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