Achem-Kpoeta and Hanyigba-Todzi dispute may now be settled

Ho, March 13, GNA - A settlement ceremony aimed at ending hostilities between the people of Achem-Kpoeta in the Ho District of the Volta Region and Hanyigba-Todzi in the Republic of Togo ended positively on Thursday when delegates from both sides exchanged visits.

Until last Thursday's ceremony, such a gesture of trust was impossible because of their protracted land dispute which has led to several armed clashes. Togbe Ayisa the fifth, Fiaga of Honuta who presided over the ceremony, told the Ghana News Agency at Ho that the ceremony facilitated peace among the two neighbouring communities.

Togbe Ayisa said the two sides understood the "potency of the rituals" which were performed to end the conflict and they will do nothing to violate them. The ceremony involved the slaughtering of a ram with each member of the two delegations licking the blood three times and serving each other with palm wine from the same calabash after libation was poured to invoke their deities and gods to witness the occasion.

He said however breaks the vow invokes the wrath of the gods "which can impose instant death sentence." The two communities, separated by the international boundaries between Ghana and Togo, in spite of their blood ties have been engaged in a long dispute over farm lands across their common frontiers.

Last year the dispute degenerated into armed clashes which prompted a joint ministerial delegations from Ghana and Togo to visit the two communities in turns as part of efforts at ending their hostilities and facilitating access to farms in the area.

Last Thursday's ceremony at Honuta was therefore part of the continuing efforts by the two governments to restore normal relations between the two communities while the joint Border Demarcation Commissions of the two countries resolved the problem.

The ceremony was witnessed by members of the Ho District Security Council, chiefs from the Kluto Prefecture in Togo as well as Lieutenant Colonel John Forkuo, Commanding Officer of the Medium Mortar Regiment at Ho.