Officially, no one has died in Bawku for two years

Bawku (U/E) Feb. 12,GNA-No death has been officially recorded in Bawku for two years, the Bawku Municipal Birth and Death Registry has said However, 4,212 births were registered within the same period.

Mr Mohammed Yussif, Municipal Director of Births and Death Registratio= n who disclosed this on Friday day in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Bawku blamed local religious beliefs and the protracted chieftaincy conflict in the area for the data loss.

He said the lack of strategies to sensitize the people on the need to register their dead was a factor as they viewed death as a personal or family tragedy that is not to be shared.

Mr Yussif stated that the figure for births included infants and adult= s and out of that, 3202 were infants' registration while 1010 stood for adu= lt registration which he described as 93late registration". He called on the people to see the registration of births and deaths a= s an important exercise because government used that data to allocate funds for development projects. He explained that the exercise enabled public planners to know the number of people who are born and the number that died within a given period. Mr Yussif appealed for logistics and more personnel to enable the outfit carry out its duties effectively.