Stephen Yakubu, the Upper West Regional Minister, has called on the people to be more security conscious to complement the efforts of the security agencies in maintaining peace for development.

He said that even though the region remained relatively peaceful, it had also experienced pockets of security breaches, which served as a wake-up call for concerted and collective efforts by the people to help sustain the gains made by the few security agencies in the region.

He said one area that needed attention and focus, as far as the security of the region was concerned, was the numerous chieftaincy and land disputes that the region was challenged with, which needed to be properly and urgently resolved amicably to help enhance the prevailing peace in the communities.

“Currently, the region is dealing with 14 petitions pending before the Judicial Committee of the Regional House of Chiefs and the various Traditional Councils awaiting settlement,” he said.

Yakubu made the call at the Regional Coordinating Council’s general meeting held in Wa to deliberate on issues pertaining to peace and development to benefit the people.

He encouraged the Regional House of Chiefs to adopt the use of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms, the outcome of which would lead to absolute healing, rather than the court system, which is known for satisfying one faction against the other.

He warned that while the Regional Coordinating Council and the Regional Security Council had no mandate to be involved in chieftaincy and land disputes, they would not compromise the peace of the region. He also called on the media to educate people to give peace a chance, especially in this election year.

Yakubu said another security threat to the region was food security, caused by the long spell of drought during this year’s cropping season, which had destroyed about 223,953 hectares of crops in the region.

He announced that the government had taken measures to provide GH¢1,000.00 per hectare as an incentive package, among other forms of support, for farmers whose crops were destroyed by the drought.

The Regional Minister appealed to farmers whose food crops were affected to patiently wait for the Department of Agriculture to assess the damage caused to their crops and provide the actual data to the government for appropriate compensation.

On roads, he said that in response to the year-on-year outcry over the poor condition of roads, the government had initiated the District Roads Improvement Project (DRIP) and provided earth-moving machines to the various municipal and district assemblies to make roads accessible and facilitate the movement of people, goods, and services.

He appealed to the assemblies, particularly the operators of the machines and equipment, to maintain them properly to ensure that “we get value for money.”