Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Minister, Hon. Stephen Asamoah Boateng has embarked on a 4-day working tour to 2 Traditional Councils and a Regional House of Chiefs that make up Aowin Traditional area, Suaman Dadieso Traditional area all in the Western North Region, and the Western Region House of Chiefs dubbed ‘ Reconciliation, Peace and Development’ from September 29 to October 4,2023.

On the tour, the Minister joined the chiefs and people of Aowin to celebrate their 3^rd annual durbar of Aowin Traditional Area in Enchi to explain some policy directions of the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry.

The Minister, whose mandate among other things, is to promote the utilisation of Chieftaincy and Traditional values to serve as a basis for wealth creation and socio-cultural empowerment was the special guest as the durbar.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hon. Asamoah Boateng urged the Traditional Council to work with security agencies to ensure that people do not hide behind chieftaincy issues to disrupt the peace of the area and its adjoining communities.

He used the opportunity to charge Chiefs and people of Aowin to settle Chieftaincy issues internally rather than taking it to court which takes a long time.

The Minister with agitated chiefs of Suaman Dedieso Traditional area in the Western North Region and appealed to them to cooperate for peace and development of Suaman

“I wish to call on you to explore your traditional reconciliatory practices in the resolution of conflict within your area. Parties in disputes are also advised to avail themselves of the laid down procedures in the Chieftaincy Act 2008, Act 759 to settle all disputes. By this, all legal issues connected with the disputes can be exhaustively dealt with to the satisfaction of all’’, the Minister explained.

He took the opportunity and asked the Traditional Council to take the opportunity to prove to sceptics that the chieftaincy institution is ready to take the appropriate steps to better the lot of its community members.

He wrapped up his tour at the Western Regional House of Chiefs in Secondi- Takoradi where he hinted that he was initiating a move to set up a Chieftaincy Fund that would help maintain the chieftaincy institution and address the funding gab to enable the institution carryout its mandate effectively.

He made mentioned of his Ministry’s advocacy for the codification of line of succession and digitization of judicial processes.

The initiative the Minister explained, would ultimately help to reduce the chieftaincy cases in the nation and flush out ineligible people who were not royals to be enstooled.