National Peace Council calls for legal backing

The National Peace Council has appealed to President J. E. A. Mills to assist the council to get the National Peace Council Bill passed into law.

The council said the bill, when passed, will give legal backing and recognition to the Council; as well as help maintain its neutrality and impartiality.

The chairman of the council, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, made the appeal when a delegation of members of the council called on President Mills at the Castle, Osu, in Accra, yesterday.

He said since its establishment in 2006, the council had maintained its neutrality and impartiality in all its activities and had worked with all stakeholders irrespective of their religious, ethnic or political affiliations.

"For the council to continue to be effective, we most respectfully request you to assist in getting the National Peace Council Bill passed into law. The current bill is at the Ministry of the Interior," he stressed.

He pledged the council's support for the President and the government and assured him of its preparedness to help the President to foster national cohesion through peace building.

His Eminence Cardinal Turkson further commended the President for his pledge to be a President to all, stressing that "we note with much gratification your pledge to be President to all our countrymen and women."

President Mills, for his part, commended the council for its role in the recent elections and urged its members to make peace their top priority at all times.

He said their positions at all times should reflect neutrality, stressing that the country needed people who could promote peace at all times.

He bemoaned the situation where some people because of their selfish interests fail to promote the interests of others and said that could not promote national unity.

President Mills expressed the government's preparedness to consult the council if there was a cause that could derail the peace in the country.

"We need a multi-partisan support so that the peace council should be seen as a neutral body," he further stressed.

The council later presented to the President its reports on peace-building efforts in some parts of the country.