Charles Abugri, the Chief Executive Officer of Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), has appealed to public shed SADA’s negative image , which is linked to the bad deals that it ventured into during its initial years.

He said the constant association of SADA with those bad deals was ‘killing the spirit’ of the institution as well as diverting attention from its recent strides, thus the need to view SADA in a positive light.

Mr Abugri made the call during the opening of the 16th Biennial Plenary Assembly of the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Pastoral Conference (TEPPCON) at Damongo to discuss issues of interest to society and the church.

The five-day conference was on the theme: “The New Evangelisation and Christian Family Life – The Role of Pastoral Agents and Stakeholders”.

It is being attended by all the Bishops from the five dioceses in northern Ghana: Tamale, Yendi, Damongo, Navrongo-Bolgatanga and Wa.

Mr Abugri said SADA had been restructured to focus on delivering on its core mandate, therefore, people needed to share its recent success stories instead of focusing on the past mistakes.

SADA, which was created to bridge the development gap between the north and the south, engaged in some deals during its initial years, which was deemed controversial thus earning a negative reputation.

He said SADA was working to map every area of the northern ecological zone with a focus on irrigation to facilitate agriculture, while it created awareness about opportunities in its (SADA) zone to attract development partners to invest in the region.

He, therefore, called on all to support SADA to succeed.

The Most Reverend Peter Paul Angkyier, the Bishop of the Damongo Diocese, complained about the degradation of the environment in Gonja land as a result of indiscriminate logging and illegal mining, and called on the relevant authorities to act swiftly to save the environment.

The Most Reverend Philip Naameh, the Archbishop of Tamale and President of TEPPCON, recounted the history of TEPPCON asking members to work to promote its agenda.

Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna, the Northern Regional Minister, whose speech was read on his behalf, commended the Catholic Church for its immense contributions to promote health and education.