The Volta Regional Coordinating Council, is taking advantage of hosting the 66th Independence Day National Parade, to promote the region’s economic potential.
The Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Letsa, in an exclusive interview with GBC News, said Agriculture and Tourism, hold great prospects for the region.
On the Independence celebrations at Adaklu, today, Dr. Letsa, said the necessary security measures are in place to protect lives and property during the event and beyond.
The National Assembly elections were held last Saturday, February 25, 2023, alongside the presidential election. A new set of members, however, with returning familiar faces, will sit in the legislative arm of government making up the Red and Green chambers.
A week ago, Fella started posting images of herself on social media without her wedding band, which sparked rumors that she and Medikal were no longer together.
Social media users initially believed Fella was teasing netizens, but there’s more to the ‘divorce narrative’ than that.
Just last Saturday, Medikal shared a flyer of his upcoming music project which features Sister Derby.
After the rapper shared the flyer, the reports that his marriage with Fella had been dissolved grew heavy wings and started flying on all the social media platforms.
As alleged by social media users, Medikal has divorced Fella Makafui and has rekindled his old affair with Sister Derby.
Fella Makafui who is yet to directly address the reports has been throwing heavy jabs at both Medikal and Sister Derby through a series of posts she has shared on her IG and Snapchat pages.
Amidst the divorce saga, netizens who seem to believe the story about Medikal and Fella Makafui’s divorce are currently trolling the musician for divorcing a young lady for an old woman.
As amusingly commented by these pepper mouth critics, they are highly disappointed in Medikal for divorcing a young beautiful woman like Fella Makafui who has given him a beautiful baby girl to date a woman who is twice his age.
Meanwhile, some discerning social media users have opined that the whole divorce brouhaha is just to get the needed attention for Medikal’s Planning And Plotting album.
Jahwill Tuffseed – And people will also believe this JHS story
Vincent Amankwah – A guy jested you and even diss you after he has gotten another lady and even married her on top, he has now come back to you and still accepted him. Sister derby nso dierr
Asamoah Matthew – I sensed this , she was too over protective with medical , but I don’t trust that Derby girl she is up to something her coming back might not be genuine
Bingi Shaporpor – Should Ghanaian musicians always promote their songs with unnecessary controversies?
Najombe John – Sister Derby has shown respect despite disappointments and pains caused by her best friend, FELLA by snatching her husband to be, MEDIKAL. To other women learn how to be patience in ur relationships.Being Patience doesn’t mean u are a fool. It means u are peace and a real woman your guy will always miss and can return to marry and learn from.
Born in 1935 to parents who lived in the Western Region, Felicia Abban grew up knowing the then budding trade of photography because that was her father’s trade.
When she opted to understudy her father, little did she know that she would go on to become the official photographer of Ghana’s first Prime Minister and later President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
A throwback of Felicia’s feat was shared on Twitter by SUNU journal, a Journal of African Affairs, Critical Thought and Aesthetics. Their SUNU notes is known to be a repository of archival and contemporary material.
SUNU Journal wrote about Felicia: “On this day March 6th in 1957, Ghana gained independence from British rule. Felicia Abban is Ghana’s first professional female photographer.
“Known for her classic studio and self-portraits, she was also the official photographer of Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah.”
The post was accompanied by a portrait of Abban taken in her studio in Accra, Ghana, 1966 for the December 1966 issue of DRUM Magazine.
Felicia’s professional life was truncated by arthritis according to history but it wasn’t until she had chalked five decades doing photography.
She is reputed to have worked as a photographer for Kwame Nkrumah, for many years during the 1960s.
Ghanaianmuseum.com details that, as a toddler, Felicia Ansah Abban frequented her father’s photography studio in Sekondi-Takoradi, Western region, where she was born in 1935.
Being the eldest of six children, Abban became her father’s apprentice at the age of 14 and spent the next four years working under his meticulous and methodological eye before leaving her hometown for Accra at 18 as a newly married young woman to set up her own photo studio.
Felicia was married to Robert Abban (late), the man who designed the fabric which had Kwame Nkrumah’s portrait designed on flowers with Ghana map for Ghana’s Independence Day celebrations in 1957.
According to Ghanaianmuseum.com, the first public display of her work was staged at ANO’s gallery in March 2017 and the gallery has plans of transforming her studio into a museum in her honour.
Abban’s private photo collection consists of photos she often takes of herself before she attended events.
Source: Ghanaweb
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Member of parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Henry Norgbey, has provided details of what transpired in the town as military soldiers invaded and brutalized locals over the suspected death of one of their own.
According to Ernest Henry Norgbey, he was contacted at three in the morning about the incursion of military forces who were brutalizing defenseless civilians going about their everyday business.
In an interview with the media, he explained that;
“I was just in the house somewhere around 3:30am concerning some invasion of military personnel in the Official Town enclave of Ashaiman and according to the sources they were just brutalising the innocent citizens; people who are going about their daily duties, people who would want to go to work early morning. They were just brutalising them making sure they don’t come out from their homes, reasons best known to them. But what we are picking is as a reprisal attack on the innocent citizens as a result of the killing of one of their own on Saturday dawn.
The MP added that he had spoken to the deputy defense minister to try to calm the situation and had received assurances that the men would be summoned back to the barracks.
“As we speak, we made frantic efforts to get the authorities involved to call the men back to the barracks and I have been able to speak to the deputy minister for defense who assured me that things will become calm very soon. I can see some signs of departure from the vicinity by these armed men.
“I am in the community as we speak, I live Ashaiman official town so I know what is happening,” he added.
Videos of the attacks on some residents in Ashaiman has gone viral on social media after military personnel stormed the area, and brutalised citizens.
In some of these videos, personnel were seen hitting and brutalising residents who were outside of their rooms during the early hours of the day.
The incident happened on the dawn of Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at Official town in Ashaiman during a heavy downpour.
Reports indicate that residents have been forced to stay in their rooms until there is calm.
Information reaching our news desk is that about 20 military officers have invaded Ashaiman, restricting free movement of residents.
The Tuesday imposed curfew, per reports, comes as a response to the murder of a military officer over the weekend.
Reports say a male soldier was beaten to death by unknown civilians in the area.
OMG. Another sad new! A soldier was going home for treatment but couldn’t reach home. Some gang in Ashaiman beat him to death. R.I.P #Accra#Ashaimanpic.twitter.com/uXMbpgo55N
The heads of the security agencies in Ghana are yet to comment on the matter.
Meanwhile the matter has gotten social media buzzing, with many calling for police intervention.
The invasion of the soldiers come after a 22-year-old captain with the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) band in Sunyani in the Bono Region was reportedly stabbed to death by unknown attackers Saturday dawn.
The soldier, according to sources, was returning from his girlfriend’s house in Taifa and heading towards his residence at Zongo-Laka in Ashaiman when the unfortunate incident occurred.
Though he was carrying a laptop and other electronic gadgets the attackers made away with only his iPhone, according to the local media.
Police are currently investigating the circumstances under which the soldier was killed and appealing for information from the public.
#ashaiman the issue has escalated my people. The military is now entering and badging into home dragging some youths out their homes, especially those with dreads.. one civilian dead per rumors at Ashaiman taifa as a result of the beatings …😭😭
Josephine Nkrumah, a former chair of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has informed the government in Monrovia of a death threat made against her by a Liberian citizen.
Ms. Nkrumah is currently serving as the Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas) ambassador to Liberia.
The BBC reports that in a letter to the Liberian justice ministry, Ms Nkrumah said a Facebook user, identified as Carson, urged the Monrovia mayor to send her “down six feet”.
The user claimed the move would draw the international community’s attention to the insecurity in Liberia, the BBC report added.
The Ghanaian diplomat also told the Liberian authorities that she considered the comment a “grave threat” to her life and the staff of the Ecowas mission in the country.
Ms Nkrumah, a one time deputy chairperson of the NCC served as substantive chairperson between December 2016 and February 2022, when she resigned to take the ECOWAS job.
Early on March 7, 2023, the Ghana Meteorological Agency published a weather report outlining the reasons why heavy rains were predicted to fall in some areas of the nation.
The storm alert read: “Southeastern Ghana has been engulfed by a rain bearing cloud. This is producing rain of varying intensity within the Volta region.”
It continued: “Areas within the Greater Accra and Eastern will be affected before drifting to the Central, Western and parts of the Ashanti,” it concluded.
“The rain is likely to lead to flash floods in parts of Greater Accra. Be advised accordingly,” the Agency stated in a followup tweet.
At the time of filing this report, GhanaWeb could confirm that heavy rains were hitting parts of the capital Accra.
It appeared however that the rain was drifting per our checks on social media, with some tweeps calling the attention of the Meteo on Twitter that the rains had stopped where they were.
The full impact of the rains is likely to be known in the early hours of this morning. It is the first very heavy rain for the year 2023.
Whenever it rains heavily, issues of flooding and sometimes displacement has often been recorded in parts of the capital.
The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, was on Monday, March 6, welcomed by the Apostolic Movement of Ghana’s Leardership and during a meeting, the lawmaker provided “a full briefing on subjects relating to the National Cathedral Affair.”
According to a social media post after the meeting, Ablakwa said: “the deliberations were extensive, transparent and frank in the best interest of our dear nation and our Lord’s Kingdom.”
Among the clergymen in photos sighted by GhanaWeb were Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah of Royal House Chapel International and Reverend Lawrence Tetteh of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach.
The group of clergymen, numbering six, were captured in photos in deep discussion with Ablakwa before they later offered special prayers for the MP seeking “for the Lord’s fortification in the pursuit of what they described as my exemplary parliamentary oversight,” the post added.
Ablakwa has over the past few months waged a dogged campaign aimed at pointing out issues of corruption and corporate governance breaches in the construction of the Cathedral project.
He has taken the crusade to social media mostly and also gotten a Parliamentary motion for a probe into the project along with other Members of the Minority Caucus.
Read Ablakwa’s full post below:
Earlier today I honoured an invitation from the leadership of Ghana’s Apostolic Movement to offer a comprehensive briefing on matters relating to the “National” Cathedral Scandal.
The deliberations were extensive, transparent and frank in the best interest of our dear nation and our Lord’s Kingdom.
I also received special prayers asking for the Lord’s fortification in the pursuit of what they described as my exemplary parliamentary oversight.
I am profoundly grateful to these revered ministers of the gospel. Always, for God and Country
After a shift in teaching that permits priests to wed same-sex couples, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya has declared that England will no longer be the head of the global Anglican Church.
According to Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, the Church’s position that homosexuality is a sin will not alter
He said:
Quote Message: In May we are going to have a meeting in Cairo [Egypt’s capital] of the Global South… What we have already agreed and pronounced is that England is no longer going to be the leader of the Anglican Communion
In May we are going to have a meeting in Cairo [Egypt’s capital] of the Global South… What we have already agreed and pronounced is that England is no longer going to be the leader of the Anglican Communion
Quote Message: We are going to get another primate amongst us, maybe on rotational basis, who is going to be the chair of what we call our communion – the communion that believes in orthodox teaching of the Bible.
We are going to get another primate amongst us, maybe on rotational basis, who is going to be the chair of what we call our communion – the communion that believes in orthodox teaching of the Bible.
The Church of England last month backed proposals to allow prayers of blessing for same-sex couples.
But it said its position on gay marriage would not change and same-sex couples would still be unable to marry in church.
Archbishops representing 10 of the 42 provinces in the Anglican Communion have said they no longer consider Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as their leader.
A Nigerian woman, Dr Iyabo Masha, has been appointed as the Director of the Intergovernmental Group of 24 on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G24).
Dr Masha’s appointment was contained in a statement issued by the organisation in Washington DC on Friday and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja.
Tribune Online gathered that G-24 is an international transaction organisation established in 1971 as a representative and to coordinate the position of developing countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean on monetary and development issues, particularly issues on the agendas of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee.
Following her appointment on the 24th February, the statement explained that Masha would be succeeding the outgoing director, Ms Marilou Uy, and as the first African to occupy the position.
Continuing, the group said its new director was bringing to the position a wide range of policy, operational, and research experience at global and national levels, adding that she “was a member of Nigeria’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council from 2019-2022 which directly advises the President on economic policy.”
Masha, in her advisory role, “provided leadership to the council’s work on global economic spillovers, macroeconomic and sustainable development policies,” the G-24 secretariat stated.
“Prior to that, she worked on a range of countries at the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC, negotiating IMF lending programmes and developing non-programme policies for emerging market and low-income economies in Africa and Asia.
“She also served as IMF Resident Representative for Sierra Leone.
“Masha joined IMF from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in 2003, where she led the Research Department’s annual monetary programme,” the group said in the statement. According to the G-24, Masha has authored and contributed to several publications, and she speaks regularly to diverse audiences on topical issues,” the statement added.
A protest against the handling of the recently finishedelectionsis being led by the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s biggest opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, are accompanied by their supporters in the demonstration dubbed black uniform protest march.
They claim there was a lack of transparency with the new electronic voter system.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has previously denied the complaints.
The ruling APC party’s candidate Bola Tinubu was declared winner of the presidential poll with 37% of votes counted. Mr Abubakar finished second with 29%.
A 43-year-old Ugandan teacher and her suspected accomplice are still being held despite coming forward to Jinja police over the weekend.
Uganda’s colonial-era laws against same-sex relationships have been strengthened by more modern anti-homosexuality legislation, the most recent of which is now being developed by parliament.
On Friday, parents of students at PMM Girls school stormed the building demanding to withdraw their children, amid online allegations accusing a teacher there of promoting same-sex relations.
Kiira Region Police Spokesman James Mubi told the BBC that the teacher is being investigated over sexual harassment allegations. Her alleged partner is a 30-year-old who is neither a student of the school nor was living there.
He also said there have been no complaints from the students so far against the teacher but it was necessary to keep holding her as well as her alleged partner for their own safety.
Over a week ago, muslims in Jinja and other parts of the country heeded a call by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to protest against what they say is a rise in the promotion of same-sex relations in the country.
LGBTQ rights campaigner Frank Mugisha warned at the time that Uganda could see an increase in the targeting of people in same-sex relations in villages and communities.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to inform the public on plans to change to his cabinet at 19:00 (17:00 GMT) on Monday, his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Sunday.
The changes were widely expected after Mr Ramaphosa was re-elected as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in December.
It paved the way for him to seek a second presidential term in elections scheduled for next year.
Mr Ramaphosa is expected to name a new deputy president following the resignation of David Mabuza.
The seat is widely expected to be taken by the new ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
Mr Ramaphosa is also expected to fill the newly created position of electricity minister as the country battles a power crisis.
Forecasts from the Mozambican weather service indicate that moderate Cyclone Freddy is headed back toward the Mozambique Channel and might potentially reach the Zambézia and Sofala areas.
The storm, according to meteorologists, is moving at a speed of 13 km/h towards the south-west coast of Madagascar, and could reach the severe tropical storm stage on Monday.
Mozambique’s National Institute of Meteorology has predicted continued heavy rains (more than 200mm in 24 hours) over the ocean and winds of up to 110km/h, accompanied by gusts of up to 150km/h, which could disturb the sea generating waves that are about 10ft (3m) tall.
The agency has warned people to take precautionary and safety measures.
John Dramani Mahama, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate for president, has diclosed that he is a Nkrumahist.
The disclosure was made by the former president while defending his decision to skip Ghana’s 66th Independence Day parade in Ho, in the Volta region.
According to him, despite being a big fan of the man who gained independence for Ghana, he wouldn’t abandon the celebration for anything but for the NPP government that has turned the national event into a party jamboree.
“Nkrumah got us independence, I’m an Nkrumaist, I will attend an Independence day any day if it’s not hijacked by one party because it should be a national day for all of us.
“I’ve stopped going to the independence day because it has become a party jamboree. I went to Tamale, they told GBC to take the camera off me. They bused their supporters in and filled the whole stadium. When I went into the stadium the place was quiet I went and sat, they gave me some corner somewhere, I went and sat there and they occupied the days” adding that some people went to make noise at where he sat.
As a result, Mr. Mahama says he doesn’t want to be part of a celebration that has been turned into a partisan one with party people bused to the venues.
“So I’m not going to be in Ho because I do not want to be part of an NPP jamboree. You watch what will happen they will bus their people in and occupy that whole place,” he stated.
John Mahama who was speaking at the NDC’s Professionals Forum Dinner and Awards Night in Accra Sunday, March 5, said the independence day celebration should have a national colour rather than clouding it with party colours.
“Independence is a solemn national celebration. We should celebrate it at the Independence Square and anybody who wanted to come could come. Today they bus their supporters in, they come with party flags they wear their party shirts. I don’t want to be part of a party jamboree,” he reiterated.
Ghana’s 66th Independence anniversary is being celebrated in Ho in the Volta regional capital on the theme: Our Unity, Our Strength, Our Purpose.
The First Lady of Kenya, Rachel Ruto, has called for nationwide prayers against homosexuality, claiming that the family is under assault.
Mrs Ruto said the country cannot condone the Supreme Court ruling last month that upheld the LGBTQ community’s right of association.
“We should not even try to talk about LGTBQ. This is a conversation we should not even have in our country because accepting it is like throwing our morals into the dustbin,” the first lady said on Sunday.
Homosexuality remains criminalised in Kenya. The Supreme Court ruled that refusal to allow the LGBT community to register lobby groups in Kenya would would violate their right to association, as provided in the Kenyan constitution.
However, the ruling was met with protests from President William Ruto, as well as religious leaders in Kenya.
Kenya’s attorney-general said the government will challenge the court’s ruling, insisting that the issue is a matter for public consultations rather than for the courts.
Ethiopia’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels have denied establishing a transitional administration in the northern region in accordance with the peace agreement signed in November last year.
A local news website reported that the TPLF had finalised the process of forming a 28-member interim regional administration, which needed approval by the federal government.
However, TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said the Tigray interim administration would only be established after mutual consultations between the parties to the Pretoria agreement.
“Reports of the [transitional government] having been established in Tigray without Addis’ involvement flies in the face of reality. Tigray is only trying to do its part,” Mr Getachew tweeted on Sunday.
Major political parties in the region have been calling for an inclusive interim government to steer the region as it tries to recover from the devastating civil war.
Last month, the opposition parties in Tigray boycotted a conference on the formation of an interim government, accusing the TPLF of monopolising the process.
Former president, John Dramani Mahama, has stated he will not attend today’s, March 6, Independence Day celebration in Ho.
“Our Unity, Our Strength, Our Mission” will be the event’s theme.
Mr accused the organizers of the event of turning the occasion into a political party jamboree where New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters are bussed to cheer up their leaders.
Mr Mahama stated that the Independence Day celebration is a national solemn day and should not be hijacked by a political party.
Speaking at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Professional Forum Dinner and Awards Night in Accra on Sunday, March 5, Mr Mahama who is seeking to be elected flagbearer of the NDC ahead of the 2024 general elections said “I just came from the Volta Region, and just when I was leaving they were preparing to celebrate the Independence Day. I have stopped going to Independence day because it has become a party jamboree. I went to Tamale and they told GBC to take the camera off me, they bussed their supporters in and filled the whole stadium.
“When I got into the stadium the place was quiet, I went and sat, they gave me some corner somewhere, I went and sat there and they occupied the dais. When any of them came [the supporters] shouted.
“I said I don’t want to be part of this party jamboree. Independence is a solemn national celebration that is celebrated at Independence Square and everybody could come. Today, they bus their supporters in, they have party flags, and they are wearing party T-Shrts, I don’t want to be part of the party jamboree.
“Nkrumah got us independence, I am a Nkrumahist, I will attend an Independence Day anniversary any day if it is not hijacked by one party, it is a national day for all of us, so I am not going to be there because I don’t want to be part of an NPP Jamboree. You watch what will happen, they will bus their people there and occupy the whole place.”
In relation to the celebration in Ho, the Volta Region branch of the opposition NDC is demanding the release of GH¢126 million by the government as money owed the region.
According to the NDC, this amount is the aggregate of the Akufo-Addo-led government’s promise of GH¢1 million per constituency per year, which the party says is in arrears for the past seven years.
The NDC in the Volta Region said the joy and enthusiasm that usually characterise the celebration of the country’s independence anniversary is eroding as a result of “unprecedented bad governance, unimaginable levels of corruption and the incredible high cost of living”.
“We believe that in order to have this theme to resonate well with all Ghanaians, it would be appropriate for President Nana Addo to use the Independence Day celebration to apologize to the good people of Volta Region for the kind of humiliations he subjected the good people of the Region to during the 2020 voter registration,” the NDC said in a statement issued by the Regional Secretary, James Gunu.
“It is obvious that the unprecedented bad governance, unimaginable levels of corruption and the incredible high cost of living is eroding the joy and enthusiasm that ordinarily goes with our Independence Day celebrations.
The elections on February 25 “failed to live up to Nigerians’ hopes,” according to the US ambassador to Nigeria.
Mary Leonard encouraged the electoral commission to rectify the problems it ran into prior to the governorship elections on March 11 in a statement.
“It is clear that the electoral process as a whole on 25 February failed to meet Nigerians’ expectations,” the US ambassador said.
“We thus reiterate our call on Inec [Independent National Electoral Commission] to promptly address the challenges that can be resolved ahead of the 11 March gubernatorial elections,” Ms Leonard said.
The envoy urged Inec to be more transparent as it makes reforms on the elections systems.
She commended the presidential poll losers, opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of Labour Party, for pledging to go to court to challenge the outcome of the vote.
Inec has said it will deploy its voter identification system for the 11 March elections and pledged to punish its officials found to have compromised the presidential election.
An old video of the Nigerian army accusing Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike of trying to bribe some of its operatives to rig the election in his favour has surfaced.
In a press conference held in 2019, the Nigerian army said that Governor Wike made an attempt to compromise them with hefty financial inducement during the election.
This comes following the accusation by residents of Rivers state that Wike allegedly manipulated the results to favour another party during the 2023 presidential election.
Although there has been no evidence, many are convinced that the Labour Party won the election in Rivers state and not the All Progressives Congress as he INEC declared.
In the resurfaced video, the army said;
“The daring attempts of the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike to compromise security agencies particularly the security operative in the Nigeria Army with hefty financial inducement to help him in the illegitimate quashing of the free and fair electoral process to his favour.”
Inec has said it will deploy its voter identification system for the 11 March elections and pledged to punish its officials found to have compromised the presidential election.
The biggest opposition political organization in South Sudan, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), is pleading with President Salva Kiir to reinstall Defense Minister Angelina Teny.
President Kiir sacked Ms Teny on Friday in a presidential decree. She was the country’s first female defence minister.
The president also dismissed Interior Minister Mahmoud Solomon. No reasons were given for their sacking.
Mr Kiir also swapped the Ministry of Defence to his political party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Interior Ministry to the SPLM-IO.
The SPLM-IO has “condemned and rejected” the “unilateral removal” of Ms Teny.
It called it a violation of the revitalised peace agreement, which gives parties the power to remove their representatives in the council of ministers and nominate the replacements by notifying the president.
It said swapping of the ministries also violates the provisions of the peace agreement – which require the parties to agree on the allocation and selection of ministerial portfolios in the unity government.
In a statement, Riek Machar, the SPLM-IO leader and the first vice-president, called for the president to “revoke the unilateral decree”, adding that his party was committed to the revitalised agreement.
Analysts say the latest move seems to suggest that the relations between Mr Kiir and Mr Machar “remain strained”.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Mahmood Yakubu, has acknowledged that the recently ended presidential elections had problems.
He made this statement while discussing the commission’s electoral performance at the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections during a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners.
Professor Yakubu acknowledged that issues with logistics, security, technology, and staff conduct hampered the poll.
The head of INEC claims that lessons have been learned from the election and is optimistic that the upcoming governorship election would be more successful.
“The planning for the election, the implementation came with challenges some of them unforeseen, a lot of lessons have been learnt.
As we approach the governorship state assembly election, we must work harder to overcome the challenges we experienced in the last election. Nothing else will be acceptable to Nigerians,” he said.
Following the presidential election that took place on Saturday, February 25, there were reports of illegalities, malpractices and among other complaints.
However, the INEC has said it will ensure those challenges are dealt with before the governorship election which is set to hold on Saturday, March 11.
Authorities in Bangladesh are looking into what started a large fire that left 12,000 Rohingya refugees without a place to stay.
There have been no recorded injuries, but according to officials, the fire on Sunday destroyed 2,000 shelters after quickly spreading through cooking gas cylinders.
Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage. One man has been detained, local media reported.
The camp in the south-east is believed to be the world’s largest refugee camp.
Most of its residents, Rohingya refugees, had fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.
On Monday, hundreds had returned to the Cox’s Bazar area to see what they could salvage from the ruins.
The blaze had started at about 14:45 local time Sunday (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an official said.
“Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless,” Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, told AFP news agency.
The blaze was brought under control within three hours but at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for the refugees were also destroyed, he added.
Photos are now emerging that show the extent of the devastation.
Many of those who lived there can be seen picking through the charred area, where only metal struts and singed corrugated roofing remains.
Hrusikesh Harichandan, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the BBC there had been “massive damage” to the camp.
He said basic services such as water centres and testing facilities had also been affected.
“My shelter was gutted. [My shop] was also burnt,” Mamun Johar, a 30-year-old Rohingya man, told AFP.
“The fire took everything from me, everything.”
Thick black clouds were seen rising above Camp 11, one of many in the border district where more than a million Rohingya refugees live.
It will be difficult to relocate the estimated 12,000 people affected by the fire – given the already overcrowded conditions in the “mega camp”, said Hardin Lang from Refugees International.
Delivering basic services to those people in other parts of the camp would also be a challenge because many services – health clinics, schools – have been destroyed.
“This is in essence an acute incident on what was already a chronically very vulnerable and precariously poised population,” he told the BBC.
The camps, overcrowded and squalid, have long been vulnerable to fires.
Between January 2021 and December 2022, there were 222 fire incidents in the Rohingya camps including 60 cases of arson, according to a Bangladesh defence ministry report released last month.
In March 2021, at least 15 people were killed and some 50,000 were displaced after a huge fire tore through a camp in the settlement.
The refugee camp houses people who fled from Myanmar following a military crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic minority.
The Rohingya are Muslims in largely Buddhist Myanmar, where they have faced persecution for generations.
The latest exodus of Rohingya escaping to Bangladesh began in August 2017, after Myanmar’s military brutally retaliated when a Rohingya insurgent group launched attacks on several police posts.
Songul Yucesoy meticulously cleans her dishes, soaping the plates and silverware before washing off the bubbles and setting them out to dry. Unremarkable scene—except she’s sitting outside in the shadow of her derelict home.
It tilts at an alarming angle, the window frames are hanging out and there’s a large chunk of the rusty iron roof now resting in the garden.
A month after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, those who survived face an uncertain future. One of their most serious problems is finding somewhere safe to live. At least 1.5 million people are now homeless, and it’s unclear how long it will take to find them proper shelter.
The Turkish disaster agency Afad, meanwhile, says almost two million people have now left the quake zone. Some are living with friends or loved ones elsewhere in the country. Flights and trains out of the region are free to those who want to leave.
But in the town of Samandag, near the Mediterranean coast, Songul is clear that she and her family aren’t going anywhere. “This is very important for us. Whatever happens next – even if the house falls down – we will stay here. This is our home, our nest. Everything we have is here. We are not going to leave.”
Image caption,The deadly quake destroyed properties in the region, leaving thousands of families homelessImage caption,Tents have appeared everywhere in the town of Samandag, but more are needed
Precious pieces of furniture have been carefully pulled from the house and set up outside. On top of a polished wooden side table is a holiday souvenir, a picture made of shells from the Turkish resort of Kusadasi. There’s a bowl of fruit, with white mould creeping across a large orange. Things that look normal indoors feel strange and out of place when they’re sitting in the street.
Right now, the whole family is living in three tents just a few steps away from their damaged home. They sleep and eat there, sharing food cooked on a small camping stove. There’s no proper toilet, although they’ve recovered one from the bathroom and are trying to plumb it in in a makeshift wooden shed. They’ve even created a small shower area. But it’s all very basic, and the lack of space and privacy is obvious. These tents are cramped and overcrowded.
It’s been an agonising month for Songul. Seventeen of their relatives were killed in the quake. Her sister Tulay is officially missing. “We don’t know if she is still under the rubble,” she tells me. “We don’t know whether her body was taken out yet or not. We’re waiting. We can’t start mourning. We can’t even find our lost one.”
Image caption,People are sleeping on seats in train carriages in the port city of Iskenderun
Songul’s brother-in-law Husemettin and 11-year-old nephew Lozan died when their apartment building in Iskenderun collapsed around them as they slept. We visited what was left of their home, a sprawling pile of twisted debris. Neighbours told us three blocks of flats had fallen.
“We brought Lozan’s body here,” Songul says quietly. “We took him from the morgue and buried him close to us in Samandag. Husemettin was buried in the cemetery of the anonymous, we found his name there.”
A picture of the family smiles out of Tulay’s still-active Facebook profile, their arms around each other, faces close. Lozan holds a red balloon tightly.
The homelessness crisis created by the quake is so acute because of the real shortage of safe spaces that are left standing. More than 160,000 buildings collapsed or were badly damaged. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates at least 1.5 million people are still inside the quake zone, but with nowhere to live. It’s hard to know the real figure, and it could be far higher.
Study cabins are arriving, but too slowly. Tents have appeared everywhere, from sprawling new encampments to individual ones dotted amidst the rubble. There still aren’t enough. News that the Turkish Red Crescent had sold some of its stock of taxpayer-funded tents to a charity group – albeit at cost price – led to frustration and anger.
In some cities, people are still living inside public buildings.
Image caption,Families are sharing tents together, weeks after the disaster
In Adana, I met families sleeping on blankets and mattresses spread across a volleyball court. In the port city of Iskenderun they have made their home on two trains parked at the railway station. Seats have become beds, luggage racks are filled with personal possessions and the staff there try hard to keep things clean and tidy. Tears fill the eyes of one young girl as she hugs a pillow instead of a teddy bear. This isn’t home.
Songul’s children are struggling, too. Toys and games are stuck inside dangerous houses, and there’s no school. “They’re bored, there’s nothing to keep them busy. They just sit around. They play with their phones, then go to bed early once they run out of charge.”
When night falls, things are even harder. There’s no electricity in Samandag now. Songul has draped colourful solar lights across their white tent, just above the bold UNHCR logo. Homeless in their own country, they’re not refugees, but they’ve still lost everything.
It is the second afternoon of the Virgin Bet Grimthorpe Chase meeting at Doncaster on Saturday and the feature race comes along at 3.15pm, with live terrestrial coverage on ITV Racing.
Action begins on Town Moor from 1.00pm and it is a bumper day of jumps racing, with eight races going right through until 5.00pm.
Here is our look ahead to Saturday’s action at Doncaster.
1.00pm – Virgin Bet Best Odds Daily Novices’ Hurdle (2m3½f)
Park Hill Dancer readily won a bumper at Exeter last spring on debut but the Nicky Henderson inmate has twice been a beaten favourite so far over hurdles.
A drop back in trip favours him but GENTLE FRANK has similar claims and finished third over C&D five weeks ago behind two solid yardsticks.
Henry Oliver’s charge may upstage the forecast market leader.
Racing Post selection: Gentle Frank @ 6/4
The latest odds for Saturday’s 1.00pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
1.30pm – Virgin Bet Cheltenham Festival Money Back Handicap Chase (2m½f)
Having improved to win a Southwell handicap over this trip on good ground in January, plenty of column inches were inspired by CALICO giving leading Cheltenham Festival contender Jonbon a run for his money in their Kingmaker duel since at Warwick.
He got an enterprising ride from Harry Skelton that day, no doubt, but it was further proof he is progressing and, being just 1lb higher in the ratings, he has every chance to grab another win and maybe pay some kind of compliment to that would-be Arkle winner in doing so.
Racing Post selection: Calico @ 7/4
The latest odds for Saturday’s 1.30pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
2.05pm – Virgin Bet Fives Handicap Hurdle (2m½f)
Sergeant Wilson made every yard at Fakenham last month to open his account over timber but he still did not look the most straightforward and he has more on his plate leaving behind maiden company.
The four-year-old MR FREEDOM has taken well to hurdles and got up gamely three weeks ago at Warwick, having met some trouble in the run.
He may have more to come for trainer Sabrina West taking on his elders again.
Racing Post selection: Mr Freedom @ 9/4
The latest odds for Saturday’s 2.05pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
Dan Skelton’s She’s A Saint looks to have the strongest form with a recent second in a Grade 2
The is plenty of hurdles experience here, with Annie Magic, Apple Away and Aubis Walk winners over timber already.
However, SHE’S A SAINT boasts the strongest form for Dan Skelton and Bridget Andrews on her runs behind Luccia and You Wear It Well this season, while she won a Ffos Las novice in between times.
She was second in a Grade 2 last month at Sandown over 2m4f and promises even more now upped in trip.
Racing Post selection: She’s A Saint @ 4/6
The latest odds for Saturday’s 2.40pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
3.15pm – Virgin Bet Grimthorpe Handicap Chase (3m2f)
Undersupervision won this 12 months ago for Nigel Twiston-Davies but has a poor record since.
He is back on the same mark now, but needs to prove himself.
Cooper’s Cross won over three miles here in January, form that has been advertised positively since, and can go well from 5lb higher but DOES HE KNOW has proved he can carry weight and win already this season at Cheltenham and his recent Denman Chase third at Newbury was another solid effort.
Trainer Kim Bailey can anticipate another bold showing.
Racing Post selection: Does He Know @ 3/1
The latest odds for Saturday’s 3.15pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
3.50pm – Virgin Bet Daily Money Back Handicap Hurdle (3m½f)
The Newest One came close at Chepstow four weeks back over hurdles for Team Twiston-Davies and rates a decent contender from 2lb higher but it is hard to get beyond the claims of SWEET WILL for Irish trainer Gavin Cromwell.
He stays this trip well and won a Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham (2m5f, good) in November in fine style.
He was going best at Navan three weeks ago over fences only to unseat rider late on and, while now on a career-high mark, he has really come to himself this season and is still just a six-year-old and unexposed at this sort of trip.
Racing Post selection: Sweet Will @ 13/8
The latest odds for Saturday’s 3.50pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
4.25pm – Virgin Bet Daily Extra Places Handicap Hurdle (2m3½f)
FRINGILL DIKE has three hurdles wins, all at Hexham over two miles, and ran well in third over C&D five weeks ago for trainer Jedd O’Keefe when just pipped for second spot behind an easy winner.
He has been eased 2lb by the handicapper for that run and could have more to give at this trip.
Racing Post selection: Fringill Dike @ 11/2
The latest odds for Saturday’s 4.25pm at Doncaster are available on LiveScore Bet
5.00pm – Virgin Bet Open NH Flat Race (2m½f)
WILLMOUNT was well found in the market for his debut over C&D in January and hit the front off the final bend before dominating up the home straight with the aid of the running rail to win by a wide margin.
Penalised though he is, he does look the one to beat unless the market vibes around Broomhill Road suggest otherwise.
The Alan King inmate is just a four-year-old and while he gets plenty of weight, it is still a challenge facing this proven older horse.
There will be much more than civic pride at stake when Liverpool host Manchester United in the 180th league meeting between the North West rivals at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Jurgen Klopp’s side need to push up the table in pursuit of a top-four finish and establish some momentum ahead of a seemingly-impossible quest to overturn a three-goal deficit to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium later this month.
United can ill afford to lose any of their forward thrust as Erik ten Hag’s men chase silverware in four competitions, albeit a title challenge still looks a long way off at the moment.
The Red Devils can complete a rare Premier League double over their hosts if they win but Anfield has not been a happy hunting ground for them since the early days of Klopp’s reign.
Team news
Thiago Alcantara (hip), Luis Diaz (knee) and Calvin Ramsay (knee) remain sidelined, while the Reds will need to make a late call on Naby Keita after he sat out the midweek win over Wolves with a knock.
Diogo Jota impressed on Wednesday against his former club but it may be unrealistic to expect him to start a third game in a week after so long on the injury list.
Therefore, Cody Gakpo is expected to return to the starting XI alongside Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah up front, while Andrew Robertson and Jordan Henderson will probably be restored to the side in place of Kostas Tsimikas and Harvey Elliott.
For United, Christian Eriksen (ankle) and Donny van de Beek (knee) are still out, but Luke Shaw and Jadon Sancho are expected to return to contention after missing Wednesday’s win over West Ham.
Ten Hag revealed that Shaw sustained a minor injury at Wembley and Sancho had been suffering with a bout of illness.
The Dutchman named a second-string starting line-up against the Hammers, making six changes to Sunday’s Carabao Cup-winning team with the likes of Casemiro, Fred, Lisandro Martinez and Marcus Rashford beginning the tie on the bench.
That quartet, plus Raphael Varane and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, look likely to return to the team that walks out into the heat of battle at Anfield and there is a small chance Anthony Martial could be available off the bench following a hip injury.
The stats
Erik ten Hag’s men have fallen behind in four of their last seven matches but have been finishing games strongly
Liverpool recorded their fourth Premier League clean sheet in a row on Wednesday against Wolves — the first time they have managed that this season.
Salah needs one more goal to equal Robbie Fowler’s club-record tally of 128 goals for the Reds.
The Egyptian is already Liverpool’s all-time highest goalscorer against United in all competitions with 10 goals.
Nine of those efforts have come in his past five appearances in the fixture.
Meanwhile, since the start of the 2017-18 season, no player has scored more goals against Liverpool than Rashford (six), although none of them were at Anfield.
United have now won 30 times in all competitions this season from 41 games. Only in the 2006-07 and 2012-13 seasons have the Old Trafford club achieved 30 wins in fewer games (40 both times).
But slow starts continue to be a problem for Ten Hag’s team as they have now fallen behind in four of their last seven games, including three of the last four at home.
Prediction
Liverpool restated their claim to finish in the top four with a solid showing at home to Wolves on Wednesday for their eighth home Premier League win of the season.
Klopp’s team look much more like their old selves on familiar turf and will command plenty of respect from a United side that have not been anywhere near as convincing on the road as they have been at Old Trafford.
Liverpool have been ahead at the break in four of their last seven home league games and should come flying out of the blocks again when faced by their bitter North West rivals.
It may be worthwhile taking the 25/1 on offer with LiveScore Bet for United to mount a stirring second-half comeback in the Half Time / Full Time market.
The Carabao Cup winners come on strong at the close and currently boast the Premier League’s best goal return in the final quarter-hour of games, while Liverpool’s most productive 15-minute spell is usually just before half-time.
Xavi described Barcelona as “the most difficult club in the world” after his team came in for criticism even after beating Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The Copa del Rey semi-final win by Barcelona on Thursday handed Xavi’s side a 1-0 advantage to take into the second leg, with Madrid unable to manage a shot on target.
Now LaLiga leaders Barcelona face Valencia on Sunday, when they will have a chance to, perhaps only briefly, go 10 points clear of second-placed Madrid.
Barcelona had only 35 per cent of possession against Madrid but did enough, with Eder Militao’s own goal decisive. It was their lowest share of possession in any game since the 2013-14 season.
“I see that there has been a stir,” Xavi said. “Barca is the most difficult club in the world. You win 1-0 in Madrid, and it is not enough. The style is discussed. If it had been the other way around it would be a national holiday.
“Madrid are Champions League and LaLiga champions. When they squeeze you, it’s very difficult. Talking about possession when they go man to man is absurd.
“We weren’t good with the ball, we have to improve, but without the ball we were extraordinary. We don’t want 36 per cent possession, but this is football and there is a rival.
“There is always noise at Barca. We have to manage the noise. We did a lot of things well and there are others to improve. There are two titles at stake, and this is the moment of truth.”
According to Xavi, the fact Barcelona only have two titles to go for could be helpful, after their elimination from the Europa League by Manchester United.
Madrid are also still hunting a Champions League title defence, with one foot in the quarter-finals after battering Liverpool 5-2 at Anfield in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
“We will have more time, but we would like to be alive in Europe,” Xavi said. “We will have more time to rest and recover better, that is a certain advantage.”
Head coach Xavi will be without several important players on Sunday, with midfielder Pedri and striker Robert Lewandowski among them, both sidelined by hamstring injuries, while Gavi is suspended.
Barcelona have won 87 per cent of their LaLiga games when Pedri has played (G31 W27 D3 L1) during Xavi’s time at the helm, but that dips to just 50 per cent when he has been absent (G18 W9 D4 L5).
Pedri also missed last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Almeria, which was just a second league loss of the campaign for Barcelona, who have not lost successive games in LaLiga since October 2021, when Ronald Koeman was boss.
Barcelona play in the afternoon in Spain on Sunday, with Madrid not in action against Real Betis until the evening.
A win for Barcelona would be a fifth in a row against Valencia on league duty, matching their longest streak of victories against Los Che, achieved twice before.
“It’s a golden opportunity to get 10 points ahead, waiting for what Madrid do,” Xavi said. “We failed against Almeria, and we can’t make any more mistakes.”
Another man they must cope without at pitch level is Xavi himself, as the coach serves a one-match touchline ban for an accumulation of yellow cards.
“I suppose I’ll be in a box, where the game and the spaces can be seen better,” said Xavi. “It doesn’t change anything. The only thing is that I won’t be able to be on the bench.”
MLS commissionerDon Garber is keen for Lionel Messi to join the competition, though a deal would have to be “outside the box”.
Messi has been heavily linked with a move to Inter Miami, as his contract at Paris Saint-Germain enters its final months.
In November, Messi’s representative Marcelo Mendez denied reports that the seven-time Ballon D’Or winner would join the MLS club at the end of the Ligue 1 season.
Negotiations between Messi and PSG regarding a new deal are reported to be ongoing but, with less than four months remaining on his agreement, he could become a free agent later this year.
If a move to the MLS was to materialise, Garber explained that they would need to be creative in order to complete the deal due to the league’s financial and salary cap rules.
“You’re dealing with perhaps the most special player in the history of the game. So, when there are rumours of him connected to Miami, that’s great,” he told The Athletic.
“And if it could happen, it would be terrific for MLS, it would be terrific for Messi and his family, and like everything with us, we try to run every opportunity down. I can’t give any more details than that because we don’t have them.
“Teams have the flexibility to do unique things. MLS is a single entity. If you’re selling something that the collective owns, the collective has to approve that.
“So, whatever [Inter Miami owner] Jorge [Mas] decides, with [MLS executive vice president] Todd [Durbin’s] help to structure something, if we have the opportunity to do that, it’s going to be outside the box.
“Because as you all know what’s going on in international football today, with Ronaldo at $100million, the transfer market is just exploding in ways that are unimaginable.
“We’re going to have to structure a deal that’s going to compensate him in ways that he and his family expect.
“What that is? Honestly, we don’t know today, but he’s probably not going to be a targeted allocation money player.”
Pep Guardiola revealed his frustration at an Ederson yellow card last month as he suggested Newcastle United would be allowed to get away with wasting time against Manchester City.
There has been plenty of focus on Newcastle’s gamesmanship this season, with Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag describing the Magpies as “annoying” ahead of the EFL Cup final.
When the topic was raised with Guardiola, however, he preferred to fume about punishment dished out to his goalkeeper in the top-of-the-table clash with Arsenal.
“If [there is] a waste of time, we will have a yellow card for Ederson,” Guardiola said. “Don’t worry.
“We are the team with the least waste of time, and the first time we go to Arsenal away, after 35, 37 minutes, we got a yellow card, so don’t worry about wasting time.”
If Newcastle were allowed to get away wasting time at the Etihad Stadium in Saturday’s early kick-off, Guardiola suggests that would be nothing new for City’s opponents.
“It depends on the referee, but I’m pretty sure the yellow will be for Ederson,” he said.
“How many thousand million games [do] teams come to the Etihad Stadium and waste time with their keepers? Twenty seconds every time – the goal-kick – and nothing happens. Absolutely nothing.
“And after, we go there [to Arsenal], we want to be active to play and we get a yellow card.”
Rolling Stone magazine has referred to Libianca as “the afro-soul siren who can do anything” because of her astounding voice, which is warm, lyrical, and varied.
When Libianca was 21 years old, she dazzled the judges on the US talent competition The Voice, and the fact that she did not win shocked many people as well as Libianca herself:
Quote Message: I’m a very competitive person. I don’t like to lose. So, when I got eliminated I was like: ‘I was doing so good on this show and I didn’t win? Are you serious! Something’s wrong!’ I didn’t see what purpose The Voice was serving at the time. But God knew because fast-forward a year later – I’m able to perform in any setting that I am put in because of that experience.”
I’m a very competitive person. I don’t like to lose. So, when I got eliminated I was like: ‘I was doing so good on this show and I didn’t win? Are you serious! Something’s wrong!’ I didn’t see what purpose The Voice was serving at the time. But God knew because fast-forward a year later – I’m able to perform in any setting that I am put in because of that experience.”
Not winning did Libianca’s career no harm at all. A year later she released her smash hit People which she tells me changed her life overnight:
Quote Message: I wake up in the morning and things have just flipped over, what’s going on? But with time I understood it’s the lyrics that speak more than anything. If I was talking about anything that a bunch of songs already talk about, it probably would have done good, but not as good as what it’s doing now.”
I wake up in the morning and things have just flipped over, what’s going on? But with time I understood it’s the lyrics that speak more than anything. If I was talking about anything that a bunch of songs already talk about, it probably would have done good, but not as good as what it’s doing now.”
The latest development in the story of People is that it’s been jumped on by none other than Ayra Starr and Omah Leh, two of the best voices in Afrobeats.
The lyrics of the song were inspired by Libianca’s personal experience with depression. She hasn’t had it easy. She’s been diagnosed with cyclothymia, a mood disorder, and wrote People when she was not coping well. It’s a cry for help that has clearly resonated with many people.
Libianca also told me about having to be uprooted from the US aged four because her mother was being threatened with deportation, then settling in Bamenda, Cameroon until her teens. The family then moved back to Minnesota, and the young Libianca had to adjust again:
Quote Message: It was a culture shock. Not everybody looked like me. I think when you move away you get to appreciate where you come from because everyone communicates just the way you do so it’s easy to be heard and understood right away.”
It was a culture shock. Not everybody looked like me. I think when you move away you get to appreciate where you come from because everyone communicates just the way you do so it’s easy to be heard and understood right away.”
But Libianca got stuck in, with music as her constant companion:
Quote Message: I always had a piano in my room, then I started playing guitar in middle school, music was what kept me going, like, everything can change but music was always the constant in my life.”
I always had a piano in my room, then I started playing guitar in middle school, music was what kept me going, like, everything can change but music was always the constant in my life.”
Libianca’s combination of feisty self-belief and honesty about her vulnerability seems to be a winning one when it comes to making it in the music industry. She’s now been signed to 5K Records, a subsidiary of Sony, and is living her best life:
Quote Message: You see this wig I have on right now? I didn’t spend a dime. It’s 40inch! I didn’t spend a dime! I like when they spoil me every now and then.”
You see this wig I have on right now? I didn’t spend a dime. It’s 40inch! I didn’t spend a dime! I like when they spoil me every now and then.”
A recent research claims that the abuse of US copyright law has forced journalists to remove articles that were critical of big oil lobbyists temporarily.
At least five such articles have been subject to fake copyright claims, including one by the respected South African newspaper Mail & Guardian, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
The claims – which falsely assert ownership of the stories – have been made by mystery individuals under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law meant to protect copyright holders.
Just last month, three separate false copyright claims were made against Diario Rombe, an investigative news outlet that focusses on Equatorial Guinea.
The articles under attack are about the president of Equatorial Guinea’s son, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, and his close associate, Cameroonian businessman and lawyer NJ Ayuk.
The OCCRP claimed in a report published on Wednesday that the DMCA process was often abused by “unknown parties” who create backdated fake articles to target critical news reports.
Under the US law, any online author saying that their content has been stolen can seek to have what they claim is the infringing material “taken down” by triggering a formal legal process through web servers who host the material.
The process differs depending on the server provider, but it can mean content is removed from the web for weeks while the genuine author proves their credentials.
The OCCRP is yet to discover who is behind the attacks, however all the stories were critical of NJ Ayuk.
NJ Ayuk, also known as Njock Ayuk Eyong, is the CEO of African law firm Centurion Law Group and the founder of the African Energy Chamber (AEC). He is also an outspoken advocate of the oil industry in Africa.
Mr Ayuk has a close relationship with the other subject of two of the stories, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima. Mr Obiang Lima was Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons until a recent cabinet reshuffle.
Image caption,Gabriel Mgeba Obiang Lima is the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president
Mr Ayuk has issued press releases from Centurion Law Group and the AEC which publicly attack journalists criticising his oil lobbying activities and questioning his close relationship with Mr Obiang Lima.
The first known false copyright claim to target reports on Mr Ayuk was made in 2019, following the publication of an article in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian (M&G) titled Fraudster named in SA’s oil deal.
The story examined Mr Ayuk’s involvement in an oil deal between South Africa and South Sudan worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It revealed that Mr Ayuk was convicted of fraud in the US in 2007 after pleading guilty to illegally using the stationery and signature stamp of a congressman to obtain visas for fellow Cameroonians.
After the story was published, the M&G’s web server Linode was contacted by an “Ian Simpson”, claiming he was the original author of the piece. Linode took down the news outlet’s entire website for a morning in response to the complaint.
M&G investigated and found that the US address given did not exist and that there were no other traces online of this alleged author. M&G concluded that “Simpson” and his article were fakes but Linode forced the newspaper to take down its article about Mr Ayuk before it would restore the rest of the M&G website.
Writing about the takedown, the M&G called this a “censorship attack”.
Last November during the UN’s climate summit COP27, UK-based Climate Home News published an article about Mr Ayuk launching a partnership with two UN agencies called UN gives platform to convicted fraudster lobbying for African gas.
The article highlighted the role of the African Energy Chamber in the UN’s flagship Team Energy Africa private investments initiative and referenced Mr Ayuk’s US fraud conviction.
The UN cancelled the initiative following the publication.
Two weeks later, Climate Home News’ server AWS received copyright claims on both articles from “Thomas L Pierce” and “Marcus A Webre”. The OCCRP was unable to trace the complainants, and emails to their provided addresses went unanswered.
AWS told Climate Home that it might have to take action against Climate Home News unless it could confirm that the matter had been successfully addressed.
Climate Home editor Megan Darby removed the articles while addressing the false claims with AWS. It took several weeks before Climate Home was able to reinstate the articles.
Ms Darby told the OCCRP: “These bogus allegations look like a devious tactic to suppress independent journalism.”
Earlier this year, unknown parties filed three complaints against independent investigative outlet Diario Rombe over articles authored by them. Two were with its server Cloudflare and one with Google. They targeted two 2021 articles published in collaboration with OCCRP which were critical of Mr Ayuk and his relationship with Mr Obiang Lima.
All three complaints appear to have originated from South Africa. The OCCRP said that it could not establish whether the purported claimants “Lavino Siqueira” and “Mark E Bailey” were real people, and again, emails to their addresses went unanswered.
Google removed the second article from its search results. It reinstated the piece only after Diario Rombe filed a so-called “counter-notice”.
Diario Rombe editor Delfin Mocache Massoko said: “These copyright complaints for a small outlet without funds like Diario Rombe do huge damage to our work. I believe that the author has a single mission, to eliminate all negative information about Mr Ayuk and Lima from the internet.”
When contacted by the BBC, Mr Ayuk strongly denied corruption allegations and said he, the AEC and Centurion Law Group denied the allegations made by the OCCRP including in relation to fake copyright claims.
Gabriel Mgeba Obiang Lima did not respond to requests for comment at time of publication.
The OCCRP contacted AWS, Google and Cloudflare for comment on the bogus copyright complaints, but they did not respond.
President Emmanuel Macron has said the age of French meddling in Africa was “far ended” as he launched a four-nation trip of the continent to repair fraying ties.
With Russian and Chinese influence expanding in the area, the continent has once again become a diplomatic battleground, and anti-French sentiment is at an all-time high in certain former French colonies.
Macron said France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa before an environment summit in Gabon, the first leg of his trip.
“The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in the capital Libreville, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its interests.
“Sometimes, I get the feeling that mindsets haven’t moved along as much as we have, when I read, hear and see people ascribing intentions to France that it doesn’t have,” he added.
“Francafrique” is a favourite target of pan-Africanists, who have said that after the wave of decolonisation in 1960, France propped up dictators in its former colonies in exchange for access to resources and military bases.
Macron said France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa before an environment summit in Gabon, the first leg of his trip.
“The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in the capital Libreville, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its interests.
“Sometimes, I get the feeling that mindsets haven’t moved along as much as we have, when I read, hear and see people ascribing intentions to France that it doesn’t have,” he added.
“Francafrique” is a favourite target of pan-Africanists, who have said that after the wave of decolonisation in 1960, France propped up dictators in its former colonies in exchange for access to resources and military bases.
Macron said France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa before an environment summit in Gabon, the first leg of his trip.
“The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in the capital Libreville, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its interests.
“Sometimes, I get the feeling that mindsets haven’t moved along as much as we have, when I read, hear and see people ascribing intentions to France that it doesn’t have,” he added.
“Francafrique” is a favourite target of pan-Africanists, who have said that after the wave of decolonisation in 1960, France propped up dictators in its former colonies in exchange for access to resources and military bases.
Macron and his predecessors, notably Francois Hollande, have previously declared that the policy is dead and that France has no intention of meddling in sovereign affairs.
Military revamp
Macron on Monday said there would be a “noticeable reduction” in France’s troop presence in Africa “in the coming months” and a greater focus on training and equipping allied countries’ forces.
France has in the past year withdrawn troops from former colonies Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic (CAR).
The pullout from Mali and Burkina Faso, where its soldiers were supporting the Sahel nations to battle a long-running armed rebellion, came on the back of a wave of local hostility.
In his remarks on Thursday, Macron insisted the planned reorganisation was “neither a withdrawal nor disengagement”, defining it as adapting to the needs of partners.
These fields of cooperation included fighting maritime piracy, illegal gold mining and environmental crimes linked to regional drug trafficking, itself driven by a “terrorist movement” in the Lake Chad area, he said.
More than 3,000 French soldiers are deployed in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Djibouti, according to official figures.
The proposed revamp concerns the first three bases but not Djibouti, which is oriented more towards the Indian Ocean.
Another 3,000 troops are in the Sahel region of West Africa, including in Niger and Chad.
Forest protection drive
Macron landed in Libreville on Wednesday and will later head to Angola, the Republic of Congo and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
His comments came before several heads of state were due to attend the One Forest Summit in Libreville, which will focus on preserving rainforests that play a vital role in the global climate system.
The forests of the vast Congo River Basin represent are among the planet’s largest carbon sinks.
They are also home to huge biodiversity including forest elephants and gorillas, and bear traces of the settlement of early humanity.
But they face threats such as poaching, deforestation for the oil, palm and rubber industries, and illegal logging and mineral exploitation.
Macron spoke of the challenges of mobilising international finance as he and Gabonese environment minister Lee White toured the Raponda Walker Arboretum, a protected coastal area north of Libreville.
“We always speak of billions in our summits, but people see little of it on the ground because the systems are imperfect,” he said.
Other presidents expected to attend the summit are host Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon; Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo; Faustin-Archange Touadera of the CAR; Chad’s Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno; and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
The gathering kicked off on Wednesday with exchanges between ministers, civil society representatives and experts.
Macron will head to the former Portuguese colony of Angola on Friday, where he is set to sign an accord to develop the agricultural sector as part of a drive to enhance French ties with anglophone and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
He will then stop in the Republic of Congo, another former French colony, where Sassou Nguesso has ruled for a total of almost four decades, and neighbouring DRC.
Last year, Macron toured Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau in his first trip to the continent since winning re-election, seeking to reboot France’s post-colonial relationship with the continent.
The tour was to “show the commitment of the president in the process of renewing the relationship with the African continent”, a French presidential official said, who asked not to be named. It signalled that the African continent is a “political priority” of his presidency.
Social media sensation, Khaby Lame, who was brought up in Italy but was born in Senegal, has joined the Italia’s Got Talent judges’ bench.
On TikTok, Lame is now the most popular content creator in the world. He is well-known for his signature shrug and debunking different “life hacks” as myths. After losing his work in a factory in 2020, he started his page and quickly amassed a sizable following.
The BBC profiled him a year ago, asking his fans in Senegal what they made of his fast rise:
Ales Bialiatski, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was given a 10-year prison term by a Belarusian court.
He was found guilty of trafficking and funding “activities substantially disturbing public order,” according to the Viasna human rights organization
Supporters of Mr Bialiatski, 60, say the authoritarian regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is trying to silence him.
Mr Bialiatski was one of three winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
He was arrested in 2021 following massive street protests over widely disputed elections the previous year, and accused of smuggling cash into Belarus to fund opposition activity.
Demonstrators were met with police brutality and Lukashenko critics were regularly arrested and jailed during the demonstrations, which started in 2020.
Mr Bialiatski was in court alongside two fellow campaigners, Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich.
Mr Stefanovich was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Mr Labkovich received seven years, according to Viasna, the group Mr Bialiatski founded in 1996.
All three had pleaded not guilty.
Mr Bialiatski’s wife, Natalya Pinchuk, said the trial was “obviously against human rights defenders for their human rights work”, describing it as a “cruel” verdict.
Referring to her husband’s letters from prison, where he has been held since arrest, she said: “He always writes that everything is fine. He doesn’t complain about his health – he tries not to upset me.”
Kostya Staradubets, a spokesperson for Viasna, said the sentences imposed on the three activists were “breaking our hearts”.
Speaking to the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme, he said: “We knew that our three colleagues would get long prison terms but anyway it’s still a shock, it’s breaking our hearts, not only the [prison] terms are long but the conditions also very horrific.
“We call [the conditions] torture actually because they’re being held for several months in a 19th Century building, poorly lit cells with no fresh air, no sunlight, poor food, little or no healthcare.”
Belarus’s exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said the sentencing was “simply appalling”.
“We must do everything to fight against this shameful injustice and free them,” she said.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said the verdict was a “tragedy” for Mr Bialiatski and described the charges as “politically motivated”.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned what he described as “sham trials”, adding they were “yet another appalling example of the Lukashenko regime trying to silence those who stand up in defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people in Belarus”.
There are currently 1,458 political prisoners in Belarus, according to Viasna. Authorities claim there are none.
In awarding the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to Mr Bialiatski, Ms Reiss-Anderson said the Belarusian government had “for years tried to silence him”.
“He has been harassed, he has been arrested and jailed, and he has been deprived of employment,” she said.
Mr Bialiatski is a veteran of the human rights movement in Belarus, establishing Viasna in 1996 in response to the brutal crackdown of street protests that year by Mr Lukashenko, who has been president of Belarus since the office was established in 1994.
He was jailed for three years in 2011 after being convicted on tax evasion charges, which he denied.
WATCH: Highlights of the Belarus leader’s exclusive interview with the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg from 2021.
Mr Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been described as Europe’s last dictator.
Increasingly reliant on Moscow for economic, political and military support, he has hosted Russian forces and allowed them to use Belarus as a staging ground for its invasion of Ukraine.
He has been sanctioned for his role in the invasion, as well as for political oppression at home.
Last month he told the BBC he was ready to “wage war” alongside Russia “if someone – even a single soldier – enters our territory from there [Ukraine]”.
In a case that shook the US, disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of killing his son and wife and was given a life sentence.
A jury found the 54-year-old guilty in less than three hours prior to the South Carolina hearing.
Prosecutors argued he killed his wife and son to divert attention from his financial crimes and gain sympathy.
Judge Clifton Newman called the case “one of the most troubling” he had seen and noted Murdaugh’s past “as a well-known member of the legal community”.
“You’ve practised law before me, and we’ve seen each other at various occasions throughout the years,” he said, calling it “especially heart-breaking for me” to learn of Murdaugh’s arrest and prosecution, more than a year after the murders were committed.
Alex Murdaugh headed a legal dynasty that for decades had occupied a powerful place – the jurisdiction was described by some as “Murdaugh Country”.
Judge Newman said he understood the decision by the state not to seek the death penalty, but noted that Murdaugh’s own family had had people executed for less.
“Your family, including you, have been prosecuting people here in this courtroom, and many have received the death penalty, probably for lesser conduct,” he said.
The disbarred attorney was convicted of two counts of murder after a six-week trial.
During the trial, investigators revealed how Murdaugh stole nearly $9m from clients, to fund an addiction to painkillers and a lavish lifestyle.
At Friday’s sentencing, Murdaugh spoke briefly twice, to maintain his innocence. His lawyers said they would appeal against the life terms within 10 days.
Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, dressed in a simple navy-blue blazer, sat still and silent throughout the proceedings – even as the judge sentenced his father to two consecutive life sentences.
The judge also suggested the murders may have been carried out under the influence of the drugs.
“It might not have been you, but it may have been the monster you became when you took those pills.”
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters said the evidence against the South Carolina lawyer was “overwhelming” and showed him to be a “cunning, manipulative man who placed himself above all others, including his family”.
Murdaugh, meanwhile, restated his claim that he was not guilty.
“I would never hurt my wife and I would never hurt my son,” he said in brief remarks at the hearing. He stared ahead and did not react as his sentence was read.
A video filmed by Paul Murdaugh just minutes before he was shot featured the voice of his father in the background, dramatically contradicting his claim he was not there at the time.
A juror who convicted him told ABC News that was the moment he began to suspect the defendant was guilty.
A new mugshot released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) shows that Murdaugh’s head has now been shaved.
According to local media, male prisoners normally undergo some sort of haircut upon arriving in prison.
The SCDC said in a statement that “like all inmates” he will spend the next 45 days in the intake process – during which time his medical and mental health will be assessed, as will his educational level.
After the 45-day period, he will be sent to a maximum-security prison.
Image caption,Murdaugh’s mugshot after his conviction
During a news conference after the sentence was handed down, Murdaugh’s lawyers said they did not believe it was a mistake for him to take the stand during the trial. They called Judge Newman’s decision to allow evidence related to Murdaugh’s financial crimes to be included in the murder trial “erroneous”.
The state’s case “was about character, not about motive”, defence attorney Dick Harpootlian said. Murdaugh had been cast as a “despicable human being”, he said.
The high-profile case has captured national attention and sparked true crime podcasts and documentaries.
Russian and Ukrainian forces are fighting in the streets of Bakhmut – but Russia does not control the eastern city, its deputy mayor has said.
Oleksandr Marchenko also told the BBC the remaining 4,000 civilians are living in shelters without access to gas, electricity or water.
Mr Marchenko said “not a single building” had remained untouched and that the city is “almost destroyed”,
Bakhmut has seen months of fighting, as Russia tries to take charge.
“There is fighting near the city and there are also street fights,” Mr Marchenko said.
Taking the city would be a rare battlefield success in recent months for Russia.
But despite that, the city’s strategic value has been questioned. Some experts say any Russian victory could be pyrrhic – that is, not worth the cost.
Thousands of Russian troops have died trying to take Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 75,000. Ukrainian commanders estimate that Russia has lost seven times as many soldiers as they have.
Now, after fierce shelling, Russian forces and troops from the Wagner private army appear to have surrounded much of Bakhmut,.
On Saturday, UK military intelligence said Russian advances in the northern suburbs have left the Ukraine-held section of the city vulnerable to Russian attacks on three sides.
Mr Marchenko accused the Russians of having “no goal” to save the city and that it wanted to commit “genocide of the Ukrainian people”.
“Currently there is no communication in the city so the city is cut out, the bridges are destroyed and the tactics the Russians are using is the tactic of parched land,” Mr Marchenko told the Today programme.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the situation in the area was becoming “more and more difficult” – although the Ukrainian military said it had repelled numerous attacks since Friday.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, visited Bakhmut on Friday for meetings with local commanders.
“I believe we shouldn’t give any inch of our land to the enemy,” Mr Marchenko said. “We should protect our land, we should protect our people and we should protect the businesses that are on this land.
“And the reason why we shouldn’t give it to them is because it will be very hard to take it back, to regain the control after Russians capture it.”
Russia claimed the Donbas town of Soledar, about 10km (6.2 miles) from Bakhmut, in January following a long battle with the Ukrainian forces.
Soledar, too, was reportedly reduced to a wasteland of flattened buildings and rubble by the time the Ukrainian army retreated.
On Friday, President Zelensky stressed that artillery and shells were needed to “stop Russia”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the country’s latest package included high-precision Himars artillery rockets and howitzers “which Ukraine is using so effectively”.
Former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, has urged the government to use cash set aside for the impending Independence Day celebrations to fund development initiatives instead.
She claimed that, given the situation of the economy, it was preferable to invest funds intended for the event in initiatives that would benefit the general public.
Her comment is in reaction to the government’s announcement that this year’s 6th March celebrations will be held in the capital of the Volta Region, Ho.
Speaking to Citi News on the sidelines of a public lecture organized by the University of Ghana on the country’s 66th Independence, the former Chief Justice urged government to invest the money into a project that will last, rather than the one-day wonder.
“We should celebrate our Independence Day but to gather and march does not matter. I think whatever money is going to be spent on this celebration with everybody going to the Volta region, if they had selected a deprived district and built a new school or selected a ramshackle district hospital or health centre and upgraded it and named it Independence school or independence hospital, it will be good.
“Then every year they pick a region and a project and do it, that would be money better spent…this will inure to the benefit of the people, and it will last, but they are going to talk, march, eat and come back and then that’s all.”
The proposed Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) by the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana for the 2024 elections, is merely intended to rig the polls, according to the National Communication Officer of the running National Democratic Congress (NDC)
Speaking in an interview on Good Morning Ghana, on Thursday, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, Sammy Gyamfi said that the new C.I. seeks to frustrate the process of the registration of new voters so that not all eligible voters will be captured.
“I have taken the time to go through the new C.I. which the EC is seeking to lay before Parliament in very, very good details and when I was done it was very clear to me that the real intention behind this new C.I. is to rig the 2024 elections.
“This new C.I. is the 1st step in the plot by the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission to rig the 2024 elections. It is as simple as that. The issues are not complex to understand at all and any objective well-meaning Ghanaian who studies this new C.I. will come to this inevitable conclusion.
“The newly proposed C.I. seeks to achieve two things, Number one is to suppress and disenfranchise many eligible voters and number two is the newly proposed C.I. seeks to enable the rigging of the election through fraudulent registrations that political parties cannot check,” he said.
Sammy Gyamfi shreds newly proposed C.I on Voters’ registration and exposes Jean Mensah plot or rig the 2024 elections. pic.twitter.com/IlOT0uStrE
Sammy Gyamfi explained that C.I. will “suppress and disenfranchise” eligible voters by the move to make the Ghana Card the only document acceptable for the registration of new voters.
He said that the proposal to use only regional and district offices of the EC for voter registration is an attempt to make the process less transparent which gives the EC the leeway to manipulate the data as it pleases.
He added that after the registration EC will choose the registration centres for voters which will be an illegality and will allow it to influence the elections.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Jean Mensa, has called on Members of Parliament to support the new CI, which seeks to make the Ghana Card the main source of identification for registering new voters.
She says this is very important due to the evolving electoral process.
“Honourable members, it is in this vein that we urge you to support the decision of the EC to rely on the Ghana card as the main source of identification for those who wish to register as voters. Our country has evolved; it is important that our electoral process evolve to meet the exigencies of time,” she said.
Jean Mensa was speaking during her appearance in Parliament to brief the committee of the whole on the controversial proposed Constitutional Instrument (CI) seeking to make the Ghana Card the only identification document to be used to guarantee citizenship if passed.
The Bank of Ghana has been given the history of the Ghanaian currency, the cedi, with just a few days to the celebration of Ghana’s 66th Independence Day.
The Ghana Cedi, which was created by the Bank of Ghana to replace the West African Pound (£WA), was introduced on the eve of Ghana’s independence.
The Cedi has since undergone many phases and enhancements.
A major currency reform in 1965 saw a wide acceptance of the decimal system for the Cedi, a name derived from the Akan word, “sedie.”
A third and fourth reforms in 1969 and 1972 respectively were undertaken after a military coup d’etat, reflecting the political and economic uncertainty during those periods.
The Bank of Ghana issued a a press statement to detail the evolution of the Cedi to mark Ghana’s 66th Independence Day celebrations.
Senior High School students admitted in the Bawku Municipality fail to show up in class following conflict in the area.
The protracted chieftaincy dispute in Bawku has left scores of people dead and others sustaining injuries.
About 10 people have been reported dead in recent disturbances.
Students posted to the area have since rejected the admissions offered them.
In an interview with Citi News, the Upper East Regional Coordinator for the Free Senior High School Programme, Kofi Ayamga Anamboyine said the students who would accept admission would be taken through counselling.
Some Islamic Scholars and other Ghanaians have called on the indigenes to let peace prevail by putting down their weapons.
Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has said that over 500,000 BECE graduates have been placed in various Senior High Schools across the country under the school placement system.
Dr. Adutwum says the number has increased significantly following the introduction of the free SHS policy.
Speaking at the 2022 Presidential BECE awards in Accra, Dr. Yaw Adutwum said the free SHS policy has opened many opportunities for children to attain secondary education.
“The Free SHS programme has sent many students to various high schools in the country. When it started in 2017, there were 830,000 students enrolled in high schools across the country.”
“This year alone, we have a record 500,000 students placed in senior high schools across the country, and we are waiting forward for them to enrol. That tells you the progress we have made these past few years.”
Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said government will continue to implement policies and programmes geared at making education better in Ghana.
Nana Akufo-Addo said education remains a topmost priority for his government.
Financial crimes, according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, have grown to be a major worry for governments all over the world over the past 30 years as they pose serious risks to the growth and stability of national economies.
In order to deal with this threat, he stated it is necessary to create reliable financial compliance systems and maintain strong enforcement of the systems.
Mr Akufo-Addo said these when he was speaking at EBII Africa Investments Risk and Compliance (IRC) Summit in London on Saturday July 31.
He further expressed concerns about how developed economies treat Africa during trade and investment agreements.
He noted that the rules of engagement in trade and investment that exist among the developed economies change whenever Africa becomes the focus of the trade agreements.
He told the gathering that “We have all agreed that for Africa to be able to transform ourselves and become the epitome of the economic empowerment and self-reliance, she needs to have the wherewithal to be able to protect and promote the resources at a her disposal hence the need to build a robust financial compliance systems and ensure strict enforcement of the systems.”
The reason for this is that, he said “financial crimes have over the past 30 years become a major concern for governments around the globe as it represents a significant threats to development and stability of the economies of countries around the world.
“I’m happy that the theme of this nature which is a regular feature of deliberations for investors in Europe, America and Asia should have Africa as its focus.
“ I am saying so because Africa, which since ancient time, has been defined by outsiders as the continent that always provides something new, something strange to surprise or excite the rest of the world , or the place for venture or the place to be exploited.
“It is the place where the normal rules and guide behavior elsewhere can be and are suspended. Once it is the continent of Africa, things must necessarily be somewhat different. From as far back as we can think, we will see that the world has always dealt with Africa in a manner that is different from how other parts of the world are regarded and threated .
“The rules that have been drawn up to guide the rest of the world in trade , investment , ethics, environment, governance which are accepted as part of normal conventions have thrown out or changed when the area of operation moves from Oxford to Cape Coast.
“If the African continent were not seen as a place where regular rules can be and are regularly flouted, I dare say we will not be gathered here today to grapple with the subject of this conference.
“Top of the problems, of course, is that there is so little trade between African countries and so little intra-investment among African nations . Thus when we talk about investment in Africa reference is instinctively to non-Africans and a decade ago when China made a significant entry to Africa investment on our continent was limited to western companies in the countries . It is not surprising therefore that the western counties carried into the investment arena the same attitude they had towards African counties as their former colonies.”
He however stated that “We do not ask that Africa be treated specially as fragile and to be handled with care.”
The host of Onua Maakye, Captain Smart, has bemoaned the overabundance of Indian and Spanish television programs in Ghana’s media.
He has urged the President to take the situation seriously and claims that it has increased unemployment in the nation.
According to him, the movie industry has fallen flat due to the switch to the ‘twinovelas’ and rendered actors in the industry redundant, calling on the government to ban it outrightly.
Speaking about the Ghanaian cultural heritage with focus on how to communicate with dressing as part of Media General and Onua TV’s celebration of Ghana Month, Mr. Smart was livid how foreign content has flooded the local media screens gradually obliterating the very heritage supposed to be imparted unto the younger generation through movies.
“Would you go to America and see CNN showing Agya Koo’s movie? But today, even GBC has joined the foreign telenovelas crusade and they are also showing foreign operas with Twi dubbing,” he said in Twi Friday, March 3, 2023.
“Today those in the Ghanaian movie industry don’t have anything to do that’s why Kwaku Manu had to take solace in ‘Ɔdɔ Fever’. How could you have allowed Agya Koo, Mercy Asiedu, Lil Win, Emelia Brobbey and others to be there and be showing these things on our screens? Mr. President, with all humility, please ban it (India and Spanish series in Twi),” he said.
For Ghanaians to take John Dramani Mahama seriously, Dan Kwaku Yeboah, a sports writer with the Notwithstanding Media Group, has urged him to follow in the footsteps of Togbe Afede XIV.
The journalist wants Ghanaians to know there is some kind of dedication to the former President’s promise to abolish the honorarium when re-elected, who is running to represent the opposition National Democratic Congress.
He also indicated his government would work to scrap ex-gratia benefits given to appointees under the other arms of government.
“The payment of ex-gratia to members of the executive under Article 71 will be scrapped. And the necessary constitutional steps to abolish that payment will start in earnest in 2025.
“We will also begin the process of persuading the other arms of government other than the executive to accept the removal of this ex-gratia payment,” he said.
Reacting to his promise, Dan Kwaku Yeboah who casted some doubts opined the statement is enough a message to win Mahama the 2024 polls if he proves it by example.
Just as the Paramount chief and Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State did, Dan Kwaku Yeboah wants Mr. Mahama to follow suit to distinguish this statement from the one he made in 2015 which he didn’t honour.
He was speaking on Ɛkwanso Dwoodwoo on Peace FM same day the former President made the promise.
“You said it in 2015, the time you were in government, but you couldn’t scrap it, now that you’re on the bench (in opposition) you want to scrap what? Bring the ones that you’ve taken to set an example of what you’re saying.
“If the former president brings his ex-gratia, Kwame I will campaign for him, I will clap for him. Let him say he’s doing what Togbe Afede did, so he’s also doing the same…Kwame this is a big campaign message.
“I wanted him to set an example, actions speak louder than words….Togbe Afede is a human being, and Mahama is also a human being, so why not return it as Togbe Afede did?” he quizzed.
Multifaceted musician from Ghana, MzVee, has praised Stonebwoy, a dancehall performer, for his enormous support of the majority of female musicians in the music business.
During an interview with Kafui Dey on the GTV Morning Show, she disclosed this.
According to her “Stonebwoy is an amazing person because he always shows up for all female artistes during their concert”. She had a flashback of the early days in her music career when she collaborated with Stonebwoy on most of her songs.
She has released her new album which goes with the name “Ten Thirty ”, she said she came up with this name because she turned ten years in the music industry and she also turned thirty years last year.
She added that this is a big deal for her because some people do not leave for thirty years there for that’s how she came by the name. And encourage all her fans who want to know more about her to listen to this new album because it has a lot more in there.
The package costs for this year’s holy journey to Mecca have been released by the Ghana Hajj Board.
The Board reported that this year’s package, which includes travel and lodging, is estimated to cost $6,500, or GH$75,000, in a press statement dated Wednesday, March 1.
“Deadline for payment of this year’s fee is 30th April 2023,” the press release jointly signed by Executive Secretary Alhaji Farouk Hamza and Board Chairman Ben Abdallah Banda said.
Prospective pilgrims have, however, been warned that the Cedi equivalent remains in force until Friday, March 31 by which time the exchange rate may change.
“Prospective pilgrims are therefore encouraged to pay early through any of the 42 Accredited Hajj Agents nationwide in order to secure their slots.”
Women ISIS supporters being held in Syrian detention facilities have forced boys as young as 13 to impregnate them to help boost the population of the “Caliphate.”
According to an unnamed Syrian Defense Force (SDF) official, at least ten boys at Camp al-Hawl in northeast Syria were forced to engage in sexual activities with a large number of women.
The Syrian government has detained about 8,000 ISIS-affiliated women and children since the terrorist group’s defeat in 2019. Adult male ISIS members are held in separate camps.
“We are being forced to have sex with the ISIS women, to impregnate them,” two teens identified as Ahmet, 13, and Hamid, 14, told a guard at Camp al-Hawl. “Can you get us out of here?” One of the boys was required to have sex with eight ISIS women in just a few days.
Security forces confirmed that teen boys at Camp al-Roj, also in northeastern Syria, had been subjected to similar exploitation, the Daily Beast said. In fact, one of the boys collapsed and was hospitalized after being given a Viagra-like substance to make him perform. Mothers at al-Roj, seeking to protect their sons from sexual enslavement, have begged camp authorities to transfer their boys to rehabilitation centers.
Syrian defense officials have recently adopted a policy of moving boys who have reached puberty to such rehabilitation facilities, where they receive anti-extremism counseling and are prepared for reintegration into society. The United Nations decried the policy last week, calling it “unlawful” and suggested that they may be “forcibly disappeared” or sold.
Many of the ISIS women have refused repatriation to their home countries for themselves and their children. Others, such as “ISIS bride” Shamima Begum of the UK, were stripped of their citizenship and barred from returning.
SDF officials said many women have become pregnant in the camps, though the Damascus government doesn’t know the exact number. Some give birth in secret with hopes of boosting the population of the Islamic State, which they believe will be re-established when their men arrive to break them out of the camps.
Many of the ISIS women have refused repatriation to their home countries for themselves and their children. Others, such as “ISIS bride” Shamima Begum of the UK, were stripped of their citizenship and barred from returning.
SDF officials said many women have become pregnant in the camps, though the Damascus government doesn’t know the exact number. Some give birth in secret with hopes of boosting the population of the Islamic State, which they believe will be re-established when their men arrive to break them out of the camps
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have applied to the Presidential Election Court (PEC), Abuja, for a ruling allowing them to inspect materials used for the election on February 25, but there seems to be no end in sight to the legal disputes surrounding it.
Their request is contained in two ex-parte motions they both filed at the PEC secretariat at the Court of Appeal, Abuja earlier this week.
Atiku’s motion was filed on Wednesday, March 1, while Obi’s filed his on Thursday.
Meanwhile, six states of the federation; Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto have also dragged the federal government before the Supreme Court over the conduct, collation and announcement of the February 25, 2023, presidential and National Assembly elections.
The States want the apex court to declare that the pronouncement of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the winner of the presidential election and president-elect based on that election be voided by the court.
There have been mixed reactions following the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the APC as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll. Some analysts believe the process that led to the Tinubu’s emergence as president-elect was marred by irregularities amidst other forms of electoral rigging.
The Supreme Court has declared that the old Naira notes remain legal money till 31st December, 2023.
This has cancelled the initial March 3, deadline set aside by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).
Delivering the judgement of the Supreme Court, Justice Emmanuel Agim said the naira redesign policy by the Federal Government was an affront to the 1999 Constitution.
A hasty redesign of Nigeria’s most important banknotes prompted many states to file lawsuits against the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to demand that older banknotes continue to be accepted as legal money.
What you need to know
Prior to the judgement day, the Federal Government, Bayelsa and Edo states have tried to get the lawsuit filed by 16 states, led by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, struck out by the Supreme Court.
Prime Business Africa had reported that the 16 states sued FG over the Naira redesign policy, which they stated has affected their citizens and led to hardship and chaos within their states.
The lawsuit was initially filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, but 13 states joined in the suit, arguing that the deadline of 10 February 2023 was not conducive for the transition from old Naira notes to the redesigned banknotes.
They told the court that the CBN has not been able to sufficiently meet the demands of persons that deposited their money in the bank when they approach for withdrawal.
It was disclosed that the Naira redesign policy and the short time to phase out the old Naira notes led to the scarcity of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, resulting in an economic downturn within their states, as the inability of people to withdraw grounded cash-driven trades in their states.
Update on Supreme Court judgement
The Supreme Court rejected the application by FG, Bayelsa and Edo states to strike out the lawsuit from the 16 states after the Attorney of the Federal argued that the apex court doesn’t have jurisdiction on the matter.
FG said the states failed to join the CBN as defendants in the lawsuit despite the matter centring on the Naira redesign policy led by the central bank.
Justice Agim said the Supreme Court has jurisdiction on the matter and the 16 states not including the CBN as defendants were the right decision.
During the reading of the judgement, the judge cited the admittance of President Muhammadu Buhari during a nationwide broadcast where he said the CBN Naira redesign policy is enmeshed in various challenges.
The apex court also said President Buhari acted like a dictator by disobeying its ruling on 8 February 2023, when the Supreme Court said the old Naira N200, N500 and N1,000 notes remain legal tender.
Agim told the plaintiffs and the Defendants that in the modern age, the Naira redesign policy turned Nigeria into a country where the people adopted trade by barter in order to survive.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Kogi State counterpart, Yahaya Bello and Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, were in court on Friday during the proceeding
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