Football stars light up Tamale township in peace initiative

By Ameenu Shardow

Ghana's football icons were mobbed by men, women and children upon arrival in Tamale on Monday morning where they will be playing a charity game to promote peace.

An impressive array of current and former players including; John Boye, Ben Acheampong, Stephen Baidoo, Augustine Ahinful, Yaw Preko, Laryea Kingston, Eric Addo, Kwame Ayew, Mahatma Otoo amongst others were shown abundant love by the natives who got a rare chance of coming face to face with their idols.

The stars are in the Northern Region to commence a nationwide campaign by the Professional Footballers Association in conjunction with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to create awareness of the need for peace ahead of the general elections on December 7.

They will be interacting with the locals to drum home the message of peace before taking to the field to an expected packed crowd at the Tamale Sports Stadium later in the day.

The stars were driven straight from the airport to the Dakpema Palace where they paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Tamale to present themselves and also to announce their mission in his state while requesting his blessings for all the other activities to follow - one the Chief was happy to oblige.

"I want to thank you for coming into this town with such a laudable mission," he said.

"You have all the support of the people here and I wish you well in all future activities of this campaign."

The peace campaign dubbed 'ONE GHANA..... GOALS FOR PEACE' falls in line with efforts being made by individuals and societal groups to promote peace and the need for it ahead of Ghana’s general elections on December 7.