Buipe, (N/R), March 16, GNA - The Central Gonja District Chief Executive, Mr Salisu Issifu Be-Awuribe, has appealed to the people of the District to ensure that peace prevails in the area for development. He said the government was poised towards developing Buipe, the district capital, into the first industrial city of northern Ghana, while the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) had also adopted the district as a pilot district. He said without peace these ambitious development projects could not be realized.

Mr. Be-Awuribe, who was speaking at the inauguration of the Central Gonja District Assembly at Buipe on Tuesday, said chieftaincy problems, land, armed robbery and the menace of Fulani herdsmen threatened the peace of the district.

To ensure peace, particularly in the chieftaincy institution in the district, the DCE called for the collaboration of traditional authority and experts in carrying out a comprehensive study of all the customary procedures of inheritance or succession to all the skins in the district.

"This would be a step towards the prevention and management of disputes and it is better than what is currently on-going", Mr. Be-Awuribe said.

Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Transport, inaugurated the 44-member Assembly on behalf of President John Atta Mills. The Assembly re-elected Mr Agbozo Kwais Frankie as the Presiding Member. Alhaji Dauda warned assembly members against using their positions to gain contracts or undue favours from the assembly. He said the Assemblies were not doing enough to generate more funds internally and depended only on the Common Fund and therefore urged the assembly members to come out with new strategies in collaboration with management to generate adequate revenue to complement the efforts of the government.