• Boakye Agyarko is coy on his presidential ambitions
• He says he remains committed to serving Ghanaians and will not retire from politics
• He maintains that the NPP must unite and support President Akufo-Addo
Boakye Agyarko, former Energy Minister has broken his silence on reports that he is lacing his boots to contest the 2023 presidential primaries of the New Patriotic Party, NPP.
Boakye Agyarko’s name has featured prominently as one of many NPP bigwigs who could challenge Vice President Bawumia for the position – if the latter contests.
Speaking as a guest on Net2 TV’s ‘The Seat’ program, Boakye Agyarko offered a coy response to the reports.
He also rejected claims that he will take a permanent break from politics, noting that “public service has always been my first passion.”null
Boakye Agyarko disclosed that the reason for which he left his base in the United of States of America to come to Ghana was to contribute to the development of the country.
“It was the presidential race of 2007 that brought me back from the US. I left the US to participate in our politics and in fact I was a participant in our politics before the unfortunate incident of June 1983 sent me into exile. I was in exile for 18 years. I never quit politics and will never quit politics because public service is my first passion. When the time comes, it shall be made known,” he said.
He however encouraged all members of the NPP to focus on helping Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo deliver a successful second term.
Boakye Agyarko admonished that the failure of the NPP government will have a devastating effect on Ghana’s democracy hence the need for all members of the party to join forces and ensure a successful final term for the president.
“We must all come together and help our President achieve his targets for the country. The failure of the NPP is tantamount to a failure of democracy so let’s unite and work for Nana Addo to succeed,” he said.
He also touched on the Ejura shooting incident, describing it as ‘unfortunate and avoidable.’
Seasoned Journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr. has called on government to compensate the families of the three deceased in the Ejura incident.
The death of the three, Ibrahim Mohammed a.k.a ‘Kaaka’ a social media activist, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed has caused a stir in the Ejura community in the Ashanti Region with the irate residents demanding justice for them.
Kaaka’s demise was reportedly caused by a mob assault on him for being vociferously vocal about national issues.
The other two were killed while protesting for justice for Kaaka when soldiers deployed to the community released live bullets into a crowd of protesters.
Addressing Journalists in Accra on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said; “Our security agencies should be quick and clinical in getting to the bottom of this and other unresolved comes. While we understand that police investigations sometimes take a while, it does not instil confidence in the population if such acts go unresolved and unpunished. So the police need to get to the bottom of this, and justice must be done.
“A credible investigation also needs to be conducted into the crowd rioting and crowd control incidents of 29th June. This will bring clarity to the sequence of events and ensure that if any persons acted inappropriately, those persons are punished.”
Today, July 1, 2021, is Republic Day. The day commemorates Ghana attaining a Republican status after independence on July 1, 1960.
Until 2019, July 1 had been marked as a statutory public holiday but the Ministry of the Interior on May 8, 2019, announced that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had assented to the Public Holidays (Amendment Act) 2019 (Act 986).
The day has since been made a commemorative day.
Speaking in an interview with some opposition political parties, they called for a repeal of the law which changed the status of the day from a statutory public holiday to a commemorative one.
PNC
According to the General Secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Ms Janet Nabla, the commemorative day denied Ghanaians the opportunity to reflect on what it meant to be a republic.
“It should have been a holiday to give Ghanaians the opportunity to sit and reflect on the things that have happened from 1957 till date and whether we are still on track to becoming self-sufficient”.
She said Ghanaians had deviated from the political ideals and vision Dr Kwame Nkrumah had when he pushed for independence from the British monarchy.
“We must ask ourselves where we went wrong and why Ghanaians have become so self-centred. They are thinking of how to amass wealth at the detriment of the common man with shoddy public procurement and road constructions which are still outlasted by many of the projects of Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
“Tomorrow should be a day of reflection so that all politicians, NGOs and citizens must look at where we have gone wrong because we are not going forward, we are going backwards and the founding fathers who risked their lives will be very disappointed. As Ghanaians, we must sit and reflect on this,” she said.
NDC
The Director of Communications of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Kakra Essamuah, said the current commemoration degraded the importance of the day which was intended to celebrate the efforts of forbearers in the collective struggle to affirm the benefits of equality, liberty, freedom and justice.
About Republic Day
Republic Day (July 1, 1960) marked the day Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah was sworn into office as the first President of Ghana. The amendment made May 25, African Union (AU) Day and July 1, Republic Day, commemorative days.
In the past, to mark the Republic Day holiday, various governments used to meet the elderly in society and interact with them.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, has ordered the Kumasi city authorities to pull down over 300 structures which have been identified to be on watercourses.
That, the Minister said, would help avert further flooding in the future, with the onset of the rainy season.
He said it was important to take the difficult decisions now to avert disaster in the future, saying the incidents of flooding being recorded in recent times in Kumasi could be attributed to building on watercourses.
Enforcement
According to Mr Asenso-Boakye, managing flood was not the responsibility of only the Ministry but also the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), as well as their chief executives, who had been mandated to manage flood at the local level and help solve the perennial floods across the country.
He explained that the pulling down of illegal structures was the responsibility of MMDCEs, since they were in charge of the planning of the city, as affirmed by the Local Government Act.
He said the issuance of building and development permits was also the core mandate of the MMDAs, and that any time regulations with regard to structures and construction were breached, it was the responsibility of the assemblies to make sure that those buildings were pulled down.
Affected areas
In the company of the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei Mensah, and the Director of Urban Roads, Nana Poku Agyemang, the Works and Housing Minister visited Atasomanso, Santasi-Anyinam, Bantama, Asafo Market, the new Kejetia Market, Aboabo, Asawase, Anloga Junction and Atafoa.
Atafoa
At Atafoa, where a developer was putting up a washing bay and adjoining stores along a watercourse, the Minister ordered the KMA to pull the structure down with immediate effect.
Mr Asenso-Boakye said he had gathered that the developer pulled a gun on the authorities when they confronted him (developer) to stop work, describing that incident as criminal.
He called on the KMA to report the incident to the police for action to be taken against the developer to deter others from going contrary to the law.
Solid waste
The Works and Housing Minister also singled out the indiscriminate disposal of solid waste, especially into drains, as the main cause of the flooding and advised residents to desist from that unlawful practice, as it did pose a danger to their health and could lead to the outbreak of cholera.
Mr Asenso-Boakye, said when the team of engineers visited the area soon after it got flooded, it observed that residents had dumped all kinds of waste into the drains, which caused them to get choked.
He said it took community action, led by the Assembly Member for the area, Mr Kwabena Boateng, and his team, who went into the tunnel and pulled out debris to allow free flow of water through the drains.
“The fact is that we are the cause of our woes,” he reiterated, saying it was about time residents took responsibility, instead of blaming officialdom.
“Nana Akufo-Addo has spent GH¢450 million to fight flooding in this country”, he said, saying all that investment would go to waste if the citizenry did things the same old way.
Former President John Dramani Mahama and two political parties have called for calm in the Ejura town following the death of two persons and injuries to four others in clashes between the youth and security agencies.
They have also called for thorough investigations into the incident leading to the murder of the youth activist, Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Macho Kaaka, and the shooting of two persons by the security agencies.
The parties are the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the Minority Caucus in Parliament.
In his statement, Mr Mahama called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take steps to de-escalate the situation in Ejura.
“There must be a very thorough investigation of both the murder of the youth activist and the security rules of engagement, which resulted in the shooting to death of the two others,” he stated.
Minority
At a press conference addressed by the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Caucus called on the youth not to allow the Ejura violence degenerate into an alarming situation, reports Nana Kunadu Agyeman.
He also called on the President to establish a commission of enquiry within the meaning of Article 278 of the Constitution to make the recommendations of such commission more acceptable.
“The President’s instruction is for a ministerial commission of enquiry but we reject it; that is not good enough. We want a commission of enquiry within the meaning of article 278 of the 1992 Constitution,” it said.
“We want to see the President appoint a justice of the superior court or a retired Justice of the Supreme Court to lead this process because ultimately we will accept recommendations that call for reforms,” he said.
NDC
In a statement signed by its Director of Communications, Mr Kakra Essamuah, the NDC called on the security agencies to be measured “in the way and manner in which they handle citizens who are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to demonstrate to protect the lives of innocent citizens.”
It said the party’s national chairman, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, and the General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who were currently participating in a workshop at Ada were proceeding back to Accra to take charge of developments.
PPP
The PPP, for its part, condemned, in no uncertain terms, the shooting and killing of the two persons at Ejura and called for a special investigation into the matter and those responsible brought to book expeditiously.
A statement signed by its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Mr Simon Quansah, said the party was expecting the President to condemn the acts of brutalities meted out to citizens by the security forces.
It also called on Parliament to set up a committee of enquiry to look into the matter to establish the circumstances that led to such unfortunate happenings in order to avoid any possible cover-ups.
“While we call for calm in the Ejura town and its surroundings, we urge the people/youth of Ghana to stand up and defend their constitutional rights to demonstrate and demand accountability from their elected officers,” it said.
The statement urged the President to visit Ejura to help restore calm and confidence among the people.
Just recently, Ghana incurred a judgment debt of $170 million for terminating a power contract with Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC).
Feednews.com reported that the Commercial Court in London refused to allow Ghana to bring a belated challenge to an UNCITRAL award worth over US$134 million in favour of a power contractor, ruling that national elections and COVID-19 pandemic did not make the state’s delay reasonable.
The case started under Gloria Afua Akuffo, when she was the Minister of Justice with Godfred Yeboah Dame as her deputy.
State attorneys, including Helen Akpene Awo Ziwu, Anna Pearl Akiwumi Siriboe and Grace Oppong Dolphy in Accra, were also mentioned in the case as having failed to beat a 28-day deadline.
However, the state attorneys, together with Mr Dame, who took over from Gloria Afua Akuffo, went sleeping on the job, leading to a delay in contesting the judgment debt.
The result of that deep sleep is that poverty-stricken Ghana will be paying a whopping US$170 million in damages to the claimants; Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) located at 1 Airport Square Building, 7th floor, Accra.
Mr Dame and his subordinates’ attempts to hide behind the 2020 general election and the COVID-19 pandemic as excuses for the delay was rebuffed by the London court. In a ruling on Wednesday, 8 June 2021, Mr Justice Butcher refused to grant the government a time extension to apply to set aside the award – adding that the state’s grounds for challenging it were “intrinsically weak”.
Global Arbitration Review previously reported on the award in favour of GPGC against Ghana.
GPGC was represented before the court by Charles Kimmins QC and Mark Tushingham, where Ghana was said to have been too late to challenge the decision against it.
Ghana had used Khawar Qureshi QC of Serle Court and Volterra Fietta, having initially retained Omnia Strategy. In the arbitration, GPGC, used Three Crowns and Ghanaian firm, Kimathi & Partners, along with damages experts from FTI Consulting.
Ghana also had representation from the attorney general’s office and Amofa & Partners in Accra.
The underlying dispute concerned the government’s alleged wrongful repudiation in 2018 of a contract for a “fast-track power generation solution” – involving the relocation of two aero-derivative gas turbine power plants to the government’s territory.
A London-seated UNCITRAL tribunal composed of former ICC Court president John Beechey as chair, J William Rowley QC and Ghanaian academic, Albert Fiadjoe, issued its final award in January, ordering the government to pay a contractually defined “early termination payment” of more than US$134.3 million plus interest and costs. It also dismissed the government’s counterclaim.
The award is said to be worth around US$170 million. Under English law, the government had 28 days to bring a challenge to the award.
Three days before the expiry of that deadline, the government’s then solicitors, Omnia Strategy applied to the court for a 56-day extension.
Omnia said it had only just been instructed and that bureaucratic processes had been delayed because of national elections in the country and because key members of the attorney general’s office had contracted covid-19. The court agreed to extend the deadline for any challenge to March 8, but the government only brought its set-aside application on April 1, now represented by Volterra Fietta.
The law firm explained that, the new attorney general, had only been sworn in on March 5, and the firm had been instructed 10 days later.
In the latest ruling, Butcher J, said the government’s delay was “significant and substantial”, as its request for a second extension had come 38 days after the statutory deadline and 27 days after the first extension expired.
The fact that a large sum was at stake in the arbitration was not a reason for the challenge taking longer to make. The fact that the attorney general had not been sworn in until March 5, did not mean the government was unable to act in the meantime, the judge said. The government had still managed to instruct Omnia during this June 12, 2021, 10:37 Pagina 2 di 5period and the new AG, who was previously deputy attorney general, had been among the counsel in the arbitration.
Echoing a ruling in the P&ID v Nigeria case, the judge said the fact that a party is a foreign state is a matter of “little significance” when it comes to compliance with court directions.
That an entity may have “bureaucratic decision-making processes” does not justify the delay.
As for arguments about covid-19, the judge said the evidence as to the way in which the pandemic had affected the government was “wholly inadequate”. There needed to be a detailed explanation of how it had affected “particular people or particular processes”. The judge also said that the grounds of the government’s proposed challenge to the award were “intrinsically weak”.
One argument that the tribunal failed to be “guided by the terms and conditions” of the contract was a “clear case of an attempt to present alleged errors of law as errors of procedure”.
Butcher J, was likewise sceptical of the government’s other complaint that the tribunal failed to deal with all issues put to it. The judge said that the tribunal had dealt with the issues raised and that the government was in fact arguing that the tribunal’s reasons were inadequate.
He said there was no unfairness in denying an extension, as the government had already been granted one extension and was solely responsible for having missed the deadlines. This followed delays in the arbitration for which the government was also apparently solely responsible.
A Joint Security Taskforce headed by the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Adansi Akrofuom, Maurice Jonas Woode, has arrested 24 illegal miners operating in the Sukuma Forest reserve at Pewodie near Grumesa in the Adansi Akrofuom District.
The illegal miners aged between 14 to 45 were said to have been operating in the middle of the forest for some time now despite the ban on illegal mining and mining in forest areas.
The task force also destroyed 16 Chanfan machines, over 200 tents and also seized 104 pumping machines and 11 Gold detector machines from the miners.
It was the second time in two weeks that the Akrofuom DCE had led a raid on illegal miners in the area after a similar exercise at Betenase.
The DCE told the media that “we had a tip-off that there has been fracas among illegal miners operating at Pawodie and Betenase. This prompted the District Security Council to map out strategies to arrest them and halt their operations”.
He announced his resolve to go after illegal miners destroying water bodies and forest areas in the District.
“We are leaving no stone unturned in clamping down on the activities of these illegal miners. We want these arrests and subsequent burning of mining equipment to serve as a deterrent to others,” the visibly furious DCE stated.
Obuasi Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Joseph Nyaaba, said the Security Taskforce was committed to nipping the activities of illegal miners in the bud.
He promised that such operations will not be a flash in the pan, disclosing that,” 83 Security personnel were involved in this operation. This is an indication of our preparedness to stop the activities of illegal miners “.
He cautioned illegal miners who had defied the Presidential orders of banning all illegal mining activities, to halt their operations since the Police would not relent in their efforts to go after them.
Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Isaac Ken Yeboah, says no arrest has been in the Jamestown Bullion Van robbery which claimed the life of General Constable Emmanuel Mensah.
He said two persons were arrested upon suspicion but later through investigations, it was discovered that they were nowhere near the crime scene on that day and therefore could not be linked to that crime.
COP Yeboah appealed to the public to assist the Police with vital information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators, adding that crime combat is a shared responsibility thus crime could be reduced through joint effort between the Police and the public.
He advised that any information about any criminal activities should not be put on social media.
COP Yeboah assured the public that confidentiality of informants would be guarded and called on all to have confidence in the Police.
The public could reach the police through these emergency lines: 191, 18555, 0275000156 and 0206639121, he stated and cautioned those who misused them to desist from it, whether to divert attention, insult police, among others so as to make way for genuine calls.
On Monday, June 14, 2021 at about 12:28pm, police received a distress call from James Town that three armed men on two unregistered motorbikes had attacked and robbed a bullion Nissan van with the registration number GT 8592 W belonging to MON-TRAN Company.
Police rushed to the scene and found Constable Osei on board shot dead and the driver injured.
The James Town District Police Command also found the car parked in the middle of Adedenko Metal Market road with glass of three doors shattered.
The body of the deceased of the National SWAT was found at the front seat bleeding from the head and other parts of the body, with his AK 47 snatched by the robbers.
Wisdom, the driver of the van was not met at the scene by the police team. Eye witnesses led police to a wooden structure where a body of one Afua Badu, 40, a casualty, was found.
A search found Grace Essel, an official of the financial institution who escaped unhurt and had taken refuge in the community. She was sent to the Police Hospital.
Meanwhile, the bodies have been kept at the Morgue for preservation and autopsy.
The gang made away with the AK 47 rifle the police officer was wielding as well as an unspecified amount of money.
A Kumasi High Court has slapped government with a $15.3 million judgment debt for the unlawful seizure of excavators.
It has also ordered that government pays the mining company, Heritage Imperial Limited an amount of ¢600,000.
This amount was awarded to the mining firm prospecting for gold in the Apamprama Forest Reserve in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region.
On December 6, 2018, the company’s concession was raided by the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Illegal Mining under the suspicion of engaging in activities outside their mandate.
According to the taskforce, the company had been mining illegally though the license granted them only allowed for prospecting.
In court, lawyers for the mining firm argued that they procured a prospecting mining licence from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on October 25, 2018.
The plaintiffs said they stuck to this commitment until the raid was conducted on their concession by the taskforce where their excavators and other equipment were confiscated in December that same year.
In its ruling on May 18, 2021, the court deemed the action on the site against Heritage Imperial Mining Company as unlawful, adding that no evidence had been advanced by the taskforce to back their claims of illegality on the company’s part.
The court, presided by Justice Samuel Obeng Diawuo, also held that the move by the taskforce on the said day was against the mandate within which they were to operate in the fight against illegal mining in the country.
It further concluded that the company also permitted other entities to invade the concession and mine from the plaintiff’s concession.
Former President John Mahama has denied claims on social media that he has visited troubled spot Ejura in the Ashanti region where three people have been killed.
A video of the former President visiting some patients at a hospital has surfaced on social media with some NDC activists claiming Mr. Mahama has visited Ejura to commiserate with bereaved families.
However, in a post on Facebook, Mr Mahama said: “The video circulating of my visit to injured persons in a hospital is an old one, and has no link to current developments in Ejura”.
The National Peace Council has condemned the killing of an activist Ibrahim Kaaka by some unknown persons at Ejura in the Ashanti region.
The Council has in a statement also bemoaned the subsequent killing of two other residents of the Ashanti regional town by security officers who were deployed to the town to de-escalate tensions. The officers were deployed after the youth of the town took to the streets over the killing of Kaaka.
“The Council received this unfortunate report in the middle of a National Stakeholder Dialogue to chart a path to consolidate the gains the country has made beyond the 2020 elections.
“The Council expresses grave concern that three Ghanaians have lost their lives in this violent incident. The Council condemns the unfortunate incident and calls on the relevant agencies to conduct thorough investigations into the matter without delay,” the council said.
The statement added: “The Council notes with appreciation the President’s directive to the Minister of the Interior, to conduct a public inquiry into the circumstances that led to the unfortunate occurrences. We encourage the proposed Committee to work within the terms of reference
The First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo has made a clarion call for stakeholders to take action towards ending children dying from malnutrition, malaria or other preventable illness in Ghana.
She said the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the current nutrition crisis due to the disruption in the food supply system hence the need to fast truck actions to salvage the situation.
Mrs. Akufo-Addo was speaking at the Nutrition Advocate Event which brought stakeholders together to deliberate on improving the nutrition, health, survival and development of women.
The First Lady commended the good initiative from the health sector ” Start Right Feed Right” Campaign that has help to improve the quality of children’s diet to keep the country on the path to meeting the global nutrition targets.
She pledged her support to work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by ensuring the decline in the prevalence of malnutrition and its resultant ill- health and death among children.
“I wish to restate my resolve that, no child should die from malnutrition, malaria or other preventable illness in Ghana. So together with Malaria Prevention Foundation, our partners and stakeholders, I stand committed to the task that is ahead of us”, she said.
She, again, urged all stakeholders to help in the strengthening of school-based interventions like the provision of safe portable water, health, nutrition, hygiene and infection prevention education.
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu in his remarks said in order for the country to achieve its objective of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) which is Goal three of the SDGs and other equally important goals, the government is ensuring a robust health insurance system, strengthening the implementation of policies such as the free maternal health care services to benefit women and children largely and by extension the entire population.
“We do recognise that the determinants of maternal and child health and nutrition are complicated and delivering on our set goals is beyond what the government alone can do, collaboration with other all stakeholders and the traditional and community leaders is critical to success,” he said.
Mr Agyeman-Manu stressed that the country’s national response has been to focus on scaling up cost effective interventions, innovations, improved accountability and governance, advocacy and health system strengthening.
“Government is working tirelessly to ensure equitable distribution of a competent health workforce and improve the health infrastructure,” he added.
Director General, Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, indicated that the country’s Maternal Child Health and Nutrition situation has evolved over the years evidently showing in the incremental improvement recorded with regards to access and quality of health services particularly for mothers, children and adolescents.
“In order to continue in the current trajectory of reducing the situation regarding stunting, wasting and anaemia and explore actions that will focus on addressing overweight and obesity and the potential effects on non-communicable diseases, it goes without saying that community level actions are important,” he said.
He said the resolve of the service to improve the nutrition status and survival of women and children is guided by the knowledge that investing in maternal and child health feeding, present both short term and long term benefits which are vital to the development. Our focus today is certainly in line with this and will contribute to pushing these programs forward
The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) says it is “disgusted” at the shooting incident in Ejura that led to the death of two young men Murtala Mohammed and Abdul Yusif both 25 during a demonstration to demand justice for the murder of Ibrahim Mohammed aka Kaaka, a social media activist by a mob.
The Catholic Bishops said they have expressed time and again for the need for the security agencies to be very professional in the discharge of their duties especially when it comes to crowd control but the situation is rather getting out of hand and it does not auger well for the country.
The Catholic Bishops said soldiers aiming and shooting at unprotected and unarmed civilians is not only condemnable but criminal and must be investigated and the perpetrators punished.
“This must be done with the urgency it deserves because citizens are gradually losing trust in the ability of our security agencies to handle such cases effectively and competently,” the Bishops said in a statement.
The Bishops have, however, appealed to all agitated youth across the country particularly those of Ejura to restrain themselves from engaging in acts that can result in social unrest.
The youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has written to the Inspector-General of Police, James Oppong-Boanuh to notify the Police Service that it will hold a demonstration and street protest.
The exercise, dubbed “A March for Justice” will be held in Accra on Tuesday, 6 July 2021.
A letter signed by the NDC National youth organiser, George Opare Addo on 30 June 2021 indicated that “this protest is to demand justice for all persons killed and brutalised by state sponsored thuggery and/or adventurism by police and military forces.
The letter noted that the protestors will follow four separate routes: Madina, Accra business district, Osu and Lapaz.
Afterwards, all protesters will converge at the Jubilee House to present a petition to the President, and head to the police head office to present petitions to the IGP and to the Speaker of Parliament at the Parliament House.
Three armed robbers busted for a crime in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region on 11 May 2021, have confessed to taking part in the murder of late Mfantseman MP Ekow Quansah Hayford.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, 30 June 2021, the Head of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service, COP Isaac Ken Yeboah, said the robbers have been tried and jailed 20 years each for a robbery incident but are yet to be arraigned and tried for the murder of the late MP.
He noted that one of the armed robbers, who was of Fulani extraction was shot and killed.
Three others are on the run.
Mr Hayford was shot dead in October 2020 on the Abeadze Dominase-Abeadze Duadzi-Mankessim road.
The late MP of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was returning from a campaign trip at Dominase to his residence at Mankessim.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has instructed the Minister for the Interior, Hon. Ambrose Dery, MP, to conduct, forthwith, a Public Inquiry into the circumstances that led to the unfortunate occurrences of Tuesday, 29th June 2021.
The Interior Minister is to provide a detailed report from the Inquiry, with recommendations for appropriate action, within ten days, i.e., by 9th July 2021, to President Akufo-Addo.
The President is deeply saddened by the deaths of Ibrahim Mohammed, alias ‘Kaaka’, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed.
He extends sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and wishes the injured a speedy recovery.
• Efia Odo has issued a stern warning to some persons who are allegedly defaming
• She has disclosed her intention to drag such persons to court to be dealt with
• The actress has labeled as false all accusations made against her person
Popular social media influencer, Efia Odo has threatened to drag the New patriotic Party’s Bono regional chairman, Abronye DC, and some other individuals to court for peddling falsehood about her.
According to Efia, Abronye in particular has on several occasions publicly spewed lies about her and it’s time to put him in check.
It can be recalled that Abronye DC in an interview with Wontumi TV amongst other things alleged that Efia Odo is championing the #FixTheCountry protest because she was denied some funds by the NPP government.
Abronye also claimed that Efia Odo is seeking attention because she has been struggling to make ends meet ever since the opposition National Democratic Congress left power.
He also alleged that the actress was ‘in bed’ with the NDC while they were in power adding that she was gifted a house and was kept on the party’s payroll.
But addressing such issues in a Twitter post, Efia Odo on June 29, 2021, retweeted an article in which Abronye was captured making such allegations and wrote:
“It’s time to start suing people for defamation of character.”
The popular actress has been pivotal in advocating for the #FixTheCountry campaign. Her activism in support of the protest resulted in her arrest together with 15 others last Friday.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), in a statement signed by its Communication Director, Kakra Essamuah, has appealed for calm in Ejura in the Ashanti Region following the lynching of social media activist, Ibrahim ‘Kaaka’ Mohammed, and the subsequently shot to death by soldiers, of two of several protesters on Tuesday, 29 June 2021 and called “on the security agencies to be measured in the way and the manner in which they handle citizens who are exercising their constitutionally-guaranteed right to demonstrate to protect the lives of innocent citizens.”null
The party said in view of the fluid security situation in Ejura, its national chairman Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, and general secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, who are “currently participating in a workshop at Ada, organized by the National Peace Council, with sponsorship by the UNDP and the Commonwealth Secretariat, have left Ada and are proceeding back to Accra to take charge of developments.”
Also, former President John Dramani Mahama has said “I urgently call on President Nana Akufo-Addo to initiate an immediate de-escalation of the situation in Ejura.”
Four other protesters also got injured in the clash between the demonstrators and the security personnel.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, the former president said: “There must be a very thorough investigation of both the murder of the youth activist and the security rules of engagement, which resulted in the shooting to death of the two others.”
Mr Mahama said: “I add my voice to calls for calm following the shooting to death of two persons and the injury to many in Ejura today.
“I have just seen a video of the firing of live ammunition into a crowd by persons wearing military attire, after the burial of the murdered youth activist,” he observed.null
He added that “My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the Ejura community.”
Meanwhile, the Ashanti regional police command has commenced investigations to establish the circumstances surrounding the violent clash.
In a statement, the police said its preliminary investigation shows that following the burial of Ibrahim Mohammed, aka Kaaka, at Mempeasem cemetery at Ejura on Tuesday, some irate youth blocked the main Ejura Atebubu road, thus, impeding traffic flow.
The police moved in with military reinforcement to quell the situation but the irate youth charged on the security officers with all manner of implements including firearms, clubs, machetes and stones.
The security officials fired into the crowd to disperse the angry mob, who failed to retreat but rather messed up in all corners.
The death and injuries were recorded in the process.null
The security situation as of 3:30 pm, according to the police, is calm.
However, security has been reinforced to ensure total stability.
The regional command has also taken over the investigation into the murder of Kaaka and has appealed to anyone who has credible information to share with the command at the Central Police Station, Kumasi, or call 0299207770.
“The strictest confidentially is assured,” the police said.
The command also appealed to everyone, especially the youth of Ejura, to remain calm and also called on the traditional and opinion leaders to call for restraint to avert an escalation.
Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, says attitude is everything and determines how far a person goes in life.
“Most people who have made it in life will testify that, it is not only the degrees but the right attitude, perseverance, determination, humility, courage and resilience that took them to the top,” she said.
Mrs Mensa said this when she received the NanaYaa Most Confident Personality Award for being a strong person before, during and after the 2020 election.
The award was conferred on her by the Spirit, Soul & Body Workshop (SSBW), a non-governmental organization with focus on social welfare, at its 10th anniversary in Accra.
The EC Chairperson said, “We need to rely on God in all our endeavors,” but it was also important to have the right attitude always.
Reverend Betty Mensah, President, Aflame Ladies Network, said right attitude was important in “breaking barriers for success and it was a gift, revolving around a way a person spoke and responded to situations, which in the end brought blessings or frustrations.
Reverend Nanayaa Tina Owusu-Prempwh, Executive Director, SSBW, said the Organisation was set up to motivate and change lives of people who were going through difficulties.
She said the SSBW platform had created an opportunity to save lives of people who wanted to commit suicide and said it had saved many lives in the past 10 years and gave thanks to God.
Rev Prempeh added that the workshop had helped its members to network, got life partners, job opportunities and believed that the years ahead would be phenomenal.
The celebration was on the theme; “Attitude is everything.”
The Ashanti Regional Boss of NABCo, Dennis Kwakwa has promised the scheme will pay all allowances to Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCo) beneficiaries.
Speaking on Kessben FM’s “Maakye” hosted by Omanhene Yaw Adu Boakye, said the process to pay the beneficiaries have started with the Bank of Ghana. “The good news is that all NABCo beneficiaries will be paid their April, May, and June allowances by the close of next week 9th”
The Nation Builders Corps, also known as N.A.B.C.O, is a Ghanese initiative to provide jobs to unemployed post-secondary school graduates (graduates of universities, training colleges, etc.) It was introduced by the government of Ghana.
Source: kessbenonline.com/ Story by Ray Charles Marfo
•Over 300 graduates have been offered jobs at the Toyota, Suzuki assembling plant in Ghana.
•The highly skilled jobs being created at the facility will reduce the use of foreign exchange to import second-hand vehicles
•The Toyota Tsusho Vehicle Assembly Plant is located at the Free Zones enclave in Tema
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed that some 300 young Ghanaian graduates from tertiary institutions across the country have been offered employment opportunities at the Toyota Tsusho Vehicle Assembly Plant.
According to the president, the new and highly skilled jobs being created at the facility will reduce the use of foreign exchange to import secondhand vehicles, boost the exports of Made in Ghana cars to other African markets and earn the nation much needed foreign exchange.
“This facility has already offered some three hundred and thirty-four (334) employment opportunities to young Ghanaian graduates from our tertiary institutions across the country, notably from the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the George Grant University of Mines and Technology, and some technical and vocational institutions,” the president said.
“The vision is to make Ghana a fully integrated and competitive industrial hub for the automotive industry in West Africa, and we are very much on course,” he added.null
Akufo-Addo said the presence of the Toyota Tsusho plant in Ghana is a bold move that will help towards developing the Ghana Automotive Development Policy under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
President Akufo-Addo and the Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Ichiro Kashitani had earlier signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of a Toyota and Suzuki Assembly Plant in Ghana.
The two countries earlier projected the last quarter of 2020 for the production of locally manufactured vehicles to commence in Ghana but that was pushback as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Already Volkswagen, Sinotruk and now Toyota & Suzuki have established their presence in the country.
Flagbearer of the All People’s Congress, Mr. Hassan Ayariga has bemoaned what he terms as the ill-treatment meted out to the #FixTheCountry protestors.null
His comments are in reaction to efforts by the Attorney-General and the Ghana Police Service to restrain protestors from taking to the streets.
At a media briefing in Accra on June 29, 2021, Mr Ayariga stated that campaigners are fighting for a better course and shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the country’s security.
To him President Akufo-Addo swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution which includes allowing peaceful demonstrators to exercise their constitutional rights.
“When has it become a crime to assemble, demonstrate and demand that government and duty bearers should fix the country? It is our constitutional right to do so and whoever is preventing these campaigners should now burry his head in shame,”
“We must all come out to condemn this act by the police and the people responsible for such acts. If we sit unconcerned and allow the police and government in power to intimidate citizens, then am afraid one day another party in power will use police and military to prevent our constitutional right to even vote. Where are the religious bodies? Where are the academics? Where are the Chiefs? Where are the political parties and the stakeholders? Why would a President who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the country refuse these peaceful demonstrators the opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights?” he added.null
It will be recalled that the Police represented by the Attorney General, Mr. Godfred in a quest to stop the group from embarking on the street protest cited public health concerns and the imposition of COVID-19 restrictions as its basis.
The court however ruled against the police and granted the activist permission to demonstrate albeit with approval from the police.
Meanwhile a #FixTheCountry activist, Kaaka Anyass Ibrahim Muhammed has allegedly been murdered by some persons believed to be bodyguards of the Ejura MCE.
Consumers of petroleum products are expected to witness a two percent increment from Thursday July 1, 2021, Joy Business has reported.null
According to the report, the marginal increment in prices is due to the increasing price of crude oil on the international market. It will translate to a litre of petrol being sold at ¢6.33 while a gallon will be sold at GH¢28.48 for both petrol and diesel.
The expected increment, which comes despite the local currency having remained relatively stable against the dollar, is likely to affect transport prices and cost of goods and services.
The new pricing list according to Joy Business was released by the Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) and is set to take effect from July 1, 2021.null
Meanwhile, the Oil Marketing Companies are yet to determine whether it will absorb the projected fuel price increment.
Market watchers have also projected that fuel prices will hit peak levels should government not offer fuel subsidies.
The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, and other top officials of the Ghana Health Service, on Tuesday, 29 June 2021, had a hectic time answering questions from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on issues raised in the 2017 Auditor-General’s report.
The 2017 report on the public accounts of Ghana had established a pattern with which institutions under the Ministry of Health mismanaged public funds meant for development and unearthed deficiencies in using internal controls to monitor these activities.
The committee’s queries today, among others, centred on bad debts, failure to pay internally-generated funds (IGFs) into the public fund, as well as issued relating to unretired imprest and unearned salaries.
Other infractions reported by the Auditor-General were unrecovered bonds, irregular payments of funeral expenses, unrecovered staff advances, misapplication of drug funds in health institutions, unsupported payment vouchers and failure to obtain non-availability certificates.
The report said more than GHS 9,302,800 was, within the period of January 2016 and December 2017, indebted to health institutions under the Ministry of Health by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
Similarly, the management of Achimota and Ridge Hospitals as well as the Adabraka Polyclinic did not recover outstanding debts amounting to GHS 4,582,550.69 that the NHIA owed them in respect of the supply of drugs and services for a period ranging between January 2016 and December 2017.
The management of three institutions, including Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, for instance, also failed to present 58 paid vouchers raised between April and September 2016, totalling GHS1,155,301.62 for examination by the auditors.
Seven health institutions, as of June 2016, collected maintenance fees totalling GHS 476,387.75 but failed to pay them into state coffers while five separated staff of 16 health institutions were paid unearned salaries totalling GHS 587,521.77 between January and November 2016.
The Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge) recorded 49 unsupported payment vouchers totalling GHS205,450 without proper authentication while Achimota Hospital failed to obtain non-availability certificates to the tune of GHS185.10 between February and December 2017.
Deputy Minority Leader and Chairman of the Committee, Mr James Klutse Avedzi, indicated the frustration of the committee’s members, noting that the health institutions continue to violate the rules, procedures and legal requirements in the administration of their funds.
He urged the Ministry to recover and surcharge the Executive Secretary of the Health Training Institutions Secretariat, Mr Christopher Beyere, an amount of GHS 28,000.00, which he wrongfully paid to himself on 13 April 2016 from the IGF for his sister’s funeral.
When officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) took their turn before the Committee, it was discovered that poor loan recovery from tractor and equipment beneficiaries from the Architectural and Engineering Services Department of the Ministry, resulted in indebtedness of GHS1,614.650.000
Similarly, an examination of the accounts of four district directorates discovered that four officers received unearned salaries totalling GHS 37,397.91 within the period under review.
However, it came to light that three officials who stole 28 maize sellers procured by the Ministry and valued at GHS 112,000.00 have been handed to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police Service for prosecution and are currently facing trial
Minister for the Interior Ambrose Dery has revealed that he forwarded pictures of battered and bloodied #FixTheCountry activist Ibrahim ‘Kaaka’ Muhammed to Inspector-General of Police James Oppong-Boanuh the moment he chanced upon it on a platform.
“I saw pictures on some platforms about a person who has been beaten and what I did immediately was to forward the picture to the IGP and say: ‘What about this?’ And his response was: ‘We are trying to find out where it is’”, Mr Dery told journalists on Tuesday, 29 June 2021, adding: “The first information that came out didn’t tell us where it was”.
Asked if the IGP didn’t know where the incident had happened, Mr Dery responded: “No, I sent the information to him because it’s all over the place”.
“He’s been beaten and he’s in a hospital, he’s unconscious, no indication of where the hospital is, no indication of where he was beaten, so, when you give such information, we have to now call the whole country and ask: ‘This picture, where is it and what happened?’” he noted.
Mr Dery also said neither the Akufo-Addo-led government nor the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is behind Kaaka’s murder.
Kaaka, who was also a member of the Economic Fighters League, was attacked in the early hours of Saturday, 26 June 2021, which resulted in his unconsciousness and hospitalisation.
He died while on admission on Sunday, 28 June 2021.
Mr Dery told journalists that “we want to know who did the beating, we want to know who attacked the person”, adding: “What is this thing about the government, it’s NPP [who killed him?].”
“No”, Mr Dery denied.
“Who attacked the person? And #FixTheCountry [campaign], where have we shown high-handedness against the #FixTheCountry [campaign]?” he asked.
In his view, the government has rather been magnanimous toward the #FixTheCountry campaigners, saying “the first thing they came out with was that they wanted to demonstrate and then we said: ‘Look, at that time – even now, Sierra Leone, Liberia and all that, even you know the UK had to postpone its lifting of the lockdown – corona is really increasing around us; so, we said: ‘Look, immediately, it will not be possible for us to allow you to [demonstrate] but come to a meeting”.
“So, we held a meeting. At that meeting, all the security ministers were there, the minister of finance was there, the minister of foreign affairs, and we said: ‘While we are waiting to see how we can give you the chance to demonstrate, what are the issues? Can you bring up the issues and we see how we can resolve them? If we fail to resolve them and you want a broader representation from the government, we would do so”, he noted.
“They told us they had to go back and consult”, the minister revealed.
When parallels were drawn between the intended demonstration and the funeral held for late Forestry Commission CEO Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (Sir John) despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Dery retorted that with “Sir John’s funeral, no permit was given to them to attend the funeral. It’s different”.
In contrast, he said: “You are asking the police to give you a permit to demonstrate”.
“By the way, you are doing so because you want to give us a message and we are saying: ‘What is the message? Is it that the security agencies are not really doing their work? Is it the economy?’”
Mr Dery insisted the government is not against the march, stressing: “We have no difficulty whatsoever with the #FixTheCountry movement”.
“Let me make it clear; we are not a government that is against demonstrations. At all. We are not”, he emphasised.
So, he noted, “we are interested in whoever they said is fixing but that name that I heard, that’s the first time I heard it and they say he’s fixing”.
He, however, warned: “Don’t also let us allow criminals to get away because while we are supposed to be pursuing them, we are engaging in this argument about this”. “Whoever it is who attacked that person, it was a criminal act; we condemn it. The government does not support illegal, criminal acts at all”, he said.
Asked what he was doing about the murder, Mr Dery said: “I’m making sure the police follows up. That’s why I told you that the first thing I got, I sent it to the police and the police said: ‘Look, I’ve seen your thing, where is the hospital?’ I said: ‘Go ahead and find it out’”.
“We are interested and I am condemning it”, Mr Dery said and also expressed his sympathies to the family of the deceased.
“I want to actually extend my condolences to the family and to ask all those who have information about what exactly happened to come forward and I’m assuring you that the government is not out to protect any criminal”, explaining: “If he kills you today, he’ll kill me tomorrow and, so, we are not interested in that
President Akufo-Addo has endorsed proposals for a ‘two-state’ solution to end the infamous Middle-East crisis between Israel and Palestine.
The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.
The boundary between the two states is still subject to dispute and negotiation, with Palestinian and Arab leadership insisting on the “1967 borders”, which is not accepted by Israel.
The territory of the former Mandate Palestine (including Jerusalem) which did not form part of the Palestinian State would continue to be part of Israel.
At a farewell meeting with the outgoing Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Shani Cooper – Zubida, he declared his government and that of people of Ghana to the proposed roadmap.
“We are so very committed here in Ghana to the two-state solution to the problems in the Middle East which will see Israel living within universally acknowledged borders side by side with the Palestinian state that is also well defined”, he said.
“We believe it has been a feature of Ghanaian policy for sometime, that is the two-state solution is the solution that will hopefully bring an end to this long protracted conflict in the Middle East which has affected so many lives and so many relationships across the world” President said.
On her part, the outgoing Israeli Ambassador, Shani Cooper – Zubida said after three years in Ghana, she is proud of the fact that Ghana and Israel has been able to deepen their relations in three sector, namely; Agriculture, Innovation and Health.
“We have done it through business and through public diplomacy and I am happy to report that the number of Israel companies interested in doing business with Ghana and in Ghana has gone up tremendously and the number of beneficiaries of the Israel development agency has also gone up including specific programmes that were built by the agency for Ghana in Agriculture and in Health”, she said.
Also at the presidency to bid the President farewell was Jesus Mba Bela Abaha, outgoing Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to Ghana.
In his remarks, he indicated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what was supposed to be the commencement of deliberations between a joint Ghana-Equatorial Guinea joint permanent mission for cooperation in Equatorial Guinea, could not materialize.
He was hopeful that his successor would ensure that it comes to fruition.
President Akufo-Addo talked of the relationship between Ghana and Equatorial Guinea which he said is evidenced in the story of 1878, when Tetteh Quarshie, a Ghanaian blacksmith, brought cocoa beans to Ghana from the Fernando Po Islands (now called Isla de Bioko).
This single act, he said is responsible for Ghana’s cocoa sector that the country prides itself in.
He therefore wished the envoy success in his new challenge back home as Councilor at the presidency of Equatorial Guinea
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he is not interested in winning the media to his side to prevent them from criticising his government.
“I don’t look upon the intercourse as government buying the press. I don’t want to believe that the Ghanaian press is buyable, neither am I interested in buying the Ghanaian press.”
“I’m interested in having a press that can serve the larger purposes of our society and play its role in building a strong durable democracy in Ghana. That for me is the most important aspect of the work of the press in Ghana.”
The President said these on Monday, 28 June 2021, when the President and National Executives of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee House.
The other issues discussed bordered on the provision of a stimulus package for the media, following the onset of COVID-19.
They also discussed the construction of a new building to serve as the new Ghana International Press Centre and addressing the issue of attacks on journalists.
The GJA also requested the Office of the President to take up the donation of VW cars to the four previous winners of Journalists of the Year, which are pending.
The President, however, disclosed that his government has already presented a VW vehicle to the current Journalist of the Year, Samson Lardi Ayenini
• Salisu Bamba says he does not engage the service of bodyguards contrary to what is being said about himnull
• He maintains that he is innocent as far as the death of Macho Kaaka is concerned
• He is ready to assist the police investigate issue
Salisu Bamba, the Municipal Chief Executive of Ejura Sekyeredumase who has been accused by some youth in the Ejura area for masterminding the assault on social activist Ibrahim Mohammed which resulted in his death has denied sanctioning any such move.
In an interview with Neat FM, Salisu Bamba denied knowledge of the supposed bodyguard who allegedly attacked Mohammed who is popularly known as Macho Kaaka.
He urged the public to desist from making comments that could sway the police’s focus from the main killers of the activists.
He assured the police of his cooperation and called for peace in the Ejura area. He also called on the police to work hard to identify the culprits.null
“I don’t walk around with bodyguards. If it becomes necessary for me to get security, I usually engage the service of a police officer. Most of the time I walk around without security. It is unfortunate that instead of us assisting the police to investigate the matter, it is being blamed on a supposed bodyguard. If we do that, we make it difficult for the police to find the real culprits.
“What matters most is that the perpetrators of the act are arrested. I’m ready to assist the police investigate the issue. I will submit myself to the police to ensure that justice prevails but if we start accusing people, it wouldn’t help. Not until this issue came, I didn’t know about his social media activities,” he said.
Accusing fingers are being pointed at Salisu Bamba for the death of Kaaka, with critics alleging the persons who pummeled Kaaka on June 25, 2021, were his security escorts.
The youth of the place are calling President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to relieve him of his post as he has been ‘tormenting’ the people.
“Do you know how many people have died since this guy was forced on us as MCE? NPP will collapse and this town can’t contain us if Sualisu Bamba is forced on us again. How many people must die before Akufo-Addo realizes he has imposed a tyrant, incompetent and heartless mafia boss as our MCE.
First, it was Rauf, and one guy at Hiawoanwu and now Kaaka. What we are telling the President is that enough is enough. We won’t sit down for Bamba and his boys to rule this town like a separate territory,” Inyass Awudu said.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has pledged the support of the legislature to the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) and has called on all citizens to participate in the national exercise.null
The Speaker, who was among the first personalities to be counted on Monday, June 28, said the exercise is necessary for planning, budgeting and coordination of state response to the challenges facing the development of the country.
“The population and housing census is so critical to survival, quality of life, and the development of the country.
“I therefore call on everybody to stand up and be counted,” he said.null
Speaker Bagbin said Members of Parliament (MPs) have been directed to be in their various constituencies to actively participate, mobilise, educate and sensitise their constituents on the ongoing exercise.
He noted that five post-independent censuses were conducted in the country in 1960, 1970, 1984, 2000 and 2010 with the last two consisting of both a population census and a housing census, making the 2021 PHC the third to be conducted in the country.
The exercise is scheduled to end on Sunday, July 11.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has pledged the support of the legislature to the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) and has called on all citizens to participate in the national exercise.null
The Speaker, who was among the first personalities to be counted on Monday, June 28, said the exercise is necessary for planning, budgeting and coordination of state response to the challenges facing the development of the country.
“The population and housing census is so critical to survival, quality of life, and the development of the country.
“I therefore call on everybody to stand up and be counted,” he said.null
Speaker Bagbin said Members of Parliament (MPs) have been directed to be in their various constituencies to actively participate, mobilise, educate and sensitise their constituents on the ongoing exercise.
He noted that five post-independent censuses were conducted in the country in 1960, 1970, 1984, 2000 and 2010 with the last two consisting of both a population census and a housing census, making the 2021 PHC the third to be conducted in the country.
The exercise is scheduled to end on Sunday, July 11.
Eight Members of Parliament have presented a bipartisan Private Members’ bill to the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin for a clear ban on activities of LGBTQ+ in Ghana.
Addressing a Speaker’s prayer breakfast meeting, President of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and Ho West MP Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzra argued the bill is aimed at stopping what he terms invasion of the moral and cultural fabric of the Ghanaian society from LGBTQI activists.
Speaking on behalf of the 8 MPs Sam George disclosed the bill seeks to criminalize not just the practice of homosexuality but promotion and sponsoring of such activities too.
According to him, the bill will offer protection to LGBTQI activists against extrajudicial killings as well as support for those who want to reform.
Hon. Sam George expressed his gratitude to stakeholders who contributed to putting the bill together including his colleague MPs, the National Coalition for the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, National Chief Imam’s Office, members of the clergy, the Speaker of parliament, and the Legislative Drafting Unit of Parliament.
He was confident that the bill if passed will serve as a guide to other countries that are also working hard to outlaw activities if LGBTQ+.
“I can assure you that this bill will be a reference for countries and parliaments across the world, that is the work we have done. Our traditional religion, Christianity, Islam are all religions that preach love and peace and that is what this bill does. This bill does not preach hate, it preaches the saving love of our saviour to all those who are in need. This bill seeks to criminalize not just the activity but the promotion, advocacy and funding of homosexuality in all of its forms. And so it will become criminal upon the successful passing of this bill into law for anybody to produce any promotional material, any TV station to show contents that support it, anybody who wants to provide funding for LGBTQ activities and those engaged in the activities
The Government of President Akufo-Addo is undertaking a radical reform in Ghana’s education sector with the aim of preparing Ghana’s population and economy to fully participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
This reform will be underpinned by a greater focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) with the overall aim of repositioning the entire educational system to produce a critical mass of assertive and empowered Ghanaian students equipped with the relevant skills for socio-economic transformation.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who disclosed this on Saturday, June 26, 2021 at the launch of the 70th anniversary celebration of Tamale Senior High School, said the President’s vision of producing well-equipped, rounded Ghanaians has resulted in one of the most fundamental reforms in the school system to be carried out in this country.
“The reform programme is anchored on interventions that will leverage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to prepare our population and national economy to become active participants in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“The reason is simple: a strong national STEM programme will develop learners with 21st century skills (i.e. creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration) required to drive the country into economic prosperity beyond aid.”
This focus on STEM is starting at the basic level with a B-STEM (Basic STEM) programme “under which essential equipment, including robotics kits, electronics, computers, promethean boards, projectors, etc are to be provided. In addition, the Ministry of Education is in the process of setting up eleven (11) model state-of-the-art, never-before-seen STEM Senior High Schools across the country, each of which shall be equipped with 12 laboratories that can rival any such school anywhere in the world,” he pledged.
“I am also happy to announce that, as part of the plan, a STEM pathway will be established in some existing Senior High Schools, which will benefit from additional four (4) laboratories and Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) will be one of them.”
The Vice President, who joined past and present students of the first secondary school in northern Ghana to launch the celebrations, said lessons had been learnt from the history of educational deprivation in northern Ghana, where the effects of a lack of access to secondary education laid the foundation for the development gap between the north and the south.
Thus, Government is determined to provide access to every Ghanaian child wherever they may be in order to create a level playing field and bridge the gap, he reiterated.
TAMASCO @ 70
Dr Bawumia, who is a member of the 1980 Year Group of TAMASCO, praised early politicians from the north who recognized the importance of education and through the Northern People’s Party advocated for more access to education and significantly influenced the 1961 Education Act to be more sensitive towards the north.
“Seventy years of secondary education has improved human quality, equipped beneficiaries with much knowledge and skills which in turn have improved the ability to analyse, appreciate, assimilate, socialize with others as well as opened better avenues for employment. Ultimately, these have helped to minimize poverty.”
The establishment in 1951 of the then Government Secondary School in the northern territories created the opportunity for students of northern Ghana to, for the first time, access secondary education in northern Ghana, 75 years after secondary education was introduced in southern Ghana.
This created access for people living in and around areas such as the upper part of the then Brong Ahafo Region, the northern part of the Volta Region, now Oti Region, the Northern Region which then included the newly created regions of Savanna and North East, and the Upper Region, now Upper East and Upper West Regions.
70 years later, Tamale Secondary School, affectionately called The Northern Light, has produced several illustrious sons and daughters, including a President of the Republic, two Vice Presidents, two Supreme Court Justices, an Inspector General of Police (IGP), two Chiefs of Defence Staff (CDS) as well as a Speaker of Parliament.
In a related development, Vice President Bawumia Saturday commissioned a Girls’ dormitory constructed by the MTN Foundation and a Boys’ dormitory constructed by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) at the Tamale Senior High School. The school, in appreciation of the Vice President’s continued support, has also named a House, Bawumia House, after him.
The government has presented an amount of GHS 500,000 to various trader unions at Agbogbloshie in Accra to cart their goods to Adjen Kotoku in the Ga West Municipality.
According to the government, GHS 300,000 will be allocated to the onion sellers, with the remaining amount shared amongst other traders in the business enclave.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, made this known during a grand stakeholders’ durbar at Adjen Kotoku ahead of the relocation of the onion sellers on Thursday, July 1, 2021.
“Government is making available GHS 500,000. I want to reiterate that it is for transportation to Adjen Kotoku. Let me also put on record that from this evening”, the Minister said.
Government-issued a seven-week ultimatum to onion traders in Accra to relocate from Agbogbloshie to Adjen Kotoku.
The new market was established at Adjen Kotoku over a decade ago in a bid to decongest the central business district.
That market however remains abandoned.
The Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, said his outfit will be compelled to demolish the Agbogbloshie Onion market on July 1, 2021.
But some onion sellers have appealed to the government to give them more time to adequately prepare for their relocation
As the deadline, July 1, 2021, however, draws closer, the onion traders want more time to adequately prepare for the move.
“It is unfair for the Minister to give us a short notice to relocate. We pleaded with him for more time, but he did not heed to it. Besides, the stalls that have been provided are not good enough for selling onions. We have not said that we’ll not move; we are only begging for more time to put things together,” a trader said.
Another trader said “1st July is a few days away, we won’t be ready by then. We are pleading with the Regional Minister to give us some more time.”
‘Agbogbloshie onion sellers want a spiritualist to kill me; but I’ll still move them – Henry Quartey
Henry Quartey, recently disclosed that he has uncovered a plot by some onion sellers to have him killed spiritually over plans to relocate the sellers to the abandoned Adjen Kotoku site.
He said nothing will stop him from doing his work as part of the ‘Let’s Make Accra Work’ campaign.
According to him, so far as God exists, nothing will happen to him.
“Whether they like it or not, we will move them because we have made an alternative arrangement for them. I have heard they have gone to some mallam [spiritualist] to kill me. They are kidding. They should tell the mallam [spiritualist] to return to his hometown because so far as God exists, nothing will happen to Henry Quartey by the grace of God, and by July 1, 2021, we shall move them” he insisted
The Achimota Police have arrested one Shadrach Boakye, aka “Anopa” for his alleged persistent harassment, attacks and robbing of commuters along the Achimota forest and its environs in Accra.
Shadrach, 24, had been on the radar of the Achimota Police for several months until he was arrested over the weekend at Fawuhoyeden in the Ahafo Region.
Achimota District Police Commander, Superintendent Christine Srofenyo, told the media that the suspect had been successful in his ‘strike, hit and run’ efforts making his apprehension very difficult.
She said Anopa had also been involved in countless robberies within the Achimota forest enclave since 2019.
Supt. Srofenyo made reference to a case reported on Thursday, June 4, 2020, around 1030 hours when Shadrach, in the company of five others attacked and robbed about four victims of their valuables such as phones, laptops, monies and other items at gunpoint.
Police arrested four of the gang members but “Anopa” being the leader of the gang, managed to escape arrest and went into hiding in his village in the Ahafo Region. His accomplices are on trial.
However, she said, the suspect resurfaced after some few months of hiding to continue with his operations.
Supt. Srofenyo said another case was recorded on Monday, November 30, 2020 when the suspect again attacked and robbed several road users around the CP Roundabout near the Achimota Forest in Accra.
His modus was to hide in the forest, monitor both vehicles and pedestrians, and rob them at the least opportunity.
Anopa used knives, sharp implements or pistol to advance his operations, however, Police were able to track one of the victim’s phone to where the suspect was hiding that night and got him arrested.
Supt. Srofenyo said Shadrach was processed for court in both cases, but somewhere this year, he together with other accused persons were granted bail in all the robbery cases by the two circuit courts and since then the robbery in the forest aggravated.
She said on Monday June 14, 2021, the suspect robbed a car dealer of his bag containing unspecified amount of money and some vehicle documents at CP Roundabout.
The case was reported to the Achimota School Police for investigation and after the complainant described the suspect to the Police, they suspected “Anopa” to be the culprit.
A search was extended to all his hiding places but he was fast to escape arrest.
Police later had information that he was hidden in a village in Ahafo Region and with support from the Ahafo Regional Police Command, the Achimota Police finally arrested him from his hideout. GNA
The Works and Housing Minister, Francis Asenso-Boakye has announced that government has secured 4,500 acres of land to build more affordable houses to reduce the country’s housing deficit.
According to him, under the National Affordable Housing Programme, the land secured has been earmarked for affordable housing construction at Amasaman, Amrahia and Afienya, all in the Greater Accra Region and Dedesua in the Ashanti Region.
Speaking at a press conference, Sunday, Mr Asenso-Boakye said, “the Lands Commission has commenced survey works at the sites for the sole purpose of developing service land banks for the affordable housing programme.”
He stated that with the country’s housing deficit estimated in excess of two million housing units, 60% of Ghana’s population need some form of government assistance to support them access housing, hence the need for government’s intervention.
On funding, the Works and Housing Minister said government is willing to grant incentive packages available in the law, to attract developers and investors willing to partner government in the area of affordable housing.
“It is envisaged that with the right mortgage arrangement being piloted jointly by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Works and Housing under the National Housing and Mortgage Fund, banks can leverage on a credible mortgage system, to provide long term mortgage financing for prospective homebuyers,” he added.
Mr Asenso-Boakye stated that government believes this is one of the surest ways to secure sustainable financing for the low to middle income earners.
Commenting on abandoned projects commenced under previous administrations, including the controversial Saglemi project, Asenso-Boakye said the government is committed to complete all existing and stalled projects within the short term.
“This year, this government will not renege on its duty to ensure that Ghanaians obtain value for money. Government has explored several ways on the ways forward and at the right time, we shall communicate government’s chosen option to the good people of Ghana,” he added.
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has called for the creation of an institutional memory bank to help enhance the transfer of knowledge in the public service.
He said there was a pressing need for state institutions to create a common platform where present and retired public officials could share knowledge and transfer experiences.
Courtesy call
Mr Bagbin made the call when the executive of the ex-Parliamentary Service Staff Association of Ghana (EPSSAG) paid a courtesy call on him in Parliament last Friday.
The leadership of the EPSSAG called on the Speaker to remind him of a commitment that was made by his predecessor, Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquaye, to allocate office accommodation to serve as a secretariat for the association.
Check-up
Mr Bagbin urged the group to ensure its members took advantage of the opportunity offered them to visit Parliament’s Medical Centre for regular check-ups.
He said the centre now boasted critical equipment to address some of their health challenges.
He assured members of the group of his willingness to engage with the relevant departments to see to it that an office accommodation was made available to support their work.
He urged them to develop programmes and activities that would bring both retired and serving staff together to share ideas on the need to ensure harmony in their work as parliamentary service staff.
Mr Bagbin used the occasion to advise serving staff particularly directors to endeavour to soften their hold on what he described as undefined sources of power to maltreat their subordinates.
Welfare
The Chairperson of the association, Ms Lillian Bruce-Lyle, appealed to the Speaker to assist the members to address critical concerns bordering on welfare and health needs.
That, she said, would ease the burden associated with old age.
Ms Bruce-Lyle urged the Speaker to support the association’s effort at creating an income-generating venture to cushion the work of the association and its members.
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on Ghanaians to avoid division and strive to build a united nation for sustainable development.
Dr Bawumia noted that there was greater reason for Ghanaians to remain united than divided, and that it was imperative for the citizens, irrespective of their beliefs, to try to sustain the prevailing peace and unity in the country.
The Vice-President made the call when he worshipped with the congregation of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Parish at Bolgatanga yesterday to thank God for the continuous blessings upon the nation and the protection from the harsh effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He donated GH¢50,000 to the leadership of the church to assist in the completion of the new cathedral project.
Peace record
Dr Bawumia explained that the recent ranking, which put Ghana as the second most peaceful nation in Africa and the 38th in the world, should encourage everybody to work towards sustaining such an achievement.
“We are at peace because we have a lot of unity in government, unity among different tribes, religious beliefs, north and south, and we are trying to forge this peace, and we should all know that we cannot stop trying to keep us united,” Dr Bawumia observed.
“The forces of evil will continuously be trying to divide us but the forces of good should continue to keep us together because what unites us as a people and as a country is much greater than what divides us,” he stressed.
Dr Bawumia noted that the enemy of humanity was not religion, tribe or beliefs but poverty and the economic hardships that had engulfed the nation.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to avoid disputes and work together to improve the nation.
Religious diversity
“I am a Muslim and I am here in the Catholic Church, and I feel very comfortable. We are all united, we all worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and we believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah who was born of the Virgin Mary, who is very sacred to us, and there is a whole chapter in the Quran named after Virgin Mary,” he said.
“Our enemy is satan, poverty, illiteracy, people who try to use religion to divide us; we want to stay united because what we share is a common love in Jesus Christ,” the Vice-President said.
Dr Bawumia equally asked Ghanaians to love one another and extend a helping hand to the sick and the needy in society to enable them to live dignified lives, saying it was one of the greatest commandments of God.
The Officiating Priest, Reverend Father Joseph Tabase, prayed for the Vice-President and the government, and thanked him for his efforts to foster religious unity and tolerance among the citizenry.
Minister for Works and Housing has said Nima residents are delaying government’s bid to re-develop the area to a ‘World-Class’ projectnull
He explained that homeowners fear that many may be displaced after the re-development
The growing incidence of slum development in Ghana has been the result of rural-urban migration
Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has blamed the slow pace of the Nima re-development project on residents’ reluctance to accept President Akufo-Addo’s upgrade for the township, Joy News has reported.
According to him, homeowners within the area fear that many may be displaced after the re-development.
“Nima re-development is still on the agenda of the government, except that there is one fundamental challenge or obstacle we need to clear, and that has to do with the engagement of the stakeholders there,” he said.
The Works and Housing Minister noted that although the planned re-development has been met with agitation, his outfit is working around the clock to have an amicable conclusion.null
“I have started engagements with the Member of Parliament there and when I first mentioned it to him, I thought he was going to embrace it because it’s a good project but he tells me it’s not an easy matter, so we are currently putting together a team to start engagements with them,” as quoted by Joy News.
As part of efforts to develop Accra, the president has indicated his commitment to upgrading the slums in Nima and Maamobi areas.
The president is looking forward to transforming the over 1,039 acres of prime land in Nima and Maamobi into a world-class facility.
The area located close to the Jubilee House will witness transformation without dislodging the current occupants.
The said acres of land at Nima and Maamobi will be released to developers in exchange for more befitting structures for the affected residents on the same Nima and Maamobi lands, Joy News has reported.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has once again urged all Ghanaians to make themselves available and be counted during the ongoing National Population and Housing Census.
Mr. Mahama who has been part of a national sensitization campaign launched by the Ghana Statistical Service ahead of the start of the Census was among the first citizens to be counted on Monday morning.
Speaking to the media after his interview with the census official at his residence, President Mahama explained that the data generated from the census would serve as vital statistics to guide national development.
“It is necessary to know how many people live in your country accurately so you can make better provisions in terms of social amenities, in terms of how the economy is managed and in terms of how development is spread so that everybody gets a fair share of the national cake” he stated.
Mr. Mahama also noted that the census data will also help government to consider the creation of new districts and restructure the local government system.
He urged Ghanaians to open their doors and welcome the enumerators when they come to conduct the census.
“Please, when the census officers get to your house, welcome them and answer the very simple questions and let’s have a perfect count.”
Chief Census Methodologist Owusu Kagya gave an assurance that the law mandates and requires that all information collected would be kept confidential and solely for census purposes
• Assin Central lawmaker says he was worth over a million dollars in his thirties
• According to him, it wasn’t until 33 years that he enrolled in a university
• He eventually abandoned his school to come back and save his business
Lawmaker, businessman and media mogul, Kennedy Agyapong, has given insights about how he built himself to become a successful businessman, stressing that it took years of hard work and honesty.
GhanaWeb monitored comments he made last week at a lecture held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra; to commemorate his 61st birthday.
Agyapong said he only enrolled in the university at age 33 and that was purposefully because he was hoping for a role in the government of the then-New Patriotic Party flagbearer, Professor Albert Adu Boahen.
He entered Fordham University in the United States at a time he had done several petty businesses back home and also at a point worked three jobs when he arrived in the United States in search of greener pastures.null
“Even when I was at Fordham University, I had over 1 million dollars in my account at Agric Bank in Ghana here and my business (was growing),” he told the congregation which comprised largely of students.
He then lamented the hurdle of getting genuine people to run a person’s business for them amid issues of dishonesty: “…as you grow and come up or my colleagues here that are into business will tell you the level of dishonesty in this country when you are doing business.
“In my absence, those I left behind collapsed my business and I had to leave, so I stopped the school, the third year going to the fourth year and after twice appearing on American ‘Who is Who,’ I left and I remember my dean, Professor Houston, calling my house, telling my wife to convince me to come back to school,” he added.
Agyapong at the time, approaching his forties, said he returned home and was able to salvage what was left of his investments before building the empire that he has today.
He tasked students to hold on to the twin values of hard work and honesty – that those were key tools to making it in life.
The Executive Director of the African Center for Parliamentary Journalism and Research, Harrison Kofi Belley, has said the decision by the Public Accounts Committee of parliament to merely surcharge absentee ministers is not punitive enough.null
Speaking to Dzifa Bampoh on 3FM on Friday June 25, he said the “no show” by the absentee ministers of state and the Committee’s decision to surcharge was all but a let off and that the measure was not deterrent enough to others.
“I think it is even on the minimal side to surcharge them. It should have been something that the ministers should have suffered themselves not the state because surcharging them means that the ministries are going to pay.
“I believe that it is about time we start taking Parliament and its work seriously because there have been occasions where ministries and ministers are invited to answer questions in the house and then they deliberately turn it down, not even with the courtesy of informing the leadership of parliament that they will not be able to honor those invitations.”
Mr Belly expressed concerns over the failure to honour invitations by Committees stressing that such actions were inimical to the democratic growth and transparency.
“If you are invited and then you know what you are supposed to do you and knows you cannot make there, and not even with the courtesy of informing the Committee ahead of your inability to come.null
“So that they will be able to adjust but to allow them to assemble the members and do every preparation and you decide not to come, I think that doesn’t sound well for our parliamentary development and it may be interpreted as people not taking parliament serious.”
The Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, became the third minister who failed to honor the invitation of the Public Accounts Committee after two of her colleague ministers, the Roads and Highways minister, Mr Kwasi Amoako Atta and the minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye failed to attend to the sitting of the same committee.
PAC chairman, James Klutse Avedze openly expressed his anger at the trend of ministers’ absenteeism before the Committee when the Chief Director for the Communications Ministry turned up to represent Ms Owusu-Ekuful with the excuse that the minister had gone on assignment sanctioned by the President.
With apparent anger in his voice, the chairman of the Committee discharged the Chief Director with a simple but instructive message, “kindly communicate to the Minister that we are not happy…on that note, you are discharged.”
The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah has indicated that one of the best ways to facilitate the development agenda of the nation is to have a highly skilled and strongly motivated labour force.null
He indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process for nations and organizations to plan and prepare for the future of work, to ensure that they have people with the requisite skills and knowledge to produce world-class goods and services.
“The widespread adoption of precision quality in training and practice of our skilled labour would greatly contribute to the value addition of the Ghanaian labour force and raise the quality of local products and services to international standards.
“As a nation we need to prepare to adapt to the changes that come with the future of work. The world of work will change; the nature of work will change but TVET will continue to be relevant, we only need to nurture and develop these talents to meet global standards in the not-too-distant future,” he said.
The minister made these observations at the stakeholder conference in Accra to design a national policy on precision quality as a key component of the TVET education in Ghana.
The consultative conference was held under the theme ‘Unlocking the Skills and Competencies of Young People for Quality Jobs in Ghana and the Globalized Labour Market.’null
It brought together key state and non-state stakeholders including the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), academia and Master Craft Persons.
As part of the conference, participants were taken through the findings of a baseline research commissioned by the Design and Technology Institute, DTI to help gather relevant data on the State of TVET education in Ghana.
The establishment of a National Precision Quality Policy is expected to create thousands of sustainable jobs and work opportunities for young Ghanaian women and men.
It will integrate the CTVET accredited precision quality curriculum into the learning outcomes of senior high schools, technical universities and workshops of Master Craft persons ensuring standardization across board.
Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission, NDPC, Dr. Kodjo Mensah-Abrampa said “The skill development constraints identified are the limited number of skilled industrial personnel and the mismatch to industrial needs.null
“Our proposals for the medium-term would be to ensure improved skills development for industry by transforming the apprenticeship training model from a supply-driven approach to a market-demand model. These would help consolidate our gains in skills training and position our youth for the future of work”.
The Chief Executive Officer of DTI, Ms. Constance Elizabeth Swaniker, commended the Mastercard Foundation for their immense role in the implementation of the PQ programme and other stakeholders for their tremendous support so far for the soon-to-be-developed National Policy on Precision Quality.
“We will continue to engage with all stakeholders in our collective effort to support the national agenda in addressing the skills gap challenge facing academia and industry and provide the basis for the creation of sustainable jobs for the youth through TVET programmes,” She noted.
•The SSNIT – Ghana Card merger will commence today across various parts of the countrynull
•Beginning January 2022, the Ghana Card will be the only identification recognised by the Trust
• The intended merger is expected to improve the way of doing business
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will from Monday June 28, 2021 commence the merger of members on its scheme and that of the card bearers on the National Identification Authority’s (NIA) database.
This comes on the back of a meeting with stakeholders to sensitize them on the merger of SSNIT numbers with the NIA numbers of members of the scheme.
A statement issued by the Trust and sighted GhanaWeb explained that the merger is expected to provide convenience and comfort as citizens will only use one card, the Ghana Card, for all SSNIT transactions.null
“The merger is also in compliance with directives from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and Regulation 7 (1) of the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012, L.I. 2111 which requires the use of the Ghana Card as identification for “transactions pertaining to individuals in respect of pensions,” the statement explained
“From January 2022, the Ghana Card will be the only identification recognised by the Trust. All employers will also be required to use only the NIA numbers of their workers to process Contribution Reports and make payments. Voluntary contributors will have to pay their contributions using their NIA numbers,” it added.
The Trust urged members to visit their website https://www.ssnit.org.gh/member/ and follow the instructions to merge their numbers.
It added that members can also visit the nearest SSNIT Branch with their Ghana Cards, valid email addresses and phone numbers to have the merger done.
The intended merger is expected to improve the way of doing business with the Trust by enabling a convenient means to allow members to use one card, that is the Ghana Card, for all transactions.
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia this morning joined worshipers at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Bolgatanga to celebrate First Mass.
He urged the congregants to continually pray for Ghana, especially in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic and threats to our national security, and guard against attempts to create disunity amongst us.
There is more that unites than divides us, and I called on adherents of all religious faiths to work together to protect our well-earned and acclaimed peace and unity, the vice president said.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor has watered down public expectation in the ongoing clampdown on illegal mining activities popularly known as galamsey.
According to the Minister, the menace can never be eradicated.
The Damongo MP argued that the ongoing fight is a process and not an event so results will take time to manifest.
Answering questions at a Public Accounts Committee hearing on the 2017 Auditor General’s report of MDAs, the minister, however, argued the current fight has recorded notable results.
“We have not eradicated illegal small-scale mining, in fact, I am not sure that we can eradicate illegal small-scale mining. The efforts we are making is not an event it is a process, we cannot eradicate or get to a satisfactory situation in respect of illegal small-scale mining overnight.”
Touching on the fundraising drive for tree planting exercise under the greening Ghana Project, the minister revealed over 1 million Ghana cedis has been realized so far out of the target of 125 million cedis.
Abu Jinapor assured the committee of accountability as far as the donations are concerned
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has charged his new deputy ministers to be loyal to their immediate bosses as any show of disloyalty toward them would mean disloyalty toward him.null
In a post-swearing-in addressing at the banquet hall of the Jubilee House on Friday, 25 June 2021, the president said: “We have launched the 100 billion cedi Ghana Cares Obaatanpa project” to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic “to revitalise and develop our economy”.
“The objectives of the project demand that all of you gathered here bring your A-game to the table to prosecute it”, he noted.
“Your success in this endeavour will be a consequence of three things: first, is the spirit of loyalty you exhibit to your ministers. Article 79, clause 1 of the Constitution of the republic provides that a deputy minister is appointed by the president in consultation with the minister and with the prior approval of parliament to assist the minister in the performance of his or her functions”, President Akufo-Addo stated.
“Your basic responsibility is, thus, to assist your minister in the performance of his or her functions”, he stressed.
Loyalty to the minister, the president noted, “is a fundamental premise for the success of your work”.
“I will not countenance any acts of disloyalty or subversion of your minister, for I will take such acts as disloyalty to me, personally, and by inference, disloyalty to the state and party” the President warned.
In a response on behalf of her colleagues, the deputy minister of trade and industry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, said: “We are privileged and grateful to be given these valuable opportunities to serve the country in this capacity and we will give it our utmost best to justify these appointments”.null
The 39 deputy ministers who were sworn into office by the president include:
Abena Osei-Asare, MP; and John Ampontuah Kumah, MP; both for finance.
Trade and Industry Ministry – Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, MP; Michael Okyere Baafi, MP; and Mr Herbert Krapa.
Energy – Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, MP; William Owuraku Aidoo, MP; and Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer, MP.
Local Government, Decentralisation & Rural Development Ministry – Augustine Collins Ntim, MP; Osei Bonsu Amoah, MP; and Martin Kwaku Adjei-Mensah Korsah.
Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Ministry – Thomas Mbomba, MP; and Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, MP.
Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice – Alfred Tuah-Yeboah and Ms Diana Asonaba Dapaah.null
Food and Agriculture Ministry – Yaw Frimpong Addo, MP; and Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru, MP.
Education Ministry – Rev John Ntim Fordjour, MP; and Gifty Twum-Ampofo, MP.
Ministry of Health – Tina Gifty Naa Ayeley Mensah, MP; and Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini, MP.
Lands and Natural Resources Ministry – Benito Owusu-Bio, MP; and George Mireku Duker, MP.
Roads and Highways Ministry – Mavis Nkansah-Boadu, MP; and Stephen Pambiin Jalulah, MP.
Transport Ministry – Alhassan Tampuli Sulemana, MP; and Frederick Obeng Adom, MP.
Defence Ministry – Kofi Amankwah-Manu, MP.null
Ministry for the Interior – Naana Eyiah, MP.
Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation – Ama Pomaa Boateng, MP.
Works and Housing Ministry – Abdulai Abanga, MP.
Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development – Moses Anim, MP.
Ministry of Railway Development – Kwaku Asante-Boateng, MP.
Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources – Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, MP.
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture – Mark Okraku-Mantey.null
Gender, Children and Social Protection Ministry – Lariba Zuweira Abudu, MP.
Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations – Bright Wireko-Brobbey.
Ministry of Information – Fatimatu Abubakar.
Ministry of Youth and Sports – Evans Opoku Bobie, MP.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Charles Adu-Bohene, was the only substantive minister among the lot who were sworn in.
The dead body of a man believed to be in his 40s has been found in the Kasoa Okrudu River in the Awutu Senya East Municipality of the Central Region.null
Reports indicate that he was killed and dumped into the river.
According to the residents who spoke to Kasapa FM’s Yaw Boagyan, they started experiencing a serious stench in the area about three days ago, just for them to wake up Friday morning [June 25] to find a dead body.
Residents living in the area are now living in fear and panic since unfortunate incidents of this nature continue to occur in their community.
They have therefore appealed to the Municipal Chief Executive Michael Yaw Essuman Mensah as well as the government to beef up security in the area.null
Meanwhile, the Awutu Senya East Municipality National Disaster Management Organization NADMO Director Mr. Amoah has also confirmed the incident to Kasapa FM.
According to him, they have reported the case to the Kasoa Police.
The deceased is unknown to the residents in the area. The decayed body will be retrieved for identification.
The Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr. Mensa Otabil, has declared his support and love for giants Accra Hearts of Oak ahead of the Ghana Premier League Super Clash.
The 2020/2021 Ghana Premier League Super Clash between Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko which comes off on Sunday, June 27, 2021, in Ghana’s capital city has dominated the headlines for days as personalities outside the football circles continue to declare their support for the respective participating teams.
This year’s Super Clash has been tipped to be the biggest in over a decade as politicians, Chiefs, Musicians, Corporate Executives, and Pastors continue to add their voice to the football debate in the country.
Dr. Mensa Otabil in a viral video sighted by GhanaWeb was seen addressing his congregation as he professed his love for the oldest club in the history of Ghana football, Accra Hearts of Oak.
“I don’t like the English Premier League and it’s because I’m a Ghanaian and I like Accra Hearts of Oak. Until the bones are rotten,” Pastor Mensa Otabil said as his congregation kept cheering him on.
However, it is not clear if the video is an old or a current one.
Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko will face off on Sunday, June 27, 2021, at the Accra Sports Stadium for the Ghana Premier League matchday 31 fixture.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed gratitude to the people of the North East Region for providing him with “a first-class assistant” in the person of the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.null
He thanked the people of Walewale in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the Region, saying, “He has been of great help to me in my government.”
The President, who is also the Chairman of ECOWAS, said this at Walewale on the first day of his two-day tour of the Region to thank the people of the area for their support to him and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2020 general elections.
“A big thank you to the people of the North East, especially to the people of Walewale, you have given me a first-class assistant in the form of the Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia.”
He said out of the six parliamentary seats in the Region, the NPP won four, and noted that for the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic, the NPP’s Presidential Candidate won an absolute majority of the Presidential votes in the North East Region.
“I have two regrets, Nalerigu and Bunkrungu did not vote for the NPP, it is a pity and am hoping that the next time, we will do better so we can get all six seats in the North East Region.null
President Akufo-Addo said several sons and daughters of the Region were members of his government and there would be more as he completes the construction of his government.
The President entreated all citizens across the country to get involved in the Population and Housing Census for effective planning of the country.
He said it was an important exercise that would enable the Central, Regional and local government to effectively plan the development of the country.
“Everybody without discrimination should allow themselves to be counted. Whatever your tribe or religion, so long as you are here on 27th, Census night get counted,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He noted that if there was accurate data on the population and the breakdown of the population, the government would be able to plan for better development across the country.null
The President, who earlier called on the Paramount Chief of the Mamprugu Traditional Area, Nayiri Naa Bohagu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga, said “I am very happy that the Overlord, the Nayiri in his welcome address to me indicated that he and his Chiefs had embraced the idea of the Census.
“It is a very progressive statement from our public-spirited chief and we should all emulate it,” President Akufo-Addo advised.
He acknowledged that the North East Region had managed the COVID-19 pandemic well, saying, “The number of cases here have been very low and continue to be very low.
“The example has been given in this room where all the big Chiefs who are all masked. It is a very good example for the rest of the country and for the people of the North East,” he added
The Board of Governors of Tamale Senior High School has named a newly constructed dormitory block after the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
The dormitory, named Bawumia House, is in recognition of Dr Bawumia’s enormous contributions to the development of the school.
Speaking at the launch of the school’s 70th anniversary in Tamale on Saturday, Dr Bawumia expressed deep appreciation to the school for the honour, and also dedicated the glory to all past students of the school.
“I must thank the Board of Governors and the school for the honour done me to name a house after me, Bawumia House,” Dr Bawumia, himself a former student, said.
He added: “I am so humbled. I just never dreamed of this. So I accept the honour on behalf of all old Tamascans. It is not just for me, it is for all old Tamascans who have contributed in diverse ways towards this great school of ours.”null
Dr Bawumia’s support and contributions to his former school have been enormous, and naming a dormitory after him highlights the depth of the school’s appreciation.
The Vice President is said to have made a substantial monetary and material contribution to the school towards several infrastructure projects, and his support dates back to his days as a private citizen.
Just as he does for other schools across the country, Dr Bawumia has facilitated the provision of government and privately funded facilities for the school, including a 600-bed MTN funded girls dormitory block, which he commissioned on Saturday, as part of the programme to launch the school’s 70th anniversary.
President Akufo-Addo has charged Deputy Ministers of his second term administration to justify their selection to service in their various ministerial portfolios by their works and to remain loyal to the leadership and direction of their substantive Ministers of State as required of them by the 1992 constitution.
Addressing the newly sworn-in deputy ministers at the banquet hall of the Jubilee House Friday the 25th of June 2020, after administering the oaths of office, allegiance, and secrecy to them, President Akufo-Addo said the deputy ministers have to justify their selection because there were many of their peers in Parliament who have not been selected even though they have similar claims of competence.
“We have launched the 100 billion cedis Ghana cares Obaatanpa project to respond to it (the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic) to revitalize and develop our economy. The objectives of the project demand that all of you gathered here bring your “A” game to the table to prosecute it” President Akufo-Addo said.
“Your success in this endevour will be a consequence of three things, first, is the spirit of loyalty you exhibit to your ministers. Article 79, clause 1 of the constitution of the republic provides that a deputy minister is appointed by the President in consultation with the Minister and with the prior approval of Parliament to assist the Minister in the performance of his or her functions” President Akufo-Addo further stated.
“Your basic responsibility is thus, to assist you Minister in the performance of his or her functions. Loyalty to the Minister is a fundamental premise for the success of your work. I will not countenance any acts of disloyalty or subversion of your Minister, for I will take such acts as disloyalty to me personally and by inference, disloyalty to the State and Party” the President cautioned.
Response of Deputy Ministers
In a response on behalf of her colleagues, the deputy minister for Trade and Industry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, assured President Akufo-Addo that they will engage, consult and collaborate with all stakeholders in the governance structure in their bid to assist their ministers to deliver the mandate bestowed on respective ministries.
“We are privileged and grateful to be given these valuable opportunities to serve the country in this capacity and we will give it our utmost best to justify these appointments,” Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei said.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance sworn into office was Charles Adu-Bohene. The thirty-nine (39) deputy ministers who were sworn into office by the President for the Finance Ministry are Abena Osei-Asare, MP, John Ampontuah Kumah, MP.
For the Trade and Industry Ministry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, MP, Michael Okyere Baafi, MP and Mr. Herbert Krapa. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, MP, William Owuraku Aidoo, MP and Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer, MP, for the Ministry of Energy.
The Local Government, Decentralization & Rural Development Ministry had Augustine Collins Ntim, MP, Osei Bonsu Amoah, MP and Martin Kwaku Adjei-Mensah Korsah. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration had, Thomas Mbomba, MP, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, MP.
The Office of Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, Alfred Tuah – Yeboah and Ms. Diana Asonaba Dapaah. The two deputy ministers for the Food and Agriculture Ministry, Yaw Frimpong Addo, MP and Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru, MP. Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, MP and Gifty Twum-Ampofo, MP for the Ministry of Education.
For the Ministry of Health, Tina Gifty Naa Ayeley Mensah, MP and Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini, MP. Benito Owusu-Bio, MP and George Mireku Duker, MP, for the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry. The Roads and Highways Ministry has Mavis Nkansah – Boadu, MP and Stephen Pambiin Jalulah, MP. Alhassan Tampuli Sulemana, MP and Frederick Obeng Adom, MP, for the Ministry of Transport.
The Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Interior have Kofi Amankwah – Manu, MP and Naana Eyiah, MP, respectively. Ama Pomaa Boateng, MP, Ministry of Communications and Digitalization. Abdulai Abanga, MP, Works and Housing Ministry, Moses Anim, MP, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development. Kwaku Asante-Boateng, MP, Ministry of Railway Development
The rest are Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, MP, Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mark Okraku-Mantey Tourism, Arts and Culture, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, MP, Gender, Children and Social Protection, Bright Wireko – Brobbey, MP Employment and Labour Relations, Ms. Fatimatu Abubakar, Ministry of Information and Evans Opoku Bobie, MP, Ministry of Youth and Sports
Deputy Education Minister-designate and Member of Parliament for Assin South Rev. John Ntim Fordjour has assured teachers their welfare concerns are a priority to government.
According to him, plans are underway to launch a Teacher Welfare App to promptly address teachers’ welfare grievances.
The deputy minister-designate argues welfare of teachers is a major concern to government and assured all outstanding issues relative to teacher upgrading, recent promotion challenges, allowances and other concerns would be tackled with urgency required.
As a measure to holistically deal with concerns of teachers, Rev. Fordjour has disclosed a deployment of case managers to every region for timeous resolution of the concerns of teachers as part of efforts to improve their conditions of living.
The app, an initiative of the Minister for Education Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, is expected to help mitigate to a large extent, the many challenges relating to the welfare and management of teachers.
Speaking to the media at the 90th-anniversary celebration of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Accra where he represented the sector minister, John Ntim Fordjour charged the teacher unions to have confidence in the ability of government to find solutions to the current challenges in the sector.
The occasion which was also used as an investment forum was on the theme: “Beyond Teachers’ Fund; Making the Teacher Economically Sound.”
Addressing the leadership and members of GNAT, he intimated that teachers across the country have contributed immensely to the socio-economic development of the nation. He reiterated government’s commitment to timeously address teacher welfare concerns.
He expressed delight at the judicious and productive initiatives undertaken by GNAT in their bid to improve the lots of its members. He particularly commended the business exploits of GNAT including the acquisition of majority shares in Unique Insurance and the Sweden Ghana Medical Centre. He also commended the GNAT for its investments in real estate and the rolling out of a housing scheme for members.
Rev. Ntim Fordjour assured teachers that the Ministry of Education will in due course make available 280,000 laptops to teachers on cost-sharing basis to equip them deliver more effectively.
He called on all teachers across the length and breath of the country to join hands with the Ministry of Education to build a world-class education system
The police have picked up some members of the group calling on the government to fix the country.
About 15 of them were arrested in front of the Law Court Complex where they had gathered waiting for the decision of an Accra High Court on the AG’s application seeking to restrain them from demonstrating.
Some of them had carried placards and banners with the inscription ‘Fix the country, cut down on government expenditure.’
They were picked up by officers from the Accra Regional Command and whisked away.
The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame had earlier in the morning moved a motion urging the court to restrain the group from protesting.
He canvased public safety, public security and public health as reasons.
Lawyers for the group have vehemently opposed the application, arguing that it is moot, premature and lacks merit.
• Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has endorsed the EconoBio project
• The EconoBio project is an initiative of the French Embassy
• He says government will fully support the project
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French Embassy to ensure the effective implementation of the second phase of the EconoBio project which is targeted at protecting Ghana’s forest cover and biodiversity.
At a short event held on Thursday, the sector Minister, Samuel A. Jinapor welcomed the EconoBio project, describing it as a major step in the government’s drive to protect the country’s forest cover and biodiversity.
John Jinapor commended the French Embassy for the initiative which he is convinced will not only help protect the environment but also create employment opportunities in the beneficiary communities.
Samuel Abu Jinapor enumerated some interventions embarked on by the Akufo-Addo administration to thwart the degradation of Ghana’s forest cover.
He promised the French Embassy of government’s unflinching support and noted that the project is in line with government’s ‘and Landscape Restoration Master Plan and the Forest and Wildlife Policy.”
“Project we launch today, is another important intervention to protect our forests and biodiversity, while at the same time improving the lives and livelihoods of our people. It combines community development, small industrialization and biodiversity conservation to increase income and preserve natural resources. This clearly aligns with our Forest and Landscape Restoration Master Plan and the Forest and Wildlife Policy.
“I am happy to learn, that one of the focus areas of the Project will be the Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) concept, being implemented under the Ghana Forest Investment Programme, to enhance the capacity of the local communities to manage their natural resources. It is my hope that the lessons learnt from the implementation of this concept in the Western and Western North Regions, will guide us moving forward” he said.
The Minister who doubles as Member of Parliament for Damongo was elated that his constituency is going to benefit from the project.
“Your Excellency, I must add, that I am excited that the good and dignified people of my own constituency of Damongo, are going to benefit from this important intervention. I will encourage the youth and women in particular, in the selected areas, to take active part in this Project and I pledge my full support and that of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to its successful implementation”.
The French Ambassador to Ghana, Anne-Sophie AVE on her part said “the project will give them economic activities so that they will be active in the protection of their own biodiversity and environment. The idea is of the second phase is to build-up and scale up on what we’ve done. We are going to work around four protective areas. The Mole National Park, Atewa Rainforest, Western Wildlife corridor and Ankasa Forest Reserve.” .
EconoBio is an initiative by the French Embassy which seeks the “development of green value chains for the benefit of local populations living on the outskirts of biodiversity-rich areas, with the support of the private sector and civil society”.
The project thrives on the fusion of environment-friendly methods and economic activities which further the course of protecting the environment.
Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, the deputy education minister, has indicated that the Akufo-Addo-led government will promptly address the welfare of teachers.
According to him, the government finds the affairs of teachers a major concern, therefore, the government is doing everything possible to make sure teachers have better conditions of service.
Speaking at the 90th-anniversary celebration of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Accra on Wednesday, the minister said plans are underway to launch a Teacher Welfare App that will address all the outstanding issues of teachers which includes teacher upgrading, recent promotion challenges, allowances and other tenable concerns would be tackled with alacrity.
He explained, “there will also be the deployment of case managers to every region to address and timeously resolve the concerns of teachers as part of efforts to make life better for them”.null
The occasion which was also used as an investment forum was on the theme: “Beyond Teachers’ Fund; Making the Teacher Economically Sound.”
Rev Ntim Fordjour told the leadership and members of GNAT that teachers across the country have contributed immensely to the socio-economic development of the nation.
The Teacher Welfare App, an initiative of the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, is expected to help mitigate, to a large extent, the many challenges relating to the welfare and management of teachers.
The Ghana Police Service has arrested 35 foreigners suspected to be illegal immigrants who engaged in fraudulent activities.
The suspects are made up of 27 Burkinabe’s, Four Togolese, and four Nigerians.
They were arrested at Sowutoum in the Greater Accra region after a Togolese reported to the police on June 21 that he had been allegedly defrauded by one of the suspects.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, the 35 suspected immigrants were arrested following the report from the victim.
“When officers arrived at their house for questioning none of the immigrants were able to provide any immigration document. Based on that the police arrested them and the Ghana Immigration Service has since been informed of the necessary actions”, she said.
DSP. Effia Tenge urged the public, especially landlords, to ascertain the immigration status of foreigners they offer accommodation to and also report to the police if they become suspicious of the activities of their tenants.
A former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, has justified the government’s decision to terminate the power agreement with independent contractor, Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC).
The power contractor has won a 170 million dollar judgment debt against the Government of Ghana at the London Commercial Court of international arbitration.
The news has sparked serious conversations, with many calling for the prosecution of the officials involved in the termination.
Others have also suggested that Mr. Boakye Agyarko, who was the then Energy Minister, failed to engage extensively on exploring other options instead of a cancellation of the agreement
But the former Energy Minister in a Citi News interview has defended the government’s decision to terminate the said contract.
According to him, the country would have lost more from excess power generation if the agreement had remained.
For that reason, he insists that Ghana is “better off” with this judgement debt.
“We have paid almost over $1 billion for excess capacity. The review committee estimated that the contract as they were if they were allowed to stand, the country will be paying at the end of the 13th year $7.2 billion in excess capacity charges. Now if the country is going to be saddled with $7.2 billion for excess capacity, we needed to rethink. In the PPA review, what it said was that if we could get the termination and the management of all the excess capacity, the liability that we will be faced with is about $600 million out of pocket.”
“Now $600 million in year one compared to $7.2 billion, now even if you do the next present value calculation and bring the $7.2 billion into a one-year payment, we are still better off. I don’t understand why the people whose time these excess capacity contracts were signed now have the guts and the audacity to accuse people who are trying to manage the mess they created
The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has announced an end to the Covid-19 free water supply intervention.
Last year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced that the government would absorb water bills for all Ghanaians, as part ofitsfight against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
TheMinistry,ina statement, saidtheintervention, which was supposed to last for three months (between 1 July to 30September 2020), was extended again from 1 October to 31December 2020.
The statement further notedthat inJanuary 2021, the policy was maintained for lifeline consumers; thatis, households that consume less than 1.100 gallons of water per month from 1January to 31March 2021 and was further extended from 1April to 30June 2021.
“Effective 1 July 2021, all consumers/customers of the Ghana Water Company Limited, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, NGOs and partners in the water sector, will pay for the water they consume,” thestatement added
A claim that South African woman Gosiame Sithole gave birth to 10 babies earlier this month is not true, an official inquiry has found.
No hospitals in Gauteng province have a record of decuplets being born, the provincial government says.
Medical tests show that Ms Sithole had not even been pregnant recently, it said.
The 37-year-old is now being held under the mental health act for observation and will be provided with support.
The statement did not elaborate on the reasons behind the fabrication of the story.
Independent Online (IOL), the media group which owns the Pretoria News that first reported the story, had stood by its reporting.
It went on to allege that Ms Sithole delivered the children on 7 June at Steve Biko Academic Hospital (SBAH) in the capital, Pretoria, saying staff were ill prepared.
It accused the hospital and the provincial health authorities of trying to cover up medical negligence.
“These allegations are false, unsubstantiated and only serve to tarnish the good reputation of Steve Biko Academic Hospital and the Gauteng Provincial Government,” the latest statement said.
Legal action would be taken against the editor-in-chief of Pretoria News, Piet Rampedi, and IOL, it said.
Where did the story come from? Ms Sithole, who has six-year-old twins, and her partner Teboho Tsotetsi lived in Thembisa, a township with many working-class residents in Gauteng province near Johannesburg.
According to IOL, they attended the same church as Rampedi where he was introduced to them in December. In May it is alleged he interviewed the couple who said they were expecting eight babies – a photoshoot shows Ms Sithole looking heavily pregnant.
The birth of a surprise 10 babies was announced by Pretoria News on 8 June quoting Mr Tsotetsi as the source. He later said he had received text messages from his partner telling him about it, adding he was not allowed at the hospital because of coronavirus restrictions.
Rampedi also relied on WhatsApp messages – and did not get independent confirmation from the hospital of the story.
Their local mayor then confirmed the births – which is when other outlets, including the BBC, published the story – but a government spokesman later said the politician only had the family’s word and no-one had yet seen the babies.
Donations began flooding in for the couple and their reported babies, dubbed the “Thembisa 10”, including 1m rand ($70,000; £50,000) from IOL chairman Iqbal Survé.
But the story drew suspicion after Pretoria News initially failed to disclose the hospital where the babies were born and a series of hospitals in Gauteng came out to deny their involvement.
Ten days after the alleged births, IOL made the accusations against SBAH.
The couple seemed to fall out in the aftermath with Mr Tsotetsi reporting her missing and asking people to stop donations a week later, while Ms Sithole accused him of wanting to benefit financially from the babies, the Pretoria News reported.
Meanwhile social workers managed to track down Ms Sithole and she was admitted to hospital for tests last Friday, the Gauteng provincial authorities say.
A leaked memo seen by News24 alleges that Rampedi has recently apologised to IOL for “the reputational damage” the story has caused the group, saying he should have treated it more like an investigative piece rather than a “feel-good story”.
Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Wednesday walked out of parliament in protest against the approval of four deputy ministers.
The minority MPs said their boycott of the approval of the last batch of deputy ministers, which was tabled in the House by Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, was borne out of insincerity and disrespect for them by their majority counterparts.
The Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, indicated that the vetting the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Diana Asonaba Dapaah; Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abdul; Deputy Minister of Local Government and Dentralisation, Martin Adjei Mensah-Korsah; and the Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Amidu Issahaku Chinnia were carried out without their involvement.
Later, the MP for Tamale North, Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini, explained his side could not take part in the vetting because the Speaker had directed MPs to take part in the Green Ghana exercise on June 11, 2021, the day the vetting took place.
According to him, Committees of Parliament work at the pleasure of the Speaker and that for Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin to have directed MPs to go to their constituencies to take part in the exercise was enough to have signaled the Chairman of the Appointments Committee to call off the vetting.
“On the said date the Speaker gave no exclusion, he directed all Members of Parliament to go back to their constituencies to support the government programme of Green Ghana,” he posited
However, the Majority side insisted its members did no wrong, intimating that Parliament’s Appointments Committee had a programme of schedule which predated the event of Green Ghana on June 11.
MP for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea said “every serious-minded member of the Committee would be bound by the programme.”
He continued that “and what we were going to do will take precedence over any other thing, that is very, very fundamental,” and added that “we should bear in mind that a member of parliament could also delegate to the Chairman of the constituency to stand in for him or her.”
Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on Wednesday called on Members of Parliament to enhance their participation in parliamentary diplomacy.null
He urged MPs to avail themselves, join parliamentary friendship associations, and take part in mutual activities that inured to the benefit of one another.
The Speaker made the call at the Parliament House when he inaugurated an 11-member Management Committee of Parliamentary Friendship Associations of the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.
The Committee is chaired by Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Deputy Majority Leader and MP for Efutu Constituency.
Speaker Bagbin urged the legislators to be interested in issues that affected one another and to collaborate among legislatures for workable solutions.
“Global integration is a sine qua non of global development,” the Speaker said and called for friendship engagements to address trans-generational and trans-territorial challenges.null
The Speaker directed the Committee to co-opt three more women to join their committees, and for copies of the Code of Conduct of MPs in Ghana to be made available to all MPs.
Mr Afenyo-Markin, who chairs the Committee, pledged that the Committee would work with zeal.
Other members of the Committee are Mr James Klutse Avedzi, Deputy Minority Leader; Madam Lydia Seyram Alhasssan, Deputy Majority Whip; Mr Ahamed Ibrahim, Deputy Minority Whip, Mr Bryan Acheampong, Chairperson, Foreign Affairs Committee; Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa; Ranking Member, Foreign Affairs Committee; Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, MP Akuapem South Constituency; and Dr Emmanuel Marfo, MP for Oforikrom Constituency-both nominated by the Majority Leader; and Mr Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East Constituency, nominated by the Minority Leader.
Members at the Secretariat of the Committee are Mr Richard Kwame Acheampong, Head Parliamentary Relations Unit as Secretary; and Mrs Anthonia-Gloria French Okine, Assistant Parliamentary Relations Officer as Assistant Secretary.
As at the end of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana, the Ghana’s parliament has so far registered and in friendship with the legislatures of 38 nations across the continents.null
A Parliamentary Friendship Association is a cross-party association of legislators established to promote continued dialogue with Members of other Legislatures.
Once established, the associations enter into bilateral relations with their counterparts on other Legislatures.
Five or more Members of Parliament may initiate the establishment of a Parliamentary Friendship Association provided that the country with which they intend to relate is a member of the United Nations, has Legislature and has diplomatic relations with Ghana.
Bernard Allotey Jacobs, a former NDC Central Regional Chairman, has urged the government to increase its purchase of Kantanka vehicles to enable the company to expand and create more employment opportunities.null
He said once that was done, the government could put a system in place through which groups such as teachers and nurses, among others, could procure the vehicles on hire purchase basis.
“I am impressed with what Apostle Kwadwo Safo Kantanka has done and I am so happy about that and I think the government needs to support him through every means possible,” Bernard Allotey Jacobs exclusively told Reynold Agyemang on ‘Pae Mu Ka’ on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7null
‘Kantanka Automobile’ which began commercial sale of the Kantanka cars in November 2015, have been criticised for selling at uncompetitive prices.
The Kantanka K71 is selling between ¢65,000 – ¢70,000 whiles the luxury version, Omama Luxury is sold at ¢130,000.
• Businessman Kennedy Agyapong has revealed the two times he went brokenull
• According to him, it is important for entrepreneurs to learn from moments of financial distress
• He was speaking at the maiden edition of the Youth Conference with Kennedy Agyapong held on Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has advised Ghanaian youth, especially those into entrepreneurship to understand the need to learn from financial difficulties and rebound from such situations.
Speaking at the maiden Youth Conference with Kennedy Agyapong, held at the University of Professional Studies – Accra, on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, the businessman emphasized that being in such situations many times becomes necessary for entrepreneurs to learn.
The business magnate recounted two instances he was completely broke, adding that the experience enlightened him to avoid similar situations.
“I was broke two times and the third time I told myself that it was not going to happen again. The first one was in 1992. After the election and Akufo-Addo lost I was in Ghana for eight months. I lost my girlfriend that I was madly in love with because I was broke. My office in New York, I stayed in Ghana for eight months and when I went back the landlord had taken everything in my office. I had only one car left and I started driving Taxi again,” noted in response to an attendee who sought to find out from him how entrepreneurs can navigate through financial difficulties.null
He further revealed how a second episode of a financial difficulty where he was compelled to sell off six out of nine houses, he had at the time to start over again.
“The second one, I lost six out of my nine houses. I had to sell six out of my nine houses to start life over again,” he revealed.
He pointed out what has since become lessons from his experience and asked youth entrepreneurs to see financial difficulties as learning moments.
“Don’t think I have not gone through hardships before, I have but I had to survive. That is where you learn your lessons then you correct them and you become a better person, a better businessman. So, it’s necessary to fall so that when you rise you will not make that mistakes again. Don’t think life is smooth, straight like that for you – you will be a fool,” he stated.
The Youth Conference with Kennedy Agyapong was held in honour of the accomplished businessman and politician as part of his 61st birthday celebrations.
Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, Ohene Kofi Safo a nephew of the MP who is the brain behind the conference explained what the motivation was.null
“The Honourable MP is a man whose political and business life has had an impact on many people. He has over the years accumulated a lot of political and business experience which attests to his success, and so we thought about doing something that will have a double positive effect. Our aim was to honour the Honourable Kennedy Agyapong and to also create a platform for him to share his knowledge and experience with the youth of Ghana who he exerts a lot of influence over. We believe that through this platform, more Kennedy Agyapongs will be created by virtue of the exposure,” he said.
Mr Kennedy Agyapong who was the main speaker of the conference among other things charged the youth of Ghana to take their destinies into their own hands and make sure they give in their all in the quest for success.
Other guests who graced the conference include the MP for Abetifi – Bryan Acheampong who was Chairman of the event, Ghana’s Former Ambassador to China – Edward Boateng, Deputy Information Minister Designate – Fatimatu Abubakar and the Vice-Chancellor for the University of Professional Studies, Accra – Prof Abednego F. O. Amartey.
The Youth Conference with Kennedy Agyapong is scheduled to be organised annually to provide a platform for the MP and other accomplished Ghanaians to impart knowledge to Ghanaian youth.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has charged the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Lands Commission and other land management agencies as well as traditional leaders to see to the vigorous implementation of the new Land Act 2020 (Act 1063), to ensure sanity and security in the administration of land in Ghana.
Addressing participants at a national symposium organised by the Ministry in collaboration with other land use administrators in Accra on Wednesday, 23 June 2021 Dr Bawumia expressed delight that a comprehensive document guiding the use and administration of land had finally become a reality.
“Today’s National Symposium) marks a significant event in the history of land administration in Ghana. I say this because, for the first time, a Law on land administration has been passed to revise, harmonize, and consolidate laws on land to ensure sustainable land administration and management.
“The importance of an effective and efficient Land Sector in Ghana cannot be overemphasized. Every economic activity undertaken by man has a relation to land and, therefore, land remains pivotal to National Development.
“The National Lands Policy, 1999, the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies (2017-2024), and the Ghana Beyond Aid Strategy Document (2020) show that a functional land administration system is a catalyst for development.”
In addition to harmonizing existing laws the Act, which received Presidential Assent on 23rd December, 2020, provides for the repeal of 13 land related Acts, which in turn result in the repeal of orders/rules and regulations that emanate from these repealed laws.
Further, Act 1036 significantly introduces new provisions relating to customary land management, compulsory acquisition and vesting of lands, electronic conveyancing, and spousal land rights.
It also provides for stringent of jail terms for various offences related to land that are expected to assist in the sanitizing the land sector.
Recalling his surprise visit to the Lands Commission in 2018, during which he observed several, major challenges in the documentation and administration of land documents, Vice President Bawumia said Government re-invigorated efforts to ensure the passage of a law which embraced technology to meet the challenges of our time.
“It is worth noting that successive Governments have tried resolving the challenges in our Land Administration system, but these efforts have often come with various complications, and inefficient deployment of resources. Governments after governments, bank loans after bank loans, our fundamental problems in land administration persist, seemingly unsolvable, and citizens’ complaints get louder and louder.
“To address these critical challenges in the land sector and to optimize the contribution of land to the socio-economic development of Ghana, the Government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is committed to change through the application of technology. Ghana can only make the much-needed strides in development when technology becomes the driver for all sectors of the economy.”
Dr Bawumia called on all stakeholders to actively play their parts in ensuring that the provisions of the Act become reality, and not just another piece of legislation that gathers dust.
“Laws in themselves do not resolve problems. It is the application of the laws and their effective implementation that will result in desired changes in the land sector that all of us so much desire.
“To this end, I will like to emphasize the need for all stakeholders to rally together to ensure that the provisions of the Land Act are implemented effectively, and resources are channeled towards it.
“For instance, the Land Act provides that our eminent chiefs, clan and family heads, tendanas, who are the custodians of approximately 80% of the land area of Ghana, are required to establish Customary Land Secretariats to improve the management of their lands.
“However, our Traditional Authorities will require technical and professional assistance from the Lands Commission, Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority to establish the Secretariats. I trust the honourable Minister would give the urgent support and needed directives to the agencies to this end.”
“Also, the participation of the Private Sector is essential, especially in the injection of capital and technical know-how in targeting specific key improvements in the infrastructure and operations of the Lands Commission. This participation would go a long way in improving efficiency,” he added.
The Overlord of Mamprugu, the Nayiri, Naa Bohogu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga, has applauded the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for seeing to the construction and completion of several projects which had been on the wish list of the chiefs and people of Mamprugu for many years.
According to the Nayiri, the impact of the work undertaken by the President Akufo-Addo has been felt by the entire country, especially the people of the North East Region.
He indicated that several town water projects across the North East Region, which have been commissioned, the asphalting of the Nalerigu, Gambaga, and Walewale town roads, as well as the ongoing construction of Wulugu-Kpasenkpe Road, the Nasia-Kparigu road, the Nalerigu-Bunkpurugu road, the Nalerigu-Gbintiri road and Gbintiri-Chereponi Road, all in the North East Region, are examples of projects undertaken by the Akufo-Addo government.
“The above-mentioned projects that are being witnessed, have been on the request list of Mamprugu for years which eluded, and, undoubtedly, passed on from government to government. Certainly, we owe you tons of gratitude,” the Nayiri added.
Naa Bohogu Mahami Abdulai Sheriga made this known on Tuesday, 22 June 2021, when the President paid a courtesy call on him at his palace, as part of his two-day tour of North East Region.
The Nayiri also expressed gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for the Pwalugu Multi-Purpose Dam and Irrigation Project, which he described as the “Super Game Changer Project in the North”, which will result in the provision of electricity, and 25,000 hectares of irrigation facilities.
“The dam, I also understand, will serve as a receptacle to collect all water upstream which has been the source of the region’s perennial flooding,” he added.
Touching on the pro-poor policies implemented by the Government of President Akufo-Addo since 2017, such as the free Senior High School policy, Planting for Food and Jobs, One-constituency-One Ambulance, the expansion of the National School Feeding Programmme and the introduction of the Nation Builders Corps he indicated that these policies are “well-thought-out and targeted policies that are aimed at reducing poverty. Ours is a young region on which these policies perfectly fit.”
The Nayiri thanked President Akufo-Addo for the appointment of the former Hon. Hajia Alima Mahama to the high office of Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America.
“We are forever most grateful. Your appointment of Hon. Mustapha Ussif as Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Hajia Abudu Zuweira Lariba as Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection is being highly appreciated,” he added.
A member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress’ legal team, Mr Chris Ackumey, has accused Attorney General Godfred Dame of seeking to excuse the Akufo-Addo government’s “negligence” and “incompetence”, which led to the country incurring a judgment debt of $170 million, by pushing the blame on the erstwhile Mahama administration, which signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with independent power producer Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC), that subsequently got unlawfully terminated by the current government in 2018, thus, bringing about the judgment debt.
Mr Dame had said he intended lodging a formal complaint with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to probe the deal, since, according to him, a report by a committee constituted in September 2016, revealed that the agreement had issues and consequently resulted in excessive power supply.
“The fact, as borne out by the PPA committee’s report, was that the agreement, together with other agreements, had resulted in such excessive power supply to the state”, he told Accra-based Joy FM, adding: “The state was going to lose $586m per annum and a cumulative cost of about $7.6billion dollars between 2013 and 2018.”
“So, I think that when it comes to financial loss, it is so clear in my mind that the responsibility lies clearly with those who entered into the agreement”, he noted.
The basic point, he said, “is that the entry into this transaction was unnecessary”.
“The entry into this transaction was what resulted in financial loss to the state.”
He revealed: “I, on account of all of this, am going to write a formal complaint requesting an enquiry by the CID into the conduct of the public officers who acted in the manner which resulted in the signing of an agreement which resulted in financial loss to the state.”
“There was no justification because their own committee determined that the agreement was going to result in excessive power.”
“The committee set up by the NDC in 2016 – against the background of a recognition that there were so many PPAs entered into by the NDC administration, and, therefore, those agreements were going to result in excessive capacity development, as it was termed – came to a conclusion that this agreement had to be terminated. The committee singled out this particular agreement for termination”, he stressed.
Reacting to Mr Dame, however, Mr Ackumey, in an interview with Kofi Oppong Asamoah on Class91.3FM’s Class Morning Show on Wednesday, 23 June 2021 wondered: “What is unnecessary?”
“You [Dame] were not in government and then you are saying that a contract was not necessary”, Mr Ackumey retorted, explaining: “We wanted to solve the power crisis in the country, so, there were various agreements which were instituted”.
According to him, the “power fluctuations that we’ve suffered for the past six or seven months will not have been there because this would have augmented or added up”.
“We would have had a buffer, so, why are you attacking [the Mahama administration?]. I mean it’s just trying to distract attention from the gross incompetence, gross negligence and the international disgrace they are suffering from”, Mr Ackumey noted.
What Happened In London Court
Feednews.com reported recently that the Commercial Court in London refused to allow Ghana to bring a belated challenge to an UNCITRAL award worth over US$134 million in favour of a power contractor, ruling that national elections and COVID-19 pandemic did not make the state’s delay reasonable.
The case started under Gloria Afua Akuffo, when she was the Minister of Justice with Godfred Yeboah Dame as her deputy.
State attorneys, including Helen Akpene Awo Ziwu, Anna Pearl Akiwumi Siriboe and Grace Oppong Dolphy in Accra, were also mentioned in the case as having failed to beat a 28-day deadline.
However, the state attorneys, together with Mr Dame, who took over from Gloria Afua Akuffo, went sleeping on the job, leading to a delay in contesting the judgment debt.
The result of that deep sleep is that poverty-stricken Ghana will be paying a whopping US$170 million in damages to the claimants; Ghana Power Generation Company (GPGC) located at 1 Airport Square Building, 7th floor, Accra. Mr Dame and his subordinates’ attempts to hide behind the 2020 general election and the COVID-19 pandemic as excuses for the delay was rebuffed by the London court.
In a ruling on Wednesday, 8 June 2021, Mr Justice Butcher refused to grant the government a time extension to apply to set aside the award – adding that the state’s grounds for challenging it were “intrinsically weak”.
Global Arbitration Review previously reported on the award in favour of GPGC against Ghana.
GPGC was represented before the court by Charles Kimmins QC and Mark Tushingham, where Ghana was said to have been too late to challenge the decision against it. Ghana had used Khawar Qureshi QC of Serle Court and Volterra Fietta, having initially retained Omnia Strategy.
In the arbitration, GPGC, used Three Crowns and Ghanaian firm, Kimathi & Partners, along with damages experts from FTI Consulting.
Ghana also had representation from the attorney general’s office and Amofa & Partners in Accra.
The underlying dispute concerned the government’s alleged wrongful repudiation in 2018 of a contract for a “fast-track power generation solution” – involving the relocation of two aero-derivative gas turbine power plants to the government’s territory. A London-seated UNCITRAL tribunal composed of former ICC Court president John Beechey as chair, J William Rowley QC and Ghanaian academic, Albert Fiadjoe, issued its final award in January, ordering the government to pay a contractually defined “early termination payment” of more than US$134.3 million plus interest and costs.
It also dismissed the government’s counterclaim.
The award is said to be worth around US$170 million. Under English law, the government had 28 days to bring a challenge to the award.
Three days before the expiry of that deadline, the government’s then solicitors, Omnia Strategy applied to the court for a 56-day extension. Omnia said it had only just been instructed and that bureaucratic processes had been delayed because of national elections in the country and because key members of the attorney general’s office had contracted covid-19.
The court agreed to extend the deadline for any challenge to March 8, but the government only brought its set-aside application on April 1, now represented by Volterra Fietta.
The law firm explained that, the new attorney general, had only been sworn in on March 5, and the firm had been instructed 10 days later.
In the latest ruling, Butcher J, said the government’s delay was “significant and substantial”, as its request for a second extension had come 38 days after the statutory deadline and 27 days after the first extension expired. The fact that a large sum was at stake in the arbitration was not a reason for the challenge taking longer to make. The fact that the attorney general had not been sworn in until March 5, did not mean the government was unable to act in the meantime, the judge said.
The government had still managed to instruct Omnia during this June 12, 2021, 10:37 Pagina 2 di 5period and the new AG, who was previously deputy attorney general, had been among the counsel in the arbitration.
Echoing a ruling in the P&ID v Nigeria case, the judge said the fact that a party is a foreign state is a matter of “little significance” when it comes to compliance with court directions.
That an entity may have “bureaucratic decision-making processes” does not justify the delay. As for arguments about covid-19, the judge said the evidence as to the way in which the pandemic had affected the government was “wholly inadequate”.
There needed to be a detailed explanation of how it had affected “particular people or particular processes”. The judge also said that the grounds of the government’s proposed challenge to the award were “intrinsically weak”.
One argument that the tribunal failed to be “guided by the terms and conditions” of the contract was a “clear case of an attempt to present alleged errors of law as errors of procedure”.
Butcher J, was likewise sceptical of the government’s other complaint that the tribunal failed to deal with all issues put to it. The judge said that the tribunal had dealt with the issues raised and that the government was in fact arguing that the tribunal’s reasons were inadequate. He said there was no unfairness in denying an extension, as the government had already been granted one extension and was solely responsible for having missed the deadlines. This followed delays in the arbitration for which the government was also apparently solely responsible
The Commercial Court in London has rejected a late appeal from Ghana against a judgement debt award of US$134 million in favour of power contractor, The Ghana Power Generation Company (GCGP).
According to the London Court, the government of Ghana failed to apply and set aside the January 26, 2021 decision of the London-based United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Tribunal.
Mr Justice Butcher, in a ruling on Wednesday, June 8, refused to grant the government of Ghana an extension to apply to set aside the award – adding that the state’s grounds for challenging it were “intrinsically weak”.
The government through its lawyer Godfred Dame had attempted to hide behind the 2020 general election and the COVID-19 pandemic as excuses for the delay, but their excuses were dismissed by the London court.
GPGC was represented before the court by Charles Kimmins QC and Mark Tushingham, where Ghana was said to have been too late to challenge the decision against it.
Ghana, had used Khawar Qureshi QC of Serle Court and Volterra Fietta, having initially retained Omnia Strategy. In the arbitration, GPGC, used Three Crowns and Ghanaian firm, Kimathi & Partners, along with damages experts from FTI Consulting.
Ghana also had representation from the attorney general’s office and Amofa & Partners in Accra.
The three-member arbitration tribunal chaired by John Beechey, a former President of the International Criminal Court’s Court of Arbitration, and co-chaired by Prof Albert Fiadjoe, a Ghanaian academic, sided with the power producer and awarded almost US$170 million, including interest.
Out of the total, U$134.35 million represents the early termination payment claim, which itself is made up of US $69.36 million as early termination fee, US$58.49 million for mobilisation costs, US$6.46 million as demobilisation cost and US$32,448 as preservation and maintenance cost.
The tribunal also awarded US$614,353.86 against the country as the cost of the tribunal, and costs of US$3 million against Ghana, being the legal fees expended by the GPGC during the arbitration.
Major highlights of the tribunal’s decision included the fact that the Ahenkora Committee which recommended the termination of the contract did not have sufficient ground in coming to the conclusion that the GPGC was entitled to only $US18 million in early termination fees.
The tribunal, in dismissing Ghana’s case, delved into the basis for terminating the contract, stating that the evidence before it indicated that “GPGC did have a building permit for the Blue Ocean Site issued by the Kpone-Katamanso District Assembly on August 15, 2017.”
“GoG [The government] has not been able to adduce any statute or regulation, including the Energy Commission Act, which addresses the requirement for any such additional construction permit,” the Tribunal ruled.
“On the basis of the record as it now stands, it is apparent that even as Dr. Ahenkorah [Energy Commission Executive Secretary at the time] was putting up further hurdles over which he required GPGC to jump in pursuit of its provisional generation license in November 2017, the Minister of Energy was about to seek the approval of the Ghanaian Parliament of a decision to terminate the EPA along with a number of other PPAs, based upon the Report of the PPA Committee chaired by Dr. Ahenkorah,” it said.
Under British law, the government had 28 days to challenge the tribunal’s decision. However, it went to sleep only to appear in court three days to the expiry of the deadline to ask for an extension.
Omnia Strategy, a British law firm, made the case for extension and asked for 56 days—twice the allowed grace period.
However, the court set March 8, 2021, for the Government to file the processes to challenge the Tribunal’s decision in January. But again, the government took a long nap until April 1, 2021, before filing. This time, another British law firm, Volterra Fietta, had instructions from the government to begin the process.
The law firm, which tagged itself as the only dedicated public international law firm in the world, explained that the new Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, had only been sworn in on March 5, and the firm received the directive to represent Ghana 10 days later.
But ruling on the matter on June 8, 2021, the court had no sympathies. It said the excuses were unreasonable and “intrinsically weak.”
The presiding judge, Justice Butcher did not hold back.
The judge said the government’s delay was “significant and substantial” as its request for a second extension had come 38 days after the statutory deadline and 27 days after the first extension expired, the Global Arbitration Review (GAR) reported.
He noted that the large sum of money involved in the arbitration was not enough grounds for the appeal to take as long as it did.
“The fact that the Attorney General had not been sworn until March 5 did not mean the government was unable to act in the meantime, the judge said.
Background to the arbitration
The International Court of Arbitration in January 2021 awarded a cost of $134 million and an interest of $30 million against the Government of Ghana over the cancellation of an Emergency Power Agreement with GCGP limited.
The Contract was cancelled under the former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko as part of several other energy contracts cancelled by the NPP on the basis that the country did not need those power agreements.
The ruling by the International Court of Arbitration ordered the government to Ghana to pay to “GPGC the full value of the Early Termination Payment, together with Mobilization, Demobilization and preservation and maintenance costs in the amount of US$ 134,348,661, together also with interest thereon from 12 November 2018 until the date of payment, accruing daily and compounded monthly, at the rate of LIBOR for six-month US dollar deposits plus six per cent(6%).”
The Government of Ghana was also to pay GPGC an amount of “US$ 309,877.74 in respect of the Costs of the Arbitration, together with US$ 3,000,000 in respect of GPGC’s legal representation and the fees and expenses of its expert witness, together with interest on the aggregate amount of US$ 3,309,877.74 at the rate of LIBOR for three-month US dollar deposits, compounded quarterly
•The 37 Military Hospital has shared pictures of two patients whose families cannot be locatednull
•The two patients were admitted after being involved in separate car accidents
•The hospital has called on the public to help locate the families of the patients
The 37 Military Hospital has called on the general public to assist in identifying two persons who have been admitted to their facility after a vehicular knockdown.
According to the hospital, the first patient identified as Unknown Sunday cannot talk nor walk.
The patient was rushed to the hospital’s trauma Surgical Emergency Unit on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Unknown Sunday was later transferred to the Neurology Ward on April 27.
The second patient named Kingsley Ige was also sent to the Trauma Surgical and Emergency Unit on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, after a car accident.null
A press statement from the hospital says Ige who is believed to be a Nigerian has lost total memory although he can speak and walk.
Mr Ige is currently on admission at the hospital’s Neurology Ward.
The statement signed by the Commander for Public Relations Directorate, A La-Anyane, has urged the public to assist with relevant information to help locate the families of the two persons.
The Nkawie Circuit Court has sentenced two friends to 25 years imprisonment each for conspiring to rob a couple at gunpoint at Abena Ntiriwaa near Adiembra in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region.
Kwame Agyei, alias Pizaro, 36, and Adamu Abu, alias Rasta, 23, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit crime and robbery.
The Court, presided over by Michael Johnson Abbey, convicted the two on their own plea.
Detective Inspector Anthony Acheampong, prosecuting, told the court that Agyei and Abu were farm labourers at Agogoso near Adiembra.
He said on May 31, 2021, the accused persons, who often worked on a farm near the cottage of the couple, noticed that they had sold their cocoa produce.
The two later met at the house of Abu, where they conspired to rob the couple.
On June 1, at about 1250 hours, they attacked the couple with a locally made pistol and a cutlass and managed to take away GHC1,640.
A report was made to the Nyinahin Police, who traced them to their hideout, upon intelligence, and arrested them. GNA
• He indicated that people are luring him to accept the challenge
• But Okudzeto Ablakwa says he does not want to rush to make any mistake
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has dined reports that suggest he has a presidential ambition even though some well-meaning Ghanaians want to lure him into it.
According to him, becoming the President of Ghana is not something that he is aiming at.
Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen monitored by GhanaWeb, Ablakwa explained, “I have seen insatiable ambition destroy a lot of people so I don’t believe in electing or positioning yourself or self-aggrandizing when it comes to the issue of positions in any organization.”null
He continued: “It is one of the things I see a lot. Anytime I roll out an intervention, people align it to presidential ambition but my view on leadership is that every generation has its own leaders.
Leaders emerge from the people and if you make a mistake and think that you are better than everybody else and should be a leader, you will be disappointed.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa indicated that he could have contested for the parliamentary seat in about six constituencies but settled for North Tongu because the people wanted him to serve.
“You should never see yourself as cut out for anything because I see that to be ignorance and self-distracting,” he said.Source: www.ghanaweb.com
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has vowed to cause the dismissal of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region who do not perform satisfactorily in their roles.
According to him, the performance of MMDCEs in Accra will be assessed every six months, after which recommendations would be made for the dismissal of the low-performing officials.
He insisted that the job of MMDCEs is not limited to the confines of their offices but on the ground, and that they must be ready to be on the field to work.
Mr. Quartey said he will plead with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to sack any MCE who fails to perform creditably after the six-month duration.
“I don’t know about other regions, but in Greater Accra, if you are confirmed as an MCE, I want to go and kneel down before Mr. President that six months into your administration and you are not performing, we will sack you.”
“As an MCE, we expect you to work hard. Don’t sit in your office and do capacity building. Go to the field, that is where the work is. We will try and get an appraisal to the Local Government Minister, every six months, and if we think you are not doing well, we will sack you.”
Henry Quartey, since assuming office under his ‘Let’s Make Accra work campaign, has undertaken several initiatives to provide lasting solutions to everyday challenges in the region, with the view to transform the national capital.
He has supervised the removal of unauthorized traders along some major streets, the pulling down of unauthorized structures, and carried out decongestion exercises and other sanitation drives aimed at ridding the capital of fifth.
Although these initiatives have won him the admiration of some Ghanaians, the Minister believes the totality of these efforts should not be viewed as political vindictiveness.
“There is a vision the President has for the region, so as a servant of the President, we have to ensure that he is able to realize his vision. Various stakeholders have thrown their support behind me. It shouldn’t be seen as political vindictiveness. We need to see how best we can create an enabling environment in Accra for all of us to live in this region”.
Henry Quartey gave assurances that the efforts to making Accra work are sustainable and not “a nine-day wonder”, explaining in details his longterm plans for sustainability
Members of the Private Road Transport Operators have hinted at increasing fares again.
The decision, according to them, follows the recent three per cent hike in the price of fuel at the pumps.
According to the group, the government is also making frantic efforts to increase road tolls, complaining that “transport operators are going to bear the brunt should it be implemented.”
The group further expressed its disappointment with the government for its inability to have kept the “assurances given to transport operators that it will ensure that fuel prices and spare parts remain stable.”
The transport operators, in a statement, entreated customers and the general public to bear with them, explaining that their transport business is reeling under a lot of pressure following the rising cost of inputs.
Commercial transport operators recently announced a 13 per cent increase in fares which took effect on 5 June 2021.
They explained back then that the hike was “to accommodate, predominantly, an increase in the price of fuel”.
PRESS RELEASE JOINT STATEMENT BY PRIVATE ROAD TRANSPORT OPERATORS ON DECISION TO INCREASE LORRY FARES FOLLOWING THE FATHER’S DAY 3% FUEL PRICE GIFT AT THE PUMP, ON MONDAY, 21ST JUNE, 2021.
Following the Father’s Day 3% gift of increase in fuel price at the pump, Ghana Committed Drivers Association, Concern Drivers Association and True Drivers Union, wish to inform our numerous customers and the general public of our resolve to also adjust upward our lorry fares.
The percentage increase will soon be announced. As a result of the 3% increase in fuel price, a gallon of fuel, which was sold for GHC 27. 22 pesewas is now being sold for GHC 28. 035 pesewas. The resolve to adjust upward our lorry fares is in fulfilment of our statement issued on 16th May 2021, in which we announced 20% upward adjustment in lorry fares.
In that statement, we said, “We have therefore resolved that any time fuel prices, spare parts, and other levies relating to road transport go up, we will also adjust our lorry fares to reflect the increment”. We also said “It is our considered view that we will only go by the decision to increase lorry fares twice yearly if the powers that be can also ensure that prices of petroleum products and spare parts are not increased in the course of every year so as to guarantee stable prices and lorry fares”.
As we speak, the government is making frantic efforts to increase road tolls and transport operators are going to bear the brunt should it be implemented. We are deeply disappointed in the government for its inability to have kept assurances given to transport operators that it will ensure that fuel prices and spare parts remain stable.
We wish to entreat our customers and the general public to bear with us in this situation as our transport business is reeling under a lot of pressure following astronomical increases in our input cost.
Thank you.
Signed
Charles Danso (Chairman, Ghana Committed Drivers Association)
Yaw Barimah (PRO, Truth Drivers Union)
William Osei (Chairman, Concern Drivers Association
President Akufo-Addo has appointed Dr Mustapha Hamid, the former minister of inner-city and zongo development, as the chief executive officer of the NPA
Dr Mustapha Hamid, the newly appointed chief executive officer of the National Petroleum Authority
President Akufo-Addo has appointed Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid as the chief executive officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), one of the most sought-after positions in government.
The NPA oversees all operations in the multibillion-dollar downstream petroleum sector.
The appointment takes effect from 1 July 2021. The news was communicated in a letter dated 17 June.
Dr Hamid, 50, previously served in the first-term government of President Akufo-Addo as the minister of information and subsequently as the minister for inner-city and zongo development. He also served as the deputy national campaign manager for President Akufo-Addo’s successful second-term bid in 2020 and was in charge of campaign communications.
The NPA currently boasts over 5,000 service providers and, according to 2020 estimates, an annual sales value of between GHC24 billion and GHC28 billion (US$4-US$5 billion), which is roughly 7% of Ghana’s GDP. The industry works closely with international suppliers such as BP, Glencore, Vitol and Trafigura to supply approximately 80% of the petroleum products currently consumed in the country.
Dr Hamid will champion the mission of the NPA, which is to regulate, oversee and monitor the downstream petroleum industry in Ghana “for efficiency, growth and stakeholder satisfaction” and to ensure that its vision, which is to be a “catalyst for economic transformation and growth in Ghana”, is achieved.
Think tank boss
Dr Hamid succeeds Hassan Tampuli, the immediate past NPA chief executive, who was elected as the MP for Gushegu on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party in December 2020, and has since been nominated to serve as a deputy minister of transport.
Dr Hamid served as leading spokesman for Nana Akufo-Addo from 2008 until 2017, when he became the information minister and presidential spokesperson.
Before that, he was the executive director of the Danquah Institute and a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast.
Celebrated for his honesty and integrity, Dr Hamid has gained a reputation over the years as a trusted loyalist and close confidant of President Akufo-Addo.
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid entered Tamale Secondary School in 1987 to sit for his Advanced level examinations. In 1991 he entered the University of Cape Coast to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree, eventually majoring in religious studies.
He subsequently obtained an MPhil and a PhD in religious studies from the same university.
Key contributor
The institution that Dr Hamid will be leading was established by an act of Parliament, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Act 2005 (Act 691), to regulate the downstream petroleum industry in Ghana.
As a regulator, the NPA ensures that the industry remains efficient, profitable and fair and, at the same time, that consumers get value for money. The downstream petroleum industry in Ghana encompasses all activities involved in the importation and refining of crude oil as well as the sale, marketing and distribution of refined petroleum products in the country.
Commercial activities of the industry include: importation, exportation, re-exportation, shipment, transportation, processing, refining, storage, distribution, marketing and sale of petroleum products. The petroleum industry is one of the key subsectors and a major contributor to Ghana’s gross domestic product.
Since the establishment of the National Petroleum Authority in 2005, the Authority has supervised the acceleration of the petroleum downstream deregulation process by facilitating the removal of restrictions on the establishment and operations of facilities, as well as on importation of crude oil and petroleum products.
In June 2015, the NPA successfully implemented the final phase of the deregulation process – price liberalisation. This involved the full removal of control over pricing of petroleum products by the government.
Private importers, distributors and retailers are empowered to set ex-refinery and ex-pump prices with no intervention by the government. The Ghana downstream petroleum industry boasts over one million metric tonnes’ worth of state-of-the-art storage infrastructure.
Given the country’s position on the coast of West Africa, as well as the country’s democratic credentials, security and stability, Ghana’s downstream industry is well placed to store strategic stocks of petroleum products efficiently as well as serve as a reliable point for exportation to neighbouring, land-locked countries.
This is evident from the rising volumes of petroleum products that Ghana is exporting
An Accra High Court has adjourned to Friday, 25 June 2021, to rule on some objections raised against the Attorney General in the matter of the Republic versus the conveners of the #FixTheCountry campaigners.
Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame, on Monday, 21 June 2021, read an application “seeking an order directed at the organisers and conveners of an intended demonstration dubbed #fixthecountry protest March, their associates, agents, assigns and workmen, prohibiting the conduct of the said demonstration on grounds of public safety, public security, and public health, till the restrictions imposed on large public gatherings are lifted by law.”
He was, however, interrupted by a lawyer for the conveners, Mr Julius Asinyo, who objected to the motion.
Mmr Asinyo argued that the proceedings were civil in nature and should have been instituted and led by the police and not the Attorney General.
Mr Dame counter-argued that the police service is a public service per the Constitution and must enjoy the legal services of the legal representation of the Attorney General.
The High Court will rule on this objection on Friday, 25 June 2021.
The #FixTheCountry campaigners want to demonstrate against the government for what they describe as economic hardships and are also demanding better governance.
The police, however, want to stop them with the excuse that the ban on mass gathering is still in force to prevent further spread of the coronavirus
A 34-year-old man Kwame Frimpong has been stabbed to death at Akyem Oda -Nkwanta in Birim Central Municipality in the Eastern Region.
The deceased was stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife in both left and right ribs by the suspect Nana Kwame, 36, who is a family member.
The body has been deposited at Oda Government Hospital mortuary for preservation and autopsy.
The Public Relations Officer of the Eastern Regional Police Command DSP Ebenezer Tetteh told Starr News, preliminary investigation by Police indicate that the deceased and the suspects were extended family members and natives of Oda Nkwanta.
The Suspect is a Carpenter while the deceased is a Farmer.
About a week ago, the suspect’s friend, who is a farmer in the community, needed a labourer to clear his farm. The suspect recommended the now deceased Kwame Frimpong to him.
The farmer was not impressed with the haphazard work done by Kwame Frimpong and expressed same to Nana Kwame.
On June 18, 2021, around 2:00 pm, the suspect met the deceased at a funeral ground in the Akyem Oda- Nkwanta and rebuked him for the poor work done.
This created misunderstanding between the two and as a result led to a fight in which they slapped each other.
A few hours later, around 6:30 pm, the suspect met the deceased by the roadside in the town and stabbed him twice with a kitchen knife under both the left and right ribs of the deceased.
Sensing danger, the suspect picked his motorbike and escaped from the town.
The victim was rushed to Oda Government Hospital for treatment but died shortly on arrival.
The body is being preserved at the hospital morgue, awaiting autopsy.
DSP Tetteh said efforts are underway to arrest the Suspect
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has promised that his government will establish One million Enterprises across the country as he commissions a 96,000 metric ton capacity processing plant of Premium Foods Limited.
According to the president, the move forms part of his government’s commitment to Ghana’s industrialization; value addition and job creation drive.
He made the statement at Kwaso in the Ejisu Municipality where he commissioned a new factory of Premium Foods Limited under the 1 District 1 Factory initiative.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), is targeting to raise $3 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the country in 2021. This was disclosed by the CEO of GIPC, Mr Yoofi Grant at a press briefing on Sunday in Accra.
According to Mr Grant, $780 million in FDI had already been raised so far this year.
“For every country, foreign direct investments are recognised as very important to its economic and socio-economic development. In Ghana, I dare say that over the past few years we have upped our game and our economy has become more attractive. Indeed, I dare say that since 2017 Ghana’s economy grew by 8.1% and through 2019 we had an average growth of 7%. This symbolises a country that is walking the talk and doing all it needs to do to become one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
“Accordingly, Foreign Direct Investments grew. Our FDI in 2017 was $4.9 billion; it dropped marginally in consonance with the drop in global FDIs in 2018 to $3.54 billion. In 2019, it further dropped to $1.01 billion. The interesting thing however is that, despite the negative impact of COVID-19 on global economies, Ghana saw an increase in FDIs in 2020 to $2.65 billion
Five accused persons who are Okyeman Environmental Taskforce members including two sub-chiefs involved in a shooting incident at Adeiso, have been granted bail of GHC200,000 with 2 sureties each after they were put before Koforidua Circuit Court, in the Eastern Regional capital.
The suspects were arraigned before the court on Friday, June 19, 2021, on charges of robbery, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit crime to wit kidnapping, possession of firearm, and causing harm.
The suspects, Nana Sarpong Baffuor Awuah, 59; Nana Barima Twum, 59; Jonathan Martey, 39; Eric Yaw Obeng, 49; and Victor Ahenkora Koranteng, 37 have been asked to reappear before the court on July 19, 2021. The suspects last week, stormed the Tank Akuraa community near Adeiso, on several land-winning concessions and unleashed brutalities on some workers who had questioned and resisted their operations.
They reportedly kidnapped one Osae Kwame, a sand winner, and threw him into a Nissan Pick Up but was pursued by the youth who rescued him. Later the taskforce members attacked the summer tide sand winning Company site at Obeng Yaw village, also near Adeiso, amidst the firing of guns and arrested five workers and shot two. They reportedly shot the thigh and legs of two of the workers on duty who had questioned why they retrieved the over GHC96,000 from his accountant.
The victims are 25-year-old Razak Hassan and Bright Apaw, 30.
Police Encounter
The Police from Adeiso responded to distressed calls about the incidents but the Taskforce failed to stop when signaled by Police where they were given a hot chase but to no avail.
The angry community then mounted roadblocks and attacked the task force.
Sensing danger, Okyeman Mponuahene, Barima Twum Tabriade and Okyeman Akwansrahene went to the Adeiso police station to seek refuge in a Jeep Patriot SUV with registration number GS 9835-19 which had three tyres deflated. But the angry youth and sand winners massed up at the Police station seeking the release of the two chiefs for instant justice.
A search in the Jeep SUV which belongs to Akwansrahene, Baffour Sarpong who also claims to be National Security Operative, contained one AK 47 assault rifle with 3 magazines and 7 Pump-action cartridges.
The five suspects including the two chiefs were whisked to Asamankese Divisional Headquarters by the reinforcement team where they were granted Police inquiry bail.
Victim Narrations
Samuel Atsu Forson, one of the persons whose concession was attacked explained that the suspects intimidated and extorted money from the workers.
He explained that they alerted the firm’s drivers, who blocked the main Adeiso road with their tipper trucks to aid the police and some residents in arresting the suspects.
Narrating the incident further, he said the police retrieved AK-47 assault rifles, ammunition, a pistol, police and military uniforms, and other accouterments when they searched their vehicles.
Court
They were, however, paraded before the court, presided over by Mercy Addai Kotei, where they pleaded not guilty to all the charges slapped on them by State Attorney Cyril Keteku.
Their plea for bail was admitted and granted bail of GH¢200,000 each with two sureties.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has adopted a new road map to launch its single currency in 2027. President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, told a press conference that the new road map was agreed by the heads of state of ECOWAS at the 59th ordinary summit in Accra on Saturday “Due to the shock of the pandemic, the heads of state had decided to suspend the implementation of the convergence pact in 2020-2021,” Dr Brou said. “We have a new road map and a new convergence pact that will cover the period between 2022 and 2026, and 2027 being the launch of the Eco,” he said. Dr Brou said the heads of state had asked the ministerial committee to look at the new roadmap and the convergence pact, taking into account the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Accra Regional Police Command has embarked on an enhanced operational exercise in Accra and arrested 215 suspected criminals, seventeen being women.
The operation follows disturbing incidences of violent crimes in Accra, the recent being the bullion van attack which led to the killing of a policeman and a woman on Monday, June 14 at Jamestown, the pig farm robbery and killing of 43-year-old man, and the Honey Suckle forex bureau attack and shooting.
The Regional Public Relatioms Officer, DSP Efia Tenge, who briefed the media during the weekend, said the three-day operation which begun on the June 17, 2021 will end on June 20, 2021.
“The Ages of suspects ranges between 17 and 52 years and areas of focus for the exercise include Korle-Bu, Tesano, Amasaman, Nima, Dansoman, Abokobi, Accra Central, Teshie, Madina, Bastona, Jamestown, Osu and Lakeside,” she pointed out.
The exercise is part of a series of exercises by the command since the beginning of this year, the PRO explained, adding the three-day operation will tackle violent crimes, drug peddling and street robberies.
Items intercepted during a search included wrapped narcotic substances, sharp implements, mixtures of concoctions laced with narcotics, tramadol, etc.
“The operation also targeted and impounded 168 motorbikes, believed to be used in facilitating the robberies.
“The arrested suspects have been detained and undergoing various levels of screening for possible connection to recorded crimes under investigation,” she revealed.
DSP Tenge said the Accra Regional Police Command would protect lives and property within the region.
“We have also opened our doors for continuous public cooperation and volunteering of useful information in stemming crime,” she added
The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) will on 23rd and 24th June 2021, hold the maiden Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel.
The event, themed “The New Normal, leveraging Diaspora investments to build back better” will create an avenue to foster partnerships between local and Diaspora investors, and showcase Ghana as a choice destination for doing business, to spur the inflow of Diaspora Direct Investments.
The two-day programme will bring together various primary stakeholders to steer conversations on the Ghana-Diaspora business relationship.
Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yofi Grant who disclosed this at a press briefing in Accra on Sunday, said the summit provides Ghana with the opportunity to partner persons in the diaspora to the benefit of the country.
“A lot of Diasporas have consistently expressed interest in either living or establishing a business in Ghana. It is, therefore, our expectation to convert these opportunities to viable economic activity that will benefit the nation and the continent as a whole” said Yofi Grant, CEO of the GIPC.
“I’m confident that the summit will thus open the door for partnerships and encourage sustained home-based investments by persons in the diaspora, as we consider them as our partners in development”, he added.
The summit is consistent with the recent “Beyond the Return” initiative, which is a follow-up to the “Year of Return” campaign that was launched in 2019. It is expected to engender a more constructive interaction with Africans in the diaspora and all people of African descent in areas such as trade and investment, as well as skills and knowledge development.
It will be recalled that while commemorating the “Year of return”, President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo stressed the need to effectively mobilize and engage the diaspora as active partners in the nation’s development.
This Mr Grant said GIPC has since made conscious efforts in creating awareness and allow for a greater contribution from diasporas, including the setting-up of the Diaspora Investment Desk (DID) at the GIPC.
The Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit is being held under the auspices of the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ministry of Information, the Diaspora Affairs Office at the Office of the President, Diaspora Africa Forum, and Beyond the Return Secretariat under the Ghana Tourism Authority.
Among the host of esteemed speakers include; the Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, H.E Wamkele Mene, Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, and the Chief Executive Officer of the GIPC, Yofi Grant.
There will be exhibitions and opportunity to pitch projects during the two-day summit. Interested persons should call 050 572 3242 or Email: did@gipc.gov.gh.
Additionally, interested participants can follow the GIPC on its social media platforms @gipcghana on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube for a link to register, or catch the live event on 23rd and 24th June 2021 from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM each day
• Kwesi Pratt has criticized the Israeli government, calling it an apartheid governmentnull
• He says the Israeli security should not an example for Ghana
• He narrated how Israeli forces allegedly kidnapped and tortured a businessman in Ghana
Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has given a detailed account of how a businessman who was en route to Ghana was, in his words, kidnapped by Israeli security forces at a place with close proximity to Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport.
Kwesi Pratt said on Pan African TV that the businessman was coming to Ghana to undertake a business activity but was apprehended by Israeli officials and taken to a residence in Accra where he was allegedly tortured.
Pratt narrates that the said businessman was ‘smuggled’ out of Ghana on the blindside of the country.
“Two years ago, a businessman who [was] coming into Ghana to carry out a business was kidnapped a few kilometres into the Kotoka International Airport and was taken into [a] private residence and tortured. He was smuggled out of this country by Israeli forces. Is this criminal activity what we want [to] emulate?”null
Kwesi Pratt further hit out at the Israeli nation and accused them of committing crimes against humanity.
He said that Ghana must not consider emulating the Israeli security setup as it is targeted at abusing rights and perpetuating apartheid.
“Israel is a rogue and apartheid state. Its security services are not to promote human rights or a democratic state but to promote apartheid and commit all kinds of heinous crimes. The insecurity we are talking about in Ghana has been partly perpetrated by the Israeli security services. The Israeli security services do not present an example we should emulate,” he said.
Kwesi Pratt was commenting on the security situation in the country which has been triggered by the robbery of a bullion van at Jamestown in Accra.
A police officer and a trader were killed in the robbery. The Ghana Police Service has placed a GH¢20,000 bounty on the killers.
Popular televangelist and leader of the Lighthouse Chapel International Bishop Dag Heward-Mills has apologized to the Ashanti Monarch Otumfuo Osei Tutu over an old sermon that appears to have provoked some Ashantis.
The said sermon, which has found its way onto social media, is said to be questioning the impact of the influential king on his subjects and community.
Some indigenes of the Ashanti region have raised concerns over the message with some retorting that Ghanaians do not pay taxes to the king hence he owes nobody a responsibility of development.
In an apology, the Preacher said: “I am deeply saddened that a message I shared at a conference, nearly 20 years ago, has been taken out of its context and circulated by persons who have previously declared that they will maliciously cause our churches in Kumasi to be closed down.
“I wish to apologize to His Majesty Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II for any disrespect, insult or harm caused him or his royal court. Please accept my profound apologies for the statements I made”.
Bishop Heward-Mills has been in the news lately following reports of some misunderstanding between him and some of his pastors which has ended up in court. The pastors accuse the church of not paying their social security
The Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) says it is not enthused about the recent comment attributed to the Minister of Railways Development, John Peter Amewu, to the effect that all civil servants are sacked when a government is voted out.null
CLOGSAG said the comments are simply a violation of the 1992 Constitution and it will be good for Mr Amewu to educate himself on the difference between civil servants and public servants.
“Mr. Peter John Amewu was full of himself when he was proposing an ‘utopian government’ where all workers in the civil service are sacked because there is a change in a democratic dispensation,” Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG Isaac Bampoe-Addo said in a rejoinder to the news report on the Minister.
“If this is the policy he deems good, a well discerning civil servant would question it and point out its deficiencies.”
Find the rejoinder below:
REJOINDER
RE: I WISH ALL CIVIL SERVANTS ARE SACKED IMMEDIATELY GOVERNMENTS ARE VOTED OUT- AMEWU (ARTICLE 1289329)
In an article on the GhanaWeb dated 18th June, 2021, the Hon. John Peter Amewu, the Minister for Railways Development is reported to have made certain derogatory remarks about civil servants and by extension the Civil Service.
By the report, the Minister noted as follows:that “civil servants fail to implement the vision of Government; that “regardless, they remain untouched while governments are changed; that “Mr. Amewu would prefer the dismissal of all civil servants for the effective operation of a new government who would have a new set of civil servants”.null
For the avoidance of the doubt, the Article quoted him as saying
“I come to government, I come out with good policies….unfortunately, the people voted me out of power because they think my policy is not good. Unfortunately, the people who are supposed to implement remain there. They must also go so that we stop this nonsense of allowing people who work in the system destroy the system and the blame is put on a politician. We can’t allow that to continue”.
It is normal for a person who poses a silly question to expect nothing less than a silly answer. Civil servants, as we are, we would not describe a system as nonsense or categorize all civil servants as destroying the system.
Mr. Peter John Amewu was full of himself when he was proposing an “utopian government” where all workers in the civil service are sacked because there is a change in a democratic dispensation. If this is the policy he deems good, a well discerning civil servant would question it and point out its deficiencies.
The Minister who had headed two ministries in the past four years, did not seem to know the difference between the public servant and the civil servant. Workers at the Railways are not civil servants but could be public servants. It would be necessary to distinguish between the civil service and the public service by referring to Article 190 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. Broad generalization of all public servants as civil servants is quite erroneous.
The assertion by Mr. John Peter Amewu that as a politician he comes to government with good policies that are not implemented by civil servants being the reason for a politician to be voted out of power is quite preposterous.
The Minister cannot consider himself as the only repository of knowledge else when he left the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the ministry would have collapsed.
Could he sincerely say, that as the Minister for Energy, he would have succeeded without using the civil servants in the ministry?null
Mr. Peter Amewu should tell the world his educational and professional background as well as experience in Lands and Natural Resources, Energy and Railways Development. Is it not the civil servant that guided him in his vetting in Parliament? Shame.
He should realize that politicians do not necessarily need any educational or professional qualifications. Neither do they need any experience on the job.
For politicians of his type, all they do is to distribute essential commodities and money to their constituents to influence their voting pattern.
The dynamics of governance show that it is a continuum and not an event. To say, the least, his proposal for every government to select its own civil servants indicates that governance is an event.
Is it even easy to pick engineers, architects, human resource managers and accountants with many years of experience like picking oranges and mangoes?
It is not fair to be simplistic in saying that the downfall of politicians could be ascribed to non-implementation of their policies by civil servants. What about politicians who alienate themselves from members from their constituencies or fail to fulfil their promises?
The Minister should be aware that the politician is a creation of the 1992 Constitution so is the civil servant. A careful analysis of his utterances depicts violation of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
The development of a nation is not only a function of politicians and civil servants. Apart from the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, the media is often referred to as the fourth estate. The traditional rulers and religious bodies play a role in facilitating growth and development of a country.null
The Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) is not enthused about the low opinion of civil servant professed by Mr. John Peter Amewu.
It is significant to remind ourselves of the famous quotation by the Late Nathan Anan Quao …which reads:
“it takes the perfection of civil servants to move the country forward and not politicians”.
The Association would continue to be a catalyst in achieving this noble objective.
At this time of our national development, it is better to create an enabling environment that would bring the Government and Workers together than to make statements that would destroy the harmonious labour relations existing between them.
Meanwhile, CLOGSAG would wish to assure its members that it would not stand aloof for any politician to truncate their service.
Continue with your good deeds and God will shower its blessings on you.
The Director-General of Welfare of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has called on families of newly recruited Police Officers to limit their expectations and financial demands on them.null
She said the Recruits should be allowed to concentrate on their work, and support their families with financial and material resources in line with their earnings.
She said undue demands might compel them to engage in unprofessional activities, which may trigger unpleasant consequences.
“They have taken national and organisational oaths to serve mother Ghana,” she added.
COP Mrs Addo-Danquah was speaking at the passing-out parade of 581 newly recruited Police Officers at the Police Public Safety Training School at Pwalugu in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.
She said continuous guidance and advice to the Recruits would help them to succeed and reminded them that the profession demanded a lot of sacrifices.
She told the recruits that they had chosen a career, which called for selfless service to humanity, commitment and sacrifices and indicated that it was not a sanctuary for them to make unjustified wealth.
“Therefore, desist from corrupt practices, which tend to bring the image of the Service into disrepute. Never forget the motto of the Service ‘Service with Integrity.
“Avoid bad association and put on the cloth of patriotism, humanity, courtesy, honesty, civility and commitment to the career you have chosen.
You will excel in every endeavour of your career when you consistently observe these professional virtues,” she advised.
She entreated them to bring the knowledge acquired over their period of training to bear on their work after which they would be assessed by their various Commanders to ascertain their suitability for the job.
She cautioned that any unsatisfactory performance would attract the needed sanction under the regulations of the Service.null
“I, therefore, urge you to work diligently to guarantee your confirmation into the Service as Police Constables.”
The COP congratulated the Recruits, especially General Recruit (G/R) Wonder Segbedzi of the Regional Police Training School in Ho for emerging as the overall national best recruit, G/R Ebenezer Nkrumah for being the best recruit in the Pwalugu Police Training School and Recruit Hannah Arthur for her outstanding performance as the best female recruit.
Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, said President Nana Akufo-Addo’s vision to change Ghana through his flagship policies and programmes aimed at also transforming the security systems, the economy and general living conditions.
This, he noted, could only be realised in a peaceful atmosphere. “All of you will be responsible for upholding the law and protection of all our citizens, residents and visitors. We all want to sleep and wake up peacefully which is only possible if we take up those roles seriously.
• Nana Akufo-Addo says his government gave some 36 companies exemptions on their import dutiesnull
• He explained that this is to make them competitive brands even beyond the shores of Ghana
• He spoke during the commissioning of a factory under the 1D1F
The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has disclosed that a total of 36 companies in Ghana benefitted from duty import exemptions.
He explained that these companies, all who fall under the One District One Factory (1D1F) program of government, benefitted from the initiative that amounted to a total of GHs435 million.
He said that such measures were put in place to help such business thrive and to expand into cross-border markets.null
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was speaking on Thursday, June 17, 2021, during the commissioning of the new factory of Premium Foods Limited, a company operating under Government’s 1-District-1-Factory initiative.
Speaking at the site of the factory, located at Kwaso in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region, President Akufo-Addo explained that the establishment of the factory is a concrete manifestation that the new paradigm of economic development of insisting on value-addition industrial activities within a conducive and business-friendly environment is making headway.
“Government remains committed to support private sector enterprises like Premium Foods to become globally competitive and thereby take advantage of market integration frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area, whose Secretariat has been established and commissioned in Accra.
“To this end, government as at December 2020, has granted import duty exemptions to 36 companies under the 1D1F program amounting to some GHs435million. The main sections that have benefitted from the exemptions are agro processing, ceramics manufacturing, hardware manufacturing and vehicle assembling plants,” he said.
Speaking at the event, Tom Gambrah, the Managing Director and Founder of the PFL, indicated that it is a humbling feeling for the company since it has exceeded its expectations since its inception.null
“At our inception, we hoped to create 5,000 jobs. By 2012, we had created 25,000, direct and indirect jobs. When this new plant reaches full capacity, we would have created 100,000 sustainable jobs in the value chain,” he said.
He also explained how much of a help rural producers have contributed to their business, adding that they believe in the capabilities of the local industry to help the business thrive.
“Our business depends on rural producers who supply the raw material. Thousands of farmers depend on us to provide a market for their harvest, allowing them to pursue higher yields without fear of the uncertainties of trade,” Tom Gambrah said.
Over the years, Premium Foods has supplied blended fortified and non-fortified products, and ingredients to global organizations, including international relief organizations, and multinational food and beverage manufacturing companies across Africa, including “Feed the Future” programme, under the US Government’s Global Hunger & Food Security Initiative, the statement from the presidency.gov.gh stated.Source: www.ghanaweb.com
• Henry Quartey has accused the onion sellers of showing bad fate and vowed to move themnull
• The onion sellers are now pleading with more time to evacuate
• July 1 is the deadline for their relocation
The onion sellers at Agbogbloshie who had earlier threatened not to relocate have gone back on their words and are now pleading for ample time to move their products and other properties to Adjen Kotoku.
After initially agreeing in a meeting with Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey to move, the trades made a u-turn and as per reports sought refuge in some members of parliament to offer them protection.
The MPs, according to The Regional Minister, after being briefed on the plans made by his outfit for the traders withdrew their support for the traders and back the relocation.null
With their political protection and Henry Quartey vowing to move them in the face of spiritual machinations on his life, the traders are now begging for enough time to move to the new marketing site secured for them.
Some traders according to a Citi FM reportage are pleading with Henry Quartey to extend the July 1 deadline for their resettlement.
“It is unfair for the Minister to give us short notice to relocate. We pleaded with him for more time, but he did not heed to it. Besides, the stalls that have been provided are not good enough for selling onions. We have not said that we’ll not move; we are only begging for more time to put things together,” a trader said.
Another trader said “1st July is a few days away, we won’t be ready by then. We are pleading with the Regional Minister to give us some more time.”Source: www.ghanaweb.com
• The Police PRO says it is not proper for police officers to be wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets every daynull
• She says the police is working hard to apprehend every criminal
• Constable Emmanuel Osei was killed on Monday, June 14, for providing escort for bullion van
Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, Director of Public Affair, Ghana Police Service, has said that, it would not be appropriate for the police to be seen every day by the public wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets when going about their duty.
According to her, when the police are seen by the public wearing their bulletproof jackets and helmets, it has an impact on the public that they give protection to.
“Look at this, if you saw every police officer wear the bulletproof jacket and the helmet, what will you say? The best practice does not indicate that every police officer must at every time, wear these things,” she said while contributing to a discussion on Joy FM’s Newsfile on Saturday, monitored by GhanaWeb.
Abayie-Buckman explained, “because it also impacts on the people to whom we are giving protection. So, we are doing the right thing…”null
The wearing of bulletproof jackets among police officers on duty, has become topical recently after the unfortunate killing of Police Constable Emmanuel Osei by armed robbers while transporting money in a covered bucket truck often described in Ghana as a bullion van.
The late Emmanuel Osei, experts say, would have survived the bullet wounds if he had been in either bulletproof or helmet.
The Police PRO noted that her outfit considers every feedback from the public “through the media and we look at the best practices so that the police service will not only be the best police service for Ghana but internationally recognized and you can say proudly everywhere that ‘I trust my police service’ and that is exactly what we are doing.”
Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman further urged the media to paint the picture right “such that those that are not so right, they can be made right and those that are right, let our citizenry hear about them so they can give the necessary support.”
She assured the public that the police is working so hard to get the criminals associated with the recent murder situations in the country arrested.Source: www.ghanaweb.com
Ghana leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has charged West African leaders to come together and enforce decisions taken on September 14, 2019, at the Extraordinary Summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on terrorism.null
He said recent developments in the region should reinforce the collective commitment “to pursue and implement with renewed vigour the decisions taken at [the summit]”.
President Akufo-Addo made these remarks on Saturday, June 19 when he opened the 59th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of Ecowas in Accra.
Heads of state of all the countries in the region, except suspended Mali, are in Ghana’s capital for the summit.
It comes on the back of recent terrorist attacks in countries such as Mali, Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso, where about 132 civilians including children were killed a fortnight ago.
Ghana’s President, who is also the Chair of the Authority, intimated that he was in Ouagadougou a few days after the terrorist attack on Saturday, June 5, 2021, to commiserate with the government and people of Burkina Faso “and offer our condolences, sympathies, and support”.
But he insisted that the time is up for the implementation of collective measures to staunch terrorism in the sub-region.
“These concerted efforts, which must be a major issue and a priority objective for the Community, is the best way for us to address this community challenge.
“It is a matter of dignity and sovereignty which affects all nations in the region. None of our countries is insulated from the threats of terrorists.”
He appealed to countries that have failed to contribute to the Ecowas Security Fund to do so as that will ensure that the fight against terrorism in the sub-region is sustained
Mr Sarah Adwoa Safo, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has said that the promotion of good sexual and reproductive health and rights was a critical prerequisite for human development, particularly for adolescent girls.
She said sexual and gender-based violence was a major factor undermining the health, dignity, security and autonomy of victims, who are mostly women and girls.
As a result, she said Government had prioritized the improvements in the health status of adolescents and children through various interventions.
She said, “government through the Ministry has initiated various interventions to ensure that adolescents grow up attaining their full potential and contribute meaningfully to national development.”
Mrs Safo said this at the National Gender Equality Clinic organized by the Ministry through its Department of Gender [DoG] with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Friday, in Accra.
She said the Clinic seeks to engage adolescents on issues of gender equality, sexual and gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health rights and provide them with the requisite information on life skills, including career development.
It is also aimed at bringing change in the gender equality narrative by involving males and creating a network of adolescents to debunk gender equality myths.
She said adolescence was the transitional period between childhood and adulthood with specific health and developmental needs and rights, and during this period, adolescents were at risk of substance use and abuse; unsafe sex, teenage pregnancy, and teenage parenting; school underachievement, failure, dropout and delinquency, crime, and violence.
“In Ghana, adolescent girls are most vulnerable to harmful traditional and cultural practices, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) of all forms and unwanted pregnancies. “
Available statistics indicated that in 2019, 14, 920 cases including rape, defilement, incest, and compulsory marriage were reported to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.
A regional breakdown of this report across the country indicates that Ashanti, Eastern and Central regions recorded cases of 17,802, 10,865, and 10,301 respectively.
“In 2020, adolescent pregnancy saw a sharp rise with thirteen (13) teenage pregnancies recorded every hour in Ghana. This change was attributed to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. This revelation is indeed alarming and needs immediate attention.”
Mrs Safo said it was time to help the adolescents develop their knowledge and skills, learn to manage emotions and relationships and acquire attributes and abilities necessary to enjoy their adolescent years and assume adult roles.
“It is an opportune time to inculcate the values of an equal society where males and females are seen as partners in development, as well as empower them to make informed choices about their lives.”
She urged adolescent parents, to take responsibility and take advantage of the natural connection they have with their children to correct, direct, discipline and advise them in love towards attaining their full potential.
Ms Faustina Acheampong, Head, DoG, said the programme which brought together more than 100 youth from all the regions were part of Ghana’s effort towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly goal 5, which urged state actors to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls by 2030.
She said women and girls constituted more than half of the world’s population yet, they were regularly discriminated against.
However, it was necessary for society to acknowledge that the potential for growth and prosperity could be achieved when women and girls were empowered and afforded equal opportunities as men and boys.
Female police recruits have been charged to prove their worth and justify an increase in their quota into the service by the police administration.null
Addressing 581 recruits at the passing out ceremony at the Police Public Training School at Pwalugu in the Upper East Region, the Director-General of Police Welfare, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah noted that Ghana is on its way to achieving the United Nations gender ratio.
“The United Nations recommended gender ratio in uniformed officers is 40%. It is heartwarming to reveal that female recruits passing out today constitute about 34% of the total recruits strength. This means altogether, Ghana is gradually inching towards meeting the uniformed officers gender parity”, she stated.
In respect of that, she urged the new recruits especially the females to live up to the task in order to achieve the needed results.null
“Don’t just be part of the added numbers but contribute towards achieving results in our core mandate”, she admonished them and congratulated Recruit Hannah Arthur for her outstanding performance and adjudged as the Best Female Recruit.
COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah advised all female recruits not to relent in their endeavours and continue to make themselves and their families proud.
“Never relent in your endeavours and continue to make yourselves, female police officers and your families proud”, she stressed
• President Akufo-Addo has been addressing the 59th ECOWAS Ordinary Summit in Accranull
• He called for support for countries in the region who want to produce their own coronavirus vaccines
• The Summit is being attended by 15 Heads of State, excluding Mali
Ghana’s president and Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has applauded the frantic efforts being made by some member countries to manufacture their own vaccines, while urging support for same.
The president, speaking at the opening session of the 59th ECOWAS Ordinary Summit in Accra, said that this move is laudable as it aims at tackling the situation at hand instead of waiting on foreign aid.
He explained that the coronavirus pandemic has devastated a lot of economies in the sub-region, calling for the need to encourage collaborations among countries in the region to deal with the situation, reports citinewsroom.com.
“We note, however, that the quantities received are wholly insufficient. We must thus continue to work on the purchase and production of vaccines in our region. We have to encourage members of our community such as Nigeria, Senegal, and my own country Ghana who are making the efforts to produce their own vaccines. We cannot afford to be naked the next time,” he said.
This 59th ECOWAS session is deliberating among other things, the pertinent issues threatening the peace and stability of the West African sub-region, as well as proffer solutions to them.
Fifteen Heads of State except Mali, which has been suspended from the regional bloc following the recent political upheavals in that country, are attending the summit.
They include the President of Liberia, George Manneh Weah, President of Guinea, Alpha Conde, Burkinabe President, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Sierra Leonean President, Julius Maada Bio, President of Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo and President of The Gambia, Adama Barrow.
A former Nigeria president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who is the ECOWAS Special Envoy mediating Mali’s political crisis, is also attending the summit.
PARLIAMENT YESTERDAY approved 12 more Deputy Ministers of State after three of the nominees were dropped from the report of the Appointments Committee over what the Speaker described as “miscommunication and lack of information” between the leaderships of the House.
The nominees, whose approvals were put on hold by Parliament, were Gifty Twum-Ampofo, Deputy Minister-designate for Education; Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, Deputy Minister-designate for Sanitation and Water Resources; and Diana Asonaba Dapaah, Deputy Minister-designate for Attorney General and Justice.
There was no reason assigned for the deferment of approval of the nominees, but wrangling over one of them, Gifty Twum-Ampofo, prolonged the approval process that started on Thursday evening, thereby forcing the leaders of both the Majority and Minority to go into conclave.
Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, raised preliminary objection to the procedural motion moved by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Wusu and seconded by the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, asking for amendments to the Committee’s report.
Those who received approval are Andrew Kofi Egyapa-Mercer, Deputy Minister-designate for Energy; John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy Minister-designate for Education; George Mireku Duker, Deputy Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources; Kofi Amankwah-Manu, Deputy Minister-designate for Defence; Naana Eyiah Quansah, Deputy Minister-designate for Interior; and Hassan Sulemana Tampuli, Deputy Minister-designate for Transport.
The rest are Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah, Deputy Minister-designate for Finance; Frederick Obeng Adom, Deputy Minister-designate Transport; Mavis Nkansah-Boadu, Deputy Minister-designate for Roads and Highways; Evans Opoku Bobbie, Deputy Minister-designate for Youth and Sports, Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru, Deputy Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture; and Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah, Deputy Minister-designate for Health.
This figure brings to 24 the number of deputy ministers approved so far by Parliament, with 16 more to go.
On Wednesday, 21st April, 2021, President Akufo-Addo submitted to Parliament nominations of a Minister of State and 39 Deputy Minister-designates for consideration and approval in accordance with Article 78 (1) and 79(1) of the Constitution.
Speaker Bagbin subsequently referred the nominations to the Appointment Committee for consideration and report pursuant to Order 172 of the Standing Orders of the House.
He told the newly approved appointees that their primary duties were to the people of Ghana as “the representatives of the people.”
“That is your primary duty. The people elected you to represent them in Parliament. You own that primary duty to the people and to Parliament that given an additional responsibility by His Excellency, the President, is secondary.
“If you decide to sacrifice the mandate and the legitimacy of the people of that of His Excellency the President you do that at your own peril,” the Speaker admonished
Joyce Bawa Mogtari, Special Aide to former President has received tons of congratulatory messages on social media following her delivery of triplets.
The former Deputy Minister of Transport is seen in a picture in a Facebook adorned in a white dress carrying one of the babies while her husband, Hudu Mogtari, a former CEO of Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and ex Mahama carry the rest.
Social media users have expressed their joy for the lawyer cum politician who’s now a mother of four.
NPP Ashanti Regional Secretary, Sam Pyne has called on Ghanaians to assist the Ghana Police Service in fighting crimes.
In recent times, crimes have been happening in regular succession and this has become a serious matter of concern to the citizenry.
On Monday, June 14, 2021, a Police officer was shot dead in broad daylight by armed robbers who attacked a bullion van he was escorting in a vicinity at Jamestown, Accra.
The robbers also injured the driver of the van and killed a trader while two women on board escaped unhurt.
Another bullion van on the Kasoa road was attacked yesterday.
Days ago, there was another report of armed robbers’ attack at a forex bureau in Osu, Accra.
Speaking on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme, Sam Pyne expressed worry over the recent spate of criminal activities in the nation.
He believed winning the fight against corruption is the responsibility of all and sundry, opining the Police cannot solely fight against crime.
He advised the citizens to provide intel on criminals so as to nip crime in the bud.
“Fighting crime, the Police are not God . . . We have to provide an intel to the security agencies to work with. We know those who engage in such things . . . It will be difficult for the security agencies if you don’t give them the intel . . . It is difficult to read the mind of a criminal before he commits the crime. So, when people talk about prevention, it’s the duty of all of us,” he said.
An eight-year-old girl has been hospitalized at the Walewale hospital in the North East Region after her father burnt her hand with fire for allegedly stealing GHC10 belonging to her grandmother.
The victim was accused by her stepmother that she had stolen GHC10 from the grandmother and reported her to the father.
The father of the survivor, Alhassan Maijida is said to have beaten her severely with a stick resulting in her sustaining injuries on the eye as well.
The incident which happened on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, at Kparpiri near the West Mamprusi municipality left the little girl traumatized.
DGN Online gathered that the victim denied the allegation and was vindicated by the grandmother but that did not stop her father from subjecting her to severe beatings.
After the torture, the victim was abandoned by the father and stepmother for days until an uncle visited their home and realized the victim was in a bad condition and took her to the Wulugu health centre and was later transferred to the Walewale hospital for treatment.
The sister of the victim’s mother, Aminatu Salifu told a journalist that she was called by a doctor at the Walewale hospital and that when she arrived at the hospital and saw the little girl she could not control her tears.
“ I asked her what happened to her and she told me her father put her hand in fire and that she was innocent of the allegation that she stole GHC10 belonging to her grandmother.”
Madam Aminatu lamented about the absence of the victim’s father at the hospital adding that it shows he is not remorseful about what he did to the little girl.
“This man has no patient so we will take care of the child and I will ensure that my sister leaves the marriage for good and never return to this kind of marriage .”
Meanwhile, the mother has refused to report the matter to the police for fear of her being punished because it’s alleged that the Mampurugu tradition does not accept wives reporting their husbands at the police station
The Minister, Samuel A Jinapor says government is actively and vigoursly pursing afforestation schemes in an effort to restore the nation’s forest cover.
Speaking at a UK-Ghana press conference held today, Friday 18th June, 2021 as part of the UK Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth RT. Hon. Anna-Marie Trevelyan’s visit to Ghana.
The Minister touched on the Green Ghana Day which was held on June 11 2021 where at least 5 Million trees were planted in a day nationwide as parts of efforts to role out the continuous green initiative to make Ghana much Greener. Mr Jinapor highlighted three key activities being persued by the Ministry notably efforts at dealing with illegal Small Scale Mining, curbing illegal harvesting of trees and the aggressive afforestation program.
Earlier at a close door meeting with the outgoing UK High Commissioner to Ghana, Ian Walker discussions centred on how to further strengthen UK-Ghana collaborations among others. The outgoing envoy at a recent farewell meeting with the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stated ” although I leave after 4 years , I have a genuine sense of taking Ghana with me in my heart”.
PRINCE CHARLES Dedjoe, the businessman arrested for allegedly murdering his wife, has been granted bail by an Accra High Court.
The accused person through his lawyer Nkrabea Effah Dartey had been pushing at the High Court to grant him bail after he was remanded into police custody by the Madina Magistrate Court when he appeared before it for committal.
A General Jurisdiction division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu granted the accused person bail in the sum of GH¢200,000 with two sureties yesterday.
Mr. Dedjoe, as part of the bail condition, was ordered by the court to be reporting to the police once every two weeks pending the trial.
He will appear before Madina District Court on June 18 for the committal proceedings.
Whilst in custody, the accused tried to prevent the family of his late wife from going ahead to organise a burial ceremony for the deceased, but the court dismissed his application.
‘Murder’
Mr. Dedjoe, Chief Executive Officer of Chadeco Group Of Companies Limited, was arrested on Independence Day after his father-in-law reported the alleged murder of his daughter to the East Legon Police, Accra.
The 43-year-old woman, Lillian, according to police’s initial information, died after reportedly slipping and falling off the stairs at their East Legon home.
However, the father of the deceased, according to the police, later accused the suspect of assaulting his daughter, leading to her death.
The couple was married for some years, a union blessed with two children.
The relationship however, reportedly, turned sour, leading to the wife suffering alleged assaults from the man
Head of Legal and Prosecutions at the Ghana Police Service headquarters Nathan Kofi Boakye, a Commissioner of Police (COP), has warned perpetrators of last Monday’s robbery at Adedenkpo near Jamestown that their time will be up “very very very soon”.
“I want to emphasise to the nation that very, very, very soon all those involved in this bullion robbery and especially those who committed it, they will be arrested very soon,” the former Ashanti Regional Police Commander stated.
“They can run and run and run but they cannot hide.”
COP Kofi Boakye gave this assurance on Friday, June 18 when 320 new recruits of the Service passed out in the Ashanti Region at the Regional Police Training School in Kumasi.
He said the Inspector General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, has put in “innovative” strategies to help combat the menace that currently confronts the nation.
He also called on the new recruits to start nosing around for information that will help in arresting Monday’s criminals.
“It is incumbent on all of us including you – the new recruits – to help us achieve this objective, starting from now and you have a duty of arresting these criminals who killed one of us.
“This is non-negotiable and we cannot compromise on the need to arrest these criminals.”
Monday’s attack on a bullion van left the police officer on escort duty, Lance Corporal Emmanuel Osei, dead and a by-stander, Efia Badu, also hit by a stray bullet.
The driver is on admission at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
• Okudzeto Ablakwa had filed a question on the cost of President Akufo-Addo recent trip to France, Belgium and South Africanull
• The question was admitted by the Speaker but on the day of Ofori-Atta’s appearance, the question was omitted from the list
• It emerged later that Ken Ofori-Atta requested for time to answer the question
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu had reason to complain after a question he posed to Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, over the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s trip to France, Belgium and South Africa was expunged from the list of questions to be answered by the minister on the floor of parliament on Thursday, June 17, 2021.
The question had earlier been advertised in the provisional order paper of parliament on Tuesday, June 15 and was due to be answered by Ken Ofori-Atta.
But on Thursday, when the Ofori-Atta appeared before the house, that particular question and another one posed by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, on payments by the Bank of Ghana to the government in the fight against coronavirus were missing from the order paper.null
Okudzeto Ablakwa raised a question over the disappearance of his question but no answer was given as the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, was unavailable and had the second deputy speaker acting.
“Coming to the House today and looking at the order paper, the question that was advertised for the Honourable Minister responsible for Finance on the cost of the President’s recent trip to France, Belgium and South Africa is conspicuously missing on today’s order paper and Mr Speaker, I am wondering what is the cause of this rather strange development,” he said.
It, however, emerged that later the deletion of the questions was at the behest of Ken Ofori-Atta who had requested time to get the needed information to furnish the house.
“So, Honourable Ablakwa, I will persuade you that the question will be rescheduled and the Minister of Finance will come and respond to it, Mr Speaker,” Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu assured.
Ofori-Atta was expected to address the cost element of the trip after Dominic Nitiwul had justified why an aircraft was rented instead of the use of the presidential jet.null
“Again, when he (Akufo-Addo) is travelling with more than 20 people for a business trip, as he has done and brought huge sums of money for this nation, he will need more than just a Falcon, otherwise, the others would have to go a day ahead before the President to prepare themselves,” he added.
“Also in this Covid era, when you are travelling to multiple destinations like the President’s recent trip, Falcon jet couldn’t have been taken because we would have had to do technical stops which is not desirable. When he is travelling with more than 20 people like he has been doing that has brought huge sums of money to this country, the President may need not just the Falcon.
“In fact, the President would also have to go a day ahead because no president can shower in this aircraft. He cannot move from this aircraft straight into a meeting,” he stated
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