Hohoe Youth Parliament deeply regrets the unfortunate event that has reared its ugly head into the Gbi traditional area and to that extent the Hohoe municipality. As young people and tomorrow’s leaders, we will add our voices to the many calls for peace to prevail. We dare caution that we should all be guided by the greater collective good and tread cautiously. There is no gain saying that our municipality can only develop when there is peace. The cost of the curfew to economic activities especially night life is unimaginable, the overall insecurity in the town has practically destroyed business, schools have closed down and people are fleeing in droves. This cannot be allowed to continue, to this end the Hohoe Youth Parliament: 1. Calls on all political, traditional and social commentators as well as the mass media to be extremely careful and circumspect in their commentary and reportage on this matter going forward. The truth is that the absence of war is not an evidence of peace; we should be reminded that the absence of the right information is far better than putting the wrong information into the public domain. 2. We in the Youth parliament have noticed from our intelligence survey that Hohoe has been sitting on a time bomb for some time now; due to the wide spread joblessness in the Municipality. A lot of young people are frustrated and are looking for the slightest opportunity to vent their anger. 3. The youth parliament is made up of youth from the whole municipality irrespective of culture, creed, religion or ethnicity. All we are asking for is that both aggrieved parties use dialog to settle this unfortunate happening. As a group whose membership cut across both parties involved in the feud, we can only ask for calm while we contribute in whatever way we can to ensure that peace returns to Hohoe now. 4. The efforts of the security services on the ground to maintain peace and security cannot be overemphasized, however we are pleading with them to handle the people professionally, as a mouthpiece of the youth in Hohoe, we have received several complaints from youth about the way citizens are being handled by some elements of the security agencies and wish to remind them that they are in Hohoe right now to protect the people not brutalize them. 5. We are calling on the police high command to institute immediate investigations into the many reported cases of arbitrariness and abuse of power by their men on the ground. We are particularly calling for investigations into circumstances surrounding how a young defenseless boy was shot to death. We have always known the Paramount Chief Togbega Gabusu VI as one person who has the youth at heart and always responded to youth programmes positively and in a fatherly manner. We also know that the current happening is very tough for him, giving his personal relationship with the Muslim community; we also acknowledge the extent to which this issue has touched his authority. Despite all these, we the members of the Hohoe Youth Parliament are calling on our beloved father Togbega Gabusu VI to put on his ever loving fatherly garments while approaching this very issue, he is a man of a big heart and we know with him at the helm of affairs, peace will soon return. Finally, we want to reemphasize our call to the youth of both sides to remain calm. We also wish to use this opportunity to thank the National Chief Imam, The regional Minister, The Volta regional house of chiefs, the security agencies, the Municipal Chief executive and all working on this issue for the visible effort they are putting in to bring the situation under control. John Jaisey Speaker of Parliament 024-3476958