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The Sustainable Peace Initiative, a non-governmental organisation in collaboration with the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) organised a peace festival for chiefs and people of the Wa Municipality on Wednesday. The forum, the first of its kind, brought together the Yijiihi, Najari, Jonyuohi and Nakpaaha gates in the Wa chieftaincy dispute, as well as the Tendambas, (landlords), religious heads and other opinion leaders to find amicable ways and means of resolving the Wa Chieftaincy and all other disputes out of court to promote peace in the area. Addressing the chiefs, the Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Mahmud Khalid, urged the princes and kingmakers in the Wa Paramountcy to sacrifice their positions and come together to settle the Wa Chieftaincy dispute out of court and enskin the rightful person to enhance peace and development. He said all the royals in the Wa Chieftaincy dispute claimed that they were blood related, and expressed dismay at their inability to find an amicable solution to the dispute rather than allow it to protract in court. He noted that court decisons had never satisfied two people and attributed the numerous conflicts and disputes in the communities to the neglect of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms that were being used by opinion leaders in the past to resolve disputes. Mr. Khalid cautioned the people against the dominants of groups over other people in society and urged the people to learn to tolerate each other in whatever situation they may find themselves. He said peace had eluded many people in some of the communities due to chieftaincy, land and religious conflicts which, he noted, had contributed immensely to the underdevelopment and poverty among the people. Mr Khalid explained that government development policies and programmes would not benefit the people if they continued to litigate and engage in chieftaincy, land and religious conflicts without any due regard for peace in the municipality. Mr. Mark N. Dagbee, Upper West Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture, said the CNC was a major stakeholder in ensuring sustainable peace in the Municipality. He said it was an undeniable fact that conflict was an uneasy bed follow of peace, stability and socio-economic development in any community. "Poverty, diseases, wastage of scarce resources, hunger and starvation, refugee crisis, premature deaths, stagnation of development and all forms of social ills could be blamed on conflict", Mr. Dagbee said. "Those who see conflict as purely negative, which emanate from value- based, need-based and interest-based seek to prevent it from explosion", he added. Mr. Dagbee said CNC in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions, in collaboration with the Sustainable Peace Initiative (SPI), would endeavour to use cultural tools to disseminate the message pf peace to the chiefs, elders and people of the north to end all manner of conflicts. He noted that there could not be sustainable development in the north unless the people's attitude was changed to promote peace and love among community members, individuals and families. The Reverend George Apasera of the Christ Frontier Church, who chaired the function, urged members of the four gates in the Wa chieftaincy dispute to go back and do their home work properly and elect the right person to occupy the seat. He told the royals that there was no gain in conflict situations, saying what was important was that people must value life and strive to resolve all conflicts in their communities. The Reverend Apasera called on politicians to hold their doors open for peace to enter at all times and not to do anything that would endanger peace among the people. A goup from the CNC acted a peace drama that demonstrated the need for kingmakers to use traditional and customary laws and practices to enskin chiefs no matter the social, economic and political standing of the contestants.