The Chiefs and people of Klefe in the Ho Municipality have launched this year's Yam festival with a lecture in Ho.

The festival, dubbed: “Peace, a necessary condition for development" is laced with series of activities including football gala, health screening, clean-up exercises, hiking adventure on Tokpo Mountain, inter-schools quiz competition and mentorship seminar for Basic Schools in the area.

It is expected to attract over 1, 000 local and foreign tourists and promised to be unique being the first time the chiefs will sit-in-state.

Togbe Koku Dzaga XI, Paramount Chief of Klefe Traditional Area said the immediate objective of the festival was to empower the people but that could only be achieved through peace, hence, the choice of the theme for the celebration.

He urged the people to embrace peace because no meaningful development could take place without peace.

Togbe Dzaga called on all the citizenry to ensure that the current peace enjoyed by the country is maintained and also eschew acts that could derail it, saying, “Klefe is committed to peace and we are calling on you to help us sustain the peace by supporting our developmental agenda."

He said an amount of GH¢ 314,000.00 was expected to be raised during the celebration for the construction of classroom blocks and workshop for Klefe Technical and Vocational Institute.

“It is also to help provide general equipment for the Community Health Centre laboratory, complete the dispensary, record and Information Communication and Technology block, and construct a 10-bed maternity ward,

Major General Henry Anyidoho (Rtd), who delivered the lecture said peace was the bedrock of any progressive society, hence, it was important for the citizenry to embrace and maintain it for accelerated socio-economic development.

He said it was high time serious attention was given to what he called “internal wars and violence" such as hunger, diseases, selfishness, hatred among others, derailing development.

Maj. Rtd. Anyidoho said though the conditions were not open wars or violence, they continued to degrade the life of the majority and even kill people and creating conditions for open wars and violence.



“We have not been fighting wars and we have not necessarily been involved in open violence but these factors of internal wars and violence have kept us from the drive towards development," he stated.

Maj. Rtd. Anyidoho said it was necessary to put pragmatic measures in place to urgently address such issues for rapid socio-economic development.

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister, assured the people of commitment to improve the road network in the region.

The two-month-long event, which starts from August 3, 2019, to September 29, 2019, would be climaxed with a grand durbar on September 28.