Anloga, Nov. 5, GNA - Vice-President Aliu Mahama has urged the Anlos to overcome division and create conditions for the rapid development of the area.

"The division in the Anlo traditional area because of chieftaincy institution which is supposed to unite you does not augur well for the area", he said.

Vice-President Mahama said this in a speech read for him by Mr Sampson Kwaku-Boafo, Chieftaincy and Culture Minister, that the Hogbetsotso festival at Anloga on Saturday.

The Anlo Traditional Area, the Vice President, said "is no doubt one of the most important traditional areas in the country."

"It is regrettable that such an important area such as yours should be divided, as a state divided against itself cannot stand."

The celebration of the festival stopped following the death of last Awoamefia but was resumed last year by Regent Togbi Sri III. There were protestations by a faction that viewed the initiative as part of a secret agenda by Togbi Sri to usurp the Awoamefia throne. Military and the police personnel were on hand to forestall any breach of the peace in view of the tense situation in the run-up to the festival.

The Vice-President asked the Anlos to put the interest of the Anlo state first and foremost in all things.

He said the festival, a recall of the escape of the Ewes from tyrannical rule in Nortsie, should remind them of their civic duty to reject attempts at introducing dictatorship in the country and to work towards the consolidation of democracy and development in the country. Vice-President Mahama said the widespread development projects in the country including the Keta Sea Defence Wall and the Tema to Sogakope road were dividends of peace in the country.

He asked the Keta District Assembly to pass a by-law to punish those who might attempt to or remove boulders from the sea defence wall. Mr Kofi Dzamesi, Volta Regional Minister, appealed to the Anlos to install their Awoamefia before the next Hogbetsotso festival.

Regent Sri decried the falling educational standards and the decline in economic activities in the area and appealed for unity to facilitate the evolvement of plans to change the situation for the better.

Dasebre Osei Bonsu II, the Mamponghene who represented the Asantehene, said the Ashanti kingdom, which has traditional ties with Anlom, is worried over the problems in Anlo and appealed for a resolution of differences to enhance co-operation between the two kingdoms.