Wa, Aug. 1, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Saturday introduced newly appointed Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Issahaku Salia to the chiefs and people of the Region.

The Vice President, who did the introduction during a durbar to cut sod for the construction of a Regional Hospital in Wa, called on the people to give Alhaji Salia their fullest co-operation.

He added that it was important they buried all differences, be it political, chieftaincy, religion, land or ethnicity and forged ahead in unity for development.

Vice President Mahama told the gathering that government was focused to provide the development needs of the Region but lamented that nothing good would be achieved if there was no unity among the people to ensure peace.

Alhaji Salia called for unity among the security agencies and the media in the Region to help to protect the people and bring development issues to the forefront.

He also called for sustainable and fruitful relations among the people while urging them to tolerate each other's views so as to sustain the prevailing peace to enhance development.

Alhaji Salia was interacting with the media and heads of security agencies after he had earlier met with a cross section of supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He appealed to the media to always try to seek information from authentic sources in order to adequately inform the public and to stimulate good debate over such issues.

Asked how he was going to work to help reduce poverty among the people, Alhaji Salia said, issues of poverty were not an individual affair but things that required the involvement of all the affected, who would be willing to take their destiny into their own hands.

He said, how could poverty be alleviated, if there was always conflict among people that compelled government to commit scare resources to maintain peace?

"We need to avoid conflict situations so that the limited resources would be channeled for development projects, especially economic ventures to enhance the livelihood of the people" Alhaji Salia added.

He gave the assurance that he would be consulting former Regional Ministers irrespective of their political affiliations to learn from their experiences.

Alhaji Salia said the deplorable condition of roads in the Region had been of concern to the people and promised that he would make it a priority.