The 2020 Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghana’s Electoral Commission to set up a neutral body to review the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections for reforms to enhance credibility and acceptability of future elections.
According to John Dramani Mahama, the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary election was one of the worst organized elections in the democratic history of Ghana.
“This is one of the worst ever elections we’ve had in Ghana. Because many things went wrong. Military invaded collation centres and forced Electoral officers to declare results. I have not witnessed any election that after printing ballot papers, another one million extra ballot papers are printed. So many things went wrong.”
Addressing separate meetings of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs and the Clergy in Koforidua as part of his thank-you tour to the Region on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, Mr Mahama called on the Chiefs and the Clergy to add their voices for a review of the 2020 elections for reforms.
“We have identified some of the loopholes that made it possible, some of the things that happened and we are taking steps to ensure these things do not happen again. And so as part of that you might have heard that we have made proposals for electoral reforms which we have presented to authorities.”
He added “It is our hope that the National House of Chiefs and Regional House of Chiefs will join voices with us so that we have an independent review of the proposals that have been brought. In most cases after an election, the electoral commission takes steps to set up a panel to look at some of the issues that went wrong and come out with proposals for making sure we correct them and we expect this electoral Commission must do same”.
According to him, a neutral body must be set up for the electoral reforms.
“They should get a neutral body, a person that we all respect to oversee the proposals that we all submitted and we can all come to a consensus that we need these changes to make our elections better. That is why we’ve engaged several Institutions, civil society Organizations, we’ve engaged traditional rulers, engaged religious leaders so that we all speak with one voice to allow that process to happen so that our elections can become better than what happened in the past,” Mahama said.
He also called on the Chiefs and clergy to mount pressure on the government to investigate the killing of eight (8) innocent people during the 2020 election and the perpetrators brought to book to avert impunity in future.
“We’ve held elections in this country over the years since 1992 till date and I’ve never seen an election in which eight of our compatriots get killed just because they are participating in the electoral process”
“The sad thing is that for the Ayawaso West Wuoguon, a Commission was set up and recommendations were made including payment of compensation to the victims. We also heard about the killing that took place at Ejura. In that case, too, a commission of inquiry was set up and it has come out with its findings which includes compensating the families of the injured people and those who died,” he said.
“Unfortunately, with those who died during the election, this government is unwilling to even investigate the cause of their death or to do anything in respect of compensating them.
General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has called on chiefs to avoid participating in partisan politics as it can bring instability.
He said traditional rulers must stay on the path of pouring libation, independence and peacebuilding.
“Stay on the path of independence, peacebuilding, and to continue to pray and pour libation for us. Advise every politician and if Nananom [traditional rulers] indicate that violence is abhorred, that advice will go to all politicians in the country,” Myjoyonline.com quoted him.
Speaking during a courtesy call on the Eastern Regional House of Chief at Atekyem on Tuesday as part of John Mahama’s ‘Thank You’ tour the General Secretary of the party said the participation of chiefs in politics was removed in 1992, it is, therefore, dangerous for chiefs to involve in such activities.
“We removed the clauses that allow chiefs to participate in our type of politics. It is through partisan politics that government leaders are elected.
“So if we allowed the chiefs to participate, some may find themselves at the right side of the government in power and others will find themselves on the wrong side of the government in power,” Asiedu Nketia added
The General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) says the activities of the LGBTQ community in Ghana will not be accepted.
John Boadu was emphatic in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show, ‘Ghana Montie’ that no member of his party will support same-sex marriage in the country.
“Let me make this short for you, no NPP member is in support of man-to-man marriage or any activities of the LGBTQ+ community,” he told host Kwesi Aboagye.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has charged the Board of the Minerals Incomes and Investment Funds (MIIF) to address all concerns raised by various stakeholders about the Agyapa Royalty Deal before it goes back to Parliament.
Mr. Ofori Atta who considers the deal as the best for the country said all the necessary consultations will be done before it is submitted to the House.
The Agyapa Royalty deal was proposed by the government last year to raise funds through minerals royalties for key infrastructure projects, but could not be passed after stakeholders rejected the deal.
“The Attorney General has looked at it. We had a few stakeholder meetings, and I think the new board should be energised to review that and go through the parliamentary process. I’m unequivocal that it is the way to go in terms of monetising our minerals and finding a way to leverage mining,” he added.
About Agyapa deal
In 2018, Parliament passed the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018, which establishes the Fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies and receive royalties on behalf of the government.
The purpose of the Fund was to manage and invest these royalties and revenue from equities for higher returns for the country’s benefit.
In exchange, the company planned to raise between US$500 million and roughly $1 billion for the government on the Ghana and London Stock Exchanges to invest in development projects.
However, the deal became a subject of hot debate after the opposition National Democratic Congress and some stakeholders kicked against it.
The woes of the deal were subsequently compounded by a 64-paged corruption risk analysis report released against the deal by the then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu.
Commercial activities at the newly built Kejetia Market have come to a standstill as traders have been plunged into darkness and intense heat.
This was after the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Wednesday, October 13 cut power supply to the facility following accumulated debts.
Akoma FM‘s checks at the facility reveal the traders have not been paying electricity bills for over five months, a situation that has forced ECG officials to cut the power and withdraw services to the traders.
The situation at the market, which houses over 800,000 traders within the central business district, has been dire and unbearable.
General Secretary for the Traders Reuben Amey describes the abrupt power cut as unfortunate.
“At about 11:30 Wednesday morning, we just realized our lights are out only to realize that the ECG officials have cut the power because we owe them.”
The traders have already been complaining about exorbitant electricity bills they are faced with.
They also lamented over 7,000 lockable shops at the facility are connected to only one meter.
The single-face meter, since the commissioning of the market, has met intense opposition from traders.
Investigations at the market reveal the last time management brought up the matter of electricity bill was in April and the debt hovered arou
The Cape Coast Circuit Court One presided over by Her Honour Dorinda Smith Arthur, has granted a GHS30,000 bail with two sureties to Mr Kwesi Dawood, the suspended Communications Officer of the Central Regional arm of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in an alleged case of incest.
Mr Dawood was charged with abetment of crime – to wit, illegal abortion.
He is to reappear in court on 27 October 2021.
The prosecutor, ASP Daniel Gadzo Mensah told the court that Mr Dawood, who is the biological father of the victim, allegedly impregnated her through an incestuous affair.
The accused person, according to the prosecutor, then conspired with a medical doctor, to perform an illegal abortion on the victim.
The girl then confided in her mother and proceeded to lodge a complaint with the Swedru District police.
The case was later transferred to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) in Cape Coast.
When the news broke, he issued a statement denying the allegations levelled against him.
In a statement, Mr Dawood said: “I wish to state unequivocally that the said publication is a false and malicious fabrication”.
He also hinted at filing a defamation suit against the newspaper.
Read Mr Dawood’s full statement below:
RE: NDC GURU IMPREGNATES DAUGHTER – CAUSES ABORTION
11th October 2021
I have taken notice of a publication by the Daily Guide newspaper of 11th October 2021 alleging that I have impregnated my daughter and made her abort the pregnancy.
I wish to state unequivocally that the said publication is a false and malicious fabrication.
While I work with my lawyers to prove my innocence through the justice system and pursue a defamation action against the Daily Guide newspaper, I would like to appeal to the general public to treat the said publication and the allegations thereof with the contempt it deserves.
To all comrades, friends and family who have reached out to show concern, I am grateful for your encouragement and support.
The truth cannot be buried forever; it will spring forth like a seed in the fullness of time.
Ghanaian actor Mr Beautiful has asked the government of Ghana to allow the LGBTQ+ community to enjoy rights in the country.
The LGBTQ+ discussion is back on top trends after Member of Parliament Sam George clashed with a CNN presenter on live TV last week to argue the anti- LGBTQ+ bill proposed by some parliamentarians.
Even though the majority of Ghanaians support the bill, some Ghanaians are divided over it.
Adding his voice to the conversation, Mr Beautiful – known in private life Clement Bonney – has said gays should be allowed their rights in the country and that when the consequences of being gay come, they will face it alone.
“I’m not gay and don’t know anyone who’s gay, I haven’t made up my mind to be gay,” he told blogger Sammy K this week during an interview. “If someone decides to sleep with a fellow man and be happy, that’s fine – it’s their choice.”
He said ignoring the ‘natural way’ of having sexual affair is a choice and that if it makes gay people happy, so be it.
“For me, I believe that God created a nice hole [vagina] for us to enjoy, but if someone chooses to sleep with a man, and that will make them happy, it’s their choice. That’s their right. If they want their rights, give it to them. And then when the consequences are coming, they will face it.”
When asked LGBTQ+ should be legalised in Ghana, he was quick to say: “I never mentioned legalisation.”
On Monday, fellow actor Prince David Osei endorsed the LGBTQ+ bill, saying: “In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve, not Steve and Steve!! No one is denying one’s humanity if you Gay. But we are not supposed to pretend that men are women and women are men. We won’t modify basic biology because it threatens ones subjective sense of being Gay.”
He added: “For all of human history boy met girl, girl met boy! You can’t magically change your gender, you can’t magically change your age, you can’t magically change your sex, Ben Shapiro.”
The Chairperson for Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensah, has rejected blame for the 2020 election-related violence that claimed eight lives.
This is the first time the EC Chairperson has publicly acknowledged the death of some eight Ghanaians during the elections.
Speaking to members of the ECOWAS Parliament at Winneba on Wednesday, Jean Mensa said none of the violence that led to the deaths occurred at any of the EC’s polling stations.
“Sadly seven lives were lost and though this did not occur at our polling nor arise at as misconduct on our part, one life lost is one too many. We are confident that our security agencies will share their investigations and recommendations for future learnings,” Jean Mensa told members of the ECOWAS Parliament.
Jean Mensa also touted the success of the 2020 elections to the ECOWAS parliament.
According to her, the elections last year were so successful that the BBC described it as boring. Addressing the high-level seminar of ECOWAS parliament in Winneba, the EC Chair stated, the recently released census results vindicate the number captured during the compilation of the new voters’ register.
“We cut the cost per voter from 13 dollars per head in 2016 to 7 dollars 70 cents per head at the time when the cost of elections is rising world over. Needless to say, these were no easy feat, it took the herculean effort of our entire team and the helping hand of the almighty God to establish these achievements. We were met with many challenges but we surmounted most of them and those we could not overcome we learnt from them”.
The 2020 General election which was won by President Akufo-Addo but was challenged by his main contender former President John Mahama at the supreme court.
But Jean Mensah argued the process was the most transparent in the history of the country asking other West African countries to emulate
Speaking to NDC leaders and supporters in the Eastern Region on the first day of his Thank You tour in the Eastern Region, the 2020 flag bearer of the main opposition party, said: “If you look at the things happening in Ghana today – the high unemployment rate, businesses are suffering, the economy is collapsing – all the answers to what Ghana is going through today are in NDC’s 2020 manifesto”.
“The Big Push for infrastructure; GHS10 billion into infrastructure to construct our roads, hospitals, schools and all those things, are in the NDC’s 2020 manifesto”, he stressed.
According to him, there were no more discussions of the NPP’s 2020 manifesto in the lead-up to the last general elections “the moment we published the NDC’s manifesto”.
“We had a one-million jobs plan. Solving the galamsey menace was also in the manifesto”, he said.
Mr Mahama said the Akufo-Addo government is taking Ghanaians in the wrong direction, explaining that there is so much nepotism, corruption and insecurity in the country.
He noted that a dollar is now trading at GHS6.1 while every Ghanaian owes more than GHS11,000 IF the country’s total debt were share among the entire population.
The Controller and Accountant General says the move is in line with its quest to deliver speedy, secured and verified payroll services to government employees
A statement issued by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department said the move is in line with its quest to deliver speedy, secured and verified payroll services to government employees and pensioners.
The statement said the idea will help reduce the risk of undeserving payments or claims.
It has therefore urged all government workers to ensure that they are registered with the NIA and that they have obtained their unique identity numbers or miss salary payments.
Below is the full statement:
About 7,000 “ghost names” deleted from the government payroll
Last year the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) says about 7,000 “ghost names” have been deleted from the government’s payroll system.
This follows a nationwide exercise carried out by auditors and accountants from the CAGD and the Auditor General’s Department. The acting Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, said the exercise was fruitful and allowed all names that could not be validated to be taken off the state payroll. He made these comments during the launch of monthly training for CAGD staff in Accra.
“Today, it will be very difficult to bring ghost names on to the payroll; besides, the department does not capture names on the payroll, as this is done at the ministries, departments and agencies level through the Public Services Commission before we get new entrants on to our system,” Kwaning-Bosompem said
The 18-member human rights bloc advocating against an anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, LGBTQI+, Bill before Parliament have served notice that they will not be gagged despite threats to some members.
Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh, one of the signatories to the memo that demanded that the Bill be scrapped citing its undemocratic and unconstitutional nature, revealed that the leader of the bloc, Akoto Ampaw, had received an email captioned ‘Gay Lawyer’ with the contents therein threatening him with death.
She stressed that whiles they accepted that people with reasonable objections to their stance will raise such objections, there was the need to be civil about the exchanges.
She tasked especially leaders of religious groups to call on their followers to desist from such threats.
“I would like to state from the outset that whiles we welcome debate, we insist that this debate should be civil,” she said on GTV’s weekend talk programme, Talking Point.
After enumerating specific instances where three members of the bloc had been subjected to threats and insults, she added: “To hear somebody who has a reasoned objection and for us, we welcome all those reasoned objections but we insist that they should be held in a civil and respectful manner.
“And we would like to hear all the people who oppose us to call on their supporters to desist from these threats. They are uncharitable as they are unchristian and un-Muslim and really do not foster democratic values or tolerance in a democratic society.
“So by all means let us disagree, we submitted our memo in response to a call from Parliament, we will not be gagged. This is our opinion, you are free to disagree with us but you do not have the right to threaten anybody,” she added.
Parliament is due to debate the Bill properly named, ‘The Promotion of Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021,’ which was months back referred to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of the lawmaking house.
Parliament called for memos on the bill leading to the submission of over 120 memoranda according to lead sponsor of the Bill, Sam Nartey George who is Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram.
Ghana’s pro-gay collective
A group of 18 academicians and human rights defenders have voiced strong opposition to the bill before Parliament, which is seeking to extensively criminalize LGBTQ+ activities.
The group submitted a memorandum to Parliament seeking that the bill be rejected because it was largely unconstitutional and infringed on basic human rights.
Members of Parliament behind the bill, led by Ningo Prampram MP Sam Nartey George, have rubbished the memorandum and asserted that the bill will be passed into law because it has the support of the wider Ghanaian populace.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the former Deputy Minister of Information has issued a clap-back to a post by leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko demanding clarity from former President John Dramani Mahama on his stance on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
Gabby in a tweet sought to find out if the bill which is being championed by Sam George and seven other MPs has the backing of John Dramani Mahama.
His tweet of Monday, October 12, 2021; read: “Is former President and presidential aspirant John Mahama for or against the Boy George Bill?”
Kwakye Ofosu in his response urged Gabby Otchere Darko to table the same question to the president with who he shares blood relations.
Ofosu Kwakye tasked Gabby Otchere Darko to enquire from President Akufo-Addo if he would assent the bill when passed. “Charity begins at home so how about telling us if your cousin,
President Akufo-Addo, supports the bill and will assent to it once it is passed by Parliament” he said, quoting Gabby’s tweet.
Kwakye Ofosu becomes the second NDC top official to demand President Akufo-Addo declares his position on the matter.
Last week, the National Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi tasked President Akufo-Addo and his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to address Ghanaians on the issues.
“My only disappointment is the lawyer of President Akufo-Addo organizing some persons to oppose this bill. The people of this country deserve to know the position of our president on this bill.
More importantly, they deserve to know the position of his heir apparent who is a Muslim. I’m sad that till date the two leaders have not commented on this bill. President Mahama has commented. President Mills also commented,” he said.
About the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill
Sam Nartey George led an eight-member legislative group that drafted a Private Members’ Bill titled: “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values, Bill 2021,” which seeks to comprehensively outlaw activities of the LGBTQ+ community.
Currently, the bill has been laid before the house and referred to the appropriate committee for consideration.
The Ningo Prampram MP has strongly defended the need for the bill which he insists is a necessity in preserving the moral and cultural values of Ghanaians in general.
Sam George insists that LGBTQ+ tendencies are not human rights but preferences that need to be regulated within the context of what Ghanaian society and culture accepts.
The bill has the full blessing of Speaker Alban Bagbin who is on record to have said he is pro-life and will ensure that the bill is passed into law as soon as possible.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party is asking for the stance of former President John Dramani Mahama on the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill currently before Parliament.
He posed the question in a tweet that read: “Is former President and presidential aspirant John Mahama for or against the Boy George Bill?”
Gabby is on record to have spoken against the bill back in July. “I am struggling to understand what the promoters of this Bill seek to achieve. Perhaps, it is what will fix the myriad of problems we are facing as a country like finding jobs for the youth and fixing our roads,” he said in a social media post.
The LGBTQ+ subject has gained new lease of life after a group of 18 human rights defenders presented a memo to Parliament advocating against the bill.
That memo galvanised persons who are for the bill, including major church groups and other civil society players who are tasking Parliament to expeditiously pass the bill.
What then President Mahama said about LGBTQ
John Dramani Mahama speaking through his Information Minister at the time, Mahama Ayariga, the former president indicated that the act is criminal and punishable under the laws of Ghana.
“The President is to execute the laws of Ghana. And the laws of Ghana are very clear on homosexuality. The laws of Ghana appal and criminalize homosexuality, there is no dispute about that.
“Homosexual conduct which is unnatural canal knowledge of one person or another is criminal and punishable by the laws of Ghana,” he said.
Ghana’s pro-gay collective
A group of 18 academicians and human rights defenders have voiced strong opposition to the bill before Parliament, which is seeking to extensively criminalize the activities of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, LGBTQ+.
The group submitted a memorandum to Parliament seeking that the bill be rejected because it was largely unconstitutional and infringed on basic human rights.
Members of Parliament behind the bill, led by Ningo Prampram MP Sam Nartey George, have rubbished the memorandum and asserted that the bill will be passed into law because it has the support of the wider Ghanaian populace.
Board member of the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, says the debate on the anti LGBTQ+ bill before the country’s parliament is only creating more hate and disgust against them.
She made this assertion in an interview with Sefah-Danquah via phone on the Happy Morning Show (#HappyHMS) aired on e. TV Ghana and Happy 98.9FM. “Parliament is passing a hateful bill to criminalize people’s existence and this shouldn’t be.”
According to her, Ghanaians are hospitable and do not discriminate no matter your gender or origin but this seems to be changing against the LGBTQ+ community.
To her, the creation of the anti LGBTQ+ bill will just create hatred amongst Ghanaians. “Ghanaians are caring that even if you fall on the street people will run to your rescue before they even think of who you are, your colour sexuality, and gender,” she said.
She lamented how hate is being created amongst individuals without realizing the great impact it may be having on people in society.
“Hate can be so packaged that you do not necessarily feel that it’s going to be hateful until it begins to create chaos and violence. If you listen to people’s reaction to what they’ve heard already about the bill it is not good. It has created some kind of sensitization that people do not understand what it means to belong to the LQBTQ+ community,” she said.
Background
Earlier this year, the Speaker of Parliament received a private member bill from some MPs that would expand on the current law that provides up to three years in prison for same-sex activity.
Reports have it that the new bill when passed will prohibit and criminalize advocacy, funding, and an act of LGBTQ+ while promoting conversion therapy programs seeking to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
Meanwhile, fifteen renowned legal, academic and civil society professionals have filled a memorandum challenging the anti-gay legislation submitted to Parliament.
In the memorandum, they contend that the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, which seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities, is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.”
Some Christian leaders, on the other hand, have submitted a memorandum to Parliament on the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, endorsing the bill.
Sammy Gyamfi said he himself will also be unhappy but so will the majority of Ghanaians who have the belief in John Mahama and will be disappointed if the former president fails to contest to salvage Ghana from the claws of the clueless NPP government.
“Of course I will want him to stand and I will be very unhappy if he decides not to stand. I know that he knows that the vast majority of Ghanaians not just NDC supporters will be very disappointed in him if he tries to let us down by not standing.
“Knowing him as a listening leader, I know he will make the right decision by standing when that time is ripe and he deems it fit to make that announcement I believe he himself or his spokespersons will do so for him,” he told Bridget Otoo in an interview on Accra-based Metro TV.null
Meanwhile, former President John Dramani Mahama is currently on a thank-you tour across the country expressing his heartwarming gratitude to the people of Ghana for the massive votes given to him in the 2020 elections.
He is using the opportunity that affords him to address various national issues and bring to bear the shortcomings of the current government.
But it is becoming glaringly clear that the contest for the NDC flagbearership will be a herculean task as Dr. Kwabena Duffour has been tipped to also contest for the position in a bid to “save Ghana”.Source: mynewsgh.com
Dissatisfied with the election results, Mr Mahama filed a petition at the Supreme Court to compel the Electoral Commission to rerun the polls.
In his view, no candidate polled the number of votes to win the presidential elections.
However, after hearing the petition, the apex court in a unanimous decision dismissed the petition on the basis that it was without merit.
Almost all the applications filed by the petitioner including that one that was requesting the chair of the EC to answer some questions, interrogatory application, were turned down by the justices of the court.
Speaking in a meeting with the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs on Tuesday October 12, as part of his thank you tour, Mr Mahama said “Despite the fact that the elections were not declared for us , we went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court gave it its ruling against us and so in my address to the nation I accepted the ruling of the court even though we were not too happy .
“I think that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done and so the demands we made during the court hearing , one, to let the electoral commission give access to information which was turned down.
“To ask the electoral commission some questions that are called interrogatories such as is done in normal court proceedings , that was also turned down and indeed, the most injurious one to our democracy , to let the person responsible for elections in this country that has been constitutionally mandated stand in the witness box and testify to the work she did , also turned down.
“And so, we accepted the verdict but we disagreed with a lot of things that took place in that court. But in the interest of peace of the country we accept by reason of that court , it means that the recognised president of the country is Nana Akufo-Addo and we all respect him as our president.
“I will continue to say that even though we disagreed with processes of the elections, we disagreed with some of the process of the court hearing , the reality of the fact is that he is our president
Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that the decision of the seven justices of the Supreme Court to refuse his request to make the Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC) Jean Adukwei Mensa testify in the 2020 election petition hearing, was the most injurious development in the entire hearing.
During the hearing, the Court said Mrs Adukwei Mensa and Campaign Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in last year’s elections Peter Mac Manu could not be compelled to mount the witness box to be cross-examined.
The apex court said this on Thursday, February 11, 2021 when delivering its ruling on whether or not Mrs Adukwei Mensa should mount the witness box to be cross-examined.
During proceedings on Tuesday, February 9, 2021 lawyers for the 1st and 2nd respondents, Justin Amenuvor and Akoto Ampaw respectively, told the Court that the petitioner cannot compel them to elect witnesses to appear in the witness box.
During legal arguments on a move by the respondents not to testify in the case, Mr Akoto Ampaw told the Court: “The petitioner cannot compel us to enter the witness box to adduce evidence.”
He added: “The petitioner has adduced evidence and closed his case. We have taken the position that in our assessment, they have not discharged the burden of proof and the burden of producing evidence and, therefore, we will not give further evidence and the Court will determine the case on the evidence before it
Lawyer for the petitioner Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, told the court during the legal arguments that Jean Mensa, cannot skip cross-examination.
He argued that by filing a witness statement, the 1st Respondent has opened her up for cross-examination.
“It is our respectful submission that by filing its witness statement the first respondent has clearly crossed the bridge as far as opening the witness up for cross-examination is concerned. That bridge has been crossed, the ship has already been sailed,” Tsatsu said in his argument to the bench.
But the court dismissed his objection on the heels that a witness cannot be compelled to mount the witness box.
Addressing the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs on Tuesday October 12 as part of his thank you tour, Mr Mahama said “Despite the fact that the elections were not declared for us , we went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court gave it its ruling against us and so in my address to the nation I accepted the ruling of the court even though we were not too happy .
“I think that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done and so the demands we made during the court hearing , one, to let the electoral commission give access to information which was turned down.
“To ask the electoral commission some questions that are called interrogatories such as is done in normal court proceedings , that was also turned down and indeed the most injuries one to our democracy , to let the person responsible for elections in this country that has been constitutionally mandated stand in the witness box and testify to the work she did , also turned down.
“And so, we accepted the verdict but we disagreed with a lot of things that took place in that court. But in the interest of peace of the country we accept by reason of that court , it means that the recognised president of the country is Nana Akufo-Addo and we all respect him as our president . I will continue to say that even though we disagreed with processes of the elections, we disagreed with some of the process of the court hearing , the reality of the fact is that he is our president
He noted that food prices and other commodities are increasing on a daily basis.
“Fuel costs are rising, every day the pump prices go up,” he said in a meeting with chiefs in the Eastern region as part of his thank you tour.
He added “This year many unions are unhappy with the negotiations that took place where a paltry 4 per cent was given to them” when those of Article 71 office holders have been given wider increment.
“Even though you do free SHS you have no jobs for them to do when they come out. Times are hard and people suffering, food prices are going up. every day the prices are increasing,” he stressed.
“These are things that are not going on well and I believe Nananom (Chiefs) will speak about it,” the Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in last year’s elections said
National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, has claimed that elected assembly members are being denied their constitutional right to endorse or reject persons nominated for the position of Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the country.
Without mentioning the areas where these happenings are taking place, he alleged that in some areas, the military and other security officers are being used to block some assembly members from having access to the auditorium where the voting is taking place to perform their duties.
He said “You recall that His Excellency President Akufo-Addo sometimes in the last term, proposed amendments to the Local government Act and proposed that the local government system should be partisan. Those of us here opposed vehemently that we will want to persevere the nonpartisan nature of our district assemblies. So, there was a very intense debate when a referendum was proposed and because of the position that we canvassed and convinced Ghanaians finally, the president had to withdraw and then referendum never took place.
“Recent development in the appointment and approval of MMDCEs vindicate our position that if we make local government system partisan we will further polarise this country and we will to be able to even put our citizens together to undertake development projects .
“Why am I saying so? Only last Sunday in one district assembly when 38 people were supposed to go and endorse municipal, chief executive on Sunday some government appointees were put together and one or two people were added and military and security agencies provided them escort to go and approve somebody who has been appointed as a DCE.
“The elected assembly members were prevented from exercising their constitutional right and this is a sad commentary for local governance which for me is the heart beat of the chiefs when it comes to the governance architecture of this country.
“It did not happen in that place alone, in several other places elected assembly members are prevented and because the clause says that two thirds present and voting so they will he elected members and cordoned off a few people and say they are the only people who came and they have voted and so somebody has been declared the DCE.
“I think we are bastardising our local government system and I will plead with the chiefs that in your deliberations take these matters into consideration because our democratic dispensation, the pillars upon which our democracy revolves is the decentralisation and the local government system of which the chiefs are part.”
Mr Ofosu Ampofo is not the only one making this claim.
Members of Parliament for Cape Coast North and Cape Coast South constituencies have also accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of using security forces including thugs to intimidate Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) members perceived to be members of the NDC to confirm the president’s nominee of Chief Executive.
According to the MPs, Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan of Cape Coast South and Kwamena Mintah Nyarku of Cape Coast North, the NPP have devised several means to ensure that Ernest Arthur is forcefully confirmed.
Mr Arthur, popularly known as Mayor 1, needed only four votes on Wednesday, October 6 in a second voting on his renomination to be confirmed Chief Executive.
But not even an impassioned gesture by the Central Region Minister, Marigold Assan, will move some assembly members to vote for him.
Others had accused NDC’s Ricketts-Hagan of masterminding his defeat.
Addressing journalists on Monday, October 11, the day initially rumoured for the third and final voting, the two NDC MPs said the two-time rejection of Mr Arthur is a clear indication that he is not wanted by the good people of Cape Coast as mayor.
“There is no law in the constitution that the President should re-present or renominate the candidate. However, the President in his prerogative can renominate a failed nominee,” former Deputy Finance Minister Ricketts-Hagan admitted.
“Mr Ernest Arthur has been nominated twice and twice have the people of Cape Coast rejected him through their assembly representatives. Cape Coast has refused emphatically for Mr Ernest Arthur to be their MCE after four or almost five years to continue as MCE and the assembly has reflected these sentiments of the people they represent.”
They claimed the NDC will resist all attempts by government to use institutions such as the police and NPP’s Invisible Forces to intimidate assembly members.
“We will make sure that nothing less than free and fair elections is what happens here in Cape Coast,” said Mr Mintah Nyarku.
They said any bloodshed in the ancient capital will be put on the head of the government
National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has said that his party feels vindicated after rejecting a move by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to have Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) elected on partisan basis.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo said if this plan had succeeded, it would have jeopardised the entire local governance system in the country.
“As a former Local Government Minister, I know how Local governance and rural development is dear to the heart of the Chiefs because the development of this country can only take place from the micro level to the macro level.
“In other words, we can only feel development at our various districts, municipal and metropolitan and of course the towns and communities.
“That is why the 1992 constitution came with the District Assembly Common Fund that was to address the development imbalances that the country was experiencing. So the common fund was put in place to ensure that there will be even and equitable distribution of the national resources across the length and breadth of this country and so the release of this common fund is critical to the rapid and accelerated development of our various communities which are all imbedded in the various paramountcy that you preside on.
“Sadly to say that, as I speak to you now, the DACF has been in arrears for four quarters which means that for almost one year now common fund has not been released to the MMDCEs and this is a very sad commentary because its net effect is that a it impedes the rapid development of the various paramountcy that you preside on .
“I appeal that the chiefs, in your engagements must also put pressure to bear on government to ensure that this District Assembly Common Fund are released timeously because if you have MMDCEs in office and there are no resources for them to develop the districts then of course they are being paid for nothing.”
“You recall that His Excellency President Akufo-Addo sometimes in the last term proposed amendments to the local government act and proposed that the local government system should be partisan and those of us here opposed vehemently that we will want to persevere the nonpartisan nature of our district assemblies and so there was a very intense debate when a referendum was proposed and because of the position that we canvassed and convinced Ghanaians finally, the president had to withdraw and then referendum never took place.
“Recent development in the appointment and approval of MMDCEs vindicate our position that if we make local government system partisan we will further polarise this country and we will to be able to even put our citizens together to undertake development projects .
“Why am I saying so? Only last Sunday, in one district assembly when 38 people were supposed to go and endorse municipal, chief executive on Sunday some government appointees were put together and one or two people were added and military and security agencies provided them escort to go and approve somebody who has been appointed as a DCE.
“The elected assembly members were prevented from exercising their constitutional right and this is a sad commentary for local governance which for me is the heart beat of the chiefs when it comes to the governance architecture of this country.
“It did not happen in that place alone, in several other places elected assembly members are prevented and because the clause says that two thirds present and voting so they will he elected members and cordoned off a few people and say they are the only people who came and they have voted and so somebody has been declared the DCE.
“I think we are bastardising our local government system and I will plead with the chiefs that in your deliberations take these matters into consideration because our democratic dispensation, the pillars upon which our democracy revolves is the decentralisation and the local government system of which the chiefs are part.”
It is recalled that Mr Gabby Otchere Darko, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said in relation to the agitations that characterised the nomintaion of the MMDCEs that President Akufo-Addo intended to have the laws amended in order to make MMDCEs elected as a way of curing the winner takes all problem but some Ghanaians rejected that move,
The former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute said the winner takes all concept in Ghana, from local to national, is not does not help the democracy of Ghana
“It was not for nothing that Akufo-Addo set about to amend the Constitution and have MMDCEs (mayors) elected by the very people they serve. But the opposition had different ideas. The winner takes all, from local to national, is bad for a healthy democracy anywhere in the world.
“Akufo-Addo is not a leader who particularly enjoys wielding the power to appoint or disappoint. He’s slow to reshuffle & even finds the constitutional powers to appoint 1,000s of people tedious a time that could be better spent on getting the work done. But it is what it is,” he said in a tweet reacting to the list of the MMDCEs announced by the Local Government Dan Botwe on Sunday September 19 and some of the agitations that characterized the announcement.
Mr Akufo-Addo in 2019 ordered for the withdrawal of a Bill that was seeking to amend Article 243(1) of the Constitution which allows the President to appoint MMDCEs.
In a national address where he announced the cancellation of the December 17, 2019 referendum that was to decide on an amendment of Article 55 (3) of the Constitution to enable political parties to participate in local level elections, the President also put on hold plans that would also allow for the election of MMDCEs as he promised ahead of the 2016 elections.
“It is with deep regret that I have given instructions to the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development …to abort the process and see to the withdrawal of the Bills for the amendment of the Constitutions both in respect of Article 243 (1) and Article 55 (3).”
Whilst the President attributed the decision to cancel the referendum to the absence of “a durable national consensus” on the matter, he did not explain why the Bill to amend Article 243 (1) was also withdrawn despite the fact that it had seeming bipartisan backing
STC Boss, Nana Akomea, has made a shocking revelation of the company’s expenses on fuel.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) recently called for the government to remove the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) to curb the persistent petroleum products’ price hikes.
“The two key indicators, that is international market prices and foreign exchange differentials, are all likely to affect average pump prices of petroleum products by between 2% to 3% or (10p/Litre for both products) in this second pricing window of September 2021.”
“This would likely translate to reviewed figures by the various Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) as those selling at current prices for gasoline and gasoil at GH¢6.38 could be reviewed upwards to between GH¢6.45/-GH¢6.52/L for both Gasoline and Gasoil,” a COPEC statement read.
Nana Akomea, like COPEC, is equally worried about the petrol price increases.
According to him, the State Transport Corporation (STC) spends millions of cedis on fueling its buses and what is more shocking is that these millions are expended in two weeks.
“We pay GHc 2 million to Goil every two weeks,” he disclosed on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo”.
Nana Akomea also expressed worry over the company’s losses as a result of the border closure arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
He stated; ”In the last 17 months, from March last year, we’ve lost over 42 million cedis because of the border closure”.
This, he said, indicating that STC incurs a huge cost in running its business.
Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. does not believe the removal of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levies (PRSL) on petrol, diesel, and LPG will make a difference regarding the fuel price increments.
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has approved to remove fuel levies for two months.
A press statement issued by the Authority’s Corporate Affairs Department, October 11, 2021 read; “The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) wishes to inform the public that His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has granted approval to zero the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levies on petrol, diesel, and LPG for a period of two months.”
This is aimed at mitigating the impact of rising prices of petroleum products on the world market on consumers.
“The purpose of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) is to stabilise prices for consumers and pay for the subsidies on Premix Fuel and Residual Fuel Oil (RFO).”
“At this time it is important that the PSRL which is currently sixteen pesewas per liter (GHp16/Lt) on petrol, fourteen pesewas per litre (GHp14/Lt) on diesel, and fourteen pesewas per kilogram (GHp14/Kg) on LPG are zeroed to cushion consumers,” the statement further read.
The NPA decision comes after strident calls by the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) for government to remove the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy to avert the consistent increase in prices of petroleum products.
But to Mr. Pratt, the levy removal won’t reduce fuel prices neither will it remedy the oil sector situation in Ghana.
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo”, he argued; ”It won’t change the price in any substantial way. In fact, the prices will go up very soon. All the indicators are that, by the end of this month, the prices will be higher than what we’re paying now”.
”There’s nothing to indicate that petrol prices will reduce…The price at the end of the month will be higher than it is today”, he added.
Inspector-General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare, has urged all police personnel in the country, to treat the public with respect as a way of courting their help in fighting crime.null
“We should always remember that we can only succeed if we have the support and help of the public and treat them with respect”, Dr Dampare, who was recently confirmed as IGP, said to his personnel via text messaging.
Read his full message below:
My Colleagues,
I wish to express my deepest appreciation to you for your immense support during my tenure as the acting IGP.
As the substantive IGP, I will continue to count on you to deliver our core mandate of protecting lives and property – remember, it is only through teamwork that we can succeed.null
We should always remember that we can only succeed if we have the support and help of the public and treat them with respect.
Please be assured that the leadership of the Service is behind you as you discharge your duties with Integrity.
Let us, individually and collectively, avoid any act(s) that will bring the name of the service into disrepute; let us continue to work hard to regain the trust, confidence and respect of the people we serve; and let us make the Ghana Police Service a model for the rest of Africa and beyond.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has said he and everyone else will be ready to support the Special Prosecutor if he fights corruption.
Speaking on Koforidua-based Sunrise FM during his thank-you tour of the Eastern Region on Tuesday, 12 October 2021, Mr Mahama said: “If President Akufo-Addo keeps exonerating his appointees engaged in corruption, the act will never stop”.
He added: “The government must take steps to stem corruption in the country”, adding: “We have a new Special Prosecutor. Looking at how he has started his work, we are all hopeful that he will fight corruption…and all of us will support him to do his work.”
Mr Mahama’s comments coincide with similar sentiments expressed by the main opposition National Democratic Congress’s Deputy National Organiser Chief Biney, who has given the strongest indication that the party’s confidence in the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has been reposed, stemming from Mr Kissi Agyebeng’s discontinuation of the tax evasion case filed by his predecessor against Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga.
According to Mr Biney, the SP’s move on the Ayariga case was an indication that Mr Agyebeng was really an independent person.
Mr Biney expressed the sentiment on Accra-based UTV on Tuesday, 12 October 2021.
The OSP, on Monday, filed a nolle prosequoi to discontinue the case, saying it would be a waste of the state’s time pursuing the matter further.
Mr Biney explained that the NDC, at a point, lost confidence in the OSP under the leadership of Mr Agyebeng’s predecessor Martin Amidu.
He said the posture of Mr Amidu while in office, was the cause of the loss of confidence in him.
In his view, the move by the OSP is an indication that Mr Agyebeng was not set out to vilify opponents of the governing New Patriotic Party.
“This is a strong indication that the OSP is for the good of all when it comes to the issue of fighting corruption, which keeps draining the state”, he said.
He said the posture of the OSP was commendable, adding that going forward, it will spur support from the NDC for his work
The governing board of the National Communications Authority (NCA), the spectrum regulatory agency under the chairmanship of Mr Isaac Emmil Osei-Bonsu, has approved new radio licence applications for Radio Gold, Radio XYZ and over 131 others.
A statement released by the NCA said a decision has been taken by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation to have the licences for the closed radio stations renewed.
The two stations, which are aligned to the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) were among scores of others shut down by the Akufo-Addo government for not paying their operating licence fees for several years and flouting other obligations in line with their licences.
The decision was seen by the NDC as discriminatory.
The party, thus, questioned the governing party’s commitment to press freedom.
The NCA, in 2017, insisted that freedom is best protected when rules of the game are respected by its key players.
The authority defended the closures as being “in line with Regulations 65(1) of the Electronic Communications Regulations, 2011, L. I. 1991”, which states that: ‘A person shall not use a radio frequency without authorization from the Authority’.
The National Communications Authority argued that it was simply enforcing its legitimate powers by shutting down FM radio stations that were operating without authorisation.
The Omanhene of Dormaa Traditional Area in the Bono Region, Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyemang Badu II has taken a firm decision against LGBQT+, threatening to storm Parliament with over 10,000 Ghanaians to see to the passage of LGBTQ+ bill.
According to the chief who is also a High Court judge, the fight against LGBTQ+ in Ghana is a collective effort and not only for one person thereby any attempt by parliament to reject the bill is going to spark uncontrollable anger.
“I feel sadden by what I heard yesterday. It is like some educated are now becoming backward thinkers. I heard some people are against the Anti LGBQT+ Bill. I want the Parliamentarians to listen and listen good. It would not be good for all of us because I’ll storm Parliament with 10,000 people. I want Rt Hon. Alban Sumana Bagbin, not him alone but Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Haruna Iddrisu. I want them to know that it’s not a few people that are supporting Sam George over the bill but Chiefs in this country are strongly behind Him.
“Pastors and majority of Ghanaians are against the LGBQT+, saying man cannot marry man and woman cannot marry woman because how can they give birth and multiply in the world. I would have allowed them to marry If I was Nana Akufo-Addo but with a condition that if they will be killed if they fail to give birth within a year,” Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyemang Badu II said this when speaking after a communal labor organised by him.
The Chief continued that he has heard some learned people trying to oppose the passage of the bill.
According to him, those academicians are backward thinkers thereby parliament should not pay attention to them.
The Chief said the values in Ghana are paramount, and they the chiefs support fully the passing of the bill.
He further advised the speaker, Alban Sumani Bagbin, the majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu and the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu to rally behind Sam George to push the bill into effect because that is what Ghanaians want.
“I am very saddened to hear that some so called learned professors have risen to oppose the ANTI-LGBTQ bill. They claim they have schooled but are actually backward thinkers. Parliament, listen and listen carefully, don’t make any attempt to reject this bill. If you try to reject the bill, we will storm there, we push ourselves there, in fact, we will hurt ourselves in any attempt to reject this bill. If Bagbin is listening to me now, also Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu and Haruna Iddrisu, arise and let this bill be passed, this is what Ghanaians want,” he said.
He implored those championing the LGBQT+ to first ensure it is practice in Arab countries before it will be allowed in Ghana
The Supreme Court has set October 26, 2021 to give its ruling on an application filed by the Attorney General seeking a review of its decision to prohibit Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga, from further hearing the trial of former Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Stephen Opuni and businessman, Seidu Agongo and his Agricult Ghana Limited.
The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame appearing before the court today argued that the decision of the ordinary Bench contained multiple fundamental flaws which occasioned substantial miscarriage of justice.
He said the ruling will occasion irreparable damage to the republic in the substantive trial of the errors committed by the ordinary Bench are not corrected.
Mr. Dame further argued that if there was any error that was occasioned by the exclusion of some exhibits by the trial judge, such an error does not warrant the invocation of he supervising role of the Supreme Court.
Samuel Codjoe, counsel for Dr. Opuni opposed the application arguing that it did not meet the threshold for invoking the review jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
He further argued that the AG was rehashing its old argument, adding that the court was right in prohibiting the trial judge and prayed it to uphold the majority decision.
The seven member review panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse and assisted by Justices Gabriel Pwamang, Agnes Dordzi, Avril Lovelace-Johnson, Amadu Tanko, Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey and Gertrude Tokornoo adjourned the matter to October 16 for Ruling
The Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said that in principle, no lawmaker is against the anti-gay bill which is currently before parliament.
“I have my own upbringing, one that is shaped by my tradition and upbringing. As I have said along the line, I am Christian, I was born into the Assemblies of God church so my faith also impacts on my upbringing. But that is not the only thing that shapes my upbringing,
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday October 12, the Member of Parliament for Suame said “In principle, I am not sure any Member of Parliament will be against the principle of this bill. I am an African, I am a Ghanaian, an Ashanti, Kwabre man and I have my own values.
“That is why I am saying and I refer to the first provision in Chapter 11 of the Constitution which is Article 125 when it says that justice emanates from the people .
“We have our concept of what is right and what is wrong, I don’t know of any ethnic group of this country that will applaud this.”
The controversial anti-gay bill which is currently before parliament has already divided opinion in the Ghanaian public discourse.
While some, particularly the religious and traditional groupings, have supported the Bill and hopeful of its passing, others say it could incur the wrath of the international community against Ghana.
For instance, a private legal practitioner Mr Akoto Ampaw has said the way and manner the bill has been designed indicates the extremism of the mind frame that produced it.
He is totally against the bill and wants it abandoned.
“The fact that the bill goes to that extent of criminalizing somebody who is an intersex or criminalizing somebody who is asexual, this is a meaningless project, shows the extremism of the mind frame that produced that bill,” he said on TV3’s Key Points with Dzifa Bampoh on Saturday October 9.
He further said the current debate on homosexuals in Ghana is not about religious beliefs or numbers.
“First of all, I want to make the point clear that this debate is not about religious beliefs.
“Secondly, this debate is not about numbers. It is not lining up how many people support gays -30million, how many people are against gay – 2million, that is not the issue.
“The fundamental issue has to do with our constitution and rights .That is the basic issue that we have to address.”
He added “It is a bit gratifying that just recently the Majority leader in Parliament said that the matter will not be discussed on the basis of religious beliefs. I think that is a major step forward if that is how parliament is going to address this matter. It is a constitutional matter.”
Several bodies including the Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference have said that want homosexuality to be illegal in Ghana.
The Bishops described the practice as abomination on the basis of scriptures in the Holy Bible.
“As a Church, we want this abominable practice made illegal in our country… The Bible, which is foundational to Christian beliefs and practices, condemns the practice,”
“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder…
“The Church rejects the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and very compulsive and, therefore, they should not be blamed for their homosexual acts,” a statement they issued said.
It added “Nevertheless, according to the Church’s understanding of human rights, the rights of homosexuals as persons do not include the right of a man to marry a man or of a woman to marry a woman. For the Church, this is morally wrong and goes against God’s purpose for marriage. We should also point out that the European Court for Human Rights has ruled that same-sex “marriages” are not considered a human right, making it clear that homosexual partnerships do not in fact equal marriages between a man and a woman. The ruling was announced 9th June 2016 in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.”
Meanwhile, the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Kofi Abotsi has said the debates for gay rights or criminalization in Ghana is unwinnable.
According to him, both sides are digging in and positions are becoming irrational and untenable.
“The debates for gay rights or criminalization is unwinnable! Both sides are digging in and positions are becoming irrational & untenable and this is crowding out good reasons and circumspection as lawmakers ponder the bill & it’s intents!” he said in a tweet on Thursday October 7.
In relation to this matter, one of the sponsors of the bill, Ningo Prampram lawmaker, Sam George had earlier described Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kwame Karikari as a hypocrite following his submission on the bill.
He said if he is asked to score Professor Karikari on his submission, he would give him an F.
Prof Karikari had said the bill which Sam George and some of his colleague legislators are promoting is dangerous because it seeks to promote hate for homosexuals in the country.
In the view of Prof Karikari, gays and lesbians are human beings and deserve to be respected and protected as any other person.
To that end, he said, any law that seeks to create problems for this group should be rejected.
He said this while speaking on the First Take with Dzifa Bampoh on 3FM on Monday October 4.
He said he and a few of his colleagues who are fighting for the rights of homosexuals to be respected in Ghana are going to hold a public forum to debate this subject.
“Hopefully, the media may also want to pick up the debate, debate them so that the public will instantly get to know the views that we hold and the views that the proponents of what we considered to be a dangerous bill also hold.
“We think we live in a democracy and we must be grateful to God that we live in a democracy so that whatever parliament, the executive or any branch of government does will be openly discussed and people can therefore take their decisions and then the lawmakers and the executives can also take some wisdom from the public debate.
“We know that most societies have prejudice against homosexuality, lesbianism and these other social practices. We are not at all surprised that the overwhelming majority have prejudiced or even hate these small minority of people in society. We have no problem with that. What we are saying is this.
“This law is setting up the minority up. Our constitution does not discriminate about humans beings unless the proponents of this bill, unless the 95 per cent who say they don’t like homosexuality, we want them to say that homosexuals, lesbians are not human beings. Are they human beings also are they not human beings?
“If they are human beings and they are human beings then we think that they are protected by the constitution so any law that is made to arouse, promote engineer and mobilize hate against that minority is against the rights of those minority people and should not be passed.”
Speaking on the same programme, Sam George said “He has made so many sweeping comments and I expected that he would have been held to strict proof. His argument is hollow and if I was marking this as a script he will score an F.
“This is someone who says the constitution protects people, you [Dzifa Bampoh] read to him a section of the bill which provides protection for persons who identify as LGBTQ from extra judicial treatment and he tells you it is a hoax.
“This is the same person asking us to provide proof of the health challenges, the public risk that the LGBTQ community proposes and he is telling you that our bill is a hoax without any proof.
“Today 4th October, the head of the Ghana AIDS Commission, speaking to another media house in Accra decried the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Ghana and the fact that HIV prevalence in Ghana is rising. In that interview, he was asked specifically which demographic is pushing this number up, he said men having sex with men. That is the empirical evidence. Now can you ask Prof Kwame Karikari and his cohorts what empirical evidence they have to say that say part of our bill is a hoax? Has he educated himself and has he read the bill or he is basically just running riot in town on the basis of their misconception?”
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill was laid in the House on Monday, August 2 and read for the first time.
Reading for the first time, a clerk in the legislative assembly stated that the Bill proscribes lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) and other related activities and propaganda or advocacy and promotion for same.
It also came to light that it supports protection for children and persons who are victims or accused of homosexuality.
Second Deputy Speaker Andrew Asiamah Amoako referred the Bill to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee for consideration.
“For the first time, it is referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for consideration and report,” Mr Asiamah Amoako, who is also the MP for Fomena, directed.
The Chairman of the Pentecost Church, Apostle Eric Nyamekye has asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fight Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex (LGBTQI+) before he exits office.
He said although Mr Akufo-Addo has stated categorically that gayism and lesbianism will not be legalized under his watch, the President must begin to take measures to stop the gayism movement that has started in the country before he exits office.
“The church of Pentecost is 10.38 per cent of the Ghanaian population and we are against this LGBTQI+.
“Our concern is not about today, it is about the future. Today when we let in this LGBTI what is going to happen is that we are going to accept same sex marriage which the president says it is never going to happen at his watch.
“But if he allows LGBTQI to start, it is true that it is never going to happen at his watch but, by the time it gets to same sex marriage the president will not be the president of the nation. I agree with him but he should stop this, he should close the doors at where it matters and we are saying that he should close it now.
“This movement is an insult to God the creature, you are just telling God that he didn’t think enough,” he told journalists on Wednesday October 6.
The Church of Pentecost on Wednesday presented a memo to parliament in support of the steps taken to pass the anti-gay bill which is currently before the legislature.
The memo was presented to the lawmakers on Wednesday October 6.
Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful says her outfit is currently assessing calls for the inclusion of National Passport and other forms of identification in the ongoing SIM card re-registration process.
According to her, the law within which the exercise is being undertaken specifies the Ghana Card as the sole mode of identification verification.
This, she says, puts her outfit in a precarious situation, as far as the ongoing exercise is concerned.
“The law makes the use of the Ghana card mandatory, so we find ourselves in a fix but let’s see how the discussion goes for now,” he said.
Since the beginning of the exercise last week, there have been calls for government to include other forms of identification as requirements for SIM card registration in the country.
Speaking to JoyBusiness, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful revealed that discussions ongoing in that regard and will soon make the outcome public.
“There was also another call for the use of passport as part of the identification document and it’s something that we as a ministry and stakeholders are also looking into but let’s see what happens.
“However, you should get your Ghana Card if you don’t have it as a citizen”, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful explained.
She also said Ghanaians abroad who may want to re-register their SIM cards before the deadline can do so, adding, they are looking into the law to facilitate that.
“It is going well I must say. So far so good, but then there are few challenges which the ministry is still working around to resolve. Some of the challenges being that there are some Ghanaians abroad who have SIM cards that may want to register but due to the timing; I must say it is something the team is looking at utilizing the SIM Registration Act to see what can be done”, he explained.
The Minister was speaking on the sidelines of the Cybersecurity Industry Forum on the Cybersecurity Act, a programme put together by the Cybercesurity Authority for professionals and service providers in the sector.
She urged the professionals to come up with standards of operations for the country.
The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) says the two-month removal of the Price Stabilization, and Recovery levy on petroleum products is very insignificant.
It has thus advised the general public to be measured in their expectations for a reduction in transport fares.
The union is also accusing the government of acting in bad faith despite contractual assurances of stabilizing the prices of fuel that will lead to maintaining transport fares at least in the short term since they were last increased in June 2021.
Reacting to the removal of the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levies (PRSL) on petrol, diesel, and LPG for two months as approved by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the GPRTU’s General Secretary, Godfred Abulbire Adogma said the move in its marginal nature does not warrant a corresponding reduction in the cost of transportation.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said “we think, for now, the margin they are going to reduce per litre which has not been removed completely but just for two months to us, is not all that significant. So right now, the 16 pesewas reduction in the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levies will not create any more impact to us than we expected and that will not cause us to reduce any lorry fare”.
Currently, the PSRL is 16 pesewas per litre on petrol, 14 pesewas per litre (GHp14/Lt) on diesel, and 14 pesewas per kilogram (GHp14/Kg) on LPG.
NPA has said the two levies have been removed for two months to cushion consumers following the consistent increases of crude oil on the international market.
However, Godfred Abulbire Adogma says he is yet to come to terms with how the reduction benefits the union and the passengers by extension.
“We completed negotiations with the sector Ministry around June and lorry fares were adjusted around 30 percent at that time. When the lorry fares were adjusted, in that contract that we all signed, the assurance was that, the government was going to make sure that all petroleum products were stabilized and that they were not going to be adjusted within the shortest possible time. But from June, I can say that there have been several adjustments.”
Meanwhile, the GPRTU says it is taking steps to meet with the government over the series of levies imposed on fuel products.
Fuel prices have in the past few months witnessed upward and downward adjustments, with the recent being an increase of 2.59%, a situation, industry players have criticized.
Mr. Abulbire said any significant increase in petroleum prices would be passed on to commuters.
“I learnt so many things from my friend, the President of Ghana, today speaking about world power. We completely share some positions about the necessity of the countries that need to co-operate in the independent sovereign, to make their own decisions independently… I fully agree he is one of the wisest men, one of the great erudite one can learn so many things from.”
These were the words of the President of Serbia, His Excellency Aleksandar Vučić, on Monday, 11th October 2021, when he held bilateral talks with the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on the sidelines of the ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
At the press conference, the Serbian leader indicated that Ghana and Serbia have pledged to build closer ties, and deepen the ties of friendship and the bonds of co-operation between the two countries, with the two nations resolving to co-operate in the areas of agriculture, defence, artificial intelligence and digitilisation, education, and the growth of their respective economies.
Touching on the areas of co-operation between the two countries, which include an increase in bilateral trade and the doubling of Serbian scholarship opportunities to Ghanaian students from sixteen (16) to thirty-two (32), President Akufo-Addo stated that “we (in Ghana) know the important strides that you (Serbia) have taken in the world of digitalisation, as well as in artificial intelligence, and my understanding is that the majority of the young people who will come from Ghana will be in this area. I think it will be something that will be truly beneficial to our country.”
The President reinforced the necessity for such closer ties of co-operation between countries belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement, and the urgent need to deepen the bonds between Ghana and Serbia and, indeed, for smaller, like-minded states.
“The recent example about the use and deployment of vaccines has shown us an ugly aspect of international cooperation. There are people who hoarded samples, and made it impossible for others to be able to have access. I think these are areas where the cooperation between countries like ours could have a very significant impact on the way in which the world develops,” he said.
The President continued that, “there is hopefully a bright future ahead especially between the two countries that see eye-to-eye on so many important issues of the International agenda; the most important being the urgent need for all of us to be able to drive our own agenda, and not be the subject of anybody’s interests or wishes.”
On Ghana’s election onto the Security Council membership, President Akufo-Akufo thanked Serbia for the support of Ghana’s candidature, adding that “whilst there our contribution will help improve the climate of the world, and bring more positive developments on the global agenda. We count very much on Serbia assisting us in the manner in which you have indicated in your remarks so that we can produce good results from our membership there.”
He also expressed deep concerns about security in Africa, saying “the Jihadist insurrection and terrorist activities in West Africa are a matter of great concern to us, and there are areas where we believe we can beneficially cooperate with your country, with other like-minded countries, to find solutions. They are matters of very great concern to the stability of our region.”
Contained in his opening remarks, President Vucic said, “I learnt so many things from my friend President of Ghana today speaking about world power and I fully agree he is one of the wisest men, one of the great eulogists one can learn so many things from as one of the great successors of the politics of such a great person as Nkrumah was.”
On his part, President Aleksandar Vučić thanked President Akufo-Addo and Ghana for the position taken regarding the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia, stressing that such a position is appreciated and respected by the people of Serbia.
“You know that in politics and international relations nothing lasts shorter than gratitude but you will see when it comes to Serbia, we are incomparably, more loyal to our friends than many others and we will be able to return in the same manner of responsibility,” he said.
The Serbian leader continued, “We offer our construction companies if the people of Ghana are interested, and we are ready to buy tropical fruits and many other products from Ghana if they are interested. Generally speaking, politically wise, not that we have no problems, but we understand each other very very well, but we must work to talk to each other more often, to see each other more often, and to have more frequent contact and to act together in the international scenes.”
Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) has announced it will start a multi-year, multi-well drilling campaign offshore in Ghana with the commencement of drilling of the first well at the Jubilee Field.
As previously announced, the company said in a statement that Maersk Venturer, which had been contracted for four years, was expected to drill four wells in total in 2021, consisting of two Jubilee production wells, one Jubilee water injector well and one TEN gas injector well.××
The 2021 drilling campaign is the first part of Tullow’s 10-year Business Plan, which was presented at Tullow’s Capital Markets Day in November 2020.
The Ghana portfolio has a large resource base with extensive infrastructure already in place.
“Through a rigorous focus on costs and capital discipline, Tullow believes that these assets have the potential to generate material cash flow over the next decade and deliver significant value for Ghana and investors,” the statement said.
“Throughout this campaign, Tullow will continue to implement its Shared Prosperity strategy through a strong local content programme with suppliers in Ghana, the professional and technical development of Ghanaian nationals and continued investment in STEM education, enterprise development and shared infrastructure.”
Chief Executive Officer, Tullow Oil plc, Rahul Dhir, was quoted as saying, “Today is an important milestone in the implementation of our long-term Business Plan. Working closely with the Government of Ghana and our joint venture partners in Ghana, I am confident that we will unlock the full potential from the Jubilee and TEN fields through this multi-year, multi-well drilling programme”.
There was drama at Akyem Tafo in the Eastern region when a car thief snatched a vehicle from a military officer in a broad daylight on Sunday.
Sargent Eric Okyere Agyapong, a physical training instructor of the Northern Military Command Headquarters, Tamale currently on attachment at the Army recruit training school Shai Hills at about 1:40 pm Sunday, October 10, 2021, visited his wife and children at Akyem Tafo.
His car however developed mechanical fault hence drove his wife’s Hyundai Elantra saloon car with registration number ER 490 21 with the wife on board to search for a mechanic to pick home to fix the car for him.
The couple met the suspect at a mechanic shop in the course of the conversation, the suspect suddenly jumped into the car of the couple and sped off with the car.
The military officer hired a taxi to chase the suspect.
The suspect who was speeding crashed another vehicle upon reaching Suhyen to Jumapo stretch of Bunso to Koforidua highway.
The military officer raised an alarm which the youth in the area together with police at a nearby checkpoint came to the scene but the suspect alleged to possess juju powers resisted arrest.
He was pepper-sprayed several times and beaten before he was overpowered and arrested and sent to the Jumapo Police station. He was later taken to the Regional MTTD at the Police Headquarters, Koforidua.
The Akyem Tafo District Police command led by ASP Fred Kpetigo went to Regional Police headquarters, Koforidua and met the suspect in handcuffs at the RMTTU charge office with a swollen face.
The suspect who was reticent however gave his name as Nana Agyemang.
He has since been moved to Akyem Tafo District Police Command, treated, and discharged at New Tafo Akim Government Hospital.
The Public Relations Officer of the Eastern Regional Police Command DSP Ebenezer Tetteh told Starr News, the suspect is in police custody assisting investigation while the partly damaged stolen car has been towed to Regional Police Headquarters.
The Central Regional Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Kojo Quansah, has said the party is still looking for its Regional Communications Officer, Mr Kwesi Dawood, who has been accused of incest.
“We got to know about it [the allegation] last week, so, we had a meeting and we’ll want to find out from Kwesi [if it’s true], so, we are still looking for Kwesi to find out whether it is true or not”, Mr Quansah told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class91.3FM’s mid-day news 12Live on Monday, 11 October 2021.
Mr Quansah said Mr Dawood “could not come for a meeting” to that effect, “so, the only thing we have to do is that we use the phone to contact him but when you call him, the phone is off”.
“I mean we are trying to get him but I’m sure very soon we’ll get and speak to him”, he noted.
He said Mr Dawood “stays at Swedru and Cape Coast” but “when we checked from Swedru, he’s not there; when we checked from Cape Coast, too, he’s not there and by the nature of his work, he doesn’t have to sit at one place”.
Meanwhile, the Central Regional Police Command has launched a manhunt for the embattled Communications Officer.
Class FM’s Central Regional Correspondent, Raymond Coffie, reported that Mr Dawood says no one has invited over any matter and also denied the rape and incest allegations.
According to Raymond Coffie, Mr Dawood says he suspects elements within his own party as well as the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), have joined forces to tarnish his image and hard-won reputation.
Raymond Coffie noted that Mr Dawood insists the lady at the centre of the allegation is a member of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy, the student’s wing of the governing NPP.
He says the NDC communicator is claiming innocence of all the allegations levelled against him by the lady, who claims to be his daughter.
Meanwhile, the NDC has suspended Mr Dawood from the party over the matter.
Mr Quansah said the suspension is in the interest of the party.
He said the NDC, as a party waiting to assume the reins of government, cannot sit aloof for the matter to fester.
He explained that this is just a suspension for the matter to be further delved into once the leadership gets hold of Mr Dawood
MPs of the majority caucus do support the anti-LGBTQI+ bill even though many of them have not been heard publicly speaking about it in the media, the governing New Patriotic Party MP for Adansi Asokwa Constituency in the Central Region, K.T. Hammond has said.
The former Deputy Minister of Energy in the Kufuor administration made this revelation on Monday, 11 October 2021 when he spoke on Accra-based Asempa FM’s afternoon political programme ‘Ekosii Sen’ hosted by Phillip Osei Bonsu.
Mr Hammond said there has never been a bill fully supported by all the MPs like the anti-LGBTQI+ one, he noted.
In his view, it is only by chance that some members on the minority side led by Sam George, the National Democratic Congress’s MP for Ningo-Prampram Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, took advantage of the situation of some young men at Kwabenya opening an office to promote the activities of LGBTQI+, to push for a private members’ bill on it.
Mr Hammond warned that LGBTQI+ will never be legalised in the country by this eighth parliament.
Any MP, Mr Hammond warned, who dare vote against the passage of the anti-LGBTQI+ bill, will incur the wrath of Ghanaians at the 2024 polls.
Mr Hammond said just as President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in the past, gave the strongest indication that same-sex marriage will never be legalised under his watch, so will LGBTQI+ activities not be legalised under the watch of the current parliament.
He said the majority side will push for open balloting on the bill.
No secret ballot will be tolerated when it comes to voting on the bill, he assured.
He further assured the Christian and Muslim communities to remain calm as the house takes steps to pass the bill to safeguard the sanctity of Ghanaian cultural values and morality.
In his opinion, LGBTQI+ activities have the tendency to destroy the moral fabric of Ghanaian society
Information gathered by KWESI TV 24 indicates that Kwabena Jumah, son of the Managing Director of GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, Maxwell Kofi Jumah aka Kofi Ghana has tied the knot with the third daughter of President Akufo-Addo, Edwina Nana Dokua Akufo-Addo.
The private traditional marriage took place at the Presidential Villa at Jubilee House on Saturday, October 9, 2021, with a couple of family members and close allies of both families in attendance.
A video circulating on social media showed President Akufo-Addo with microphone asking his daughter, Edwina Akufo-Addo whether she agrees to be the wife of the groom.
In a lovely and interesting manner, the daughter responded in the affirmative, attracting applause from the gathering.
In another picture, the President was seen in a group photograph with Maxwell Kofi Jumah and family.
The beautiful ceremony was crowned with a celebration as the President was seen on the dance floor with his daughter exhibiting their dancing skills, with the groom also paired up with First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo in showing his dancing skills. The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his wife, Samira Bawumia were also in attendance as they were seen on the dance floor.
On October 08, 2021, history was made with the swearing-in of a new Mayor for Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city.
Sam Pyne, hitherto, the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), at a symbolic event held at the Regional Coordinating Council’s (RCC) premises at Ridge-Nhyiaseo, would be ushered into office after taking an oath.
The former teacher becomes the seventh Mayor to be given the mandate to engineer affairs in the metropolis, under the Fourth Republican Constitution, taking over from Osei Assibey-Antwi, currently the Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS).
Since 1992, the notable names occupying the ‘hot’ seat include Nana Akwasi Agyeman, Kofi Jumah, Patricia Appiagyei, Samuel Sarpong, and Kojo Bonsu.
Due to its location, as not only in a central part of the Region, but also strategically located in the central part of the country, Kumasi has been the locus to the major emigrational processes within the country and West Africa in general.
It has long been regarded as the commercial capital of Ghana, attracting tens of thousands of traders across the sub-Region on a daily basis.
Mr. Pyne is taking office at a time when Kumasi is grappling with varied development challenges, ranging from sanitation and waste collection, congestion at the Central Business District, illegal siting of structures, security to environmental issues.
According to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, about 40 percent of all dwellers in compound houses in Kumasi are without private places of convenience and proper waste systems.
Sight could also not be lost of the mounting debt staring the Metropolitan Assembly in the face, low level of internally-generated funds, domestic tourism drive, and infrastructural growth.
What about the recurrent floods, which had become ‘an annual ritual’, claiming scores of lives with their attendant destruction to property worth several millions of Ghana Cedis?
Dr. Stephen Appiah Takyi, a Development Planner, in a recent interview, acknowledged the huge responsibility in store for whoever was appointed as the Mayor.
According to him, a visionary leader who had the technical expertise and also conversant with the modern-day demands of managing a city, was what was needed to harness the potentials of Kumasi.
In his view, some emerging issues such as climate change, population growth, advancement in science and technology, should inform development policies and planning of the city.
Mr. Pyne, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, after he had been sworn into office, said the job at hand demanded the support of all identifiable groups.
“I believe in an all-inclusive administration,” he noted, saying, the daunting task was surmountable given the needed cooperation and unity of purpose.
He cited his resolve to continue with projects being undertaken to bring development to the metropolis, such as the, ‘Keep Kumasi Clean and Green’ project, an initiative meant to restore to Ghana’s oldest city its status as the ‘Garden City of West Africa’.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Central Regional Communications Director, Emmanuel Kwesi Dawood, is in hot waters for allegedly having sex with his own underage daughter.
Dawood has allegedly been having sexual intercourse with his biological daughter since 2019 when the victim was 15 years, and in the course of the beastly act, the girl became pregnant.
He then allegedly got his friend to administer an injection to terminate the pregnancy last year, and according to the victim, she bled for more than two weeks.
The girl has claimed that Dawood beat her up when he got to know she had informed her mother about the father’s incestuous act, an incident that ended at the Swedru Divisional Police Command.
When the case was sent to the Cape Coast Circuit Court 1 presided over by Her Honour Dorinda Arthur-Smith on September 28, 2021, Dawood alongside one Dr. Arthur Mensah who allegedly administered the injection were charged with only conspiracy and assault.
Officer’s Efforts
However, the victim’s mother, Mavis Ayittey said she realised that Dawood has some sort of influence on some of the police officers at the Swedru Divisional Police Command and as a result, were messing up the case, so she reported to the Central Regional Police Commander, COP Kwadwo Antwi Tabi.
The Central Regional Police Commander, after getting to know the facts of the case, directed the police to withdraw the matter and file the appropriate charges against the suspects.
They are due in court on Wednesday, October 13, and according to sources, Dawood will be charged with conspiracy to commit crime, defilement, incest and illegal abortion.
Dawood is reportedly walking free now because of the directive to withdraw the initial case and file the appropriate charges.
Medical records from the Swedru Municipal Hospital indicate the victim was brought there for assessment and the assailant was recorded as ‘biological father’.
On the forms, she was examined by Dr. Emmanuel Afful, with Helena Nyarko as the nurse.
Main Victim
The victim has been limping since the incident, and has vowed to seek justice, saying “it has been haunting me.”
“He made me go for an abortion. He started having sex with me in 2019. The last time he had sex with me was June 2021.
“He was NADMO Coordinator and is the current NDC Regional Communications Officer. He did not look after me. My mother was not happy for me to leave her and go and stay with him.
“He promised to send me abroad to further my education and warned that if I reveal the act to anybody he was going to end the plans to send me outside for my education.”
In 2020 when I completed my SHS, my menstrual cycle ceased and when I complained to him, he said it was nothing. In October 2020, he directed me to his friend’s house and the friend brought a needle and injected me with something on the instructions of my father. I bled for two weeks after the injection. I told my father about it and he said it was because of the injection and that nothing was going to happen to me.”
“He told me he loved my mother and once she is no more marrying her, he was going to replace me with her. The same day he told me this, he forcibly had sex with me. Anytime he wants to have sex with me, he will send all the kids in the house out to enable him do it.
“He threatened me severally not to reveal it to anyone otherwise he was going to destroy my life. I feared him so I did not tell anybody.”
Agitated Mother
The mother of the victim claimed that “NDC officials have been coming to us to plead for him but I have made it clear that it is a criminal case and he has to face the full rigours of the law. My daughter has been in distress and has said she needs nothing but justice.”
He is always threatening us in spite of getting NDC officials to come and beg us to stop following the case.
The mother claimed that “he impregnated me when I was in the first year in secondary school. He is doing the same thing to our own daughter. I do not know if he was brought into this world to destroy our lives,” adding “he abandoned me after the pregnancy and never saw him until my daughter grew up and he came for her and started having sex with her.”
IGP Intervention
She said, “I am pleading with the IGP to take this case up. I don’t trust the police in Swedru because some of them appear to be helping Dawood to escape justice. It was the Regional Commander who stepped into the case and is ensuring the right thing is done.
“I petitioned the authorities because I have realised that a good number of the police officers at the Divisional Command in Swedru are too close to Dawood so they are dragging their feet on the matter. They want to make it a foolish case but we shall fight for justice.
“He is right here in Swedru but the police are saying strangely that they cannot find him
The Office of the Special Prosecutor has withdrawn the charge of using public office for private profit and benefit and others levelled against National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga.
This was after the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng today entered a Nolle Prosequi to discontinue the case.
Appearing before an Accra High Court, he told the court that upon further scrutiny of the case, the republic deems it unable to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt based on the evidence available.
He told the court that the case is likely to face the same fate as the one in which the MP and others were acquitted and discharged.
He therefore, entered Nolle Prosequi and Mr. Ayariga and Kenderick Akwasi Marfo were discharged by the court.
Mr. Ayariga, who was dragged before the court in 2019, was facing a total of five charges of using public office for private benefit and profit.
He was alleged to have fraudulently evaded customs duties and taxes on the importation of the vehicles into the country.
The MP was also being accused of abusing his office as an MP by selling three Toyota V8 Land Cruisers meant to be used by him for his official duties to Kenderick Akwasi Marfo of Atlas-Rent-A-Car at the price of $40,000 each. He has been charged alongside the MP.
Mr. Marfo was accused of “Acting in collaboration with a public officer for the public officer’s benefit
Black Stars have arrived in Harare ahead of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifier against Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
After securing an impressive 3-1 win over the Warriors in Cape Coast on Saturday, Black Stars departed Accra for Harare Sunday afternoon via Asky Airlines.
The team is led by President of the Ghana Football Association Kurt Edwin Simeon Okraku. He was joined by Black Stars Management Committee Chairman George Amoako, former Ghana international Samuel Osei Kuffuor – a Management Committee Member and Fred Pappoe, Management Committee Member.GFA President Kurt Okraku
Others included Deputy General Secretary Alex Asante, Chairman of the Central Regional Football Association Robert Duncan, Chairman of the Volta Regional Football Association Daniel Agbogah and Director of Communications Henry Asante Twum.
Also making the trip were Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Evans Opoku Bobie (Hon.), Chief Director Alhaji Hafiz Adam and other senior figures from the Youth and Sports Ministry.
Ghana will later on Monday hold an official training at the National Sports stadium in Harare.Coach Milovan Rajevac and his backroom staff
The matchday four clash will take place at the National Stadium in Harare at 1 pm local time.
The Black Stars sit second in Group G with 6 points – one point adrift of leaders South Africa.
Technical Team:
Head Coach – Milovan Rajevac, Assistant Coach – Otto Addo, Assistant Coach – Maxwell Konadu, Goalkeepers Trainer – Richard Kingston, Dr Baba Adam – Team Doctor, Team Manager – Henry Martey, Samuel Ankomah – Masseur, Edward Acheampong – Video Analyst, Dr Jonathan Quartey – Physiotherapist, Romeo Roy Ricky – Physical Trainer, Sulley Zampa and Daniel Yankey – Kit Managers.
Ghana squad:
Goalkeepers
Lawrence Ati- Zigi (FC St. Gallen), Richard Atta (Hearts of Oak), Ibrahim Danlad, (Asante Kotoko), Jojo Wollacott (Swindon Town)
Defenders: Philemon Baffuor (Dreams FC), Gideon Mensah (Bordeaux), Baba Abdul Rahman (Reading FC), Daniel Amartey (Leicester City), Joseph Aidoo (Celta Vigo), Jonathan Mensah (Columbus Crew), Alexander Djiku (Strasbourg).
Midfielders: Thomas Partey (Arsenal FC), Baba Idrissu (Real Mallorca), Emmanuel Lomotey (Amiens), Mohammed Kudus (Ajax Amsterdam), Majeed Ashimeru (RSC Anderlecht), Kofi Kyere (St. Pauli), Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Steadfast FC).
Forwards: Andre Ayew (Al Sadd SC), Kamaldeen Suleymana (Rennes), Joel Fameyeh (Orenburg), Yaw Yeboah (Wisła Kraków), Samuel Owusu (Al-Fayha FC), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace), Caleb Ekuban (Genoa), Benjamin Tetteh (Yeni Malatyaspor)
One of the forerunners in the New Patriotic Party’s standard-bearer race and Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen has donated about one thousand bags of cement estimated at a cost over 40,000 Ghana Cedis to the Bono Regional Wing of the New Patriotic Party.
The gesture is in support of a project to construct an ultramodern office complex to serve as the Bono Regional Secretariat of the Party.
At the Bono Regional Delegates Conference on Friday, October 8, 2021, a 9-member committee was inaugurated by General Secretary of the party John Boadu, with a special task of seeing to the completion of the facility by May, 2022, before the next Regional Annual Delegates Conference of the Party.
The committee is chaired by First Vice Chair of the NPP in the Bono Region Joseph Mensah.
However, even before construction works begin, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen demonstrated leadership by advancing some 1,000 bags of cement for predatory works with a pledge to work hand in hand with the regional executives to build the party structure.
This latest gesture is similar to the initiative taken by the government appointee early this year in aid the Volta Regional Secretariat project which will also see the construction of a facility to serve as the regional Centre for the party in that part of the country.
The donation was presented by Daniel Agyei Sarpong, Political Assistant to the Minister for Trade and Industry of the Republic of Ghana.
When asked on the sidelines of the event by the media as to why Mr. Kyerematen was expending personal cash on the project, Daniel Agyei Sarpong( aka Nana Yaw Sarpong) responded by saying that the move is characteristic of the donor, adding that the good deeds of ‘Alan Cash’ dates back to the early 1990’s when through his instrumentality and mobilization efforts, the Young Executive Forum-a youth group he formed, helped to purchase the NPP’s first landed property to serve as the headquarters at Kokomlemle in Accra.
Meanwhile General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, on Friday, October 8, 2021, cut sod for the construction to begin in Sunyani where he commended the Regional Party, led by the Regional Chairman, Kwame Baffoe ‘Abronye’, for taking up this initiative of getting a permanent party secretariat for the regional party, and securing a land for this purpose.
Other donations in support of the Project were received from the Party’s Parliamentary caucus in the Bono Region, through its chairperson and MP for Sunyani East, Hon Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, as well as the Regional Minister, Hon Justina Awo-Banahene and MMDCEs from the Bono Region.
Ghanaian lawmaker Francis-Xavier Sosu has expressed hope that Ghana would soon become the 24th African country to abolish the death penalty.
The legislator, who represents the people of Madina in a statement to commemorate the world day against breath penalty said he was hopeful Ghana would follow the examples of its neighbours including Sierra Leone, Guinea, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, and Chad the next time this Day is marked.
He also made a strong case for some five women who are currently sentenced to death saying the women are currently suffering trauma.null
“In Ghana, there are about 5 women who are currently under sentence of death. These women suffer immensely from trauma for existing at risk of being executed. Though these executions are hardly carried out in Ghana, the imperfections of our Judicial System are sufficient reasons why we must do away with death sentence. People could mistakenly be killed only for future evidence to exonerate them.
For the women on death role, the death penalty has been imposed mainly as the mandatory punishment for murder. Trial judges are unable to consider or take into account any mitigating factors that relates to murder cases involving women including prolonged domestic violence in the hands of partners; the circumstances of the offence, or their peculiar backgrounds before sentencing women when they are convicted for murder. This also forms part of the reasons why I have set in motion a Private Member’s Bill to amend various provisions in our Criminal and Other Offences Act (Act 29) to achieve ninety-five (95) percent abolishing of the death penalty.”
The Herald newspaper has reported that Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah has empanelled two new judges to join the Supreme Court’s ordinary bench for the hearing of the attorney general’s review application through which the state is praying the apex court to overturn its own earlier decision to remove one of its colleagues, Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga, from the Stephen Opuni-Seidu Agongo criminal case.
The two new judges, according to the paper, are Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher and Prof Emmanuel Nii Ashie Kotey.
They are to join their five colleagues to hear arguments from state prosecutors and the defence teams of Dr Opuni and businessman Agongo, to ascertain whether or not Justice Honyenuga had, indeed, been biased, as declared in the 3:2 majority decision of the ordinary bench some weeks ago.
The date for the review is Tuesday, 12 October 2021.
This is not the first time the state has availed itself of the right to file for a review at the Supreme Court.
There was an instance in the Tsatsu Tsikata v. the Republic of Ghana case under President John Agyekum Kufuor, during which now-President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the time, filed a review application, just as has been done by his Attorney General Godfred Dame in the Opuni-Agongo case, to overturn a decision by the Supreme Court which did not favour the government at the time.
The ordinary bench, presided over by Justice Jones Mawulorm Dotse, on 28 July 2021, upheld Dr Opuni’s prayer for the removal of Justice Honyenuga from the case, in which he and Mr Agongo are being tried for causing the state to lose some GHS271 million through fraudulent means in the procurement of fertiliser for Ghana Cocoa Board.
The other members of the ordinary panel included Justices Gabriel Pwamang, Agnes Dordzie, Avril Lovelace-Johnson and Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu.
Justices Dotse and Lovelace-Johnson dissented.
The three Supreme Court Justices in the majority had asked that the case be given to another trial judge to handle but the Attorney General argued that redoing the case from the scratch will put a burden on the coffers of the state.
Justice Ashie Kotey and Amegatcher, like Justice Honyenuga, were appointed by President Akufo-Addo in 2018 to the Supreme Court.
Justice Kotey had been active in academia, lecturing at the University of Ghana’s Faculty of Law after leaving the Forestry Commission as Chief Executive under President Kufuor from 2007 to 2009 when the John Evans Atta Mills administration took over the reins of affairs.
Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher, on the other hand, has been a private legal practitioner, although he has been teaching, too, as a senior lecturer at the Ghana School of Law since 1994.
Justice Amegatcher, from 2012 to 2015, served as president of the Ghana Bar Association.
Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, he was the managing partner of Sam Okudzeto and Associates, the law firm of a founding member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Sam Okudzeto, who is also a member of the Council of State, serving as an appointee of President Akufo-Addo.
The insistence of the Attorney General that Justice Honyenuga continue hearing the case despite the Supreme Court ruling compelled the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to hold a press conference at which it accused the government of shopping for a particular judge to convict Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo.
Addressing the media in Accra on 30 August 2021, the National Communications Officer of the party, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, accused the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of “headhunting” for a judge.
This, Mr Gyamfi said, flies in the face of natural justice and would gravely undermine public confidence in the performance of Justice Honyenuga, who sat as additional High Court judge, if he returns to preside over the case.
The opposition party has maintained that the case is a political witch-hunt by President Akufo-Addo and the NPP.
Justice Honyernuga was promoted by the President from the Court of Appeal to the apex court while presiding over the same case. Ahead of his elevation, Justice Honyenuga had stoked controversy in the run-up to the 2020 general elections when he, at a durbar of chiefs, endorsed President Akufo-Addo for a second term.
Reading from a written speech, the then-Court of Appeal judge, who doubles as the Paramount Chief of the Nyagbo Traditional Area under the stool name TorgbuI Nyagasi V, told the president at the durbar in Nyagbo that: “We wish to congratulate you for the excellent manner you are governing this dear country of ours. It is our hope that with your vision and the gains made in your first term, Ghanaians may consider giving you another four years”.
The president was on a three-day tour of the Volta and Oti regions in February 2020 when the incident happened.
The opposition NDC and other critics condemned the judge for the endorsement. Among the critics was the editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako, who called for the Justice’s withdrawal.
At the NDC’s press conference on the AG’s recent review application, Mr Gyamfi told journalists: “In fact, most of the cases of criminal prosecution against some officials of the former NDC regime [that] the NPP keeps bragging about … are beginning to crumble like a pack of cards right before their very eyes”.
“What we are seeing is a desperate regime, which is not interested in upholding fair trial and the interest of justice but determined to do everything possible under the sun to convict former NDC government officials at all cost for cheap political goal-scoring”, he alleged.
“Classical examples that highlight this fact”, he noted, include the case against former SSNIT boss Ernest Thompson, “which has been dismissed by the Supreme Court on grounds of defective charges and also the case against the former CEO of COCOBOD, Dr Stephen Opuni and [businessman] Alhaji Seidu Agongo”. According to the lawyer, “in the case of the Opuni trial, even after the Supreme Court of the Republic has prohibited, barred the trial judge, Justice Honyenuga from presiding over the case on grounds of his manifest prejudice and bias against the accused persons, the attorney general and minister of justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who is supposed to advance the interest of justice in all cases, wants the judge reinstated on grounds that starting the case de novo – afresh – will be at great expense and cost to the state.”
“This is the most unfortunate statement I’ve heard from an attorney general in my life and it is a slap in the face of fair trial and administration of justice,” Mr Gyamfi argued.
He wondered why the AG was so obsessed with having Justice Honyenuga on the case.
“There are about four high court Justices, four high court judges at the criminal division of the high court but, for some reasons, Justice Honyenuga, then-Justice of the court of appeal, was given a special warrant to preside over the prosecution of Dr Stephen Opuni and Seidu Agongo”. “A few months after that, Justice Honyenuga was promoted to the Supreme Court by President Akufo-Addo”, he observed.
In Mr Gyamfi’s view, Justice Honyenuga has shown open bias against Dr Opuni and Mr Agongo, which makes him unfit to continue hearing the case.
“This is the Justice Honyenuga, a judge, who, during the 2020 election campaign, publicly endorsed and campaigned for a second term for President Akufo-Addo when he visited his palace”.
“The judge, who has said in open court that the Opuni case is distracting him from his Supreme Court duties, hence he wants to conclude the case quickly so that he can focus on his Supreme Court duties”. “We are talking about the judge, who, in his ruling on a submission of no case, decided to exclude from the evidence on record, as many as 18 exhibits that vindicate the case of Dr. Opuni and the other accused persons and which were tendered through prosecution witnesses without any objection whatsoever, from the prosecution,” Mr Gyamfi listed.
He said: “The insistence by the Attorney General to have Justice Honyenuga continue with this case suggests that the attorney general is desirous of having his own preferred judge preside over a case that he is prosecuting”.
“This singular conduct”, Mr Gyamfi warned, “has the tendency to completely erode public confidence in the judiciary as an independent arm of government”.
“The simple questions [that the] government and Godfred Dame must answer are: Why must Justice Honyenuga preside over the Opuni trial at all cost despite the clear prejudice and bias he has exhibited against the accused persons? Is he the only judge in Ghana who can preside over that case? And more importantly, why must fair trial and justice, truth is sacrificed on the altar of cost? Can Godfred Dame sell his liberty for money?” “So, when people’s liberties are at stake, a fair trial is at stake, justice is at stake, you are telling us that [even though] the Supreme Court says: ‘This judge has shown bias; we are barring him even though he is our colleague, he cannot preside over the case’, you are telling us that: ‘Oh, my Lords, if you do that, we have to start afresh; it will cost us money, so, let him come and [sit on the case]’.”
“I mean, where in the world did you hear this from somebody who is not just an attorney general; that is: he’s not just a lawyer for the government but he’s also a minister of justice and, therefore, must be interested in justice for all citizens?” Mr Gyamfi wondered.
“Clearly”, he noted, “Godfred Dame is engaging in head-hunting for his preferred judge in the Opuni trial for an outcome that should be obvious to any objective mind”, adding: “Most of the criminal cases against former NDC appointees that the NPP will have us believe are evidence of their commitment to the fight against corruption, are cases of persecution and not prosecution”.
“As such, these cannot and should not be believed as evidence of any genuine commitment to the fight against corruption”, Mr Gyamfi said. He said it would also conscientise the public that the justice system was capable of holding its own to account whenever they erred.
He added that the decision will go a long way to help promote public confidence in the country’s justice delivery system.
“This ruling tells you that even the Supreme Court has no problem prohibiting one of their own, and this is a strong message to all Ghanaians and the business community as well,” he said.
Following the 3-2 decision of the Supreme Court, a private legal practitioner, Mr Martin Kpebu, described it as “sound and useful”. Mr Kpebu said the “landmark decision” by the court was very rare but positive for public confidence in the judiciary system.
The legal practitioner said the decision demonstrated that even the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land, was allowed to hold the scales of justice evenly balanced between the state and an accused person.
“In this particular case, the Supreme Court has had to prohibit one of its own and for me, to the extent that the Judge is one of their own and still being prohibited, tells you that the Supreme Court is really up to the task,” he said.
Mr Kpebu, who described the ruling as “a big shot in the arm” for the country’s justice delivery system, said it would dispel public perceptions that justice delivery was not fair in the country. Mr Kpebu said the decision meant that the case would have had to begin from the scratch, with the accused persons taking their pleas after the state had filed its processes afresh.
Dr Opuni and Alhaji Agongo, the CEO of Agricult Ghana Limited, an agrochemical company, are on trial on the accusation of causing financial loss of more than GHS271 million to the state.
Mr Agongo has been accused of using fraudulent means to sell substandard fertiliser to COCOBOD for onward distribution to cocoa farmers, while Dr Opuni is accused of facilitating the act by not allowing the businessman’s products to be tested and certified as required by law.
The two have denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
A private legal practitioner who is against the anti-gay bill in its current form, Mr Akoto Ampaw, has called on stakeholders to eschew insults and name calling in the discussions on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex (LGBTQI+) in the country.
Mr Akoto Ampaw believes that the discussions can take place without abusive words.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3/3FM Saturday October 9 with host Dzifa Bampoh, he said “I hope that through these discussions, the discussion that is going on in the country now which hopefully will become less one of insults and name calling, we can address the main issues and reach a common conclusion as a society.”
He further indicated that the debate is not about religious beliefs or numbers rather, it is about human right issues.
“First of all, I want to make the point clear that this debate is not about religious beliefs.
“Secondly, this debate is not about numbers. It is not lining up how many people support gays -30million, how many people are against gay – 2million, that is not the issue.
“The fundamental issue has to do with our constitution and rights .That is the basic issue that we have to address.”
He added “It is a bit gratifying that just recently the Majority leader in Parliament said that the matter will not be discussed on the basis of religious beliefs. I think that is a major step forward if that is how parliament is going to address this matter. It is a constitutional matter.”
His comments come after religious bodies including the Ghana Catholic Bishop Conference have said that want homosexuality to be illegal in Ghana.
The Bishops described the practice as abomination on the basis of scriptures in the Holy Bible.
“As a Church, we want this abominable practice made illegal in our country… The Bible, which is foundational to Christian beliefs and practices, condemns the practice,”
“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder…
“The Church rejects the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and very compulsive and, therefore, they should not be blamed for their homosexual acts,” a statement they issued said.
It added “Nevertheless, according to the Church’s understanding of human rights, the rights of homosexuals as persons do not include the right of a man to marry a man or of a woman to marry a woman. For the Church, this is morally wrong and goes against God’s purpose for marriage. We should also point out that the European Court for Human Rights has ruled that same-sex “marriages” are not considered a human right, making it clear that homosexual partnerships do not in fact equal marriages between a man and a woman. The ruling was announced 9th June 2016 in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.”
Meanwhile, the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Kofi Abotsi has said the debates for gay rights or criminalization in Ghana is unwinnable.
According to him, both sides are digging in and positions are becoming irrational and untenable.
“The debates for gay rights or criminalization is unwinnable! Both sides are digging in and positions are becoming irrational & untenable and this is crowding out good reasons and circumspection as lawmakers ponder the bill & it’s intents!” he said in a tweet on Thursday October 7.
The controversial anti-gay bill which is currently before parliament has already divided opinion in the Ghanaian public discourse.
While some, particularly the religious and traditional groupings, have supported the Bill and hopeful of its passing, others say it could incur the wrath of the international community against Ghana.
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill was laid in the House on Monday, August 2 and read for the first time.
Reading for the first time, a clerk in the legislative assembly stated that the Bill proscribes lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) and other related activities and propaganda or advocacy and promotion for same.
It also came to light that it supports protection for children and persons who are victims or accused of homosexuality.
Second Deputy Speaker Andrew Asiamah Amoako referred the Bill to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee for consideration.
“For the first time, it is referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for consideration and report,” Mr Asiamah Amoako, who is also the MP for Fomena, directed
The renowned professor is of the view that the stance of the churches lacks theological reasoning.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development, CDD-Ghana, and one of the 15 renowned legal, academic, and civil society professionals who have filled a memorandum challenging the anti-LGBTQI bill has questioned the support of Christian bodies for the bill.
The renowned professor is of the view that the stance of the churches lacks theological reasoning.
Some members of Parliament have initiated processes to have a law passed to criminalise LGBTQ+ activities and advocacy.
The bill, dubbed “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021,” has received wide public support, with a section of the public condemning it and describing it as promoting hate.
Some Christian leaders have submitted a memorandum to Parliament on the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
The Church of Pentecost and its Chairman, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, as well as Apostle Dr. Aaron Ami-Narh, President of the Apostolic Church, Ghana, were part of the delegation that gathered 15,000 signatures to express strong support for the bill.
The memorandum was presented to Parliament’s Committee for Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
The Church of Pentecost has also vowed to campaign vigorously against parliamentarians should they not see to it that the Bill is passed into law with immediate effect.
The Church believes the Members of Parliament (MPs) owe Ghanaians the moral duty to pass laws in the interest of the majority, hence, the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill brought before the house must be treated with the urgency it deserves.
The Catholic Bishops of Ghana have also endorsed the draft bill. The religious leaders say LGBTQ+ is “morally unacceptable”. But Prof. Prempeh speaking on Citi TV’s weekend current affairs programme, ‘The Big Issue on Saturday’, October 9, 2021, said the church is failing to exemplify God’s teachings of compassion, redemption, and grace.
“I seriously struggle to see the theology of compassion, the theology of redemption, and the theology of grace that actually Jesus Christ for the Christian preached and taught in the position of the Ghanaian church on this matter.
They single out the biblical disapproval of the behavior of the Sodom and Gomorrah as the prime example of this but, let us not forget that in the Leviticus and Deuteronomy adultery was forthrightly condemned and just in very plain language but also the punishments that were prescribed in those texts was the stoning to death for both the adulterer and the adulterous and yet in the New Testament, Jesus Christ exemplifies the theology of compassion, grace, and redemption by demonstrating what you do with such people and told the people that he who is without sin should cast the first stone.”
“That is the theology I expected the church to come to this question with but when the church makes a common course with political interest and to marshal the force of the state to condemn these people as criminals and to put in jail and subject them to all manner of inhumane treatments persons who otherwise have not caused anyone any harm, I fail to see the theology of Christ in that kind of conduct.”
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor says the Mole National Park will be upgraded to become the biggest and most vibrant conservative park in the country and Africa.
The Minister said this at the Commissioning of a Visitor Receptive Center funded by the Australian government at the Park in Damango on Friday 8th October, 2021.
Hon. Jinapor indicated that a public-private partnership is the surest way to inject capital into the operations and infrastructure developments of the park.
He therefore called on the Australian government to strengthen partnership with the Ghanaian government and help push the general development of the National Park.
He said efforts are underway by the government through the Ministry to salvage the environment and called on all stakeholders to help conserve, and protect the natural resources of the country.
The Hon. Minister also used the opportunity to thank the staff of the Park particularly the forest guards, for the tireless efforts in protecting the Park , adding that their welfare issues will be addressed.
“The government is concerned, and will ensure that you are properly taken care of,” he stated.
On his part, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E Gregory Andrews said Australia was prepared to share its expertise in conservative parks with Ghana.
He underscored the importance of National Parks and indicated that the Australian government is poised to help Ghana conserve the Mole National park and environment.
“Our efforts at the Park is to protect the elephants, all animal species and it’s about the conservation of the general ecosystem and it’s security,” he maintained.
The Australian government support to the Mole National Park is phenomenal.
In April this year, the park received some high technology equipment including drones for surveillance which has helped conduct census of all animal species at Park.
• He heaped praises on him after his interview with CNN on Friday
• In response, Sam George said he endorses the return of John Dramani Mahama
On Saturday, October 9, 2021, legal luminary, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko after Sam George’s interview on the anti-LGBTQI+ bill on CNN described him as a young, articulate and extremely popular man in the country.
He furthered that Sam George is the best presidential candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the next general elections if politics is all about populism and popularity.
In a tweet sighted by GhanaWeb, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko said, “If politics is all about populism & popularity then I have fantastic news for the NDC: they have found their next presidential candidate & he is the MP for Ningo-Prampram #SamGeorge. Young, articulate, driven, bold, & extremely popular. The main sponsor of the anti-LGBTQI Bill.”
Reacting to this, the Ningo-Prampram MP said, he wants the comeback of former President John Dramani Mahama to rescue Ghanaians from the appalling governance of his cousin, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He noted that he is only focused on delivering the mandate of his constituents.
The lawmaker, in a tweet sighted by GhanaWeb said, “Dear @GabbyDarko, I am completely focused on delivering my mandate to the people of Ningo-Prampram. I wholeheartedly endorse the return of @JDMahama to rescue our Country from the abysmal presidency of your cousin @NAkufoAddo. Cheers.”
Ghanaian social media space was filled with adulations for Sam George who mounted a fierce defence of the decision by some MPs to sponsor the bill that seeks to criminalize homosexuality in the country on Friday.
A seeming attempt by Kenyan-born CNN reporter, Larry Madowo to have Sam George choke on his own bill backfired as the legislator, in the estimation of most social media viewers distinguished himself and addressed the issues effectively.
Dear @GabbyDarko, I am completely focused on delivering my mandate to the people of Ningo-Prampram. I wholeheartedly endorse the return of @JDMahama to rescue our Country from the abysmal presidency of your cousin @NAkufoAddo. Cheers. ???? pic.twitter.com/Hquzr31RrP— Sam ‘Dzata’ George (@samgeorgegh) October 9, 2021
About the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill
Sam Nartey George led an eight-member legislative group that drafted a Private Members’ Bill titled: “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values, Bill 2021,” which seeks to comprehensively outlaw activities of the LGBTQ+ community.
Currently, the bill has been laid before the house and referred to the appropriate committee for consideration.
The Ningo Prampram MP has strongly defended the need for the bill which he insists is a necessity in preserving the moral and cultural values of Ghanaians in general.
Sam George insists that LGBTQ+ tendencies are not human rights but preferences that need to be regulated within the context of what Ghanaian society and culture accept.
The bill has the full blessing of Speaker Alban Bagbin who is on record to have said he is pro-life and will ensure that the bill is passed into law as soon as possible
• Gabby Otchere-Darko has advised the NDC to make Sam Nartey George as their presidential candidate in the next general elections
• He heaped praises on him after his interview with CNN on Friday
• He stated that Sam George is the main sponsor of the anti-LGBTQ+ in the country
A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has said if politics is about a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups, then Sam Nartey George is the best candidate to lead the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in a general election.
He described the Ningo Prampram MP as a young, articulate and extremely popular man in the country.
The legal luminary pointed out that Sam George was the main sponsor of the anti-LGBTQI+ bill laid before parliament.
Gabby’s comment comes on the back of an interview the NDC MP granted on CNN on Friday, October 8, 2021.
In a tweet sighted by GhanaWeb, Gabby Otchere-Darko said, “If politics is all about populism & popularity then I have fantastic news for the NDC: they have found their next presidential candidate & he is the MP for Ningo Prampram #SamGeorge. Young, articulate, driven, bold, & extremely popular. The main sponsor of the anti-LGBTQI Bill.”
Ghanaian social media space was filled with adulations for Sam George who mounted a fierce defence of the decision by some MPs to sponsor the bill that seeks to criminalize homosexuality in the country.
A seeming attempt by Kenyan-born CNN reporter Larry Madowo to have Sam George choke on his own bill backfired as the legislator, in the estimation of most social media viewers distinguished himself and addressed the issues effectively.
A team of 8 MPs led by Samuel Nartey George have jointly submitted a private bill to push for the criminalization of LGBTQI+ activities in the country.
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 was laid in the House on Monday, August 2 and read for the first time.
They want the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be criminalized in the country.
Meanwhile, 18 prominent people have rejected the proposed anti-gay bill in parliament.
In their view, the bill violates almost all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the constitution.
Right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble, freedom of association and the right to organise, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity are what is denied the LQBTQI+ community, they have argued.
Read Gabby’s tweet below.
If politics is all about populism & popularity then I have fantastic news for the NDC: they have found their next presidential candidate & he is the MP for Ningo Prampram #SamGeorge. Young, articulate, driven, bold, & extremely popular. The main sponsor of the anti-LBGTQI Bill.— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) October 9, 2021
John Boadu, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said the party would capture 270 parliamentary seats in Election 2024.
He, however, condemned the ‘skirt and blouse’ voting that characterised Election 2020 and contributed to the party’s abysmal performance in the parliamentary elections.
Mr Boadu said the NPP chances remained brighter due to the performance of the government and, therefore, challenged the regional, constituency and polling station executives of the Party to forge ahead in unity and work hard to publicize the achievements of the government.
This would make the NPP popular enhance its fortunes in Election 2024 for it to break the eight-year jinx, he said and therefore tasked the leadership in the regions to come together to identify and tackle the diverse challenges that militated against the party’s performance, especially in the 2020 parliamentary election.
Mr Boadu gave the assurance when he addressed the Bono Regional Annual Delegates Conference of the NPP held on Friday in Sunyani.
He said the NPP was determined to win the Election 2024 by a wider margin and charged the party supporters to avoid tendencies that could impede progress being made by the government and rather work hard to promote and project the government’s achievements.
Mr Boadu said the party would re-invigorate its communication teams in the region to position them well to publicize the achievements of the government and also project the party well to the electorate.
Mr Kwame Baffoe, the Bono Regional Chairman, noted the election 2020 was tough for the Party because of unnecessary divisions and backbiting and cautioned supporters against using social media to denigrate the Party.
He stated the leadership of the party in the region would continue to strictly apply the Party’s constitution in all matters of concern for the Party to remain vibrant.
Mr Baffoe, therefore, said party supporters who breached the constitution would be sanctioned accordingly.
Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, commended members of the region’s Municipal and District Assemblies for their overwhelming confirmation of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s nominees for the Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) positions and expressed appreciation to the council of elders, party executives and all stakeholders for their support.
She said the NPP cherished democratic values and asked the party supporters to tolerate each other’s views and bury their differences for the good of the NPP.
Mad Owusu-Banahene stressed the need for the party to support the MDCEs to facilitate the holistic and rapid development of the Municipalities and Districts, saying that would enhance the popularity of the government, particularly at the grassroots and subsequently build on the image of the NPP in the eyes of the people.null
Mr Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunyani East, on behalf of the other MPs in the region, blamed the Party in the region for its poor performance in the 2020 parliamentary election.
He, however, expressed the hope that the NPP could break the eight-year jinx in 2024 if party supporters eschew internal wrangling and petty squabbles which characterised the election 2020 in the region.
Mr Ameyaw-Cheremeh, also the Board Chair of the Bui Power Authority (BPA), Managers of the Bui Hydro-Electric Power Dam, stressed the readiness of the region’s MPs to support and work in harmony with the MDCEs, polling station, constituency and regional executives to make the fortunes of the NPP brighter in the 2024 general election.
Mr Emmanuel Kofi Agyemang, the Dormaa East District Chief Executive, on behalf of the MMDCEs, expressed appreciation to President Akufo-Addo and the Party leadership for the opportunity provided them to serve in the government.
He said a strong party-government relationship was required to make the NPP more attractive and popular to woo more people into the Party to break the eight-year rule tradition of the country.Source:
With the anti-LGBTQ+ bill which is before the Constitution, Legal and Parliamentary Affair Committee of parliament, the Member of Parliament for South Dayi in the Volta Region, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor says he is convinced that the group led by renowned lawyer, Akoto Ampaw has not read the entire bill.
According to him, lawyer Akoto Ampaw has only read a portion of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill to argue his dislike for the bill, making him react emotionally and neglecting the import of the whole legislation in the greater national interest.
“Akoto Ampaw and co have not read our bill and so they are reacting emotionally. He knows that as a senior lawyer when you make a law you read the law as a whole to know the import of the whole legislation is in the greater national interest; you don’t quote a portion of it and deal with it. Akoto Ampaw is throwing away our greater national interest,” he indicated.
Speaking on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ Morning Show, Mr Dafeamekpor noted that the import of the legislation is that even though they cannot stop homosexuality completely, the law will check the spread as there is a provision in the bill that ensures that there are processes for those who are already in homosexual activities to be rehabilitated and cured.
“We know we cannot stop it completely but we have to check the spread and that is why we are saying in the bill that those who are already in it, there are processes for you to be rehabilitated and be cured,” he noted.
“If we entertain certain things in this country, things will get out of hands. Homosexuality destroys family lineage and there will be no next generation because it is against procreation,” he mentioned.
He chided that the activities of the homosexuals are disgustingly infringing on human rights as they normally adopt innocent children from the department of social welfare and they end up turning the children into lesbians and gays against their wish as the children will grow up in the home of two men who are acting as husband and wife.
“The most disgusting aspect of homosexuality is that when they settle down, they send applications to social welfare that they want to adopt innocent children to live with two men or women who are living as husband and wife, and so the children will grow to accept it as the way of life or as a gay or a lesbian. These are the same people who are talking about human rights; you are introducing our children into this against fundamental human rights,” he fumed.
To the South Dayi lawmaker, those who are engaging in homosexuality are sick to detest a man and a woman relationship and yet one of their partners have to act as a man and a woman in the relationship.
“The most annoying aspect is that they want to adopt children but they don’t want to give birth to children . . . You don’t want a woman but why do you want to be the woman? So it is a sickness,” he fumed.
Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has slammed Ghanaians who are against homosexuals on the basis that they cannot procreate.
There is currently a debate on whether or not a bill to outlaw Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) acts should be passed into law as some scholars, lawyers and Professors have vehemently kicked against the anti-homosexual bill arguing it violates fundamental human rights enshrined in the 1992 constitution.
Those in favour of the bill also argue that it will help avert decadence in the Ghanaian society.
During Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo” on Friday, October 8, 2021, the former Head of Monitoring at the Forestry Commission, Charles Owusu, who is also for the bill, proposed that the bill should include punishment for gays and lesbians who adopt babies.
Speaking on the same platform, Mr. Pratt expressed disappointment in Charles Owusu and critics who want LGBTQ+ criminalized because their activities are a breach of procreation.
He questioned if all straight and ‘perfect’ relationships end up in childbearing for any person to say homosexuals should be imprisoned or punished because they don’t give birth.
He asked if one doesn’t bring forth child, ”does it make it illegal?”
“Does it make it a crime? It cannot! Sexual relationship should not always produce children. That’s a fact!! . . . The issue of sexual relationship must necessarily produce children should not arise in this discussion and it cannot be used as a justification for any bill,” he snapped.
A former gay, Aaron Adjetey Akrong, has cautioned Parliament to not legalize Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) activities in Ghana, as doing so would mean passing a death sentence on persons involved in the act.
The repented gay, now a pastor, said being an LGBTQI+ member or gay, in his case, comes with so many serious negative implications on one’s physical, psychological and emotional health which makes life uncomfortable for them.
He made these pleas at press conference organized by Advocates for Christ – Ghana (A4CG), an interdenominational civil society group, on Friday in Accra where he also revealed that about 90% of LGBTQI+ members are HIV positive.
Board Chair for A4CG, Edem Senanu displaying a copy of the memo to journalists.
Presser
Addressing journalists at the Ghana International Press Center (GIPC), Board Chair for A4CG, Edem Senanu presented what they called “The Medical, Genetic & Psychological Memo on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.”
The conference, held under the theme: “The Devastating Medical, Genetic & Psychological Impact of LGBTQIA+ Practices”, aimed at sharing exclusive insights on the LGBTQIA+ phenomenon while educating the public on the negative impacts LGBTQIA+ activities on the nation.
It also sought to advocate for and promote the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 which is before Parliament awaiting discussions on the floor.
Scientific Facts Mr. Senanu iterated that contrary to claims by LGBTQI+ advocates, there are no scientific or genetic basis for same sex activities especially as sex is binary and scientifically assigned at birth, saying “sex is not determined by how people feel or think, later in life”.
He disclosed that a 2019 study of 500 million people across the globe indicated that there is no evidence that there are gay genes or a unique brain structure or some functions that primarily influence one’s sexuality.
“No one is born gay as the LGBTQI community would have us believe. It is a choice an individual makes and there is therefore no basis to claim unique gay or sexual orientation rights”, he said.
He indicated that the over 46 terms that describe sexual lifestyles or orientations in a number of countries at the moment, are ideologies or concepts people have come up with and they lack any scientific basis.
These, he added, are not known to nor recognized by most societies globally, such that they should be demanded or accorded the status of fundamental or inalienable ‘human rights’.
Mr. Senanu noted that there is a wide gamut of scientifically documented serious negative medical complications that arise from the alternate sexual lifestyles that members of the LGBTTQI+ community (other than that between a man and a woman) want to practice and promote.
These include being 44 times more likely to get HIV/AIDs, having faecal incontinence, engaging in substance abuse, hepatitis, HPV, syphilis, certain cancers, alcohol and tobacco abuse, worsening overall health conditions for individuals who have undergone transgender surgeries, as well as a considerably reduced life expectancy.
“These alternate sexual lifestyles have devastating implications on not just health and health care systems, but also on national economies including greatly overburdening health care professionals and health care systems.
Consequently, Advocates for Christ, Ghana encourages Ghanaians and Parliament to support this bill and pay attention to the direct and indirect consequences of opposing this Bill and its provisions, and especially how it would ultimately harm the vulnerable, including individuals who associate with the LGBTTQI+ spectrum
Officials of the Ministry of Health, GHS and the US Embassy
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has taken delivery of 1.3 million doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine donated by the United States (US) government.
The consignment, which brings to a total of 2.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine donated by the US government, was received by the Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah at the Kotoka International Airport, in Accra.
The vaccine was delivered through the COVAX facility with logistical support from UNICEF.
The donation forms part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s global efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
US Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sullivan, speaking at a brief handing over ceremony said vaccines are critical to defeating the pandemic.
“The 2.5 million vaccine doses donated to date by the United States will help protect Ghanaians from serious illness while we work together to stop the spread of Covid-19,” she said.
Ambassador Sullivan assured that the vaccine doses are safe and effective as the same vaccines used in the US.
“The specialized syringes required for the Pfizer vaccine have already arrived in Ghana.
The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service will oversee vaccine distribution nationwide,” she added.
Madam Tina Mensah, receiving the donation said the US government has provided immense support to the country since the pandemic including the oxygen plant donated by the US government to the Ghana Infectious Disease Center and the negative pressure isolation system at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital also known as Ridge Hospital.
“This support came at a critical time when the national Covid-19 program is ongoing ” she added.
The deputy minister said the Covid-19 vaccination exercise is progressing steadily countrywide due to the support of friends like the US government.
Since March 2020, the US government, including elements of the Department of State,Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Agency for International Development（USAID) has provided more than $30 million to support Ghana’s COVID-19 response.
These funds have provided personal protective equipment and training for medical professionals, medical equipment and testing supplies, vaccine distribution planning and support, economic assistance for impacted communities, three new regional Public Health Emergency Operations Centers in Ghana, as well as educational support for Ghanaian students during the pandemic.
U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sullivan was joined by Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Health,Honorable Tina Mensah,Chief Director of the Ministry of Health,Mr.Kwabena Boadu Oklu-Afari,Director of Public Health,Ghana Health Service,Dr.Asiedu Bekoe,Program Director, Expanded Program of Immunization,Ghana Health Service,Dr.Amponsah Achianu,Chief of Protocol,Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ambassador Emmanuel Antwi,and the UNICEF Country Representative to Ghan Ms.Anne-Claire Dufay
The regional tours of President Akufo-Addo have seen him commissioning at least six factories, mostly from scratch, as part of the effort to bring back industrialisation of the country.
The NPP administration of which he leads has set up the One District One Factory (1D1F) Secretariat to serve as a vehicle for the industrialisation effort targeted at unemployment and accelerated economic growth.××
And since the beginning of September, President Akufo-Addo has commissioned about six of the factories in five regions.
Rubber Factory
On September 3, 2021, the President commissioned a $2.1 million rubber processing plant at Wassa Dompim in the Wassa East District of the Western Region.
The company called Narubiz Rubber Factory, which is a 100% Ghanaian ownership and operating under the 1D1F initiative, has the capacity to process 20 tonnes of rubber per day for export to countries such as Turkey, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
It is expected that a total of 6,240 tonnes of processed rubber per year will be exported which will generate some $9.6 million of foreign exchange for the country.
President Akufo-Addo said GCB Bank had provided a $1.38 million loan facility to the company and was also enjoying import duty exemptions on plant, equipment, and machinery from government which among other incentives, have been designed to boost the competitiveness of the companies operating under the 1D1F programme supervised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Phase 3 KEDA Ceramics Factory
In Shama in the Western Region, the President commissioned the phase 3 of the KEDA Ceramics Factory, which construction started in September 2019 and completed in June 2021.
The factory has generated some 2,000 direct and 5,000 indirect employment opportunities.
The company has invested some $150 million in all three phases, resulting in an increased production capacity of 150,000 square metres of tiles per day.
Currently, it exports 60% of tiles produced to the West African market.
Rice Factory
On September 5, the President again commissioned a GH¢6.7 million rice processing factory at Sefwi Akontombra as part of his tour of the Western-North Region.
The rice factory is a state-of-the-art facility with the capacity to produce between 1.5 and 2.8 tonnes of processed rice per hour.
The processing plants at the factory include modern parboiling, milling and packaging plants.
The firm also has a standby generator plant and a mechanised borehole to supply water to the facility, besides a fully furnished office accommodation for staff, a conference room, laboratory and a canteen/kitchen.
The factory, which was constructed under the One District One Factory Common User Facility (CUF), is an agro-based factory established by the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP) under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
It has 118 people working there, including management professionals, factory floor workers and plantation workers on a nucleus rice farm.
In addition, over 600 farmers from Sefwi Akontombra District and neighbouring communities will be directly engaged to supply paddy rice for processing.
With funding from the African Development Bank, the REP has established five of these CUFs nationwide.
The 1D1F CUF factories are located in Savelugu (rice processing); Nkran Nkwanta in the Dormaa West District of the Bono Region (rice processing); Akontombra in the Sefwi Akontombra District of the Western North Region (rice processing); Dompim in the Tarkwa Nsueam Municipality of the Western Region (oil palm processing); and in Nsuta in the Sekyere Central District of the Ashanti Region (maize processing).
The Sefwi Akontombra CUF is expected to be owned by farmer-based organisations and other value chain actors within the selected commodities.
Cassava Factory
President Akufo-Addo on September 9, 2021 also commissioned CH Global Limited, a cassava and yam processing factory at Addo Nkwanta in the Krachi East District of the Oti Region.
With GH¢10 million support from Ghana EXIM Bank, the facility is expected to process yam into frozen chips and yam balls under the brand name CH Foods, and will take advantage of available local raw materials in the catchment areas.
The first phase of the project is estimated to process an average of 120 tubers of yam per hour, which will result in 60 bags of processed frozen yam chips and yam balls, and will require an annual production of 216,000 tubers of yam.
The implementation of phase two of the project is scheduled to start in 2022 and will introduce a cassava processing line for the production of cassava fries and snacks, with a capacity to process 700 metric tonnes of cassava per year.
The promoters told President Akufo-Addo 254 people would be employed by the factory under phase one, whilst the phase two will also create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs for the youth in and around the district.
UN Engagement
The President took a break in mid-September and travelled to New York, United States to attend the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76) which opened on Tuesday, September 14.
Darko Farms
Back from the United States, the President moved to the Ashanti Region on October 2 where he visited the premises of Darko Farms, the oldest private and largest poultry farm in Ghana.
The operations of Darko Farms have been revamped by government’s 1D1F initiative after the firm’s production went down due to major challenges in the domestic poultry industry in the late 1990s.
As part of government’s Industrial Transformation Agenda, Darko Farms Company was identified as one of the distressed but potentially viable companies and in 2017, applied to be part of the flagship 1D1F programme.
The Ghana EXIM Bank loaned the company GH¢22.1 million. Darko Farms is back on its wheels, processing 10,000 birds per day with one shift, and 20,000 birds per day with two shifts.
It has a hatchery with capacity to produce 6 million day-old chicks a year, breeder farms with a bird population of about 30,000 per batch, a layer farm with capacity of 100,000 per batch, and commercial broiler farms with capacity of 350,000 birds per cycle of eight weeks.
It also has a feed mill with an installed capacity of 96 metric tonnes of feed per day, and a storage cold room of 500 metric tonnes.
The President was told that Darko Farms had created direct jobs for some 250 workers, and indirectly engaged over 500 people, including out-growers, distributors, and transporters.
At full operation, the company will directly employ more than 400 workers and 700 indirect jobs.
Garment Factory
On October 5, President Akufo-Addo commissioned Maa Grace Company Ltd, a garment manufacturing company in Koforidua in the New Juabeng North Municipality of the Eastern Region, under the 1D1F initiative.
The company specialises in the production of utility clothing, uniforms for security forces, hospital scrubs, uniforms for hotels, uniforms for schools and production of standardised uniforms.
Equipped with 600 industrial machines, and with the support from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ghana EXIM Bank, the company was able to export 20,000 and 80,000 units per month, in 2019 and 2020 respectively, of hospital scrubs and uniforms for chefs to the United States.
The company commenced operations in 2003 under the government of former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
However, its operations went down upon the exit of the Kufuor-led Government. In 2017, it applied to be placed under the 1D1F programme and was resuscitated.
Maa Grace Limited was one of the leading garment companies that produced over 2 million face masks, 18,000 hospital gowns and head covers, as well as 12,000 medical scrubs within a short time, a classic example of government’s import substitution strategy, which is one of the strategic objectives of the 1D1F initiative.
Shoe Factory
On October 6, the President commissioned Shoe Fabriek Limited, a GH¢6.2 million shoe manufacturing company operating under the 1D1F at Akropong in the Akuapem North District of the Eastern Region.
The state-of-the-art factory is fitted with the requisite infrastructure and equipment capable of producing 800 pairs of high-quality shoes, including security boots, school shoes and casual shoes for men, women, and children, per day.
Shoe Fabriek has, so far, created 144 jobs in the district.
1D1F Overview
As at September, 278 projects were at various stages of implementation under the 1D1F initiative.
Out of this number, 104 are currently in operation, 150 are under construction and 24 are at the mobilisation stage.
One hundred and sixty-five (165) out of the 278 are new projects, representing 60%, whilst 113 companies are existing projects being supported, representing 40%.
Subtle Jab
The President, commissioning the Akropong factory said, “My critics are being shamed one after the other. They said we won’t be able to deliver the One District One Factory promise but now everywhere I visit, I see some of the factories working.”
He added, “When I said I was bringing the Free Senior High School policy, they rejected it outrightly, saying it wasn’t possible, but it has come to stay.”
Police say his body was found in a pool of blood with gunshot wounds on his head.
A 30-year-old taxi driver, Kwame Osei Banaman, has been shot and killed with his 2021 registered Toyota Vitz taxi robbed at Greda Estate in Accra.
Police say his body was found in a pool of blood with gunshot wounds on his head.
The Teshie District Police Commander, DSP Ransford Nsiah spoke to Accra-based Citi FM about the incident.
“We saw him lying in a pool of blood. So while we were trying to organize ourselves to convey the body to the mortuary, one man who claimed to be the owner of the taxi car which the victim was using came to tell us that he knows the victim and that he gave him the car to operate on a work and pay basis.”
“He then proceeded to give the car number, the car type, and the colour of the car to us. However, upon inspection of the body, we found gunshot wounds on him.”
DSP Ransford Nsiah called on the public to assist police investigations with relevant information to nab the perpetrators.
“We have information that the perpetrators have removed the car number plate and have embossed another number, but we don’t have the actual number now to confirm it.”
Just yesterday, Thursday, October 7, 2021, a 35-year-old worker of G4 Security was found dead at the premises of the Atonsu-Agogo branch of the Adansi Rural Bank Limited in the Ashanti Region.
The lifeless body of Alex Opoku was bundled with his mouth sealed.
The Bank’s Automated-Teller Machine (ATM) was tampered with, and the monitor of the CCTV camera and a laptop were also taken away after the suspects broke into the facility.
Officers from the Ashanti Regional Police Crime scene were at the scene to commence investigations.
Soldiers in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Wednesday manhandled Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu, for wearing an outfit with Biafra inscriptions.
In the viral video, 65-year-old Agu is seen around Upper Iweka Bridge donning the Biafra outfit and walking near a green bus when two armed soldiers wrestle him to the ground and drag him.
It was gathered that the actor was in Onitsha on a charity mission where he regularly gifts the less privileged with food items when he was arrested by soldiers.
“He was sharing food with some less privileged persons at Upper Iweka when the soldiers approached him and arrested him. He was manhandled and arrested and taken to their barracks,” a source said.
Agu, who is a supporter of the Biafra cause, had, in several videos, criticised the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for marginalising Igbo.
Nigerian security forces have, in recent times, banned people from donning Biafra outfits, even as the South-East continues to face security challenges.
On Wednesday, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, threatened that the Federal Government would not hesitate to declare a state of emergency in Anambra if state of security does not improve.
Anambra holds its governorship election next month.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of the actor.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ikenga Tochukwu, confirmed the incident, noting, “The command is aware of his arrest at Upper Iweka in Onitsha. But we don’t have details of why he was arrested
•Sammy Gyamfi want the president and his vice to address Ghanaians on the issue of same-sex relations
•He is disappointed that Dr Bawumia has made no comment on the issue
•He is confident Parliament will pass the bill
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu have been charged to break their silence on the ongoing discussion about the passage or otherwise of the ‘The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill of 2021″.
According to Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, the president and his vice cannot maintain silence on the issue which has caught attention within and outside the country.
He stated on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana that it comes as a shock to him that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has adopted a deafening silence on issues of the LGBTQ+ community in the country.
Sammy Gyamfi said with the legal representative of President Akufo-Addo leading a coalition against the bill, it has become imperative that the president addresses the issue.
He expressed disappointment in Akoto Ampaw who he claims he revered so much as a senior in the law profession.
“My only disappointment is the lawyer of President Akufo-Addo organizing some persons to oppose this bill. The people of this country deserve to know the position of our president on this bill. More importantly, they deserve to know the position of his heir apparent who is a Muslim. I’m sad that till date the two leaders have not commented on this bill. President Mahama has commented. President Mills also commented,” he said.
Sammy Gyamfi said that like many Ghanaians, he detests the sexual preferences of gays and lesbians but has nothing personal against them.
He is hopeful that the law will be passed expeditiously to deal with all related matters and bring finality to the issues.
“I don’t hate LGBTQI people. As humans, I love them but I’m against the promotion of LGBTQ rights in the country. I support and care for them but it is their sexual preferences that threaten the health, values and laws of our society.
“I have nothing personal against LBTQ and I cannot stand it. I know a majority of our people also cannot stand it. It is against everything we stand for as a people. My expectation is that in the end, this bill will be passed,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo’s position on same sex relations
President Akufo-Addo has since assumption of office in 2017 touched on the topic twice. In an interview with Al Jazeera in 2017, President Akufo-Addo offered what many considered to be a moderate view on homosexuality.
“I don’t believe that in Ghana so far a sufficiently strong coalition has emerged which is having that impact of public opinion that will say, change it; let’s then have a new paradigm in Ghana.”
“At the moment, I don’t feel and I don’t see that in Ghana there is that strong current of opinion that is saying that this is something that we need even deal with. It is not so far a matter which is on the agenda.”
In February this year, President Akufo-Addo gave what was more like a definite position on the issue, declaring that same-sex relations will not be legalized under his reign.
“I have said this before, let me in conclusion stress again, that it will not be under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that same-sex marriage will be legal, that same-sex marriage will be legalized in Ghana, it will never happen in my time as President.”
“Let me repeat, it will never happen in my time as President,” President Akufo-Addo stressed
Former President John Dramani Mahama is excited about the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) approval of the first malaria vaccine after years of trial in Ghana and two other African countries.
Mr. Mahama attributed the progress made to his administration’s decision to allow the trial to be done in Ghana.
“It is heartwarming to learn of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) approval of a malaria vaccine after years of trial. It is refreshing and promising to learn that our expression of interest in 2016 to the WHO and active participation in the Malaria vaccine pilot programme has led to the approval of the vaccine to be deployed in Sub-Saharan Africa and other malaria-endemic regions.”
“I am elated at the prospect of vaccinating millions of African children who will be saved from avoidable deaths as a result of this scientific and Public Health breakthrough,” he posted on Facebook.
He thanked Dr. Vasee Moorthy and his team at the World Health Organisation who responded: “favourably to Ghana’s expression of interest in the malaria vaccine programme in 2016.”
“Congratulations to the WHO, Ghana’s Technical Working Group and the governments and people of Malawi and Kenya who joined us in the successful pilot immunisation programme. As Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO, said, this is, ‘a historic moment’,” he added.
The World Health Organization is recommending widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission.
The recommendation is based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019.
The WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said “this is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control”.
“Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”
Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria annually.
In recent years, WHO and its partners have been reporting a stagnation in progress against the disease.
Menzgold Ghana Company Limited plans to start paying locked up cash of its customers from December 20, 2021.
These payments will run till June 30, 2020, according to a statement from Menzgold.
The statement also said the company was almost done with an audit that revealed some questionable claims from customers.
“We note that a great number (about 45%) of claimants/transactions supporting documents are either incomplete, fraudulent,” the statement noted adding that some of the claims had “dates that reflect periods when our Company was not in operations and so on”.
Menzgold also claims some customers transacted through “unethical Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult staff members and in other instances via referrals, mostly close relations, who took delivery of their funds under the pretext of signing them unto the Menzgold “Gold Vault Market” but ended up engaging in the many cryptocurrency products on sale on the Ghanaian market instead”.
Ahead of the final phase of the audit, traders and claimants will be interviewed to fully ascertain facts, scrutinise discrepancies and irregularities.
The company said invitations would be extended to some individuals between October 3, 2021, December 6, 2021, for interactions “in a bid to justify discrepancies or irregularities.”
Following this, it plans to petition the Criminal Investigations Department for further investigations and possible prosecutions.
In the meantime, it said, “strategic significant payments have already been made to some deserving Gold Vault Market traders/Clients in camera.”
Menzgold also plans to publish the list of persons eligible.
Responding to this on Eyewitness News, Fred Forson, the spokesperson of Aggrieved Menzgold Customers, said they have petitioned Parliament over the matter and urged the company to present its findings to the lawmaking body as a show of good faith.
“Menzgold should stop dancing and hand over all this work it is doing to Parliament,” he said.
Mr. Forson also urged the state to take an interest in this development and the claims.
“In fact, the state should take over all these things that he [Nana Appiah Mensah] claims he is doing.”
Menzgold customers have in the past bemoaned the lack of commitment on the part of the government to have their monies paid to them.
They are also unhappy about the delay in the prosecution of Menzgold’s Chief Executive Officer Nana Appiah Mensah.
The Ellembelle District Assembly at a special meeting held on Thursday, October 7, 2021 at Nkroful confirmed the President’s nominee for the position of District Chief Executive (DCE), Kwasi Bonzoh.
Out of the 52 Assembly members, 35 voted YES and 15 NO. Two of the ballot papers were rejected.
It would be recalled that about a week ago, the DCE nominee failed to secure two-thirds of the total valid votes cast by both elected and appointed assembly members.
That confirmation exercise was delayed for several hours following pockets of misunderstanding when the appointment of four of the government appointees were revoked.
On that day, the President’s nominee who is also the incumbent DCE secured 27“Yes” votes against twenty-two (22) “No” votes while three (3) of the votes were rejected.
The Electoral Commission officials who supervised that exercise explained that because the nominee had 50 per cent of the total votes cast, the nominee had the chance to come again for the assembly members to decide on him within 10 days
So yesterday, the assembly organized a special meeting during which the nominee was confirmed.
Prior to the exercise, the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah indicated that he was hopeful the nominee would secure a win in the second chance vote since he was not outrightly rejected.
Present at the special meeting were bigwigs and faithfuls of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Western Region
“All things being equal, for the next window, [since] the price of petrol on the world market has increased by about 9% and diesel has increased by about 10%,” Abass Tasunti said.
Projections from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) suggests fuel prices in the country may surge close to GH¢ 6.86 per litre at the pumps if all other factors influencing pricing do not change.
According to Abass Ibrahim Tasunti, the Head of Pricing at the NPA, the second pricing window for October puts the price of petrol at GH¢6.84 per litre while diesel will likely sell at GH¢6.86 per litre starting October 16, 2021, baring any changes on the world oil market.
These projections do not take into account the margins of oil marketing companies and that of the bulk distribution companies, which may cause the projected amounts to go higher while statutory taxes and margins remain the same.
“All things being equal, for the next window, [since] the price of petrol on the world market has increased by about 9% and diesel has increased by about 10%, so these two, holding everything constant will project that petrol will increase by about 5% and diesel also increase around the same figure which will take us to about GH¢6.84 for petrol and GH¢6.86 for diesel… This is the next window, which starts from the 16th of October,” he said on Citi TV‘s The Point of View.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has expressed fears that the movement of forex could further cause the price of fuel to increase to at least GH¢ 7 by the end of the month.
While insisting the taxes imposed by the government on petroleum prices continue to play a significant role in the rising cost of fuel in the country, he said efforts must be made by the government to address the situation to bring relief to citizens.
“We can get to GH¢ 7 by end of October. If we are doing about GH¢ 6.8 for the projection, we are just about 14 pesewas shy so by the close of the month which is the first window in November if the trend continues and the cedi comes under the kind of pressure you will normally see towards the last quarter because of the pressure from importation, I do not see how GH¢ 7 is not possible before November,” he said.
Private Legal Practitioner, Nana Obiri Boahen believes it is right for the Electoral Commission (EC) to create new constituencies after the data published by the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC).
He educated that factors to consider in the creation of new constituencies include population size and landmass, and if these conditions have been met, “then the EC is doing no one good if it doesn’t create new constituencies.”
With many changes recorded in the 2021 PHC including the Greater Accra region becoming the most populous over the Ashanti region and the increase of the country’s population to 30.8 million, the lawyer argues that “the noise being made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over rumours of the EC’s decision to create 25 new constituencies is just that, noise.”
On his accord, the NDC alone does not decide for the ever democratic Ghana and with factors for the creation of new constituencies being met, he insists the exercise should be undertaken.
“It is not fair that Bole Bamboi, Atebubu-Amantin and other constituencies which may not only have increased in population size but may also have a large landmass now still be one constituency. They need to be divided into separate constituencies. This is not a matter of NDC or NPP. Whether the Ashanti Region is getting more constituencies or not, the right thing should be done,” he submitted in an interview with Don Kwabena Prah on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed that he has picked intelligence that there is going to be the creation of 25 new constituencies following the 2021 population and housing census. This he said, the NDC will resist it.
According to him, the new constituencies according to the information they have will be about 25.
Out of the 25 new constituencies, the minority leader in parliament said their sources say 11 of the new constituencies will be from a particular region.
He, however, served the notice that the National Democratic Congress and its Legislators will resist that introduction.
Nana Obiri Boahen has however intimated that the creation of the new constituencies is not a choice of parliament but rather the Electoral Commission.
• The Majority Leader says a declaration on the yet to be considered LGBTQ+ bill is prejudicial
• The Suame MP maintains that his declaration will be interpreted as the position of the House
• A bill criminalizing LGBTQ+ activities is currently before parliament
Leader of Ghana’s Majority in Parliament, Simon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has declined to state his position on the LGBTQ+ Bill pending before the house.
When the parliament of Ghana reconvenes on October 26, 2021, one of the first things it will consider as part of its businesses is a bill that will unequivocally criminalize LGBTQ+ activities if passed.
Ahead of parliament’s anticipated discussion of the bill, the majority leader of the house, in an interview with Okay FM monitored by GhanaWeb, has declined to state his position on the bill which already has the nation divided on lines of support.
“When we talk of parliament the majority leader is the leader of the house. So if I declare a position now, it will be interpreted as the position of parliament, to either mean that the house is in support of the bill or we are against it,” he stated.
Kwame Nkrumah Tikese who is the host of the radio programme, made it known to the Member of Parliament for Suame that a declaration by him can be clarified as a personal one but the majority leader disagreed.
“Such statements could be very prejudicial,” Mr Kyei Mensah retorted.
The 38-page bill before parliament, among other things, stipulates that, people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are “liable on summary conviction, to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
The Bill targets persons who “hold out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”
The Bill also targets promoters and advocates of LGBTQ+ rights including “a person who, by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means, produces, procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes or distributes a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, or a person uses an electronic device, the Internet service, a film, or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publishes or distribute a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill” as well as a person who “promotes, supports sympathy for or a change of public opinion towards an act prohibited under the Bill.”
As part of its provisions, the Bill outlines that a flouter can be sentenced to a jail term of not less than six years or not more than ten years imprisonment.
Former legislator Elizabeth Sackey has been confirmed as the next mayor of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.
President Nana Akufo-Addo’s nominee garnered 33 ‘yes’ votes on Thursday, 7 October 2021 at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.
The former MP’s nomination was initially met with a lot of opposition from some youth in Odododiodoo, who went on the rampage on Saturday, 18 September 2021 amidst the burning of tyres and destruction of property.
However, the outgoing mayor, Mr Mohammed Adjei Sowah, condemned the disturbances and even offered his support to his successor.
Mr Sowah said in a statement: “We should recognize the President’s authority to nominate individuals of his choice to promote his agenda, and it’s our duty to support the appointees to succeed… I totally support all the President’s nominations and commit to continue to work towards the development of the country”.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) has condemned the assault of some of its members during the confirmation process of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) of Ga the Central Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region and Achiase District Assembly in the Eastern Region.
Among the persons assaulted are the Presiding Member of the Ga Central Municipal Assembly and an Assembly Member of Achiase District.
“The Association condemns in no uncertain terms the assault on such Honorable Members and any such intimidation or threats that may be directed at any Assembly Member for exercising their rights to confirming the MMDCE nominees”, a statement signed by General Secretary Kokro Amankwah said.
Read the full statement below:
STOP ASSAULTING PRESIDING AND ASSEMBLY MEMBERS WHO HAVE EXERCISED THEIR RIGHTS DURING THE CONFIRMATION OF METROPOLITAN, MUNICIPAL AND DISTRICT CHIEF EXECUTIVES (MMDCEs) – NALAG
The attention of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) has been drawn to various degrees of assault on some honourable members during the confirmation of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) of Ga Central Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region and Achiase District Assembly in the Eastern Region.
Among the assaulted persons include the Presiding Member of Ga Central Municipal Assembly and an Assembly Member of Achiase District.
The Association condemns in no uncertain terms the assault on such Honorable Members and any such intimidation or threats that may be directed at any Assembly Member for exercising their rights to confirming the MMDCE nominees.
The Local Government Act 2016, Act 936 Section 20 (1) stipulate that “There shall be a District Chief Executive for each district appointed by the President with the prior approval of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of the District Assembly present and voting at the meeting.” This enjoins Assembly Members to confirm the persons nominated by the President of the Republic of Ghana into the office of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive. This mandate is the sole decision of the Assembly Members and must not be influenced in any form or shape whether by threat, intimidation, assault or any such means that will interfere with the exercise of such right.
The Association has appealed to all Members in previous communications to as a matter of necessity confirm the MMDCE nominees to offset any such delays in implementing major decisions that may have arisen during the period which our Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) had Acting MMDCEs. However, we bemoan all forms of threats, harassments, humiliations and undue frustrations on our members and other public officers which frowns on their fundamental human rights.
Such acts are barbaric and must not be found among men of Honorable state as within our MMDAs.
We call on all authorities responsible for security and peace, particularly the police force in the country to rise to protect honourable members, and to arrest any such person who will be found culpable of threatening or assaulting public officers such as our Assembly Members. If we allow such to become the norm, it will foster division and cause a threat to our National Security.
A CALL FOR CALM
We urge all our members to remain calm and remain committed to the national development agenda for the good of the country whiles being cautious of their personal safety at all times.
We also call on our members to ensure that the whole process is not marred with any violence or unconstitutional activities which will affect the successes we have chalked under our democracy. We still encourage our members to put all differences aside and let peace prevail before, during and after the confirmation of our MMDCEs.
The man who became notorious for allegedly killing human beings and keeping the dismembered bodies in a refrigerator, has said he only eats fried rice with chicken.××
Richard Appiah, 28, sent shockwaves across the country in August, when he was caught keeping human body parts in a refrigerator in his room at Alaska, a suburb of Abesim near Sunyani in the Bono Region.
A source has told KWESI TV 24 that since coming into police custody, Appiah has only insisted on eating fried rice with chicken and will eat nothing else apart from the popular food.
He is said to be giving some information about what might have motivated him to perpetrate the heinous crimes, and reportedly told investigators that he started killing dogs before switching to the killing of human beings.
According to the police, he killed at least two boys aged between 13 and 15.
Their names were given as Louis Agyemang, believed to be a family member of the suspect, and Stephen Sarpong, 15, whose body was dismembered by the accused person.
Spiritual Alibi
Appiah told his interrogators that something urged him to kill a black dog, which he did.
He informed the police he only ate the head of the dog after killing it, and the source said “there is evidence to show that he really killed a black dog first before he turned to the people he killed.”
“That ‘something’ he is claiming influenced him to commit the heinous crimes, we do not know. The police do not dwell on spirits to do investigation.”
According to the source, one week after killing the dog, “he told the interrogators that the so-called ‘something’ urged him again to kill human beings and that was exactly what he did.”
Psychiatric Issue
The source said Appiah does not appear to be mentally sound, a claim many people do not support.
“There is evidence to show that Richard Appiah had psychological problem, saying some time ago he visited the hospital for psychiatry examination,” the source said, adding “there was evidence that he was taken to the hospital. If you like, you can check the hospital here in Sunyani to verify.”
According to the source, the police has requested for psychiatric evaluation for the suspect, and it was being done at the Psychiatry Hospital in Accra, as part of the investigation.
No Collaborators
The source refuted rumours going around in Sunyani that the suspect mentioned his collaborators during investigations as including politicians, owners of hotels and chop bar operators, both in Sunyani and Berekum.
“It is a lie. You see when the news broke it was even mentioned that Richard owed fleet of cars and mansions. Look, the storey building opposite the crime scene is for somebody who is domiciled abroad and not even in the country. Richard Appiah does not even owe a motorbike let alone cars,” the source noted.
No Cover-Up
The source further refuted allegations that because the police administration wanted to conceal evidence, they transferred the suspect to Accra.
“The police administration has procedures in dealing with crime. The IGP as the head decides to do whatever he thinks is best with investigation in any part of the country. The transfer was purely administrative decision aimed at ensuring investigations are done expeditiously.
“The IGP or the regional commanders can decide where investigations into a case can take place and that is not to hide anything from the public,” the source pointed out.
Body Parts
According to the source, the forensic investigations being carried out by pathologists indicated that all parts of the disfigured bodies were intact except their genitals which were missing.
The suspect, the source said, accepted that he put the genitals into a water closet and flushed everything.
“That was why the police had to draw water from the septic tanks at the crime scene in order to check for the information he gave out during interrogation.
Victims Burial
There appeared to be some kind of stalemate between the police and the families of the victims over the burial of the deceased.
Louis Agyeman was buried last weekend but the family of George Sarpong initially did not want to take the body in protest for the slow pace of investigations into the matter.
However, KWESI TV 24 understands that, the family has now decided to collect the body from the police and bury him over the coming weekend.
Court Process
Back in Accra, the case of Appiah was adjourned to October 25.
The case had been rescheduled for October 5, but had to be adjourned because the magistrate hearing the matter had taken her leave.
The police at the last court sitting had indicated to the court that they were awaiting results of an autopsy conducted on the mortal remains of the two children found in the room of the accused person.
Chief Inspector Lawrence Anane told the court that once they received the autopsy report, they will conclude their investigations and forward a duplicate docket to Office of the Attorney General for advice.
Gruesome Murder
Richard Appiah, believed to be an architect or surveyor and a footballer, was said to be a friend to the victims.
He was said to have initially denied knowledge of the whereabouts of Louis Agyemang, the boy who went missing, and it was a man who lives in the neighbourhood who insisted that the suspect knew the whereabouts of Louis because he had seen the suspect and the victim together on the day the victim went missing.
It was alleged that, Appiah after the dastardly act, brought out his clothing and set it on fire, probably to delete any evidence of the crime.
Discovered Intestines
The police later discovered the intestines of the victims buried on a cocoa farm.
A police statement signed by ACP Kwesi Ofori, acting Director-General, Public Affairs, of the Ghana Police Service said “the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters team investigating the Abesim murder case has yesterday, Tuesday, August 24, 2021, discovered a place where suspect Richard Appiah buried the intestines of one of the murder victims.”
The statement said further how the police also found a sharp cutlass used in the murder, as well as where the body parts were buried.
“The intestines were buried on a cocoa farm at Abesim, which the police have since exhumed for pathological analysis and forensic examination in Accra,” the statement pointed out.
“The investigation team has also worked around a septic tank and other places of concern for further examinations,” the statement said
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday appealed to the chiefs and all who matter in peace-building to help bring lasting peace to Okuapeman.
“I want peace in Okuapeman to end this chieftaincy dispute and to facilitate my developmental agenda,” he said.
He called on Otobuor Djan Kwasi, Aburihene and acting president of the Akuapem Traditional Council to ensure peace prevailed in Okuapeman.
The President cited the peaceful installation of a new Ga Mantse signalling the end of a long-standing dispute in that area as, “an example to be emulated by all including my own Okuapeman”.
President Akufo-Addo made the appeal when he paid a courtesy call on the Aburihene as part of his three-day tour of the Eastern Region.
The Akuapem Traditional Area has been hit with a chieftaincy dispute characterising the installation of a new Okuapemhene, following the death of Oseadeyo Addo Dankwa five years ago.
He said plans were advanced to upgrade the famous Aburi Botanical Gardens to improve tourism as well as create jobs for the people.
He said the Aburi-Adambrobe and the Berekusu-Accra Road would all be constructed to open up the area for economic activities.
Earlier, Otobuor Djan Kwasi, Aburihene, appealed to the President for a pineapple processing factory and upgrade of the Aburi Botanical Gardens to create employment opportunities for the youth.
President Akufo-Addo also inspected ongoing work on the upgrading of the Kom Clinic into a district hospital for Aburi
The Police have arrested five more suspects in connection with the Anlo-Affiadenyigba robbery in the Volta Region.
This brings to a total of 10 suspects.××
A press release signed by Director of Police Public Affairs Superintendent of Police, Alexander Kwaku Obeng, said “Police in the Volta Region have arrested 10 armed robbers who robbed a company and occupants of a vehicle at Anlo-Afiadenyigba.”
It said on “On 1st October, 2021, a Police-community partnership-led an operation that resulted in the initial arrest of five persons, Haruna Toboloka, 36, Akwasi Owusu , 18, Famous Normesi, 29, Lumor Eric, 32 and Korku Ahadzi, 39”.
“Police intelligence later led to the arrest of two other suspects linked to the robbery who were trying to escape to Togo, it added, giving their names as Ahadzi Anane, 26 and Ahadzi Kwame, 33.
“Further intensive Police investigations and operations resulted in the arrest of three other suspects, two of whom are staff of the company that was robbed.”
However, the names of the three suspects are being withheld for the moment because of the nature of the ongoing investigations, it noted.
“The Police would like to state that we have been recording a trend of some staff conspiring with criminals to rob their companies. We, therefore, urge business owners to thoroughly screen and monitor any potential staff before and after employment. The Police are ready to assist if required.”
We want to reassure the public that Police in the Volta Region and beyond would continue to fight any violent crime and its attendant criminals to ensure a conducive atmosphere for citizens to go about their lives and preoccupations peacefully.
It also commended the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Edward Oduro Kwarteng and his team for their enduring spirit of patriotic service
Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng has disclosed that his office will run a background check on all staff who will be employed at the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
According to him, this move is to ensure that whoever is employed there is not a security risk and will not jeopardize the work done in that office.
He believes that this is one of the ways that will help the office to effectively function and undertake its mandate.
Kissi Agyebeng indicated that apart from married men and women, other employees who intend to get married will have to disclose to the office who they intend to marry in order for their would-be spouse to be vetted.
“If you are at the interview to work for the Special Prosecutor’s office and you have someone you intend to marry, you should make that known to us so that we can vet the individual. If we vet that fiance and realize he/she is a security risk, we will advise you that you have one of two choices to leave the finance and work but if you still want to marry, you should go and marry.null
While, you are an employee and want to marry, you should inform me about the marriage that you want to marry so that I will vet the person. I will advise you after the vetting on whether or not you can marry the person. If you can’t abide and insist on getting married to the person then we will have no choice but to sack you,” he said on Accra-based Peace FM in an interview.
Kissi Agyebeng took over from Martin Amidu who stepped down as the Special Prosecutor over interference in his work by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessment on the controversial Agyapa Royalties Transaction.
Kissi Agyebeng is expected to get the Special Prosecutor office to function and help make corruption expensive in Ghana.
The Special Prosecutor has served notice that he is waiting for Board approval to recruit 250 people
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has indicated that the Aburi Gardens will soon be redeveloped, as part of Government’s plan to boost the country’s tourism potential.
President Akufo-Addo made this known on Wednesday, 6th October 2021, when he paid a courtesy call on Nana Otuobour Djan Kwasi II, the Chief of Aburi, at the commencement of day 2 of his 3-day tour of the Eastern Region.××
The President revealed that he has already held discussions with the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Hon. Ibrahim Awal Mohammed, about the redevelopment of the Aburi Gardens, which has resulted in the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, including the project in the yet-to-be-read 2022 budget.
“Aburi Botanical Gardens is of great important to me. Indeed, the history of the Gardens is known to us all. It is important to the country, and we will protect its heritage for future generations. Nana, you made mention of Kew Gardens. The time has come for the world to also know about the potential of Aburi Gardens.”
Nana Otuobour Djankwasi II, Chief of Aburi, who is also the acting President of the Akuapim Traditional Council, expressed his appreciation to the President for the massive infrastructural development that has taken place in Aburi, since the assumption of office of President Akufo-Addo in 2017.
He highlighted the asphalting and redevelopment of the Akuapem inner roads, the new hospital in Aburi, and several other government projects, as examples of some of the projects undertaken by President Akufo-Addo’s Government, which have been extremely beneficial to residents of Aburi.
Aburi Hospital
President Akufo-Addo also inspected ongoing work on the KOM Presbyterian Clinic, which is part of a €40 million contract award to Messrs Contracta Construzion Italia S.R.L. for the retooling and equipping of four selected health facilities in the Eastern Region.
This project, which officially commenced in October 2019, also involves work on the Atibie Hospital in Kwahu, Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, and the Kibi Government Hospital.
With the project nearly ninety percent (90%) complete, it is expected to be completed on 29th November 2021.
The scope of work being undertaken by the contractors include works on main administration block, Accident and Emergency, OPD, theatre centre, CSSD, male ward, female ward, laboratory, x-ray unit, pharmacy, family counselling unit, eye clinic, and mortuary.
It will also have a health education area, laboratory, paediatric ward, antenatal dedicated waiting area, kitchen and a medical gas system
Two students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and another person, have died from an explosion at the Juaben Oil Mills in the Ashanti Region.
The students were doing their industrial attachment with the company.
The accident happened on Tuesday, 5 October 2021.
Four of the survivors have been sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for medical care due to the gravity of their injuries.
The bodies of the deceased have also been deposited at the morgue of the same hospital.
Some Christian clerics led by the Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, have asked President Akufo-Addo to ensure that all avenues for LGBTQI+ sexuality are shut in Ghana.
They made the appeal when they, comprising the Methodist Church, Apostolic Church, and Christian Council, presented a memorandum to the constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs committee in support of the anti-LGBTQI+ Bill before parliament.
The 36-page bill, which is yet to be considered by parliament, seeks to unequivocally criminalise LGBTQI+ activities.
Among other things, it says people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
It covers any person who “holds out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”
The legislators promoting the bill submitted a copy of the draft to the Speaker of parliament on 29 June 2021.
The bill is not only targeting persons of LGBTQI+ orientation but also promoters of such spectrum of sexuality.
For instance, it proposes that: “A person who, by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means, produces, procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes or distributes a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, or a person uses an electronic device, the Internet service, a film, or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publishes or distribute a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten years.”
Additionally, it suggests that persons who engage in any activity that “promotes, supports sympathy for or a change of public opinion towards an act prohibited under the Bill” be held liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years or not more than ten years.
It also wants all LGBTQ+ groups, societies, associations, clubs, and organisations disbanded.
Flouters of this section could face up to not less than six years or not more than ten years imprisonment.
However, a group of academicians and other professionals, who also presented a memorandum to the committee expressing their opposition to the passage of the bill, have raised serious concerns about the document.
According to the group of 18, the bill, Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, when passed into law, would erode a raft of fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
Members of the group opposing the anti-gay bill include Mr Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Prof. Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh; a communications and media expert, Prof. Kwame Karikari; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo.
The Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Professor Dzodzi Tsikata; the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, and a former Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, Prof. Kofi Gyimah-Boadi, are also members of the group.
Others are Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, Dr Yao Graham, Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Dr Kojo Asante, Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, Mr Akunu Dake, Mr Tetteh Hormeku-Ajie, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Dr Joseph Asunka and Nana Ama Agyemang Asante.
In their view, railroading it through would mean challenging Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
The 18-page memorandum noted that “the proposers of this far-reaching claim have not provided any data or evidence to suggest that there is such a threat, beyond a resort to some dogmatic religious tenets and so-called Ghanaian family values.”
The opposers said: “Christ’s message was/is that we should love our neighbour and not be judgmental and promote the hate and bigotry that many self-styled Christians exhibit and seek to impose on Ghanaian society.”
They argued per Article 18 of the Constitution that Ghana is a secular democracy and “not a theocratic Christian or Islamic Republic or an African traditional monarchy or chiefdom.” “In other words, while it allows Christian, Islamic, African traditional and other religious beliefs and practices to exist in harmony with one another as fundamental rights, our Constitution rightfully forbids the imposition of a religious dogma, whether Christian or Islamic or traditional on Ghanaians.”
They cautioned the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs against creating a “society where the state, through legislation, imposes one view of ‘proper human sexual rights’.”
The Sandema District Police Command in the Upper East Region Police has arrested suspect Agriwen Owen at Azim-zim on Sandema-Chuchuluga road with a pump-action gun, seven (7) AAA live cartridges, and one empty AAA empty cartridge, a Jackknife, one (1) handcuff, and a Talisman.
Police Night Patrol team in Sandema during their duty tour on Monday, October 5, 2021 spotted the suspect in charge of a motorbike at about 2:30am and signaled him to stop but he failed to comply with Police warning.
He was, however, arrested after a hot chase and a search conducted on him revealed the above concealed in a big bag he was holding.
A Police statement said further search in his room in the presence of his niece revealed ash Police Torchlight, one empty cartridge, a police reflector and a piece of Police material with the inscription Ghana.
On that same day, a victim of attempted robbery, name withheld, came to the Sandema Police station about 2:50am and reported that the said suspect attacked him in his house at about 2:00am with a pump-action gun in an attempt to rob him.
Information available to Police indicates that the suspect, Agriwen Owen, a chief of Balansa was dismissed from the Ghana Armed Forces for misconduct and was recruited by NADMO but was again dismissed for alleged misconduct.
The Police in the Upper East Region assure the public of a robust police posture to deal with all criminal activities especially violent crimes including robbery, murder and cross-border crimes in the region
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, 5th October 2021, opened MaaGrace Company Ltd, a garment manufacturing company operating under the government’s 1-District-1-Factory initiative.
The companyspecialisesin the production of utility clothing, uniforms for security forces, hospital scrubs, uniforms for hotels, uniforms for schools and the production ofstandardiseduniforms.
Equipped with 600 industrial machines, and with the support from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ghana EXIM Bank, the company was able to export 20,000 and 80,000 units per month, in 2019 and 2020 respectively, of hospital scrubs and uniforms for chefs to the United States.
The company commenced operations in 2003 under the Government of former President John Agyekum Kufuor. However, its operations went down upon the exit of the Kufuor-led Government. In 2017, the company applied for support under the 1-District-1-Factory initiative and has since seen its operations resuscitated.
President Akufo-Addo commended the management of the company, and, indeed, other garments and textiles factories in the country, for the support extended to the Government in the fight against the COVID-19, by domestically manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPEs) for use by frontline health workers and other professional.
MaaGraceLimited was one of the leading garment companies that produced over 2 million face masks, 18,000 hospital gowns and headcovers, as well as 12,000 medical scrubs within a short period of time, a classic example of the government’s import substitution strategy, which is one of the strategic objectives of the 1D1F Initiative.
The promoter of the business, Mrs Comfort Owusu-Agyemang, told the President of the significant employment opportunities created by the company, which underscores the strategic intervention the 1D1Fprogrammeis playing in fixing the challenges that confront Ghanaians, particularly youth unemployment.
She indicated that some six hundred (600) youths from across the NewJuabengNorth Municipality and its environs have secured employment in their locality, which prevents rural-urban migration, another strategic objective of the 1D1F initiative.
With the support of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana EXIM Bank, and Ethical Apparel Africa, the number of persons to be employed is expected to increase significantly.
1D1F Rationale
The establishment of the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative is in fulfilment of a campaign promise by the NPP, under the leadership of the President, to support the private sector to establish at least one industrial enterprise in each of the administrative districts of the country.
The concept of the One District One Factory (1D1F), among other initiatives of the Government, is designed to transform the industrial landscape of the country, and build the capacities of local enterprises to produce high-quality products and services for both domestic and foreign markets.
New Juaben North District Assembly Block
President Akufo-Addo also commissioned the newly constructed Administration Block of the New Juaben North Municipal Assembly. The building has been constructed to ensure the effective administration of the assembly.
It will be recalled that the New Juaben South Municipal was carved out in 2017 by a Legislative Instrument (LI) 2302
The contract was awarded toMessersKingDwoscoEnterprise Limited with a contract sum of GH¢3,442,539.45 withEcoPlanners& Engineering Consult as consultants to the project
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, 5th October 2021, inspected ongoing work on the retooling and re-equipping of the Kwahu-Atibie Hospital, and also on work on the $$77 million 47-kilometre Mpraeso-Hweehwee-Oyimso.
At the commencement of his 3-day tour of the Eastern Region, President Akufo-Addo visited the Atibie Hospital, which is part of a €40 million contract award to Messrs Contracta Construzion Italia S.R.L. for the retooling and equipping of four selected health facilities in the Eastern Region.
This project, which officially commenced in October 2019, involves work on the KOM Presbyterian Clinic at Aburi, Atibie Hospital in Kwahu, Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, and the Kibi Government Hospital.
With the project nearly 70% complete, it is expected to be completed on 24th November 2021.
The scope of work being undertaken by the contractors includes works on the OPD, OBS & Gynae Ward, Maternity, Laboratory Unit, Administration, Conference Room, Pharmacy Unit, Theatre Suites and Labour Ward, Surgical Ward, NICU, CSSD, Children Ward, Kitchen, Laundry, Water Supply, Medical Gas System, and A&E Expansion and Imaging Centre.
At Mpraeso, the President inspected work on the reconstruction of the Mpraeso-Hweehwee-Oyimso Road (47.0km), whose contract was awarded on 21st December 2020 and is expected to be completed on 17th July 2023.
The road is located in the Kwahu East and Kwahu South Districts in the Eastern Region, with residents in communities such as Mpraeso, Nkwatia, Abetifi, Abene, Hweehwee, Kwaku Safo, Yaw Tenkorang, Oboyan No. 1, Oboyan No. 2, Abotrensa, Dwerebease and Onyimso set to be beneficiaries of the project.
It is expected that, when completed, it will bring relief to both motorists and pedestrians, reduce vehicle operating cost, reduce travelling time, facilitate the movement of goods and services, as well as serve as an alternative link to the Ashanti region through Oyimso to Asante Akyem Agogo
An Accra Circuit Court has admitted Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah, General Overseer of the Glorious Word Power Ministry International, to GHC100,000 self-recognisance bail.××
Two other accomplices, Mensah Ofori and Bright Berchie, have also been admitted to GHC 100,000 with two sureties to be justified.
Rev Bempah and the two are being held on two counts of offensive conduct to the breach of the peace and two counts of threat of death.
They are accused of threatening Evangelist Patricia Oduro Koranteng, aka Agrada, with words to wit “Nana Agrada, we give you 24 hours, watch out, we will kill you.”
The three persons have denied the charges.
The Court, presided over by Mrs Afia Owusua Appiah, adjourned sitting to November 10 and ordered Rev. Bempah not to travel outside the country without the Court’s knowledge.
In a related development, Rev. Bempah and three other church members have been granted GHC100,000 bail each by another circuit court.
The court, presided over by Mrs Rosemond Baah Torsu, ordered the three to be reporting to the police once a week.
The three others; Michael Boateng, Frederick Boateng and Nathaniel Agyekum, have been charged for causing harm and damage.
Rev. Bempah has denied the charges of abetment to causing harm and unlawful damage.
Meanwhile, Gary Nimako Marfo, the Defence Counsel, said he would petition the Attorney General over the two different case dockets, claiming his clients were arrested for the same incident.
Deputy Education Minister, Rev. Ntim Fordjour, has disclosed that government is still in discussions with the leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) over their claims for salary increment.
According to him, they have met with them and that serious discussions are ongoing for them to reach a meaningful agreement over what they are demanding from government as an increment to their salaries.
The National Executive Committee of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has indicated that its members will from Friday, October 8, lay down their tools.
According to the Association, the decision was reached after the committee held its 20th Congress following discussions with the government on Monday, September 26, to discuss its wages and welfare packages.
At the said meeting, it was revealed that government could not go beyond the Cedi equivalent of $1200 payable in 2024, an amount that was rejected by the Association in a previous meeting.
UTAG, however, proposed a minimum of the Cedi equivalent of $250 per month for research allowance (plus a review of the 2024 implementation), and the implementation of the new Market premium by December 21, 2021.
Failure of which the Market Premium was to be restored to 2013 Interim Market Premium value of 114% of the basic salary and be allowed to apply on every current basic salary.
Following a lack of agreement with government, the Association has decided to resume its suspended strike after a statement by its National Executive Committee is released on October 4.
The said release will contain the modalities of the strike action.
But speaking on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ programme, the Assin South legislature explained that they are still engaged in discussions with the leadership of the association.
We have met with the leadership of the group and hope that we will finally agree on something though discussions so far have not been fruitful.
He pleaded with the leadership of the group to remain calm and give government some more time as they continue to dialogue on the matter.
On Wednesday, August 18, UTAG signed a Memorandum of Agreement with government to call off the strike and continue negotiation, but on condition that all legal suits initiated by government against them are withdrawn.
The re-registration of SIM cards with the Ghana Card started on October 1, 2021.
The Minority in Parliament is demanding the immediate withdrawal of the threat for all SIM cards not re-registered by March 2022 to be de-activated.
According to Deputy Ranking Member on the Communications Committee, Sam George, the legislation that backs SIM registration does not make the Ghana Card, the sole card for purposes of registration.
The re-registration of SIM cards with the Ghana Card started on October 1, 2021.
Addressing the press in Parliament, Sam George suggested the use of passports, Driver’s Licences, and Voters ID cards as part of identification for the registration process.
“The current legislation that backs SIM registration in Ghana is the Ll 2006 passed by Parliament in 2011. This legislation saw the registration that happened in 2012. This Legislation Instrument does not mandate the linkage of the Ghana Card to activate SIM Cards.”
“The National Identification Authority Act, 2006 (Act 707) and Ll 2111 which introduces the use of the Ghana Card as the principal document for registration of SIM Cards and Bank Accounts amongst others cannot be applied retrospectively to SIM Cards that were registered legally and legitimately under the existing LI 2006. Section 7 of LI 2111 makes the use of the Ghana Card mandatory, but does not make it the sole card for the purposes of registration.”
Meanwhile, amidst complaints and questions over why passports and other ID cards are not being allowed for identification in the SIM re-registration exercise, Professor Attafuah said passports lack the credibility of Ghana Cards.
“A passport is a primary document for establishing your citizenship and eligibility to travel across borders, but…there is a limit,” he said in an interview.
Prof. Attafuah also noted that the Ghana Card registration process provided evidence of why passports could not fully be trusted.
“During the mass registration, there were people who went to registration centres with Ghana passports but were denied the right to register, because, upon interrogation, it was found that they were not Ghanaians.”
“It can be found to be procured through improper means, and you cannot rely on it,” the NIA boss added.
Prof. Attefuah also added that over 15 million Ghanaians have so far been registered for their Ghana Card representing 84.3% of the population aged 15 and above.
“At the end of the day, we have actually registered 84.3% of the population aged 15 and above. So in that sense, we have exceeded the target that was set by the governing board of NIA. It is also the case that of those who are 15 years and above, there are still some who did not register, but those who registered and do not have their card will have them soon.”
Josephine Panyin Simons, the alleged “pregnant and kidnapped” Takoradi woman has finally met the bail condition after one week of her family’s inability to fulfill the bail condition.
A Takoradi circuit court A, last Monday listened to the plea of a team of lawyers to grant the accused who pleaded not guilty bail, since the offense in question was a misdemeanor and therefore bailable.
She is alleged to have “faked” her pregnancy and subsequent kidnap, a situation that made the twin city go perplexed.
The court, presided over by Justice Michael Cudjoe Ampadu, after a long deliberation between lawyers and the Prosecutor, granted the bail in the sum of GHS50, 000 with two sureties, one to be justified.
But days passed and saw her still in custody since family members found it a herculean task to provide the bail condition until Monday afternoon when all conditions were satisfied.
She is expected to reappear in court on Thursday October 14, 2021, on the charges of deceiving public officers and making false publication about pregnancy and kidnapping.
She went missing on September 16, 2021 carrying a “pregnancy” but was only found some days after without the pregnancy which gained national attention and interest with many twist and turns emanating from the incident.
Barely three months after the inauguration of the Pokuase Interchange, some unscrupulous persons have stolen some of the newly installed galvanised crash barriers mounted at the interchange, thereby posing a threat to road users.
The stolen crash barriers, valued at $3,500 and meant to protect vehicles from falling over from a high embarkment onto the main road for vehicles coming from Kwabenya, cover a stretch of 40 metres.
The total number of crash barriers stolen is 10, each measuring four feet.
As if that is not enough, 40 streetlights on the stretch have also been damaged at the interchange.
The stolen barriers were mounted on a high embarkment or cliff to prevent vehicles using a service road from the Victoria College area at Pokuase from falling over from a height of about three metres onto the road from Kwabenya towards the main interchange.
Ghanaians in some parts of the national capital will endure intermittent power outages from today, Tuesday, 5 October 2021, to 5 December 2021, the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has said.
The power transmitter noted in a statement that the outages have been scheduled to allow engineers to work on planned works within the Achimota-Mallam corridors for the decommissioning and replacement of existing lines with new higher-capacity conductors.
GRIDCo wrote to power distributor Electricity Company of Ghana that it has become crucial “to transfer as much load as possible to Pokuase, Achimota, Accra East and Tema in order to limit loading at Mallam and Accra Central substations.”
Some of the areas to be affected include:
Group A: Adabraka Old Timers, Mamprobi, Chorkor, Ageege, Lartebiokorshie, Valco Trust, Teachers Hall, among others.
Group B: Appolo Theatre, Asylum Down, Adabraka Market, Korle Gonno, Sukura, Mamprobi Poly Clinic, James Town, Mataheko etc.
Group C: Central Police Station, Cocobod, Kingsway, Abossey Okai, Chorkor, Appiah Danquah, Graphic Press House, SSNIT among others
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will today (Tuesday), begin a three-day tour of the Eastern Region.
This will be President Akufo-Addo’s first visit to his home Region after the 2020 elections.××
It will also be the first time the President will meet with residents of the Region after the nomination of MMDCEs.
The Eastern Regional Director of Communications of the NPP, David Prah who announced this to journalists noted that the President will inspect and commission projects and cut sod for new ones to begin.
According to him, the President will on Tuesday, storm Nkawkaw for a radio interview, thereafter move to Atibie Government Hospital to inspect a rehabilitation of the facility and some ongoing road projects.
Thereafter, he will round up the day tour in Koforidua, the regional capital where he will commission some projects.
On Wednesday, he will visit the Chiefs of Aburi and Okuapenhene respectively, and commission some projects in the Okere District.
President Akufo-Addo will on Thursday storm Adeiso, Akim-Swedru, Akim Wenchi, where he will attend some durbars in his honor after visiting the Akim-Oda burnt market.
He said the tour is to allow the president to listen to the chiefs on their concerns and assessment of his government
• President Nana Akufo-Addo says he will campaign for the next NPP flagbearer when he has the strength
• He said, he is to ensure a level playing field for all the candidates
• He said, supporting one candidate can bring disturbances in the party
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says he will only campaign for the next NPP flagbearer to become the president of Ghana if he has the strength.
According to him, supporting any of the candidates that have declared their intentions to contest for the flabearership position can cause disturbances in the party.
“My duty is to hold the balance, to make sure that there is a level playing field for all inside our party. The decision has to be the decision of the party, my thing is that whoever the party elects as the flagbearer for 2024, that person is who I will support and God willing, if I have strength campaign for the person to become President”, President Akufo-Addo said on Pure FM in Kumasi.null
Speaking on the popular ‘breaking the eight’ slogan, the President noted that, it is relevant for the NPP to stay in power to ensure sustained development.
“I always say, our situation in Ghana, if the NPP government had continued after President Kufour, maybe Ghana would have realised the desired changes but we didn’t have the opportunity to continue.
“We continued the eight-year cycle. Mills and Mahama came as far as I am concerned, we went backwards again and I have a fear that may happen again if we don’t win 2024 and that has given birth to the slogan break the eight,” Akufo-Addo explained.
Some names that have emerged as persons interested in the President’s position include Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Alan Kyerematen, Trades and Industry Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, Minister for Food and Agriculture, and Joe Ghartey.
Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah, the General Overseer of Glorious Word Power Ministry International has been slapped with fresh charges by Circuit Court 1 in Accra.
Rev Owusu-Bempah together with one Mensah Ofori and Berchie pleaded not guilty to four fresh charges to wit Offensive Conduct Conducive to the breach of peace and threat of death.
In court, on Tuesday, October 5, prosecution led by Detective Chief Inspector Dennis Terkpetey withdrew the previous charge sheet where six persons were charged.
The latest charge bothers on the threat to kill Patricia Oduro Koranteng, popularly known as Nana Agradaa.
They were granted bail by the court presided over by Afia Owusua Appiah after their lawyers led by Gary Nomako Marfo moved bail for them.
The prosecution did not oppose the grant of bail except to say the bail terms should be in such a way that will compel the accused persons to stand trial.null
While Owusu-Bempah was granted a 100, 000 self-recognizance bail, Michael Ofori, and Berchie were granted 100, 000 with two sureties to be justified.
All the accused persons are to deposit their passports to the registrar of the court and can only travel outside the country with the express permission of the court.
Aside from the bail terms, they are to report to the police once every two weeks till the final determination of the case.
EIB Network’s Correspondent Murtala Inusah reports that Owusu Bempah and the three persons discharged – Michael Boateng, Frederick Ohene, and Nathaniel Agyekum are appearing before Circuit Court 2 in respect of the injury to the police officers.
The case has been adjourned to November 10, 2021, for Case Management Conference.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says Government has taken the decision to absorb Neoplan Ghan Ltd into its flagship 1-District-1-Factory initiative, in order to help resuscitate the company, which has been on the decline for some time.
This follows a request made to the President by the Member of Parliament for Bantama, Hon. Francis Asenso Boakye, and the Managing Director of Neoplan Ghana, Mr Georges Nassar, for an intervention by Government to save the company from imminent collapse.
Neoplan (Ghana) Ltd was established in 1974 under the Kutu Acheampong Regime, as a joint-venture company between the Government of Ghana and Gottlob Auwarter GmbH to produce buses for Ghana’s public transport fleet. Indeed, the company became the first bus manufacturing plant in West Africa.
It will be recalled that on the assumption of office of the NPP Government in 2001, Neoplan Ghana was contracted to build 450 buses for the Metro Mass Transport fleet. This contract was for a period of 8 years, ending in July 2010.
Since then, the company has not been able to secure any such Government contract, and, with the inability of the company to secure orders from the private sector, its operations have been limited to bus repair and maintenance services, which have led to recurring losses
Visiting the premises of the company on Monday, 4th October 2021, on the final day of his 4-day tour of the company, the President noted that it was under the Government of John Agyekum Kufuor, in 2001, that the company’s fortunes was revived, and same will be done under his administration.
Responding to a direct request from the Managing Director of Neoplan for the Metro Mass Transit Ltd to place its orders for the provision of buses with Neoplan, President Akufo-Addo indicated that “we are going to make sure that that order is brought very soon.”
On his part, the Minister for Trade and Industry, Hon. Alan Kyerematen, stated that Neoplan has been a household name since the 70s, and, just as former President Kufuor did to ensure the revival of the company, President Akufo-Addo will do same.
He stressed that the agenda that has been pursued by President Akfo-Addo since he came into office in 2017 has been to move Ghana away from being a mere producer and exporter of raw materials to a valud-added, industrialised economy, which is the surest means of creating the necessary numbers of jobs for the masses.
Neoplan, according to the Minister for Trade and Industry, was responsible for the production and distribution of 450 buses for use by the Metro Mass Transit, some of which are still very much in use.
“The President has heard you clearly. All you want is that what Kufuor did, President Akufo-Addo should do the same for you… If Ghana has the money to import buses, which in turns creates jobs for foreigners, why don’t we use the same money to import to recapitalise Neoplan? This is what the President is going to do for you. There are good times ahead of Neoplan. Neoplan shall rise again,” Alan Kyerematen added.
Reconstruction of Anwiankwanta-Obuasi Road
President Akufo-Addo also inspected ongoing work on the construction of the 30-kilometre Anwiankwanta – Obuasi Road, which has been awarded to Messrs Joshob Construction Company Limited, at a contract price of GH¢321,999,853.71.
The project is expected to be completed within 48 calendar months, ending on 18th December, 2023, and it is being financed through the Consolidated Fund of the Government of Ghana.
The rehabilitation works involves site clearance and demolition, provision of roadside drains to effect proper drainage of road to ensure pavement longevity, sectional ground improvement with boulders, provision of asphalt concrete surfacing and provision of roadline markings and road signs to enhance safety of road users.
Currently, the progress of works stands at 82% completion, and, when completed, the road will enhance socio-economic activities in the area, and facilitate the efficient movement of people and goods to towns such as Anwiankwanta, Daa, Patasi, Kwapia, Dadwen, Obuasi and the surrounding communities.
The improved condition of the road will promote agricultural activities, trade and ensure efficient delivery of services in Bekwai Municipal and Obuasi Municipality and their contiguous districts.
“I always say, our situation in Ghana, if the NPP government had continued after President Kufour, maybe Ghana would have realized the desired changes but we didn’t have the opportunity to continue.
“We continued the eight-year cycle. When Mills and Mahama, came as far as I am concerned, we went backwards again and I have a fear that may happen again if we don’t win 2024 and that has given birth to the slogan break the eight,” he added.null
The President believes that it’s imperative that the party works harder at ensuring that the lives of the people are transformed in order that the party will continue to stay in power.
He, however, does not intend to lean towards any candidate vying to lead the NPP because that may hurt the fortunes of the party.
“My duty is to hold the balance, to make sure that there is a level playing field for all inside our party. The decision has to be the decision of the party, my thing is that whoever the party elects as the flagbearer for 2024, that person is who I will support and God willing, if I have strength to campaign for the person to become President,” he said on Pure FM in Kumasi.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday, 4 October 2021, cut the sod for the construction of a 100-bed Trauma Hospital for the Obuasi Municipality.
The construction of the Obuasi Municipal Trauma Hospital is being facilitated by a €55 million facility acquired by the Akufo-Addo government, which will also be used to remodel and construct three projects, namely Atiwa East Hospital at Anyinam, rehabilitation of the existing Obuasi Government Hospital, and re-modelling of the Enyiresi Hospital.
The €55 million facility, secured through Deutsche Bank, with an insurance premium of €5,000,000 from African Trade Insurance, President Akufo-Addo said, will have a positive impact on the lives of people in the beneficiary communities.
The Obuasi Municipal Trauma Hospital project is to be undertaken by Universal Hospital Group (UHG), a 100%-owned Ghanaian company, and will consist of an Emergency Department with a Triage; three (3) operating theatres, recovery rooms, resuscitation rooms, plaster room, a diagnostics centre to include a CT scan, X-ray, fluoroscopy, laboratory and a blood bank.
In addition, it will include an Outpatient Department, including pharmacy and consulting rooms, public health department, medical administration, 100-beds in total for in-patient wards including a trauma and orthopaedic ward, 30 beds for other interventions requiring temporary stay, staff housing and a mortuary.
The construction and opening of the new hospital, the President indicated, will be of enormous benefit to the Obuasi Municipality in terms of health services that will be provided and employment opportunities.
He was expectant that the Ghana Health Service, managers of the facility once completed, will put in measures to attract the requisite specialised health staff to come and work in the Hospital.
The President also expressed appreciation to the Chiefs of the Obuasi Traditional Council, as well as Obuasi for their outstanding commitment and support shown to his government, and was hopeful that the contractors will complete the construction of the hospital within the stipulated period of thirty (30) months.
The Chief of New Edubiase, Oguahyia Oduro Panin Birikorang, thanked President Akufo-Addo for citing the hospital in Obuasi, stating that the hospitals in Obuasi are overstretched and, once completed, the Trauma Hospital will be of immense benefit to the people of the town
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed that he got no favourite among the candidates who have expressed interest in contesting the presidential candidate slot in the upcoming presidential primaries of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The President asserted that he must hold the balance and not support any candidate.
According to the President, the decision of who becomes a presidential candidate is reserved for the elephant family and not him as an individual.
Speaking on Pure FM in Kumasi, the number one gentleman of the land promised to support anyone that the party would elect to represent them in the 2024 presidential polls.null
He assured the party that whoever gets elected, God willingly, he would help the person.
He promised to vigorously campaign for the candidate who would be elected if he got the strength to do so.
“I can’t have a favourite to break the 8 for the NPP. My duty is to hold the balance but the decision has to be that of the party and worker the party elects, that person is who I will support and God-willing, if I do have the strength, I will vigorously campaign for the elected individual,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo says over 49,000 Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCo) beneficiaries have been absorbed into the country’s public sector or have become entrepreneurs after gaining the needed experience.
Speaking on Kumasi based Ash FM as part of his tour of the Ashanti Region, he said more young graduates will be benefiting from the programme.
“49,000 have so far transitioned either to permanent employment or working for themselves. That’s nearly 50% of the beneficiaries.”
“We are looking at recruiting many more into the programme in the coming days
• Sam Nartey George says his group will prevail with the anti-LGBTQ+ bill
• He said, their argument is superior to the opposition
• Some fifteen renowned individuals have sent a memorandum to Parliament to thrash the anti-LGBTQ bill
Samuel Nartey George, MP-Ningo Prampram, has indicated that, those who are for the anti-LGBTQ+ bill outnumber those who oppose it.
According to him, their argument is superior to the opposition and they have the facts to support their position.
In a post on his Facebook timeline, Sam Nartey George, who is a lead advocate of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill wrote:
“Those with us and for us far outnumber the few whose consideration is material. We have a superior argument. The facts support our position. We shall prevail.
“The will of the majority of Ghanaians shall prevail against all machinations and schemes. Do not be dismayed with titles or self-proclaimed accolades. They would count for nothing during the debates on the floor of Parliament. That is where the business is.
“We are on course. Victory beckons.”
Some fifteen renowned individuals have sent a memorandum to Parliament to thrash the anti-LGBTQ bill before the house as it violates most of the fundamental human rights of Ghanaians.
The individuals which include legal practitioners and professors stated that aside from violating the key fundamental freedoms under the constitution, the bill also violates the dignity and inviolability of every person guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution.
“The Bill violates the right to inviolability of the person. It violates virtually all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution, namely the right to freedom of speech and expression; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief; the freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such in practice (which includes the freedom not to practice any religion); the right to assemble, including the freedom to take part in processions and demonstrations; the freedom of association and the right to organize- in essence the fundamental human rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.”
The memo further noted that: “In addition, the provisions of the Bill violates the dignity and inviolability of every person, guaranteed under Article 15; it violates the principle of equality before the law, and the right to freedom from discrimination on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social-economic status, guaranteed under Article 11, as well as the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 18 of the Constitution. In short, the provisions of the Bill are so egregious in their violation of the fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution that it beggars belief that it could be introduced as a Bill in the House of Parliament.”
The team pushing for this include Akoto Ampaw, Prof Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh, Prof Kwame KariKari, Prof Kofi Gyimah-Boadi and Prof Audrey Gadzekpo.
The others are Dr. Rose Kutin-Mensah, Dr. Yao Graham, Prof Dzodzi Tsikata, Prof H. Kwasi Prempeh, Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Dr. Kojo Asante, Akunu Dake, Tetteh Homerku-Adjei, Prof Raymond Atuguba and Kofi Ofei-Nkansah.
The Asantehene in a group picture with the management of Rocksure International
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has advised Exton Cubic Group, to bid for a part of the Nyinahin bauxite concession
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has advised Exton Cubic Group, owned by Ghanaian businessman, Ibrahim Mahama, to consider tendering for concession to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin, in the Ashanti Region.
He said he was aware that Exton Cubic Group had in the past tried unsuccessfully to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin, therefore the company should give it a try once again, now that the huge bauxite concession has been divided into three parts.
“Exton Cubic Group should tender for the remaining part of the vast bauxite concession at Nyinahin and if they are able to prove that they have the capacity to operate, then they should be given part of the concession to ensure peace,” he said.
Otumfuo also stressed the need for fairness to prevail in the allocation of concessions to companies to operate at Nyinahin, saying that any company that has the capacity to operate should not be discriminated against by the authorities.
Rocksure International’s Visit
The Asantehene was speaking when the management of Rocksure International, the firm that has been awarded part of the concession at Nyinahin to mine for Bauxite, paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.
The historic visit was among other things, intended to give the leadership of Rocksure International the opportunity to officially inform Otumfuo and Asanteman about their readiness to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin very soon.
Rocksure International’s Selection
The Asantehene said Rocksure International was selected to mine for bauxite at Nyinahin after the company had gone through the laid down procedure and beaten stiff competition from 38 other equally competent companies.
“In all, 39 companies put in tender for a concession to operate at Nyinahin and Rocksure International, which was one of the bidders, emerged tops, ” he said, adding that, “Exton Cubic did not put in a bid, and they should do so now”.
NDCs Threat against Otumfuo’s Words
Interestingly, whilst Otumfuo is clearly pushing for authorities concerned to consider giving allocation to Exton Cubic Group to also mine for bauxite at Nyinahin, the Minority in parliament seems to have a contradictory agenda.
The Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, has threatened on Citi FM that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority MPs, would kick against the government’s allocation of a bauxite concession to Rocksure International, a Ghanaian firm.Video Player
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has expressed his strong support for the existence of term limits for Presidents, because it enhances democracy and injects fresh ideas into governance.
Term limits, according to the President, promote “stability of democracies, especially the Presidential systems,” adding that, “speaking personally, I support the idea of term limits for Presidents, it prevents abuse of office and coup d’états”.
Speaking in an interview with Kumasi-based Ash FM on Saturday, 2nd October 2021, as part of his tour of the Ashanti Region, President Akufo-Addo said Ghana has been enjoying political stability since 1992 because the Ghanaian people have the opportunity, every four years, to use the ballot box to decide whether to change a government or maintain one in office.
“Using the ballot box has contributed to the stability of our country. People believe that if a leader is not doing well, they can vote against that leader in four years’ time. We don’t need a coup to change someone,” he said.
As a result of military takeovers in Guinea and Mali, President Akufo-Addo revealed that ECOWAS has started reviewing its protocols to strengthen the growth of democracy in the sub-region.
“To be honest, I am not speaking (now) as Chairman of ECOWAS, I support the idea… I feel ECOWAS protocols on good governance should outlaw the third-term mandates in any country. I feel strongly it is something that we ought to do to prevent what is happening in Guinea elsewhere,” he added
When asked why the regional bloc looked on while Alpha Conde changed the constitution to extend his term, President Akufo-Addo said, “there are varied reasons for the military intervention, but there is no justification at any stage.”
He continued, “We are opposed, in principle, to any intervention of the military to the political life of a country. The population is capable of resolving its problems through the ballot box.”
The government pumped in about GHC22 million to revamp the poultry farm which currently processes 2,000 birds per hour daily as against 500 previously
Darko Farms, the oldest private and largest poultry farm in Ghana, has received a major boost from the government through the flagship 1-District-1-Factory initiative.
The government had to pump in about GHC22 million to revamp the poultry farm which currently processes 2,000 birds per hour daily, compared to 500 birds per hour daily previously.
According to the CEO of Darko Farms, Samuel Darko, the government’s support has been of great help to the company.
“For some time now, because of economic hardships somethings went down and by the grace of God and by the help of the Ministry of Trade we applied for the 1D1F and we were approved and we got some funding.
“Out of the funding that we requested we got our capex and out of the capex we have been able to finish our processing plant where we slaughter 2000 birds an hour,” Darko said during a visit by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Saturday (2 October) in the Ashanti Region.President Akufo-Addo and other officials at Darko Farms
Through the initiative, he said, about 2500 direct and indirect jobs have been created, adding that “this injection has helped the whole community”.
The Farms will begin supply of chicken to the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) once full production begins.
“When everything is complete and we get our capital (17 million Ghana Cedis) we will be able to supply KFC what they need, about 10,000 chicken weekly.”
Importation of chicken
On his part, the Minister of Trade, Alan Kyerematen, said the support to Darko Farms will see a no-chicken-import country in the years to come.
“Ghana currently imports over GHC 350 million worth of chicken every year, we have been told that the capacity of this processing plant is about 20,000 birds a day, so you can do the calculations, if we are able to support this company to maximum production, we don’t need to import chicken into this country again,” he said.
Having been a household name for most Ghanaians, having dominated most supermarkets and distribution outlets for fresh chicken particularly in Kumasi and Accra, Darko Farms went through a period of decline, due to major challenges that confronted the domestic poultry industry in the late 1990s including high cost of feed, inefficiencies across the value chain, high electricity and operational cost, as well as competition from cheap imported poultry products.Darko Farms
As part of Government’s Industrial Transformation Agenda, being implemented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Darko Farms Company was identified as one of the distressed but potentially viable companies.
Revitalisation
As a result, the company, in 2017, applied to be part of the flagship 1-District-1-Factory initiative, and after a comprehensive review by the Technical Support Group of the Ministry, an amount of GHC22.1 million was granted as a loan facility to the company by Ghana EXIM Bank.
The amount was earmarked to revamp the company’s operations, by upgrading the plant and equipment, retooling the hatchery, feed mill and processing facility and as working capital support. The company has also applied part of this facility to establish an out-grower scheme, where a number of poultry farmers are supported with broiler chicks, feed as well as technical assistance to breed their birds.
Darko Farms currently has a processing plant operating at 10,000 birds per day with one shift, and 20,000 birds per day with two shifts. It has a hatchery with capacity to produce 6-million-day-old chicks a year, breeder farms with a bird population of about 30,000 per batch, a layer farm with capacity of 100,000 per batch, and commercial broiler farms with capacity of 350,000 birds per cycle of 8 weeks.Darko Farms
In addition, the company has a feed mill with an installed capacity of 96 metric tons of feed per day, and a storage cold room of 500 metric tons.
Thus far, the company has created direct employment opportunities for some 250 workers, and indirectly for over 500 people, including out-growers, distributors, and transporters. At full operational capacity, the company will directly employ more than 400 workers, with 700 being indirect employment.
Darko Farms is currently engaged in negotiations with the Mohinani Group to become the major local supplier of processed chicken for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant chain. KFC through its local supplier has indicated its preparedness to off-take 100,000 birds monthly from Darko Farms under YUM certified conditions
“I trust in the leadership of Bagbin, I trust that he will leave some footprint on our governance architecture as speaker of Parliament,” Iddrisu said in an interview with Accra-based Citi TV on the Point of View show.
The Tamale South MP added that he was proud to have moved ‘the motion of destiny’ on January 7, which motion led to the ‘shock’ election of Alban Bagbin as speaker of the 8th Parliament.
Bagbin had opted to leave lawmaking after twenty-eight years serving in varied capacities including as deputy speaker as well as a Majority and Minority leader along the way.
But on January 7, 2021, as the current Parliament convened to elect a speaker, his name popped up as the preferred candidate by the main opposition National Democratic Congress as against the candidature of the then outgoing speaker, Aaron Mike Oquaye, of the governing New Patriotic Party.
After a rancorous voting process which involved shouting and hurling of invectives by Members of Parliament-elect, kicking of voting booths and snatching of ballot papers, not to talk of a military invasion of the chamber, Alban Bagbin was elected speaker.
Whiles the NDC insists he won the vote outright, the NPP said he was a consensus candidate between the two sides of the house. The NPP agreed to play ball because they had a presidential inauguration to attend, which event the Minority had said they will boycott.
Former First Vice National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Stephen Ntim, has charged members of the party in the Savannah Region to work hard to make the newly created region another stronghold of the party
The experienced politician expressed confidence that with the NPP having 3 seats out of the 7 in the region, the party can win more and make it its safe region as a party.
“It is NPP government under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo that created this new region and we can all attest to the massive infrastructural development that is taking place here. We have the new 3-storey Regional Co-ordinating Council administration block in Damongo, we have a new ultra-modern Buipe Accident and Emergency Hospital, Salaga Water Project and a number of feeder roads under construction in the region, a number of dams and so on.
“It is unprecedented and we believe that over time, we can comfortably win all the seats. We just need to work hard to prove to the good people in the region that with NPP in power, the new region will be developed,” Mr Ntim stated while interacting with the media at Daboya as part of the Savannah Regional Annual Delegates Conference on Friday, October 1, 2021.null
He commended the regional executives’ tireless efforts that secured three Parliamentary seats for the party in the 2020 election.
Mr Ntim also expressed excitement to be part of the conference and encouraged all party members to continue to have faith in the party as it is the only party that can develop Ghana.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has called for calm between the Ghana Union of Traders Association, GUTA, and the Nigeria Union of Traders Association, Ghana.
The two are currently at loggerheads with threats from GUTA to close down shops of Nigerian traders.
GUTA says the Nigerian traders were operating in the retail market and ought to be stopped.
According to them, authorities responsible for enforcing the law have refused to do their work.
They threatened to close down all shops of foreigners especially that of Nigerians.
In a statement, the Ministry said representatives from Ghana International Trade Commission and the Nigerian High Commission met on three occasions to address the impasse between Ghanaian traders and Nigerian traders.
However, the three meetings were inconclusive.
But the Ministry says it has scheduled a meeting for October 5, 2021.
Against this backdrop, the Ministry has asked GUTA to halt its plans in closing down the shops of Nigerian traders.
It has also asked the two trade bodies to desist from issuing press releases until the meeting is held and issues are addressed.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has inspected ongoing work on construction of the Kumasi International Airport, which, according to the contractor, is currently 77% complete, and is expected to be completed in June 2022.
President Akufo-Addo visited the site of the construction on Friday, 1st October 2021, when he commenced his 4-day working visit to the Ashanti Region, as part of his annual working visits to all the Regions of the country.
It will be recalled that on 6th June 2018, the President cut the sod for the commencement of work on Phase Two of the Kumasi Airport Project, where he indicated that “the expansion of this airport is a critical part of government’s vision to expand the frontiers of the aviation industry in the country, and to realise the dream of making Ghana an aviation hub in West Africa.”
Inspecting work on the site, the President was told that the terminal building was 88% complete, the road network 93% complete, the Apron 89% complete, with the air traffic control and rescue and firefighting services 53% complete.
The scope of work include the extension of existing runway pavement from 1,981 metres to 2,320 metres, the construction of a new taxi link and apron, two new apron parking stands, aeronautical ground lighting systems, the design and building of a terminal with the capacity to handle eight hundred thousand passengers per annum, an 11 MW substation, as well the provision of new bulk utility (electricity, water, sewage treatment system, internet etc.) services, independent of the existing utility services for the existing airport facilities.
Phase three (3) of the project involves the construction of the air traffic control building, a fire building station, as well as the expansion of the existing runway pavement. The construction of the fuel farm is to be funded by GOIL.
With the project being constructed by Messrs. Contracta Construction UK Limited, the total project sum is €124.9 million, with financing from Santander, Deutche Bank, and UKEF.
President Akufo-Addo expressed satisfaction with the progress of work undertaken so far, and charged the Ministry of Transport as well as the Contractor to ensure that the October 2022 deadline for completion is met.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appears to have announced contenders for the next leader of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) as his tenure comes to an end.
The Minister of Trade and Industries, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, as well as the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, have reportedly harboured ambitions to become the flagbearer of the ruling party.
Both men are part of the President’s team touring the Ashanti Region.
At the Manhyia Palace, the seat of the Asantehene, on Friday, October 1 at the start of the four-day tour, President Akufo-Addo made a huge announcement.
“Nana let me introduce my team,” he started. “This is your grandson Dr Afriyie Akoto, my Agric Minister who wants to become the president.”
Sitting next to the Agric Minister was Mr Kyerematen as introduced by the President.
“Nana, this is Alan Kyeremanten, he has been vying for my seat for a very long time, a very workaholic minister,” he chuckled amidst loud noise from the crowd gathered at Manhyia.
The NPP has barred party members from campaigning ahead of the presidential primaries in 2023.
The party has issued a code of conduct to all aspiring members and warned of punitive measures if any campaign.
The leading contenders include Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
President Akufo-Addo, who has led the party since 2008, continues his tour of the Ashanti Region on Saturday with a visit to Darko Farms and inspection of the Abuakwa-Tanoso Road.
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