Assemblies asked to help community watchdog committees
The Minister of Defence, Mr Mark Woyongo, has charged various district and municipal assemblies in the Upper East Region to facilitate the formation of community watchdog committees, particularly in areas near the border, to clamp down on the proliferation of arms and check nefarious activities.
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He further entreated the security agencies to liaise with the assemblies to help screen and offer basic security training to prospective members of the committees.
Mr Woyongo stated this at the 2014 Zekula Festival of the chiefs and people of the Bissa community at Kulungugu in the Pusiga District in the Upper East Region.
The festival was held on the theme: "Promoting unity and development through culture" and was aimed at bringing together the Bissas from all over the world to promote unity and development.
He further observed: "We live in a period where some misguided individuals take the law into their own hands and in the process make life very uncomfortable for the majority of the people."
He noted that the situation had became even more "dangerous in this part of our country where we are surrounded by neighbouring countries and foreign nationals who connive with our people to commit acts such as dealing in small arms to fuel conflict".
Mr Woyongo stressed that if watchdog committees were properly formed, they would ultimately guarantee a safer and peaceful environment for businesses to thrive and for the income of the rural people to improve.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Daniel Syme, called on the Bissa Development Association to establish a good working relationship with district assemblies and other development partners to operationalise the yearly targets of the festival.
He cautioned the people against smuggling fuel, fertilisers and other uncustomed goods, since such activities drained the nation's economy.
"Our closeness to neighbouring countries such as Togo and Burkina Faso should be an opportunity for us to continue to break the artificial barriers that colonialism has created," Mr Syme further pointed out. Appeal
The Chief of Kulungugu, Ziitor Balike, appealed to the government to support farmers in the area to undertake an all-year-round farming as a way of discouraging the youth from migrating to the south in search of non-existent jobs.
He also called for concrete steps to construct a road to link the Kulungugu town to Pusiga through Sangabulli and Nwane.
The Regional Chairman of the Bissa Development Association, Mr Awudu Haruna, expressed gratitude to the President and the MP for Bawku Central for donating towards the construction of a school project in the area last year.