National House of Chiefs urged to complete codification of traditional areas

The National Peace Council (NPC) has urged the National House of Chiefs to complete the process of codification of all traditional areas in the country.

Speaking at a dialogue organised by STAR Ghana Foundation and supported by Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom, Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, the Board Chairman of NPC said codification would address vacant chieftaincy seats, particularly in the northern part of Ghana.

Dr Adu-Gyamfi who spoke on the topic “Peace, security, and stability of northern Ghana”, said the current situation of a caretaker chiefs staying in office long enough to assume the position of legitimacy needed to change with immediate effect.

He continued: “It’s in the light of this, that I call for support for the current efforts by the kings and indigenes of Dagbon to revise their old age traditional constitution”.

Dr Adu-Gyamfi said codification was imperative since most issues that resulted in violence, destruction and instability were caused by chieftaincy and land disputes.

He said there was the need to also address the issues of land ownership to promote peace and development.

Mr Amadu Tanko, Executive Secretary of STAR Ghana said the dialogues ought to develop a roadmap for peace initiatives, increase stakeholder awareness and develop mechanisms for coordinated stakeholder actions.

He said the outcome would help stakeholders to devise ways to address instability in the five regions of the north.

Mr Philip Smith, Development Director of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said increasing threat of terrorism in neighboring countries called for an urgent need to build Ghana’s capacity to prevent, pre-empt, protect and respond to any such attacks.

He said the initiative to protect the security integrity of Northern Ghana was to ensure that terrorist groups and organised crime networks do not exploit vulnerabilities, such as existing conflicts to create footholds within at-risk communities.

He said the UK government had spent more than £1.2 million to support Ghana’s counter terrorism effort and provided professional development courses for the military and the police.