churches - the individually founded churches…I can guarantee you that 90% of these churches have no permit. They have no permit even for the buildings that they occupy,” Alfred Vanderpuye noted in an interview with Citi FM in Accra. He stated that currently, the AMA has a task force that is clamping down on churches that are located in residential areas. “If a church is located in a particular area and if we have given them permit then they have to follow the noise level both by EPA and AMA and if there is any complaint coming from the community then we go in and access the noise level and if we recognize that you have permit, then we give you warning and also ensure that the place is sound proof so the noise level comes down because the health of the people is being compromised by the noise but if we realize that you are operating without permit then we will ask you to stop operating till you register,” he stated. Meanwhile, Dr. Tony Aidoo has remained unperturbed by the barrage of criticisms he had received after his comments that Christians who speak in tongues are mad and has even quoted a portion of the Bible to justify his claim. The Christian community has however not taken his comments kindly and a couple of church leaders have described it as insulting. The leader of the Gospel Light International Church, Bishop Matthew Addae Mensah, in an interview with the media described the comments as unfortunate and has called on Tony Aidoo to repent and seek forgiveness from God. “For somebody with a PhD to say such a thing against Christians at large, it shows his level of knowledge. If really he is a knowledgeable man like he claims, he should know more about ‘tongues’. The Vice President, John Mahama is a member of the Assemblies of God Church and he also speaks in ‘tongues’. “The president is a Christian who also believes in ‘tongues’. Is he saying that these leaders are also ‘mad’? We Christians prefer to be mad in the lord than to be sane in this world; we would keep speaking the tongues because we believe it is not devilish, it’s of God and we enjoy extreme benefits from it. The doctor must repent and ask for forgiveness,” Bishop Addae Mensah noted.