Dzodze (V/R), Oct. 5, GNA - Colonel Cyril Necku (Rtd) Deputy Volta Regional Minister observed at the weekend that chieftaincy and land squabbles are needless distractions to development programmes. "The challenges facing the country require an end to these disputes, which only distract our development focus," he stresses. Col Necku was speaking at the 2010 Annual Deza (Oil Palm) festival of the chiefs and people of Dzodze in the Ketu-North District. The festival was instituted nine years ago to regenerate interest in the oil palm industry, for which the area was best noted for in the past.

He said as a young district, Ketu-North requires peace and unity to catch up with others. Col Necku asked the people to use the festival as a tool to transform the area economically. He said government is gradually, but steadily, fulfilling its electoral promises and asked the youth to take advantage of the Youth in Agriculture Scheme to go into farming as a business. Mr Kofi Lawson, District Chief Executive noted that the protracted differences among the people are affecting some development plans in the area.

He said the formation of the Dzodze Water and Sanitation Development Board, for example, could not come on because of the failure of some chiefs and some assemblymen to elect representatives to the board.

Mr Lawson said the situation had affected efforts to take decisions to extend water to many areas, which he cautioned has the potential to collapse the water delivery system. He therefore issued a week ultimatum to the parties involved to elect representatives to the board.

Speaking on the theme for the festival: "Urban Council Status-Benefits for the Community," Mr Lawson appealed to the authorities to grant urban status to Dzodze for the area to benefit from some direct project allocations to lessen the burden on the assembly's purse. Mr Moses Azaglo, Festival Planning Committee Deputy Chairman, appealed for the supply of oil palm seedlings to the people to boost production.