Tamale, July 12, GNA - Alhaji Mustapha Ali Iddris, Northern Regional Minister, has commended the "significant improvement" in the security situation in Dagbon in particular and the Region as a whole. He noted, however, that a handful of people "who thrive in chaos and conflict" were still parading the corridors of important chiefs and enlisting the gullible youth in their activities to disturb the peace. Alhaji Iddris said this in his maiden address to the ordinary meeting of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs in Tamale on Tuesday. The Kampakuya-Na Abdulai Yakubu Andani, Regent of Dagbon also made his maiden appearance at the House.

Alhaji Iddris warned that as much as he would be compassionate with the law, he would not spare "those chieftaincy contractors who think trafficking of arms is their only source of livelihood."

He appealed to stakeholders involved in ensuring that the road map to peace in Dagbon was achieved to prevail on the contending parties in the chieftaincy dispute to make compromises to attain lasting peace. "Let me say that no road map can be perfect or foolproof since as human beings we ourselves are not perfect. No party should think that it can be fully satisfied."

The Minister said: "For us to arrive at peace, each one of us must make concessions or compromises since it is necessarily a situation of give-and-take".

Alhaji Iddris said as their contribution towards peace in the Region, the chiefs should prevail upon the Judicial Committee of the House to expedite action on the several chieftaincy cases pending before it.

He specifically mentioned the Bimbilla and the Buipe chieftaincy disputes, which needed urgent attention to be resolved and called on the House to also dispose of others that were before it.

The Minister entreated the chiefs to encourage their subjects to patronise the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to enable them to access quality health care at affordable cost.

Government, he announced had provided three tractors to each of the districts in the Region under the Youth Employment Scheme and urged the youth to take advantage of the Scheme to boost agricultural production. Na Bohagu Abdulai Mahami Sheriga, Nayiri and President of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs thanked the government, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene and the security agencies that worked relentlessly to ensure peace and contributed to the burial of the late King of Dagbon.

Na Sheriga urged Ghanaians to take a cue from the brilliant performance of the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars in the just ended World Cup tournament and bury their differences so that "as a nation we can open new frontiers and cultivate a new spirit of tolerance and harmonious co-existence irrespective of our ethnic, religious and political inclinations".

He noted that the destiny of the country was a collective responsibility of all and appealed to all Ghanaians to lend their material, moral and spiritual support towards the development of the country.

Na Sheriga said with the relative peace prevailing in the Region now, the people were ready to go into serious farming but noted that the prices of farm inputs such as fertilizer and tractor services were beyond their means and appealed to the government to make the prices of farming inputs affordable to farmers.

He also appealed to the government to support the House to build a guesthouse to accommodate chiefs and other visitors to Tamale. Na Sheriga appealed to lawyers who had cases before the House Judicial Committee to stand by their clients to expedite action on the cases instead of always calling for adjournments. 12 July 06

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