BAWKU CONFIRMS ABDULAI (PAGE 14)

The Bawku Municipal Assembly has confirmed Mr Musa Abdulai, a development worker formerly with Action Aid Ghana, as the Municipal Chief Executive for Bawku.
At an emergency meeting held at Bawku in the Upper East Region, 45 out of the 46 assembly members present voted in favour of the nominee, while one person voted against his candidature, in an election supervised by officials of the Electoral Commission.
Committing himself to achieving peace in the area, Mr Abdulai solicited the support of all the people in the municipality to work in concert in the search for permanent peace in the area.
He said efforts must be made to return Bawku to its former state as a bustling commercial town.
Mr Abdulai thanked the assembly members for giving him the nod, and said he would co-operate with all stakeholders to develop the municipality.
He noted that although some remarkable success had been achieved in the search for peace by the various stakeholders, much more remain to be done.
He therefore appealed to the assembly members to support him in his quest to bring peace to the area.
“Until those of us who are sons and daughters of this municipality commit ourselves and energies to it, much cannot be done by the peace brokers. In other words peace cannot be imposed on us from outside,” he said.
“This being so, those of us in leadership position from the area must garner all our available human resources, knowledge and wisdom to partner in this crusade for peace, that way we would create the requisite atmosphere to prosecute the development agenda for municipality,” he added.
While promising an honest and dedicated leadership, Mr Abdulai promised to work assiduously with all to reduce poverty and improve the standard of living of the people in the area.
“Our worse enemy is poverty for which reason we all need to pool together to deal with it. We should rekindle the spirit of togetherness, peace and unity of purpose if only we should meet the hopes and aspirations of our people in the areas of education, agriculture, health, water and sanitation, road infrastructure and other essential services that will improve upon the living conditions of our people,” he said.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, bemoaned the recurrent nature of the conflict in Bawku and renewed his appeal to the assembly members to assist in the peace building efforts, adding that development could not take place when there was no peace.
He disclosed that for the last Samanpiid festival celebrated a few days ago, GH¢10,000 was spent to beef up security and maintain the peace in the area, stressing that the conflict in the area was having a toll on the finances o f the region.
Mr Woyongo expressed the government’s determination to ensure that a permanent solution was found to the problem before the end of its term, and therefore enlisted of the assembly members in that direction.
The Regional Minister announced that the Regional Security Council intended forming a joint committee of opinion leaders from the Mamprusi and Kusasi sides to meet with the REGSEC to decide on when to lift the curfew in the area.
“We want that decision to come from the people.
We have come long way and I do not think that we want to get back.
The conflict is retarding the progress of this beautiful town,” he said.
Rev. Fr. Jacob Ayeebo, a member of the Council of State, commended the assembly members for the overwhelming support given to the President’s nominee and encouraged them to continue to work together towards the development of the area.