Yendi, (NR), April 14, GNA - Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, Northern Regional Minister has commended security personnel in Yendi for swift and professional manner in which they acted to prevent people from causing further havoc to life and property in the Yendi township.

He said the security personnel has committed themselves to the challenges ahead of them and had shown and proven beyond reasonable doubt that they were in Yendi to ensure that there was peace and order. The Minister gave the commendation in Yendi on Friday when he presented three bulls, five bags of rice and 100 tubers of yam to the personnel keeping peace in Yendi to enable them to spend the Easter. Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan, MP for Yendi also presented 20 million cedis for the upkeep of the security personnel and urged them to live above reproach.

He said their services was not a call to Yendi but a duty to Mother Ghana and stressed the importance to sacrifice their lives to serve the nation and should not do anything to mar the beauty of the peace in Yendi.

Some 8,00 personnel, making up of the police and the military are jointly keeping peace in Yendi before, during and after the burial of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II last Monday.

On Tuesday, after the successful burial of the late chief on Monday some youth from both Abudu and Andani Gates embarked on a house-burning spree and succeeded in burning 19 compound houses in Yendi before the security was able to avert the situation.

The house burning had made residents of Yendi to now live in perpetual fear and confusion following threats by some youth from both Gates to burn houses of those perceived as "opponents." Some of the residents had reported to the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Boniface that they had received threats that their houses would be burnt down.

The regional Minister said Ghana was a peacefully country and was recognised as such in the international scene and asked the personnel to endeavour to ensure that Dagbon joined the rest of the country to enjoy peace. Alhaji Boniface appealed to the security personnel to intensify both their daily and night patrols to secure the township from any fresh attacks.

Mr. Ephraim Barakatu, Northern Regional police Commander who received the items on behalf of the personnel assured Ghanaians that the security personnel in Yendi would follow the roadmap to peace in Dagbon and would not do anything to deviate from it.

Alhaji Habib Mohammed Tijani, Yendi District Chief Executive (DCE) told the GNA earlier in an interview in Yendi that the District Security Committee had interacted with Imams and other opinion leaders to talk to the youth to change their attitude to ensure peace in the area.