PEACE COUNCIL CALLS ON BAWKU FACTIONS TO CO-OPERATE (PAGE 14)

Story: Zakaria Alhassan & Benjamin Glover, Bawku

THE National Peace Council has called for the support and co-operation of the feuding factions in its efforts to foster peace and unity in the Bawku Municipality.
The Council, which is under the chairmanship of His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, Catholic Archbishop of Cape Coast, made the appeal after holding separate meetings with the Paramount Chief of Bawku, Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, and the opinion leaders of the Mamprusi clan at Bawku on Tuesday.
The meetings, which took place behind closed doors, were to see how best to ensure peace in the Bawku Municipality, which has been engulfed in ethnic conflict.
Other members of the NPC present at the meeting were the Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Ghana, Maulvi Wahab Adam; a representative of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Mahamud Gedel; the Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyeman Badu; and Professor Irene Odotei.
The Council had earlier met the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Alhassan Samari, who briefed them on the Bawku conflict and the measures taken so far by the Upper East Regional Security Council to restore peace in the area.
Before the meeting went into a closed-door session, Cardinal Turkson thanked the President, Mr John A. Kufuor, for mandating the National Peace Council to help find a lasting solution to the conflict in Bawku.
Cardinal Turkson and other council members advised both the Kusasis and the Mamprusis to live in peace, since that area could not pursue any development agenda while it was in conflict.
"We have come to listen and we shall keep coming to Bawku until peace is restored. We will continue our efforts to foster unity among the people and we pray that you will all lend your support in this worthy cause," he said
Cardinal Turkson pleaded with both sides to exercise restraint in the midst of any provocation, stressing that "we trust that God will make a way where there seems to be no way".
The Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyeman Badu, and Professor Irene Odotei both appealed to the two factions to work together for the peace of the area.