Togbe Atakora Tsedze II, Fiaga of Alavanyo traditional area has hinted at prospects for development in the area once peace has been firmly established between Alavanyo and neighbouring Nkonya. Togbe Tsedze gave the hint when the Mediation Committtee spearheading peace efforts between the two neighbours met the chiefs and people of Alavanyo and Nkonya separately last Friday to deliberate on boundary demarcation between them. Togbe Tsedze said, "myself and my senior brother Nana Okotor Kofi, Omanhene of Nkonya were invited to Accra to talk about prospects for development of the area". "The two of us sat in the same chair side by side and ate from the same plate," he said. Togbe Tsedze said there is much goodwill towards the two traditional areas by people ready "to help us tackle our developmental problems once lasting peace has been achieved". He said “the priority need of the two areas was an all-weather road from Nkonya through Alavanyo to link them to Hohoe, a road is currently in very bad shape.” Togbe Tsedze catalogued a number of projects about which promises have been made to the two communities in peacetime and appealed to his people to demonstrate that they were committed to peaceful co-existence and development. Nana Kofi Kodua, II, Adontenhene of Nkonya-Wurupong, and Chairman of the Consultative Committee made up of representatives of Nkonya and Alavanyo impressed on any troublemakers in Nkonya that the people were in no mood to rally behind them if they stirred any trouble. The Mediation Committee, under the chairmanship of Right Reverend Dr. Livingstone Buama, Moderator of the E.P. Church has since its inauguration in 2004 by the Volta Regional Co-ordination Council succeed in making the guns and cutlasses of slaughter in the two traditional areas silent and blunt. Through a Consultative Committee comprising representatives of the Nkonya and Alavanyo, the committee has so far succeeded in establishing trust and social interaction between the two neighbours locked in an over 80-year old, often bloody land dispute. The peace formula has been a series of peace workshops that brought together opinion leaders, the youth and chiefs and elders of the two traditional areas and contacts with their kith and kin outside home. The peace efforts have now gotten to a crucial stage where the two have reaffirmed their agreed terms for demarcating their contending boundaries with each other in-turns. Rt. Rev. Dr Buama impressed on the two neighbours that, permanent peace was within their reach having come this far, but the temptation to rock the boat was equally strong and that if they lowered their guard, detractors who stood to benefit from re-igniting hostilities would take advantage of them. Other members of the Mediation Committee were, Right Reverend Francis Lodonu, Bishop of Ho Diocese of the Catholic, as Vice-Chairman, Right Reverend Gabriel Mantey, Bishop of the Jasikan diocese of the Catholic Church, Nana Mprah Besemuna, Krachiwura, Nana Adokua Asigble, Queenmother of Tefle. The rest are Mrs Felicia Okyere-Danso, Chief State Attorney, Mrs Hilary Gbedemah, Legal Practitioner and Mr Evans Kanfra of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council as member Secretary. Source: GNA