Chief and people of Kulbia celebrate Sapoulugu Festival.

Kulbia (U/E), March 23, GNA- The Chief and people of Kulbia near Sumburungu in the Upper East Region at the weekend celebrated their maiden "Sapoulugu Maletenga" festival to venerate their ancestors for a good harvest and pray for brighter years to come.

The Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Rockson Ayine Bukari, who was the guest of honour, in an address condemned the manner the culture and traditions of the people have been adulterated by foreign cultures and said it is the duty of the people to jealously guide against their traditions by holding their esteem and strengthening the pillars that these cultures lean on.

He said whereas some countries and communities are benefiting from the display of their culture and traditions, most traditions in the Municipality are fading out, making way for foreign ones and re-iterated the need for the chiefs to revive some of the fading cultures.

He used the occasion to educate the people on the need for them to go out in their numbers and register in the ongoing voter registration exercise and explained that if they failed to register, they would not have the opportunity to exercise their franchise in the forthcoming general election.

Mr. Bukari called on the people to use the festival as a platform to strengthen the existing unity in the area to enable the assembly bring the needed development, adding that, his outfit has already initiated several projects in the Kulbia area.

The Assembly member for the Kulbia Electoral Area, Mr. Rex Asanga mentioned development projects he has initiated since his election and said they include the construction of three set of three-unit classroom blocks at Anateem and Kulbia as well as a two six-unit classroom blocks for the Kulbia Primary and Junior Secondary Schools under the HIPC initiative and the European Union Micro Projects.

He further mentioned the construction of a dam; the rehabilitation of a broken one, the construction of boreholes and hand-dug wells as well as initiating the re-gravelling of feeder roads in the area. The Divisional Chief of Kulbia, Naba Akurugu Akadana expressed gratitude to the government for bringing development to the area, especially the Bolgatanga Polytechnic and the construction of a number of schools in the area.

He however, appealed to the Assembly to impress on the Forest Commission to return farmlands ceased for a forestation purposes to their owners to enable the people to go into farming, adding that, most of the people have migrated because they have no farmlands to farm on. A fundraising for the construction of nurses' residential quarters yielded about 1.5 million cedis.