Assembly members urged to ensure peace returns to Bawku

Bawku, Jan. 28, GNA - Members of the Bawku Municipal Assembly have been urged to be ambassadors of peace and to ensure that absolute peace returned to the municipality.

Mr John Agobre, Presiding Member (PM), made the call at the Assembly's sitting on Friday to confirm the President's nominee for Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

"As assembly members you owe it a duty to help restore peace to the area by preaching peace in your communities and to ensure that no group of people get themselves involve in conflicts," he said. He expressed deep sense of sorrow, pain and regret following the recent ethnic conflict that erupted in the municipality, which claimed many lives and destroyed several items including houses. The PM explained that instead of the people to ponder over how to cope with the recent drought and floods that hit the municipality they were rather causing confusion and tension which were affecting development.

Mr Agobre said as a result of the communal violence, many workers had fled the area and abandoned their posts, which was affecting the development of the municipality.

He noted that monies that could have been used for the development had to be channelled into maintaining peace, which he noted was not the best and appealed to the citizens to desist from engaging in conflicts.

"At a time when communities are busy building themselves up and are engaged in development projects, we the people of Bawku are busy destroying life and property", he said. Mr Yakubu Alhassan, Municipal Coordinating Director, stated that the conflict had affected everything in the municipality including revenue mobilization.

Mr Abdulai Abanga, MCE, urged the people to put a stop to fighting since they were all one.

He appealed to NGOs including International Organizations to help families that who lost relatives and properties with food, shelter and clothing to enable them to cope up with life.