Curfew imposed on the Alavanyo and Nkonya areas in the Volta Region will continue to hold, as peace gradually returns to the area. The area has seen sporadic clashes between two sides in recent times.

Mr Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, the Volta Regional Minister, said this when addressing the first Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) meeting for the year in Ho.

He called on the two local governing bodies (assemblies), Kpando and Hohoe, to take steps to hold periodic joint security meetings to smoothen any emerging conflict situations.

Mr Afotey-Agbo said the state of security in the region was under control and that the VRCC was “doing everything in its power to manage the various conflict situations in the region.

He said the conflict between the indigenes of Gbi Traditional Area and the Zongo community in Hohoe last year “is almost resolved” and that government was taking steps to compensate the victims.

In that communal violence, youth from the Zongo at Hohoe during a misunderstanding with traditional authorities, vandalized the palace of the Paramount Chief of the area Togbe Gabusu VI, sparking reprisals.

Mr Afotey-Agbo said land and chieftaincy disputes continued to plague the region, warning “political leaders to tread cautiously in these matters, and as much as possible, refer such cases to the appropriate bodies designated to handle them”.

He said the VRCC meeting was held back by the protracted election petition case, delays in appointing District Chief Executives and the Nkonya and Alavanyo crises.

The Minister promised that next year’s meeting would be regular, one within the first half and the other in the last quarter of the year.

An RCC meeting is a statutory meeting which has to be held at least once in a year to discuss relevant issues concerning the region with a view to indentifying the challenges, problems and constraints and strategizing to tackle them.

There were situational reports on health, education and projects of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority.

Mr Afotey-Agbo commended the Regional Health Directorate for successfully establishing 25 functional Health Management Teams in the Assemblies and for conducting an orientation programme to build the capacity of the new District Health Management Team members.

He called for the full complement of 730 Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) zones, as only 333 were functional.

Mr Afotey-Agbo said significant gains had been made in the areas of Guinea worm eradication, provision of clinical services, peer review of hospital among others.

He said the state of education in the region was alarming and required “concrete actions from all stakeholders in the region”.

The Minister directed Municipal and District Assemblies to find ways in ‘salvaging the terrible state of education in the individual Assemblies.”

“We need not leave this bad state alone in the hands of the District or Municipal Education Directorates,” he stated.

The report on education indicated that results at the BECE had plummeted from 48.7 percent in 2009, going down further in successive years until hitting the abysmal 27.8 percent in 2012 and only improving to 39 percent in 2013.