Fountain Gate Church calls for peace and development

The Fountain Gate Chapel has called on Government to strictly enforce the Rule of Law in Bawku to curtail the conflict and said this should be done without fear or favour. This was contained in a communiqu� on Peace and Development issued by the Church to the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) on Thursday. It was signed by the leadership of the Fountain Gate Church and was presented by Reverend Eastwood Anaba, Senior Pastor of the Fountain Gate Church, to the Deputy Minister Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni. The Communiqu� noted that politics should not be read into the conflict since that would constantly spark flames and appealed to Government and politicians to be neutral. The Communiqu� noted that if care was not taken to address the problem, the conflict in Bawku could spill over to other parts of the country. It called on Government to provide adequate security services in the area and asked faith based organizations to preach peace messages in Bawku. The Communiqu� stressed the need for all defunct factories in the Region including the Zuarungu Meat Factory, Pwalugu Tomato Factory, Bolgatanga Rice Mills, the Vegetable Oil factories at Bawku to be re-opened to generate employment. It also called on people from the north, especially those who had the expertise and living outside the Region, to contribute their quota either by coming back home or making sure that their children return to serve the north. It also expressed worry about the way qualified public servants in the Region were transferred to other regions at the expense of the deprived area. The Communiqu� appealed to Government to reverse the trend where second cycle institutions in the northern regions received their school feeding grants very late, saying it had serious repercussion on the academic performance of the students from the area. Receiving the Communiqu� the Upper East Deputy Regional Minister thanked the church for their bold initiative and said it would be channelled to the appropriate quarters. She said the development of the Region was a challenge to everybody and not the government alone. On the Bawku conflict, the Deputy Minister said the Regional Security Council had drawn up comprehensive measures on how to deal with the problem which had already been submitted to the President. Reverend Anaba said the leadership of the Church was ever prepared to partner the RCC and other organizations that had the interest in developing the Region to help move it forward.