The President of the Gbi Traditional Council (GTC) in the Volta Region, Togbega Gabusu VII, has appealed to the government to strengthen and empower chiefs in order to enable them to facilitate development of their respective areas.
Chiefs, he said, must be strengthened with the power to adjudicate some civil cases to reduce pressure on the law courts with many of the cases that could have been settled amicably by chiefs.
Togbega Gabusu, who is Paramount Chief of Gbi Traditional Area, stated that chiefs in the past were responsible for peace and unity in their respective jurisdictions as they settled disputes, which led to peaceful and harmonious society, and in the process accorded traditional authorities much respect for the display of arbitration skills, taken away from them to the law courts.
Addressing the second meeting of the GTC at Hohoe over the weekend, Togbega Gabusu noted that it was becoming increasingly clear that after settlement of some cases in the law court, peace never prevailed between the parties which lingered on to affect development.