The people of Peki and Tsito in the Volta Region, have initiated overtures towards peaceful resolution of a protracted and often bloody land dispute between the two groups.
Mr. Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister, who said this, expressed the hope that lessons from the Alavanyo-Nkonya success story would be adopted to help the people the two towns smoke the peace pipe as well as address similar disputes in the region.
The Regional Minister was speaking when members of the Nkonya-Alavanyo Peace Mediation Committee, led by its chairman, the Very Reverend Dr. Livistone Buama, former Moderator of the now General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, called on him on Wednesday a Ho.
Mr. Amenowode said he had accepted to collaborate in finally putting the seal on permanent peace between the people of Alavanyo and Nkonya.
Rev. Dr Buama said the initiative for peaceful resolution of the Alavanyo-Nkonya dispute came from the people themselves and that "They have selected us to help them to achieve peace. It was their own initiative and commitment that has brought us this far. They have come to understand that peace is both a gift and a task."
He said that from a tragic situation of more than 80 years of extreme hatred, suspicion and blood letting, the people of Nkonya and Alavanyo now interacted with each other freely.
Rev. Buama said the process has now reached the stage of negotiations between the two communities to determine what they intended to do with the area of land in dispute.
He said that this stage of the peace process required financial support from government and that a formal request would be made for support.
Most Reverend Francis Lodonu, Catholic Bishop of the Ho Diocese of the Catholic Church, and Vice Chairman of the Committee, said the land area under dispute was 10 square miles.
He said until a survey of the land and mapping of the disputed area was made as part of the peace process, both sides did not know the size of land they were fighting over.
Rev. Lodonu said the map of the area in dispute was shown to the people of Nkonya and Alavanyo and people outside the communities and discussed, accepted and approved by all the parties.
Other members of the Peace Committee were Mama Adokua Asigble, Queenmother of Tefle, Nana Mprah Besemuna, Krachiwura, Mrs Hillary Gbedemah, Legal Practitioner and Mrs Felicia Okyere Darko, Chief State Attorney in charge of the Volta Region with Mr Evans Kanfra of the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council as Secretary.
The area in dispute is a large stretch of fertile land between Tsito and Dededo on the Ho-Accra highway which has been lying fallow.
Before the outbreak of hostilities a few decades ago, part of the disputed land called Kporvi was a thriving marketing centre.