Charia (U/W), June 8, GNA - Mr. Mahmud Khalid, the Upper West Regional Minister, said it was sad that the region had been rated as the poorest in the country.

"This picture is nothing to be proud of. We can turn round our fortunes by distancing and discouraging chieftaincy and land disputes in the communities", he said. "Poverty will always be our lot if we do not say no to chieftaincy and land disagreements and conflicts", Mr. Khalid added. Mr. Khalid was addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Charia to express their gratitude to President John Atta Mills and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for nominating Mr. Yakubu Duogu for the post of Chief Executive for the Wa Municipal.

He urged the people to use dialogue and other peaceful means of resolving disputes rather then going to court and sometimes taking to arms.

He said chieftaincy conflicts and land disputes in the region had undermined development and also scared away prospective investors. Mr. Khalid appealed to the people of Charia to use the available approved channels to resolve the chieftaincy impasse to promote unity in the traditional area. He called on people in the municipality to bury their political differences and provide Mr. Duogu with good advice and cooperate with him in the governance of the Municipality.

Naa Seidu Braimah, a Council of State Member, appealed to the people not to bring chieftaincy and land disagreement issues to the Mr. Duogu to settle for them.

He said it was not the duty of the any chief executive to get involved in chieftaincy or land disputes and people should avoid using political, ethnic and religious considerations to lure public officials to support their course. Mr. Duogu called on people in the municipality to rededicate themselves to the cause of development by mobilising and supporting all development initiatives in the municipality. He acknowledged that even though there were numerous developmental challenges confronting the municipality, it was equally abound in enormous investment opportunities if made use of would benefit the people immensely.

Mr. Duogu expressed worry about the inability of the assembly to maximize revenue from its numerous revenue sources and called on the people to pay their taxes regularly to improve the revenue base of the assembly.

Mr Duogo said the assembly would soon re-evaluate all businesses and structures in the municipality and put appropriate taxes on them to enhance the revenue base of the assembly. Some stringent measures would also be put in place to close all loopholes in the revenue mobilisation chain to stem embezzlement and other malfeasance.

Mr. Duogu said the provision of quality education in the municipality was one of his priority areas and advised the people to embrace government's educational interventions to improve education in the area.

Mr. Duogu appealed chiefs and landlords (Tendambas) at Charia to release land to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission to establish a senior high school in the community.

He urged them to remove all obstacles to land acquisition and pave way for the smooth implementation of the project to benefit their children. 08 June 09