The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, RT. Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante has disclosed that the church is beginning to reflect on whether it should continue to invest resources in Bawku following erratic violent incidents in the area.
Since the dying months of 2021, Bawku has witnessed exchanges of gunshots due to the decades-old conflict, bringing many agencies to their knees as some pack out of the municipality.
The re-emergence of the conflict has negatively affected many sectors including education, and health, amongst others with the National Identification Authority struggling to get residents of Bawku to register for the Ghana Card.
Heads of basic schools recently wrote to the Ghana Education Service requesting the GES to close down schools in the area due to the conflict and the imposition of a ban on the use of motorbikes and tricycles which is adversely affecting the movement of people.
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust, SSNIT has also had reason to pack out of their office in Bawku.
The church was compelled to temporarily move the training college to Bolga while the hospital continues to suffer poor patronage.
Speaking in an interview with journalists in Bolgatanga, RT. Rev. Prof. Mante noted that the conflict is negatively affecting the smooth running of the hospital and the school.
He says the students have returned to Bawku but the church is skeptical about the situation
“Lately there’s been a lot of fighting and shooting in the place such that people fear for their lives, people find it very difficult to work and I want to plead with all the factions in the fight to please, stop. It will not help anybody and we all, as Ghanaians stand to lose.
Right now, as I am standing here, I have been thinking several times as to whether we should continue to invest resources and money into the Bawku Hospital. If we invest money and Resources into it and people just go and shoot and destroy it, it would have been a waste of time and waste of money. I want to beg, I want to really beg, there is no matter in this world that we cannot talk with our mouths about,” he admonished.
