Parties urged to establish secretariats of information

Tamale, Aug. 31, GNA - A former minister has appealed to political parties to establish secretariats for Education and Information to assist their members to access relevant and accurate information to avoid misinformation and the distortion of facts that often leads to misunderstandings and conflicts.

He also appealed to chiefs to always call on state officials or the security agencies to brief them on matters they might not fully understand so that they could in turn brief their people on the true state of affairs.

Mr. Wumbei William Zakaria, a former Deputy Minister of the Northern Region, said this at the "Meet the press" series in Tamale on Monday.

He said some contracts were shoddily executed because the contractors viewed them as "political contracts" and they could therefore get away with anything they did in the execution of the contracts.

He urged Ministers to be firm and ensure that the right things were done when awarding contracts and also strictly monitor and supervise the contractors for the proper things to be done.

Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, the Northern Regional Minister, said although a lot of issues involving security in the region, especially in the areas of chieftaincy and land disputes remained unresolved they had been largely contained.

He said the major hurdles to peace continue to be the Yendi crisis, the contenders to the Bimbilla skin and the Buipe skin affair which are all pending at the Regional House of chiefs.

Mr Mabengba said some of the districts also witnessed some violent clashes with the worse affected being the Bunkprugu/Yunyoo District which suffered from conflicts resulting from chieftaincy and land related issues leading to the a number of internally displaced people.

He said calm had however returned to the area with security personnel in full control of affairs while the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) had distributed relief items to the displaced persons.

Mr. Mabengba said intelligence reports indicate that almost all the displaced by the conflict had returned and were rebuilding their homes and tilling their land.