President John Evans Atta Mills has urged the people of Bawku to restore the glory of the Township by co-existing peacefully, saying Bawku had a glorious history and name that needed to be restored. This was contained in a speech read for him by the Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Joseph Smith at the "Samanpiid' festival of the chiefs and people of the Kusaug Traditional Area on Tuesday at Bawku. The festival, which coincided with the Silver Jubilee of the enskinment of the Bawku Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, was on the theme; "25 years of Progressive Leadership; Successes, Challenges and Prospects". According to President Mills, Bawku was a unique Municipality because it was the only town that shared boundaries with Burkina Faso and Togo and is used as transit point by vehicles going to Niger and that no Municipality or District had this opportunity. He added that Bawku used to be one of the areas where economic activities boomed and opened up a lot of employment avenues for the people and generated huge internal revenue for the Government. He appealed to Kussasis and Mamprusis to reflect on the amount of money that was being spent in keeping the peace in the area, noting that such monies could have been used for infrastructural developments. The President assured of his government’s commitment to ensuring that peace returned to the area, adding that that explains why it was committing many resources into restoring peace to the area. He said unless the people in the area cultivated a culture of peace, harmony and good neighborliness, Government's efforts would amount to nothing. "It is the combined efforts of the Government and the citizens of Bawku that can together ensure lasting peace in the area. Genuine and lasting peace generally originates from within and not without", President Mills said. He appealed to factions that have withdrawn from the Inter-Ethnic Peace Committee to rescind their decision and return so that whatever grievances they have could be resolved by the Regional Coordinating Security Council and the Municipal Security Council for peace to prevail. Source: GNA