Government is working out peace reward for Dagbon soon

Tamale, March 4, GNA - The government is working out a programme with
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to reward the people
of Dagbon, especially Tamale and Yendi with development projects under
its "Peace Dividend" framework if they maintain peace in the area.
Mr Kan Dapaah, Minister of Interior announced this at meeting
with eminent chiefs from the Andani and Abudu Royal Gates in Tamale on
Saturday, saying: "The whole world is praying for peace in Dagbon and
this must not elude the people".
He said the government was trying to bring more development
projects to Dagbon but lamented that half of what the government
intended to do had not been done because of the lack of peace in the
area.
The Interior Minister is on a four-day working tour of the region
to introduce himself to chiefs and security agencies and interact with
them to know of the security challenges facing them with the view to
helping to address them.
Mr. Dapaah called on chiefs to ensure that peace, law and order
are maintained in their areas to enhance development, noting: "Without
peace there can be no development".
He said conflicts in some neighbouring countries called for the
need for chiefs and the government to complement each other's roles to
sustain peace at all times.Mr. Dapaah attributed the peace that the
country was enjoying to God's intervention and the wisdom of chiefs,
which needed to be commended.
He said the government had been able to undertake more
development projects because of the prevailing peace in the country
He called on security agencies to improve relations with chiefs
for effective maintenance of internal peace.
Mr. Dapaah urged chiefs to prevail on the youth to refrain from
involving in chieftaincy matters since they were inexperienced in
handling issues of chieftaincy.
The Mion-Lana Alhassan A. Ziblim, a spokesman for the Abudu Royal
Gate appealed to the Eminent Chiefs handling the "Roadmap to Peace"
document to hasten the process, saying: "If you stair 'Tuo Zaafi' for
a long time, it is likely that it will spoil."
The Kpan-Naa M.B. Bawah, a spokesman for the Andani Royal Gate
thanked the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu's Committee of Eminent
Chiefs for the role they had played so far and wished that they would
follow the "Roadmap to Peace" document to its logical conclusion.
He called on the government to give equal attention to the
criminal aspect to bring the killers of Ya-Naa, Yakubu Andani II to
book.
04 March 05