President John Dramani Mahama on Friday called on chiefs from the three Northern Regions to use the death of the late President John Evans Atta Mills to settle all chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts.

He said: "President Mills stood for peace and if you are able to use his death to settle all chieftaincy and ethnic disputes throughout the three Northern Regions, it will become one of the biggest legacies the late President Mills' administration would have left for Ghanaians.”

President Mahama made the call when delegations from five Regional Houses of Chiefs came to commiserate with him and congratulate him on assumption of office.

They were from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions.

President Mahama said the Northern Regions were the most deprived in terms of socio-economic development, and therefore, continuous engagement in chieftaincy and ethnic conflicts would not only deny them the expected development, but would further impoverish and reduce them to perpetual dependants in society.

He told the chiefs to make use of their traditional negotiations to smoothly iron out the differences that had existed among various ethnic groups, traditional areas and intra-ethnic conflicts that had over the year’s retarded development and progress.

President Mahama said the establishment of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and other development initiatives would not yield any meaningful dividends, if the people engaged in such unfortunate disputes.

He promised to continue with all the projects that were initiated by the late President Mills to ensure the continuity that Ghanaians were expecting in the coming months.

The chiefs unanimously commended Ghanaians for the smooth transition and pledged their support to President Mahama, to carry out his constitutional mandate.**