Avoid intra-tribal and ethnic conflicts - Asantehene

Kumasi, Sept. 11, GNA 96 Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, has urged traditional rulers, community and opinion leaders to commit resources towards the promotion of intra-tribal and ethnic cohesion among the citizenry.

He said such an effort would allow for and facilitate peaceful co-existence among Ghanaians, while strengthening the cultural ties among the various ethnic groups in the country.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the call in a speech read on his behalf at a ceremony to outdoor Naa Franklin Suantah, newly enstooled chief of the Dagaaba community, an ethnic group in the Upper West Region residing in the Ashanti Region, in Kumasi on Saturday.

Naa Suantah, 54, is the Principal Librarian of the Saint Louis Training College in Kumasi.

He succeeded the late Naa Salifu Diayor, who passed away about three years ago.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu commended the Dagaaba community in the Region for their good neighbourly relations and expressed the hope that leaders of the community would work hard to maintain this reputation. =93You have comported yourselves well in your endeavours and I hope you will be more dedicated to improving upon the relations existing between the Dagaaba community and other ethnic groups=94, the Asantehene noted.

He charged the new chief to unite the Dagaaba factions in the Region to allow for peaceful co-existence among the people. Naa Suantah, whilst expressing gratitude to his people for the confidence reposed in him, lauded the Asantehene for the important role he played in uniting the feuding factions within the Dagaaba community. He promised to work in collaboration with the Council of Elders of the Dagaaba community to undertake development projects.