By Dennis Peprah
Sunyani, July 24, GNA – Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister on Wednesday commended security agencies and the Municipal and District Security Committees for their resilient hard work towards sustaining the prevailing peace of the region.
However, she called on the Judicial Committee of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs to resolve the growing chieftaincy disputes, which threatened the peace of the region, as the electioneering gathered momentum.
“With a heavy heart I wish to inform you that our beloved region is bedeviled with chieftaincy disputes. This unpleasant phenomenon calls for grave concern because the situation is a bane to the socio-economic development of the region”
“For now, the Sampa chieftaincy disputes stands tall among the rest and from June 2023, the disputes reached its peak resulting in intermittent clashes between the two gates which led to four deaths and injuries of various degrees,” Madam Owusu-Banahene stated when speaking at the opening session of the first Bono Regional Coordinating Council Meeting in Sunyani.
“The situation has given both the DISEC and REGSEC sleepless nights even within both the Christmas and the Easter festivities and as it stands, Sampa has two Chiefs.
“To bring calm and peace to Sampa and its environs therefore, a curfew has been imposed on the Sampa community, needless to talk about the resources dissipated to cater for the ration of the Security personnel deployed to maintain peace,” she indicated.
Mad Owusu -Banahene said the sad situation had not only siphoned the Assembly’s resources for development, but also adversely affected the economic fortune of the area.
“I wish to use this platform to make a clarion call to the Regional House of Chiefs to expedite action in resolving all chieftaincy disputes pending before the Judicial Committee of the house before they escalate to something else,” she appealed.
She said the support was needed from everybody, as the Regional Security Council continued to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the Bono region remained calm and peaceful at all times.
That notwithstanding, Mad Owusu-Banahene said a number of development projects were being implemented in the various Municipalities and Districts in the various communities.
These development projects include schools, markets, lorry parks, mechanized boreholes, construction of District Hospitals under the Agenda 111 flagship programme among others.
Mad admitted that the condition the roads in the region was not the best and the needed attention, saying an actionable step had been taken to remedy the situation and assuring that “President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has not forgotten the Bono region and therefore lot of roads in the region will see improvements.”
She said Berekum-Sampa Road had already been awarded on contract and assured the contractors would soon be seen on site, and entreated people in the region to remain patient and “see what happens in the coming days.”
The Regional Minister reminded that the country had chosen democratic path of government, and therefore advised everybody to exercise caution and to guide against any form of provocative language and behavior that would cause mayhem in the country.
“We must understand that politics is about resource distribution and not a do and die affair,” Mad Owusu-Banahene stated, and advised everybody to embrace peace for Ghana to remain a beacon of democracy and peace in the West Africa Sub-region, if not Africa as a whole.
GNA