Nkonya/Alavanyo, June 20, GNA- Women and the youth of Nkonya and Alavanyo in the Volta Region have called on their Chiefs and decision makers to ensure permanent peace through future dialogues and negotiations over disputed land boundaries. The women and youth, reminded the opinion leaders that the dispute and its associated bloody clashes over the last 80 years have produced widows and orphans and caused able bodied men to be disoriented and disillusioned. They made these requests at Nkonya and Alavanyo on Thursday, after drawings of the disputed land boundaries surveyed under the auspices of the Nkonya-Alavanyo Mediation Committee, were approved by the two communities after study and clarifications. The drawings would also be shown to the citizens of Alavanyo and Nkonya at the Teachers' hall in Accra on Saturday June 21.

Nana Abena Otubea, Queen of Nkonya Ahenkro, said that women from Nkonya and Alavanyo had been burdened with orphans because their sons and husbands had been killed in bloody clashes. She said if the chiefs failed to reach a peaceful settlement of the dispute they (chiefs) and their sons would have to go into the bush to fight. Mr Eric Daddymore, who spoke on behalf of the youth of Alavanyo, said the young men in the traditional areas were no longer interested in fighting. He said their preoccupation now was to co-operate with their chiefs to settle the dispute peacefully and pave the way for more constructive engagements in the area.

Mr Michael Ayibonte, Volta Regional Lands Surveyor, one of the two surveyors who drew the boundaries, explained that the overlap of the disputed boundaries covered an area of 10 miles square. He explained that the land, which was not a "no-man's land" would be the subject matter of any future settlement between the two traditional areas.

Right Reverend Dr Livingstone Buama, Moderator of the E.P. Church, and chairman of the Mediation Committee, reminded the chiefs and elders of the traditional areas that they took oath to work for permanent peace to the area, Adding "the destiny of the peace process is in their hands". Togbe Atakora Tsedze VII, paramount chief of Alavanyo traditional area, said his "selfish ambition" is to reach a peaceful settlement of the protracted, often bloody land dispute. "We are bent on making history as the generation to make peace between Nkonya and Alavanyo", he said. Nana Ampem Darkoh III, Ankobiahene of Nkonya traditional area, expressed the hope that absolute peace would prevail in the two traditional areas.