Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna has revealed that a chunk of the region’s budgetary allocation is used for conflict prevention and peace management.
Dagbon, Bimbilla and Bunkprugu/Yunyoo are the identified hotspots in the region where recurrent communal and chieftaincy clashes have kept security operatives always busy.
Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna in a Citi News interview bemoaned the situation and emphasized the need for peaceful co-existence in the troubled areas.
He tasked members of the clergy to deepen their prayers for the restoration of peace in the conflict zones.
He maintained that chieftaincy, land and other related conflicts continued to halt the region’s transformational agenda.
“I have always been talking and yearning for peace for Northern Region: we should take this opportunity to co-exist and make sure that we live in a peaceful environment.”
He lamented, “As I always say peace is not a commodity that can be bought from the market: we have to create that peaceful environment so I am urging everybody to understand and like each other.”
“Whenever there is that likeness there will be unity and when there is unity there will peace and when there is peace there will be development,” the minister observed.
Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna nonetheless commended Muslim Clerics in the region for their civil conduct throughout the Ramadan period.
“I want to thank all the Muslim Clerics in northern region for letting us have a very peaceful Ramadan: I want to urge them to desist or run away from business as usual because there is this tendency, the moment the Ramadan passes people get back to their old deeds.”
He encouraged religious bodies in the region to actively participate in government’s development agenda.
He also implored members of the clergy to help government combat moral decadence associated with the youth.
