Kandin Chief calls for collaboration to facilitate dev’t

Ubore Tanobe Chamamme I, (Kandin-Bore), Chief of Kandin in the Tatale-Sangule District of the Northern Region, on Thursday called for the cooperation of traditional authorities and other stakeholders in the region to facilitate development.

He said this is necessary to avoid the unnecessary litigations that tend to mar efforts by some chiefs to open their localities for progress. In an interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra, he said in his desire to open his area for development, he wrote to MTN, a leading telecommunication company on December 12, 2010, to provide Kandin and surrounding communities with a mast to boost the communication network.

He said last year Scancom, the organisation contracted by MTN to execute the project, gave him a copy of a petition purported to have been written by Yelzore-Lana, Chief of Zabzugu, claiming that MTN did not acquire the land through legal means, since he was the rightful owner of the land.

Ubore Chamamme said although, he is relieved that the project has been completed and serving its intended purpose the issues related to its execution was uncalled for, hence the need to draw attention to it.

In a letter written to the Registrar of Dagbon Traditional Council on May 30, this year, and copied to the Regional House of Chiefs, Paramount Chief of Bassari Traditional Council among others, he said although the people of Kandin and other Bassari communities have been part of Dagbon Traditional Council since independence, he has the right to contract a lease agreement over lands in his jurisdiction, to promote development.

He said: “The people of Kandin are Bassaris with a distinct cultural, social and customary arrangement on landholding.” Ubore Chamamme said as a law abiding citizen he has written to Yelzore-Lana asking him to seek legal redress if he stands by his petition.

He asked the Regional Coordinating Council, National House of Chiefs, Regional House of Chiefs, Regional Security Council and other stakeholders to resolve all land related issues in the region in order not to lead to avoidable conflicts that tend to scare away investors needed to boost the forward march of the chiefs and people.