Bolgatanga, August 1, GNA - Paramount Chief of the Kpembe Traditional Area, Alhaji Ibrahim Haruna Kabasibi I, on Wednesday appealed to government to empower chiefs to sanction parents who refuse to send their children to school.

He said this when he chaired a function at a workshop on chieftaincy and governance organised in Bolgatanga by the Nana Nketsia IV Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development and sponsored by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, a German organisation. Alhaji Ibrahim Haruna Kabasibi said in his traditional area he and his elders had ensured that all children of school going age were sent to school.

"If government empowers traditional authorities to sanction parents who do not send their children to school, we would ensure that the numerous children who are not in school would be sent to school." He said one of the major means of reducing poverty in the three northern regions was through education and parents must sacrifice by sending their children to school to help alleviate poverty in the area. He appealed to traditional authorities in the three northern regions to help find amicable solutions to protracted chieftaincy and land disputes in the area.

"Development cannot thrive in an atmosphere of disputes and conflicts and as traditional leaders it behoves on us to champion the course of peace to pave way for development", he said. Alhaji Ibrahim Haruna Kabasibi appealed to his colleague chiefs to avoid the rampant sale of land instead of giving out those lands for projects that would enhance the development of their communities.