Stop sending messages of violence to the people - Techimanhene

Accra, Feb. 28, GNA - Oseadeeyo Akumfi Ameyaw IV, Omanhene of the Techiman Traditional Area, Tuesday appealed to Ghanaian politicians and social commentators to be more circumspect in their pronouncements and stop sending messages of violence to the people.

He said it was important for all to recognise that, "if Ghana is engulfed in any fratricidal or ethnic war and communal violence, no one would be spared.

"We must all therefore aspire to protect the tenets of the democratic principles as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution", he said, when he led a delegation of chiefs, including the Queenmother, Nana Afia Abrafi II, from the Traditional Area, to pay a courtesy call on President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Castle, Osu, on Tuesday. This was to express their appreciation to the President for attending the funeral of the late Techimanhene, Osabarima Dotobibi Takyi Ameyaw II, who died on September 21, 2003 and the presence of Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the installation of the reigning Omanhene.

Oseadeeyo Ameyaw expressed disappointment with predictions by some people that the country would go the way of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and other strife-torn nations, saying, such countries should not be used as benchmarks for Ghana.

He encouraged the Government to remain focussed in the implementation of its socio-economic development programmes to improve the quality of life of the people.

The Omanhene lauded the Government's introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Capitation Grant and the Schools Feeding Programme Oseadeeyo Ameyaw complained about the harassment of traders who patronise the Techiman market, one of the biggest in the country, by armed robbers and called for urgent and quick action to beef up the security in the area.

He said the people, in their small way had started the construction of a barracks for the police to provide suitable accommodation for them and that he has in addition released land for the construction of a police administration block.

President Kufuor said it was the philosophy of his Government that political power should be used to serve but not to intimidate or suppress the people.

He said it was through freedom of the citizenry that their creativity could be unleashed.

President Kufuor, reminded the people that in exercising their fundamental freedoms, including that of speech, it was important to ensure that it was done responsibly. He noted that a lot had been achieved by his administration within the past five years, citing among others, the massive road construction, health facilities, electricity supply and schools infrastructure and said it was ironic that some people were pretending that nothing good had happened.

President Kufuor said he was happy that the Omanhene had recognised the achievements of the Government.

Responding to the complaint about harassment of traders by highway robbers, he said the Government was concerned and was doing everything possible to check the menace.

He however, advised traders to move away from the habit of carrying huge sums of money and resort to the use of the banks for the transfer of their monies for business transactions. Vice President Alhaji Mahama, Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, the Senior Minister, the Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, and Professor Akumfi Ameyaw, Minister of Ports, Harbours and Railways were present.