Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, has called on the Regional Peace Council to step up efforts at devising realistic strategies to address protracted chieftaincy disputes in the region.

"We must work together to identify and tackle the remote causes of the long-standing chieftaincy disputes that threatened the peace of the region," she said.

Such disputes, she stressed, retarded progress and called for effective collaboration between the Regional Security Council, Peace Council and the Regional House of Chiefs to iron out all misunderstandings.

Madam Owusu-Banahene said this when the Regional Peace Council paid a courtesy call on her in Sunyani.

She said peace remained a pre-requisite for development and urged the stakeholders to device preventive measures to curb disputes, rather than allowing them to metamorphose into conflicts and violence that could impact the socio-economic growth of the area.

Issues such as land litigation had huge potential to disturb the peace, the Minister said, and called for collaboration with the Lands Commission to help resolve land disputes.

She assured the Peace Council of her readiness and commitment to supporting it in all its activities.

Alhaji Suallah Abdalah Quandah, the Executive Secretary of the Bono Regional Peace Council, took the Regional Minister through the activities of the Council and hoped the Regional Coordinating Council would support his office to address potential conflicts that threatened the peace of the region.

He congratulated the Regional Minister on her appointment and called on the people to support her to improve the development of the region.