The Ayawaso West Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) in the Greater Accra Re­gion, Dr Michael Mensah, has urged the youth in the area to celebrate next month’s Homowo Festival in the area in moderation.

According to him, the cele­bration was about merry making and thanksgiving as such actions that could lead to accidents and unexplained loss of life should be avoided.

He made the call when he presented food items to the five Traditional Authorities in the area as part of the Assembly’s contri­bution towards the celebrations of this year’s Homowo festival in the Municipality.

Each authority received a bag of maize, onion, gallons of Palm Oil, bottles of Schnapps and an undisclosed amount of money.

The beneficiary areas include Abotsiman, Balwaleshie, Dz­orwulu Abele, Shiashie, and Mempeasem.

The MCE was accompanied by the Member of Parliament for the area, who is also Deputy Min­ister of Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, and other officials of the Assembly.

Furthermore, Dr Mensah noted that the festival was about family reunion, cementing of communal bonds, all aimed at of­fering gratitude to the Almighty God for granting the Ga State a successful season, hence the call for a peaceful celebration devoid of unfortunate incidents.

“The country has gone through so much pain in the past weeks, as such, the celebration must be in moderation devoid of risky and dreadful riding of motorbikes, usually displayed by the youth, which could cause the lives of others,” he added.

He said as an Assembly of which the Traditional Authorities, are major partners and stakehold­ers in the local administration concept, it behooves the Mu­nicipality to lend its support to ensure a peaceful and successful celebration.

“This is the time to show complete solidarity with our Traditional Authorities who are custodians of our lands and are celebrating an important festival in the Ga State,” he stated.

The MCE urged the Tradition­al Authorities to use the occasion to pray for the continuous peace of the country, the President and government, as well as the total development of the area.

Moreover, Dr Mensah said the Assembly would soon role out its planned programmes and policies for the area and called on the Traditional Authorities to lend their support for the total development of the area.

The Chief of Mempeasem, Nii Torgbor Ampau VI, on behalf of colleagues, commended the Assembly and government for the gesture and assured of continuous prayers for peace and progress of the country, especial­ly the Municipality.

The Municipal Works Engineer, Justin Glover, also confirmed that the operation was part of a wider development control initiative, consistent with the land use and spatial planning Act, 2016 (Act 925).

Also, he stressed that the law requires all developers to secure planning permits before under­taking any physical construction.

Moreover, Mr Glover re­vealed that the task force was initially sent to Bulaso, one of the earmarked communities, and were being confronted by land guards who threatened and chased them while they attempted to serve a stop-work notice for a fence wall being constructed directly on a major access road.

He expressed worry that overlooking such impunity and lawlessness would drag the work of the Assembly and the depart­ment responsible into questioning and dereliction of duty.

He noted that the Assembly’s response demonstrates its com­mitment to upholding law and order.