Anloga, Nov. 5, GNA-Vice-President Aliu Mahama has urged the Anlos to overcome division and create conditions for the rapid development of their traditional area.

"The division in the Anlo traditional area because of chieftaincy institution which was supposed to unite you does not augur well for the area", he said.

Vice-President Mahama's exhortation was in a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Chieftaincy and Culture Minister at this year's Hogbetsotso festival at Anloga at the weekend.

The Anlo traditional area, the Vice President noted, "is no doubt one of the most important traditional areas in the country".

"It is regrettable that such an important area such as yours should be divided, as a state divided against itself cannot stand", he said. The annual Hogbetsotso festival, stalled following the death of the last Awoamefia, was resumed last year by Regent Togbi Sri III amidst protestations by a group which viewed the initiative as part of an agenda by Togbi Sri to usurp the Awoamefia throne. A good number of Military and the Police personnel were on hand to forestall any breach of the law in view of the tense situation in the run-up to the festival.

The Vice-President asked the Anlos to put the interest of the Anlo state first and foremost in all things. He said the ideal of the festival, a recall of the escape of the Ewes from tyrannical rule in Nortsie, should remind them of their civic duty to reject attempts at introducing dictatorship in the country and to work towards the consolidation of democracy and development in the country.

Vice-President Mahama said the widespread development projects in the country, including the Keta Sea defence project and the Tema to Sogakope road were dividend of peace in the country. He asked the Keta District assembly to pass a by-law to punish those who might attempt to or remove boulders from the sea defence wall. Mr Kofi Dzamesi, Volta Regional Minister challenged the Anlos to install their Awoamefia before the Hogbetsotso festival next year for all to rally behind him.

Regent Sri decried the falling educational standards and the decline in economic prosperity in the area and appealed for unity to facilitate the evolvement of plans to change the situation for the better. Dasebre Osei Bonsu II, Mamponghene of Ashanti, who represented the Asantehene said the Ashanti kingdom, which has traditional ties with Anlo is worried over the problems in that kingdom and appealed for a resolution of differences to enhance co-operation between the two kingdoms.