Safety of workers in Bawku municipality guaranteed

Bawku (U.E/R), July 10, GNA - Mr. Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, on Thursday said pro-active measures were being taken to ensure the safety of workers in the Bawku Municipality. He said the assembly would issue identity cards to workers and security agencies had been tasked to give them special protection to enable them to perform their duties without fear of being harmed. Mr. Woyongo gave the assurance when he met with the workers in Bawku on Thursday, to discuss a petition they had presented to him, threatening to leave the municipality if their safety was not assured. They complained that they were constantly alarmed by sporadic gun shots and random attacks on people in the area. Mr. Woyongo commended the workers for serving the people despite the situation, saying, "I wish to appeal to you that while your concerns are being addressed, continue to exercise high level of restraint that you have demonstrated so far."

He said government has appreciated the difficulty, frustration and risk the workers went through in the exercise of their duty to the people.

Mr. Woyongo urged the workers to remain neutral and avoid making utterances that might suggest that they supported any of the two feuding factions in the municipality. He praised the Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee, charged to help settle the dispute, for promoting peace in the Bawku township, saying the movements of the people until now were restricted by the activities of the factions.

Mr. Woyongo said the committee was sensitizing the people, especially the youth on the need to promote peace towards the development of the municipality. He said the committee had also requested that experts should counsel people traumatized by the lost of their parents or love ones through violence. Mr. Woyongo said government's recent meeting with the factions was yielding positive results and a solution would soon be found to the dispute.

He said if the current peace in the area was sustained, the curfew imposed on the people could be reviewed.