The Africa Education Watch has petitioned Parliament to reject the allocation of GH¢1.8 billion made to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), a major education infrastructure financing facility in Ghana.
A petition to the leadership of Parliament stated that the group is guided by the GETFund Law, 2020 (Act 581) and the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Law, 2017 (Act 947).
According to Africa Education Watch, the sharp decline in the 2023 allocation raises serious concerns about the formula used in capping the GETFund in the 2023 budget, and whether it is in accordance with the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Law.
“Going by the 25% capping under the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act, 2017 (Act 947) and the history of allocations in line with same, we estimate that, at least GH¢2.7 billion, representing 60% of the total 2022 GETFund Levy accruals of GH¢4.6 billion should be allocated to the GETFund for 2023.
“The continuous decline in the allocation to the GETFund, amidst consistent increment in the GETFund Levy, remains a serious worry for stakeholders concerned about the widening infrastructure gap in the education sector, especially at the basic education level.
“As you may be aware, there are over 5,000 schools existing under trees, sheds and dilapidated structures, while 1.2 million children are not in basic school, among others due to the lack of public basic schools in underserved communities. The widening infrastructure gap constricts the realization of the objectives of the government’s free Compulsory Universal Basic Education under section 38(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
“It is therefore unfortunate to learn that, not only did the Finance Minister fail to uncap the GETFund, but this year’s allocation is the lowest percentage of accruals in the history of the Fund, raising questions about the legal basis for allocating only 39% of GETFund Levy accruals to the GETFund.
“As Parliament prepares to consider the appropriation estimates for the education sector, we are drawing the attention of the House to the requirements of 25% capping of GETFund viz the 61% of GETFund Levy accruals being reallocated to other sectors, leaving only 39% for allocation to the GETFund.
“Eduwatch calls on Parliament to reject the allocation and cause the Minister of Finance to review the weights applied in allocating the GETFund, in line with the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act, 2017 (Act 947), and the increasing infrastructure gap in the education sector, especially basic education.”
The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has described the payment of allowances to trainees at the Colleges of Education as a wasteful expenditure that must be scrapped with immediate effect.
Mr Asare said if the government intends to deliver on its 2023 budget policy then some wasteful expenditures must be cut.
According to him, the government is spending far more on Senior High Education to the detriment of basic education, a situation that creates a lacuna in basic school development.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion organized by the Citizen’s Coalition in Accra, Mr Asare noted that, much of the expenses done in the Education sector must be reconsidered taking into account the poor implementation and deficiencies that are impacting negatively the quality of education in Ghana.
“I think the budget failed to appreciate that there is a certain wasteful expenditure that should leave the education space, especially teacher trainee allowance. The government has repeated that it intends to spend 241 in 2023 to feed adult trainees who are in tertiary education and have the right to access student loans just like other tertiary students.
“In austerity, the government must be cutting down on wasteful expenditure and spending more on the vulnerable, we also don’t see more enhanced spending on Free compulsory basic education,” Mr Asare said.
Meanwhile, the Africa Education Watch has petitioned Parliament to reject the allocation of GH¢1.8 billion made to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), a major education infrastructure financing facility in Ghana.
“The sharp decline in the 2023 allocation raises serious concern about the formula used in capping the GETFund in the 2023 budget, and whether it is in accordance with the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Law.
“Going by the 25% capping under the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act, 2017 (Act 947) and the history of allocations in line with the same, we estimate that, at least GHC 2.7 billion, representing 60% of the total 2022 GETFund Levy accruals of GHC 4.6 billion should be allocated to the GETFund for 2023.”
Former President John Dramani Mahama has urged the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, and the newly-re-elected National Youth Organiser, George Opare Addo, to ceasefire on their public banters at each other.
According to him, the exchanges bring no benefit to the party but only serve as a distraction.
He therefore urged them to rather keep their eyes on the prize for the ‘Ghana we want’.
In a Facebook post, the former president shared two separate pictures that showed his engagements with Sammy Gyamfi and George Opare Addo.
“I’ve had meetings with our Youth Organizer and Communications Officer and agreed with them that the current exchanges must stop. It brings our great party no benefit and only serves as a distraction from the hardship caused by the reckless management of our economy.
Let’s keep our eyes on the prize for the ‘Ghana we want’,” he wrote as caption.
The two started their public exchanges just after the National Women and Youth conference that was held at the Cape Coast Stadium on Saturday, December 10, 2022.
Prior to the elections, Sammy Gyamfi openly campaigned for Yaw Brogya Genfi, one of the candidates in the race for the National Youth Organizer position.
However, the candidate, Bronya Genfi, lost by 25 votes to George Opare Addo.
Speaking in an interview after the elections, George Opare Addo expressed disappointment over Sammy Gyamfi’s position against him, adding that all efforts to reconcile with Sammy Gyamfi proved futile.
He also accused Sammy Gyamfi of being an influence peddler and questioned the source of his wealth.
Students of Mando Senior High Technical School in the Ajumako Enyan Essiam District of the Central Region, have bemoaned the poor quality of meals served to them during dining sessions.
According to the students, they used to be served quality meals in the past, however, things have changed now as they sometimes do not get served any meals during the weekends.
Speaking in an interview with Class FM’s Central regional correspondent, Nana Tawiah, some of the students explained: “Our dining situation is bad. In the mornings, we are served tea, for lunch ‘Egbeme’ and for supper, rice water. You can see the rice under the water, no sugar, so you have to take your own sugar.
“The tea is so light, if it pours in your uniform, you can use it to wash the uniform. The dining situation is very poor, so, we’re appealing to the government to come to our aid,” a female student explained.
Another female student said: “We haven’t been served any good food since last month”.
“The day we’ll get some solid food will be days they serve Kenkey, no fish; even if they add fish, the stew is more than water, one mackerel for two tables or 20 people. Even with that, it’s once in a while. The food is bad, and it’s insufficient.”
“We’re served only liquid food thrice a day, they must at least serve solids.”
Another female student indicated that due to the poor quality of meals served, the students fall sick frequently and have to go home.
“Sometimes, they give us tea in the morning, in the afternoon, too, when you’re expecting solid food, you get there and they ask you to go for your cups, they serve you tea again. In the evening, too, you get there and they serve you Oblayo or rice water, the rice water too, you can pour the water away and add pepper to it to eat. The situation is bad”.
“Mando Senior High Technical, we’re pleading with the government and the authorities, in the name of God to help our school. We’re suffering. There are some among us who do not have money, since morning they have been sitting around starving. The tea is so light, lots of people are falling sick and have to go home. We plead with the government to help us otherwise when school vacates and we go back home, we’ll not return to school again.”
The students also bemoaned the inability of some of their parents to understand their plights, as it is believed that the government is catering for them under the current free Senior High School (SHS) programme.
“Our mothers, too, think when you come to school, you eat well, so, when you call to ask them for money or bring you food, they’ll be saying, aren’t you the ones who are being catered for by the government, why again are you calling for food or money. They really do not understand our situation,” one of the students stated.
Another student added: “When we came previously, they used to serve us Jollof and sausage”.
“There’s no money; when you ask your mum for money, it takes about a week to arrive, when it comes too, you have a lot of bills to pay because you’re owing people and have to pay for the extra classes or that.”
The Sunyani High Court has issued a restraining order against the Constituency Executive Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Dormaa Central Constituency of the Bono Region.
Per the order of the High Court, all the twenty-four Constituency Executive Members in the Dormal Central Constituency have been barred and cannot participate in the National Delegates Congress which is scheduled for Saturday, December 17, 2022.
The restraining order comes after six aggrieved card-bearing members of the party in the Dormaa Central Constituency petitioned the court to seek two reliefs; “An order to declare the election of the defendants (Constituency Executives) as null and void and a perpetual injunction against the defendants from taking part in the National Delegates Congress.”
A portion of the statement of claim as granted by the court and sighted by this reporter reads:
“An order of a perpetual injunction restraining the 3rd-26th defendants from acting as the Dormaa Central Constituency Executive Members of the National Democratic Congress and also restraining the 3rd – 26th defendants from participating in the National Executive Congress taking part in the National Delegates Congress which would be held on the 10th and 17th December 2022 at Accra.”
According to Peter Mensah, one of the petitioners, they decided to seek redress in court after all attempts for the party to declare the fraudulent constituency election as null and void proved futile.
Citing the absence of the Electoral Commission to supervise and conduct the election, Peter Mensah maintained that, that proves that the purported constituency election contravened the party’s own stipulated guidelines.
“We have always maintained that the purported constituency election was fraudulently organized because the party’s guidelines mandate that the Electoral Commission should supervise the election but that was not the case. Sadly, all efforts for the right thing to be done proved futile so we went to court and we are glad that the court has spoken restraining them from carrying themselves as Executive Members of the National Democratic Congress in the Dormaa Central Constituency and by extension they cannot take part in the National Delegates Congress.”
Meanwhile, all efforts to speak to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the time of filing this report were unsuccessful but independent checks indicate that the restraining order has officially been on the National Democratic Congress (NDC), all Constituency Executive Members and Electoral Commission.
Bishop Matthew Gyamfi, president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, has criticized CNN for a report that claims that it and other churches in Ghana received funding and foreign aid from organizations in the US, UK, and Europe that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) activities.
In the report, CNN said the churches received not less than $5.1 million in monies from donors for development projects by or for the church but continued to promote no support for same-sex rights.
But speaking to GhanaWeb in a phone interview, the Catholic bishop wondered which aspects of human rights the church had trampled on and for what reason the CNN report would seek to impugn it for receiving donor funds from countries that support LGBTQ rights.
He also explained how it is that churches in Ghana receive such donations from foreign countries.
“We are not taking any money to promote LGBTQ but remember that the churches here- many of the churches, also have branches in the United States, in Europe, and elsewhere; and the church does charity work. Now, some of these branches take money from the government to add to what the church also has, and these governments help the church execute development projects and other issues in the country.
“So, it’s not a new thing for anybody to say… So, which human right did the church destroy; human rights approved by the United Nations… has the church frowned upon?” he quizzed.
Background
Find below the breakdown of the donations to the various churches cited by the report:
Import of the report?
The report, through its findings, sought to suggest that these churches in Ghana still benefitted from millions in Western aid despite having campaigned and strictly stated their stance against LGBTQ+ activities in Ghana.
CNN spoke to some foreign organisations who clearly stated their displeasure about the fact that donor countries who have widely indicated their support for human rights, gender diversity and sexual rights of members of the LGBTQ+ community are still making room to donate to churches and organisations in countries like Ghana who are against the same course.
Some leaders of these organisations who spoke to CNN said these as captured below:
“It’s like stating you’re going to go green and then funding the petrol industry,” said Neil Datta, executive director of the European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Donor agencies need to be “more aware that sexual and reproductive rights are contested issues”, and make sure that “they are not inadvertently funding the organizations who are working against some of their other objectives,” he said, calling for stricter “background checks” on potential grantees.
“This reveals inconsistencies in the funding practices of major donors and implicates them as complicit in fostering homophobia and transphobia in Ghana,” said Caroline Koussaiman, executive director of the Initiative Sankofa d’Afrique de l’Ouest (ISDAO), an activist-led fund supporting gender diversity and sexual rights in West Africa. “This is the antithesis of “do no harm” principles.”
“We need donors to support our struggles for liberation, and not directly or indirectly fund anti-gender movements which we know are extremely well resourced,” she added.
Foreign donations suggest fostering homophobia or transphobia?
CNN in its report also spoke to some of these foreign donors to enquire how that monies were still being sent to churches in countries that were homophobic.
This was despite its indication that these foreign donations cannot be said to be used for funding anti-LGBTQ activities but generally for developmental purposes.
“There is no indication the funding identified went to any explicitly anti-LGBTQI+ activities,” the CNN report said.
While some of these donors indicated that support had been stopped in that regard, some others said the funding was done under now-outdated guidelines.
Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for instance, told CNN it “is not responsible for the use of these [identified] funds,” saying they go directly from people’s taxes to different religious organizations that distribute the money for development work.
Below are some of the donations as listed by CNN’s report:
1. Citing the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) for instance, the CNN report said that more than $140,000 of taxpayers’ monies from the UK [which is a co-chair of the international Equal Rights Coalition, an intergovernmental organization that protects LGBTQI+ community members worldwide] was donated to the council between the period of 2018-2020.
2. CNN’s analysis also found that some other members of the Equal Rights Coalition — the US, Germany, and Italy — funded projects by or for some of these churches in Ghana that have opposed LGBTQI+ rights “before, during, and after they benefited from aid money”.
3. In 2018 also, £100,000 (about $130,000) of the UK taxpayers’ money went to the Christian Council with a stated goal of fighting corruption in schools, the report further stated.
4. The report also noted that the US federal government sent more than $13,000 to the Christian Council in January 2020, for a project to provide shelters to refugees at Krisan Camp in southwestern Ghana.
5. 208,000 euros (about $245,000) of German aid money went to the Christian Council between 2014 and 2018, via an intermediary called Brot für die Welt.
6. German as well as Italian aid also went to development projects run by or benefiting some individual Christian Council Ghana member churches including projects of Ghana’s Methodist, Evangelical Presbyterian, and Presbyterian churches who received at least $670,000 from these countries via intermediary religious NGOs between 2016 and 2020.
7. Germany, Italy, and the US have also funded projects by or benefiting the Ghanaian Catholic Church. German Catholic intermediary NGO, Misereor, disclosed spending 2.8 million euros ($3.1 million) of German taxpayers’ money on projects by the Catholic Church’s partner organizations in Ghana between 2016 and 2020. This included $127,000 that was spent on a project with a broad goal of strengthening strategy and management standards for the churches’ development work.
8. Despite pledges to protect the rights of sexual and gender minorities, US and European donors spent at least $5.1 million of taxpayers’ money on projects run by or benefiting Ghanaian religious organizations whose leaders have campaigned against LGBTQI+ rights.
9. Aid benefiting Ghana’s Catholic Church also included $850,000 from the US. Between 2019 and 2020 this money went to Ghanaian and US contractors for a project whose goal was to transition several dioceses of the Church to solar power.
Ghana and the LGBTQ+ Bill:
Ghana is currently working on a proposed bill – Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill proposed to introduce restrictions on LGBT+ activities in the country.
The Bill was proposed by some 8 Members of Parliament – Sam Nartey George, Della Sowah, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, Alhassan Suhuyini, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, Helen Ntoso, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, John Ntim Fordjour in June 2021.
On 2 August 2021, the bill passed its first reading in the Ghanaian Parliament, being referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for assessment.
According to reports, after taking office 16 months ago, Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng has not received compensation.
According to a report by myjoyonline.com, all the staff at the Office of the Special Prosecutor except for the Deputy Special Prosecutor have also not been paid all their salaries.
The report also indicated that documents available to JoyNews show that the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, is also owed arrears.
It added that the lack of payment has left the affected staff becoming agitated.
The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, according to a JOY FM document said that the situation is very worrying since the lack of payment leaves the affected staff in a vulnerable state, which might derail the fight against corruption.
Kissi Agyebeng, therefore, called on the government to put the necessary measures in place to ensure that his staff are given their compensation.
Kissi Agyebeng officially assumed office on Thursday, August 5, 2021, as the country’s second Special Prosecutor after being sworn into office by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor was established in 2018 by President Akufo-Addo as the gold standard and flagship specialized independent anti-corruption institution in the country.
Its main objective is to prevent, investigate, and prosecute corruption and corruption-related offenses, as well as recover assets that have been stolen from the state.
The definitions of “man” and “woman” in the Cambridge Dictionary have been updated to incorporate a new definition for those who do not identify with the sex they were given at birth.
Along with the definition, the dictionary also gave two examples to explain the meanings. For ‘man’, the examples read: “Mark is a trans man (= a man who was said to be female when they were born)” and “Their doctor encouraged them to live as a man for a while before undergoing surgical transition” or ‘woman’, the examples are: “She was the first trans woman elected to a national office” and “Mary is a woman who was assigned male at birth”.
Meanwhile, the first definition at the entry for woman remains unchanged and continues to be “an adult female human being” and man “an adult male human being.”
The previous definitions assumed that sex and gender identity always adhered to one another. The new definitions, however, are inclusive of trans people.
Speaking about these updates, a Cambridge Dictionary spokesperson told international media outlet; The Telegraph, that editors of the dictionary made the addition to the entry for woman in October 2022.
On the other hand, social media users have conflicting opinions about the most recent definitional adjustments.
Read some of the post below;
The Cambridge Dictionary just changed the definition of “woman.” Remember, if you can control the language, you can control the population.
Imagine inverting **the dictionary definition** of a term that defines half of the world’s population while simultaneously claiming cultural handicap. https://t.co/BJ45E0PsgM
I refuse to play along with this delusion. Airbrushed makeup, heels, fake breasts and an exaggerated valley girl voice impersonation does not make you a woman. The fact some people think it does is insulting. Stop erasing women. https://t.co/z1uSsoXtfT
Changing the meaning of words create a different kind of language. If a cat is now a dog, you just create a different reality where words stopped describing reality the way it is in order for you to control the narrative.
Changing the meaning of words create a different kind of language. If a cat is now a dog, you just create a different reality where words stopped describing reality the way it is in order for you to control the narrative.
I just read 1984 by George Orwell, the idea of controlling a population by limiting language is one of the big lessons in it. Scary to see it happening in real life. “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”1984
In retaliation over the confiscation of their cell phones, some second-year students at Sandema Senior High School in the Upper East Region set fire to some of the dormitories at their school.
According to Class 91.3 FM’s regional correspondent, Moses Appiah, the students were protesting against the head of the school’s cadet corps for seizing their mobile phones on campus.
In the process of the violent protest, the students went ahead to burn a building that houses the cadet accoutrements of the school.
The fire then escalated to other rooms including the school’s dormitory where the District Fire Service team came to the rescue.
The Upper East Regional chapter of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary School (CHASS), Richard Akumbasi, speaking after the incident noted that students’ indiscipline was becoming too much in the region.
According to him, just a few days ago, students of Kusanaba Senior High School and management were at loggerheads over where to hold an examination.
“It’s sad that each day we have to be talking about students and violence at the various schools.”
“Indiscipline is a matter of concern, and I think parents and stakeholders involved ought to find a solution to this.”
“What was it about with these students in Sandema Senior High School, just a seizure of a mobile phone?
And the students think that burning school property was the way to go.
Then, we are really in trouble as a society,” he noted.
Touching on the action taken by the school management against the students, the chairman indicated that the caretaker of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the region will soon set up a committee to investigate the matter.
“Currently, the caretaker director of GES will hold a committee meeting whether today or tomorrow Friday, December 16, 2022, to see the way forward.
“But for me, these students should be tasked to pay damage fees,” he suggested.
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has given an explanation of his decision to resign from his position and run for the party’s national chairmanship.
Speaking in an XYZ TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Asiedu Nketiah said that he had served in the General Secretary position for too long and had to leave to give the youth of the party the opportunity to also serve.
He added that he took the decision to leave the general secretary position eight years ago but was persuaded to stay for the sake of the party.
“I have never believed that the chief executive of an organisation should be at post for too long. I consider 17 years (as General Secretary of the NDC) to be too long. I have demonstrated this all my life. I decided not to be a Member of Parliament again after three terms, not because somebody could have removed me but because I want to give the youth who had served me the chance to lead,” he said in Twi.
He added that many people in the NDC had previously told him that they have the dream of becoming general secretary, but they are not contesting because they do not want to challenge him.
Asiedu Nketiah also explained that people staying in political party positions for too long makes the party less attractive to the youth.
He added that, comparing the NDC to the NPP (New Patriotic Party), the youth in the NPP transition faster to top positions than their NDC counterparts, which makes them more attractive.
“Look at this young man who became the General Secretary of the NPP (Justin Kodua Frimpong). He started in the NPP just 10 years ago. So, if he started in the same university as NDC members and he, a TESCON member, has risen from president (of TESCON) to youth organiser and now to the national organiser of the NPP, the youth will be more attracted to the NPP because they will feel they progress faster there,” he said.
Some leading members of the NDC, including Ambassador Victor Smith and Kojo Adu-Asare, have suggested that Asiedu Ntetiah’s decision to challenge the current chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, is because he is bitter for not being chosen as the running mate of John Dramani Mahama for the 2020 presidential elections.
The party’s national elections are slated for Saturday, December 17, 2022.
Candidates will be contesting for various positions, including the National Chairman, National Vice-Chairmen, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, National Organiser, Deputy National Organiser, and the National Treasurer and Deputy National Treasurer.
Others are the National Communications Officer and Deputy, as well as the National Zongo Caucus Coordinator.
The current National Chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, is expected to face stiff competition from the outgoing General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, for the chairmanship position.
Former Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has accused former President John Mahama and General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia of destroying the party, per the latter’s latest revelation.
According to Koku, the duo have abused the NDC constitution in their bid to control the party.
Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, who is challenging incumbent National Chairman Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo for the position, has revealed that there was some misunderstanding after former President Mahama through the former Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, proposed that the Director of Elections and Director of IT should be appointed after the presidential primaries.
He explained that the proposal was purposely made because the flagbearer should be able to have a say in who he would like to work with in that regard.
In the audio believed to have been leaked, Asiedu Nketiah said that the proposal did not go well with the National Chairman, Ofosu-Ampofo, who at the time expressed his displeasure.
Asiedu Nketiah also alleged that the chairman had also said that he could do as he pleased in his capacity as chair until the flagbearer election is held and John Mahama cannot stop him.
“Former President Mahama sent Julius Debrah (the former chief of staff during Mahama’s administration) to plead with the party leadership not to appoint a director of elections and a director of IT until the party completes its presidential primaries because the flagbearer of the party must have a say on who becomes the director of elections and the director of IT. As soon as Julius finished speaking, Ampofo said he considers the submission offensive to him and his authority as the leader of the NDC party,” Asiedu Nketiah alleged.
“Ampofo said that Mahama can only become the leader of the party after the flagbearer election has been held. Until then, he [Ofosu-Ampofo] remains the only leader of the party, and so he can do as he pleases as he [Mahama] cannot stop him because he [Mahama] is an ordinary party member of the NDC,” Asiedu Nketiah added.
Asiedu Nketiah explained that this comment caused some misunderstanding between the Mahama and Ofosu camps.
“The position of Ofosu-Ampofo brought about a serious misunderstanding at the meeting. The meeting thus became a fight between the Mahama faction and the Ofosu Ampofo faction. I [Asiedu Nketiah] sat down quietly and listened to all that was going on,” Asiedu Nketiah added.
But commenting on the matter on Kasapa 102.5FM/Agoo TV on Thursday, Koku Anyidoho stated that it’s important that Mr. Mahama and Asiedu Nketiah are stopped in their tracks now from further destroying the great NDC party.
“Look at what Asiedu Nketiah is telling us—that John Mahama sent Julius Debrah to the National Executive Committee (NEC) that they should reserve some positions and when he becomes flagbearer he will appoint those people. Since when? Which article in the NDC constitution gives that power to Mahama, who at the time was yet to be elected a flagbearer? I say confidently that John Mahama and Asiedu Nketia have destroyed the NDC. When I say this, I’m tagged as “anti-John Mahama. I’m not anti-Mahama; I’m pro-NDC and will always seek the interest of the party.”
“I didn’t see Rawlings abuse the NDC, I didn’t see John Evans Attah Mills abuse the NDC constitution. So why should I allow John Mahama to abuse the NDC constitution? Asiedu Nketiah in the tape was telling us that the 2020 election was for Mahama and so he had a right to make appointments in the party. Since when did an election belong to an individual and not rather for the party? Since when did the NDC election become John Mahama’s election? Mahama and Asiedu Nketiah have acted in ways that have destroyed the party, today, Asiedu Nketiah has exposed John Mahama and himself.”
Ghana’s first and current Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has expressed displeasure with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for escalating the party’s chairmanship election into an interethnic struggle.
The NDC is going to congress on Saturday, 17 December 2022, to elect national officers ahead of the 2024 elections. The chairmanship position is being keenly contested between the incumbent Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and the current General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketia.
Their campaigns, Mr Amidu believes, are turning tribal and, thus, feels disappointed with the turn of events.
In an article, the former Attorney General said the founder of the NDC, the late President Jerry John Rawlings, and the late Justice D. F. Annan who co-chaired the meeting at the Bluegate to agree to form the NDC, were not ethnocentric or tribalistic.
He noted that the introduction of the ethnic and tribal element in the Chairmanship election of the NDC is a dangerous development that does great damage to the image of the late President Jerry John Rawlings and the late Justice D. F. Annan a few days before the celebration of the ideals of the 31st December Revolution.
He said such actions by the NDC can only aid President Nana Akufo-Addo’s long game for the 2024 election to install his preferred candidate as President of Ghana on 7 January 2025.
“We founded the NDC in 1992 for the grassroots citizen. Do not betray the people and the 31st December Revolutionary cause,” he urged the leadership of the party.
Below are details of the article:
NDC CHAIRMANSHIP ELECTION – MERIT OR TRIBALISM: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
The resemblance between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) appears to have become indistinguishable to the extent that the leading members of the NDC appear to have turned the contest for the Chairmanship of the NDC into an ethnic conflict for supremacy. As a foundation member of the NDC who was in the room when Mr Justice D. F. Annan advocated for an umbrella party to bring together all those diverse group of people from other political traditions and the revolutionary ranks who could not join an Nkrumaist formation political party which was in the works by another member of the PNDC, I was shocked to hear the incumbent Chairman of the NDC pleading his ethnicity as a qualification to be maintained as the Chairman of the NDC.
It is a shame that the National Democratic Congress which we founded and nursed to represent the 31st December Revolutionary tradition has now been reduced to the politics of ethnic arithmetic.
“I’m an Akyem, and I become the national organiser of the party. Do you know what I have suffered as an Akyem person to become NDC chairman or organiser? …Today, go to Kyebi and see; my hometown is Asikam, the next town from Kyebi. Roads are constructed in Kyebi, and the construction stops just at the border of my hometown. Not even one asphalt road has been constructed in my hometown…. (Samuel) Atta Akyea (Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South) distributed streetlights and when it got to my mother’s downtown, Akyem Adukrom, they did not even get a light because they vote for the NDC.”
The incumbent NDC Chairman is reported to have said that his citrus plantation was burnt after the 2000 elections and he was nearly assassinated when he was running to become the Member of Parliament for the Fanteakwa Constituency in 2004.
Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo should be appreciated for his commitment and dedication to the NDC over the years but that should not be based on his ethnic origins.
Other committed members of the NDC have died since 1992 for belonging to the National Democratic Congress, the latest being about eight dead in the 2020 elections.
They did not die because they were Akyems or of any particular ethnic or tribal stock.
There were so many Akyems who pitched their camp with the NDC or an NDC affiliate party in the Progressive Alliance since its inception such as Dr Adjei Marfo, the late Mr Fred Ohene-Kena of Kukurantumi, the late Mr Danny Ofori-Atta and Mr Owuraku Amofah of Ofori Panin Fie of Kyebi itself, and others, out of volition.
My disappointment in the banal level to which the NDC Chairmanship election campaign had sunk was aggravated when it was reported that the former Eastern Regional Minister and native of Kukurantumi, Mr Victor Smith, had said that he and other leading members of the party, including ex-President Mahama, advised Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah not to challenge Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo for the chairmanship position since it might create unnecessary tension, but he refused to listen to them. As if this was not enough side-taking by a senior member of the NDC, he added that:
“When the General Secretary called me one evening and indicated that he wanted to contest for the party’s chairmanship position, I told him that he was going to cause trouble in the party. But the general secretary told me that he had already made up his mind…. I told him that his move would lead to people spilling out some secrets, but he did not listen. John Dramani Mahama and the party leaders advised him not to contest, but he said he had already decided and it was a democracy.”
The message which Mr. Victor Smith sought to convey by his interview apart from carrying the ethnic undertones of the messenger’s own place of ethnic origin also implicitly sought to inform the public that John Dramani Mahama does not support Mr Aseidu-Nketiah’s bid to become Chairman of the NDC in the upcoming elections.
Mr Smith is simply urging Mr Mahama’s supporters to vote against Mr Aseidu Nketiah.
Mr John Dramani Mahama has insinuated that he does not have any preference amongst the candidates contesting for executive positions but one of his ardent supporters just openly contradicted him in favour of the retention of the incumbent Chairman at the upcoming elections.
Then comes a National Vice-Chairman of the NDC openly taking sides in the upcoming Chairmanship elections in a manner which leaves one in doubt whether he understood what he was saying when in the teeth of Mr Ofosu-Ampofo’s plea of his ethnicity as an Akyem as one of his qualifications, Mr Said Sinare said:
“The national chairman that our party, the NDC, needs for the battle in 2024 must be a man who has been de-tribalised, a man whose humanity, humility, philanthropy, and respect for everyone, regardless of tribe, religion, or political affiliation, define him. a man who truly embodies national harmony and puts his party’s interests first…. Voting against Ampofo will be the biggest political blunder or treason our party will ever commit.”
Having worked as the General Secretary of the NDC for seventeen years, Mr Aseidu Nketiah is entitled to contest for the ultimate position of Chairman of the NDC.
Mr Aseidu Nketiah was also entitled and deserved as of right to have wished to be nominated to be the Vice-Presidential candidate of the NDC in the 2020 elections and committed no sin for that wish.
In any case, why single out Mr Aseidu Nketiah, out of the three contestants seeking to replace the incumbent Chairman of the NDC?
How does the publication of leaked audio recordings attributed to Mr Aseidu Nketiah help the NDC as part of spilling secrets after the Chairmanship elections?
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo, Mr Aseidu Nketiah, Nii Armah Ashitey, and Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei who are contesting for the NDC Chairmanship position need a level playing field to enable each of them to convince the delegates to the NDC conference of his merit and what he brings to the table so that the delegates may choose who they think can best serve the interest of the NDC.
The plea of Akyem ethnicity by Mr Ofosu-Ampofo is negative electioneering and sins against the 31st December Revolution tradition.
The interventions by leading members of the NDC who should not openly be taking sides in the electioneering with ethnic undertones as the qualification for election as the Chairman of the NDC is also doing and will do more damage to the Congress we founded in 1992, going forward.
The founder of the NDC, the late President Jerry John Rawlings, and the late Mr Justice D. F. Annan who co-chaired the meeting at the Bluegate to agree to form the NDC were not ethnocentric or tribalistic.
The introduction of the ethnic and tribal element in the Chairmanship election of the NDC is a dangerous development that does great damage to the image of the late President Jerry John Rawlings and the late Mr Justice D. F. Annan a few days to the celebration of the ideals of the 31st December Revolution.
It can only aid Nana Akufo-Addo’s long game for election 2024 to install his preferred candidate as President of Ghana on 7 January 2025.
We founded the NDC in 1992 for the grassroots citizen. Do not betray the people and the 31st December Revolutionary cause.
As part of the overall strategy to prevent accidents, especially during this festive season and beyond, the Police have introduced an initiative to check the insecure loading of vehicles across the country.
The initiative, dubbed Operation PAILES (POLICE ANTI-INSECURE LOADING ENFORCEMENT STRATEGY ) is aimed at ensuring that cargo carting trucks do not take goods beyond their legally permitted limits, a practice that has become one of the major causes of accidents in the country.
According to the Police, following a piloting of the strategy in the Eastern Region over the past three months leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of over 50 insecurely loaded trucks (pictures attached), the implementation of the strategy is being rolled out across the country.
“As part of the implementation of the strategy, the Police are engaging relevant stakeholders such as the cargo association, charcoal, and timber drivers unions across the country to educate and caution them on the dangers associated with insecure loading and the need to adhere to the required legal loading limits,” a statement issued by the Police said.
“We would like to take this opportunity to urge the public to support us in our efforts to ensure strict compliance with the Anti-Insecure Loading Enforcement Strategy to make our roads safe and secure during this Christmas season and beyond,” it added.
Beginning on Friday, December 16, 2022, the cost of petroleum goods will drop significantly, according to IES projections.
The IES indicates that the expected fall follows the continuous appreciation of the cedi against the US dollar in recent times and the continued price falls recorded on the international market over the first pricing window.
The cedi’s appreciation against the US dollar currently stands at 6.60 percent.
Resultantly, new prices are projected to be at about GH¢13 and GH¢16 per litre for petrol and diesel respectively while Liquefied Petroleum Gas is expected to sell at GH¢12 per kilogram.
“With the continued price falls recorded on the international market, consumers are set to see further price relief at the pumps. The Institute for Energy Security (IES) predicts that on the back of 9.02%, 8.08% and 7.38% fall in prices of Gasoline [petrol], Gasoil [diesel] and LPG respectively, the domestic OMCs outlets are set to reduce their prices further”, the IES said in a statement.
World fuel market
The global Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s) Platt averages monitored over the last pricing-window indicate that the price of petrol continues to fall, with price in the period under review dropping by 9.02 percent from US$838.78 per metric tonnes to US$763.10 per metric tonnes.
Diesel prices also further dropped by 8.08 percent from US$969.70 per metric tonne to US$891.30 per metric tonne. LPG price also followed in same direction, falling by 7.38 percent from US$618.20 per metric tonne to US$572.58 per metric tonnes.
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has announced measures to help curtail road crashes ahead of the Yuletide.
The Authority says it is bent to pool resources with the police to enforce the law, stressing that drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs will be arrested and prosecuted.
Ghana is among the African countries grappling with road traffic crashes.
Statistics available at NRSA indicate that Ghana has recorded an 18 per cent reduction in road crash fatalities as compared to the same period in 2021.
A total of 2,171 persons have died through road crashes between January and November 2022 as against 2,654 deaths recorded in 2021 within the same period.
This represents a decrease of 9.85 per cent.
The Authority has revealed that a total of 10,628 vehicles have been involved in road crashes within this period.
Head of Corporate Affairs Pearl Adusu Sateckla, speaking in an interview on Onua TV, said there had been reduction with all other indicators, including injuries and pedestrian knockdowns.
She reaffirmed the Authority’s determination to apprehend and prosecute adamant drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs to serve as a deterrent.
“We have arranged with the police to deal drastically with reckless drivers especially those who drink and drive in this yuletide and beyond.
“We will deploy our men together with police personnel(s) on the streets and any driver detected to be drunk or driving under the influence of a strange substance will be made to face the full rigour of the law,” she reiterated.
Ms Adusu Sateckla expounded that the Authority recently launched an initiative dubbed ‘Metwi a, mentwa — I do not drink and drive’ aimed at reducing the incidence of drunk driving through education to commercial drivers, passengers and road users.
She underscored that the NRSA has done enough to curtail road crashes and fatalities through its campaigns and would not renege on its responsibilities to upend accidents this yuletide.
She thus appealed to drivers to be responsible and heed to directives and similarly urged pedestrians and other road users to desist from crossing the road indiscriminately.
Government says persons believed to have caused financial losses to the State leading to the banking sector clean-up will be duly prosecuted.
Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah maintains, bank owners such as Dr. Kwabena Duffour of uniBank and Kofi Amoabeng of UT Bank and others will be prosecuted in order to recover monies misspent.
This comes after an Accra High Court changed its position and accepted the GH¢90 million repayment terms for a restitution deal between state prosecutors and Ato Essien, the embattled founder of now-defunct Capital Bank.
The Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of nine banks during the financial sector clean-up.
They included UT Bank, Capital Bank, Sovereign Bank, Beige Bank, Premium Bank, The Royal Bank, Heritage Bank, Construction Bank and uniBank.
Some former officials of these banks are facing several charges over their purported culpability in leading to the collapse of the financial institutions.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Citi News, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah confirmed that, government’s quest to retrieve the monies and prosecute all other suspects is on course.
“Some of them are in court now facing prosecution. UT Bank is in court now. For uniBank, there are some people in court now same as Beige Bank”, he emphasized.
“We are also looking at the Savings and Loans and Microfinance Companies. In fact, EOCO and other investigative bodies have done so much and extensive work on these institutions. So we are preparing the dockets. Our mission is to prosecute and possibly recover”, the deputy AG continued.
In a related development, the second and third accused persons in the Capital Bank case, Tetteh Nettey and Rev Fitzgerald Odonkor respectively have been acquitted and discharged by an Accra High Court.
The two were both charged alongside the founder of the defunct bank Ato Essien.
With that same case that the Court reconsidered its decision on the GHC 90 million deal between founder of capital bank Ato Essien and the State, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah argued that the funds were state funds as the defunct capital bank has been taken over by the state and state funds expended to pay the monies of depositors.
Earlier, Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Justice of Appeal, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, rejected the agreement, indicating that the amount agreed to be paid was not good enough, and adjourned the case to December 13 for the parties to address the court on the legal basis of the terms of the agreement.
A former National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP), Joseph Saaka Akati, has been reported dead.
According to myxyzonline.com, the former MP for Bole-Bamboi died on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, in Accra.
The body has been flown to Bole and arrangements for the funeral will be communicated later, a family source indicated, according to the report.
Akati won the Bole-Bamboi seat with 11,452 votes in 2008, succeeding John Dramani Mahama who was contended with the late John Atta Mills for the
presidency that year.
That was when he began his political career, representing his constituents in the 5th parliament.
A Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Paul Afriyie has been declared bankrupt by a court after it emerged that he indebted to the tune of £1.7 million.
Afriyie, despite being a Brit was born to a Ghanaian father and British mother but grew up in Britain largely under the guidance of his mother.
His indebtedness according to the BBC is in two parts, an amount of around £1 million is owed to state-run HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) whiles £700,000 is owed to Barclays bank.
A bankruptcy order was made against the MP at a hearing in the Insolvency and Companies Court on Tuesday, a B0BC report added.
Afriyie is Windsor MP on the ticket of the governing Conservative Party, he had already announced he would be standing down at the next election, saying with Brexit “concluded” it was the “right time.”
Afriyie reacts to bankruptcy
Afriyie said of the court order that it was “a stressful time”.
“This has been ongoing for many years following business failures some time ago.
“I am ultimately responsible for some of the bank borrowing through personal guarantee. I’ve been trying to sell our home and downsize for some time, but it’s a tough market.
“It’ll be tough for a while, but I’m far from the only person in a difficult position, and I will continue to do my best to support my constituents until the next general election when I’ll be standing down.”
The BBC report added that the embattled MP had asked for the court proceedings to be adjourned until March arguing he would be able to pay off his debts by selling off a property.
About Adam Afriyie
He was born 4 August 1965 in Wimbledon, London to an English mother and a Ghanaian father, growing up in a council estate in Peckham.
He has been an MP since 2005 and has along the way held a number of cabinet portfolios.
He attended the local Oliver Goldsmith Primary School as well as Addey and Stanhope School in New Cross, before earning a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Wye College in 1987.
Afriyie has seven half-siblings and one brother. He said of his upbringing: “I never knew my father until I was much older and my mother, Gwen, brought us up alone. She was my rock, the gel at the centre of my life, although her tumultuous relationships with different men made for a constant state of flux at the boundaries of our family.”
The Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, has said that despite the government’s announcement of the $3 billion contract with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), nothing meaningful has been accomplished as of yet.
The legislator for Bolgatanga Central Constituency said, the government can only be excited about the IMF deal on Staff-Level Agreement if the relevant stakeholders/bondholders agree to sign up for the Debt Exchange Programme.
Some stakeholders such as the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNMA), Ghana Medical Association (GMA), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Ghana Securities Industry Association (GSIA), amongst others, had kicked against the move by government to touch their pension funds.
Reacting to the IMF deal on Eyewitness News, Mr. Adongo said, the difficult part is not the pronouncements by the government on the deal, but achieving debt sustainability is the most important thing.
Isaac Adongo said, “nothing has been achieved on the Debt Exchange Programme. This is nothing more than an outline of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU is saying that we do agree that given your circumstances, you need to get debt sustainability, and that has not been achieved”.
He observed that no Ghanaian has signed up for the Debt Exchange Programme, advising the government to work hard to get all stakeholders to sign up for the programme.
“To date, not even a single bondholder has signed to the Debt Exchange Programme, so there’s really nothing that has been achieved on Debt Exchange Programme. Nothing concrete has been achieved. The most difficult part is how we get Ghanaians and non-resident holders to sign up for government’s policy on the Debt Exchange programme.
“The banks are quietly disagreeing, Ghana Securities Industry Association say they disagree and won’t sign up to the programme in its current form, Trade Unions are saying that their pensions are already perilously low, and so they don’t want to further aggravate the pensions difficulties of their workers, and so they disagree”.
He said government should ensure that the debt sustainability is achieved in a way acceptable to both government and stakeholders.
“The difficult part is not the pronouncements that we agree to achieve debt sustainability, but how do you achieve debt sustainability in a way that stakeholders are able to work in path with you, a policy acceptable by both parties. That’s the most difficult part government must deal with,” Mr. Adongo said.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta at a joint press conference with the IMF officials on December 13, 2023, said, “against the backdrop of Staff Programmes, Ghana is indeed blessed to conclude our Staff Level Agreement within 5 months. This is historic in recent times relative to what we witnessed with Zambia, Chad and Ethiopia”.
The Minister added, “Ghana stands ready to complete all Prior Actions before the end-March 2023 but more importantly, Ghana is committed to the IMF Programme as a whole. The SLA is only one aspect of the approval process. More is yet to be done to secure IMF Management and Board approval. We hope that Ghanaians will continue to support all efforts to restore macroeconomic stability and promote robust and inclusive growth”.
“We are confident as a resilient people, and we shall rally to support this great enterprise, to restore macroeconomic stability and promote robust and inclusive growth. The world is looking at us, and I know we can do it,” Mr. Ofori-Atta stressed.
The Interim Council and Management of the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC) will on Monday, December 19 unveil its new logo.
The logo unveiling ceremony will be held at the North Dzorwulu Campus of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).
UniMAC is the first public university established by an Act of Parliament, Act 1059, which merges three specialised institutions namely GIJ, Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL) and National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI).
After the Council’s 6th Regular Meeting last month, Rector of GIJ Professor Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo was appointed Vice Chancellor of UniMAC.
His appointment took effect from Thursday, December 1.
Prof. Eric Opoku Mensah was appointed the acting Rector of the GIJ to replace Prof Kwansah-Aidoo.
Assin Central Member of Parliament (MP) and flagbearer hopeful for the New Patriotic Party, Kennedy Agyapong has declared that he is not desperate to become president.
The lawmaker who is into business and media has stressed that he will, however, not settle for a vice presidential slot if he fails to achieve the ultimate goal.
He explained that mush as he wants to serve society through politics, he won’t function properly if he has a boss who doesn’t share his vision.
“The truth is, I am not a politician who feels that without becoming president I will die. I have enough to live on and so I am here to serve but to want to serve with a vision and there is someone ahead of me who doesn’t share my vision, I prefer to stay away.
“Because if I say this is what I have experienced and want to change and I have gone to the remotest part of India … where common sugarcane is being leveraged on to generate even electricity.
“If I say we should use sugar and its extractives to generate electricity but if your president doesn’t share your vision and wants to suppress me with English, English, I won’t get that patience,” he told a gathering on his ongoing tour of the United States.
He formally launched his flagbearership campaign over the weekend reemphasizing how he would turn around Ghana’s economy.
He reiterated boosting mechanized agriculture and tourism as the main drivers of the economy if he realizes his dream of becoming president.
With respect to tourism, Agyapong harped on the need to leverage on Ghana’s coastline to attract tourists especially with the castles and other monuments dotted along the coast.
Agyapong is hoping to succeed president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as leader of the NPP going into the 2024 elections.
Prominent names that have popped up in the race include: Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and Agric Minister Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto – none of them have officially declared their intent.
Kennedy Agyapong and former NPP General Secretary Kwabena Agyei Agyapong as well as one-time Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko, have publicly declared their intention to run for the position.
Newly reelected National Youth Organizer of the Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) George Opare Addo has openly asked his fellow Executive Sammy Gyamfi to explain his source of wealth.
According to George Opare Addo who won reelection with a slim margin against Yaw Brogya Genfi, he considered the contest as him against “that Airport Hills small boy” Sammy Gyamfi and not Brogya, Opare Addo said on Live Radio with Mugabe Maase.
Mr. Opare Addo later dared Sammy Gyamfi on air to explain how he owned the plush property.
“As for this election, it was that Airport Hills small boy I contested not Brogya, I said today I will mention names… I contested Sammy Gyamfi and I won. He is a small boy. There is nothing he can match me on, I have lived life well. He is a small boy.” Pablo said.
Sammy Gyamfi openly campaigned for his friend Yaw Brogya Genfi to be elected National Youth Organizer but lost by 25 votes at the just ended Women and Youth elections of the party. Opare Addo was not happy with Sammy Gyamfi and said Sammy Gyamfi has become an obstacle he has to deal with.
“Yes, Sammy Gyamfi has now become an obstacle and in my way and this my second term I will not joke! I will cut away anybody who stands in my way as an obstacle. It is only action that we will see. Action action action….” Opare Addo said.
Popularly known as Pablo, the reelected NDC youth leader asked that Sammy Gyamfi explains how he built a house at Airport Hills and what work he does.
“Mugabe, ask Sammy Gyamfi how he built a house at Airport Hills, what work does he do?” He asked.
Opare Addo revealed previous reconciliation attempts he made with Sammy Gyamfi that failed.
“I called him twice for us to meet at my Dzorwulu office, ask him. He was at peace FM. I called him to come for us to sit and talk so that we can work together. So what is my crime?” Opare Addo revealed.
“I told him (Sammy Gyamfi) that the situation where he passes the other way when I pass one way will not help the party and I want is to work together to bring NDC to power, ask him if I am lying” Opare Addo revealed.
A former national organizer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Boateng Gyan, has urged the NDC’s leadership to refrain from supporting candidates in elections.
He claims that supporting one’s favourite candidate has done more damage to the party than good and for that matter electorates should choose whom they want as their leader, and not personal ties to candidates should determine the outcome of elections.
“I will not allow them to seal my mouth, I will say what I feel will help the party… the elders should stop being behind and rooting for some candidates… we won’t allow anyone to take the party as their bonafide property,” he said in Twi.
Speaking on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ show on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the astute NDC member stated that the election’s credibility has been compromised if the national executives are endorsing the many candidates running in the various contests; especially the recent NDC national conference held at the University of Cape Coast. He advised the national executives to publicly refute the fact that they all had no involvement in the election.
“All the elders, from former President to former National Executives, they should all come out and defuse the notion that they support a particular candidate… Hanna Bissiw (Women’s Organiser) even tells me what is happening, the hatred is too much, how?” he added.
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has retrieved thirty-seven vehicles suspected to have been stolen from the United States of America (USA) and Canada.
The exercise which was carried out in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), was based on an intelligence-led operation.
In a press statement, EOCO said these vehicles were retrieved from some garages in Ghana, on December 9, 2022 and the suspects have since been questioned and granted bail.
“The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has, in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), carried out an intelligence-led operation for the retrieval of various specifications of luxury vehicles suspected to have been stolen from the United States of America (USA) and Canada.
“On Friday December 9 2022, thirty-seven (37) of such vehicles were retrieved from some garages in Accra during which ten (10) persons were arrested. The suspects have since been questioned and granted enquiry bail,” the statement further added.
EOCO’s statement comes following allegations by some importers of used vehicles that the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) and National Security unlawfully raided their garages and seized their cars.
The importers claimed that over three hundred vehicles belonging to their members were taken from them to an unknown location by EOCO.
The union had given a three-day ultimatum for government to put on hold the exercise or risk forceful retrieval of their cars even if they are auctioned.
“Even if it has been alleged that the cars have been stolen, to us we know we are not selling such cars. The cars that we are selling were completely bought. We ship them from America and Canada. We clear them here in Ghana, we have all the necessary documents to support whatever we are saying.
“We are only sending a signal to government that what they are doing does not help us as business people,” General Secretary of the Union, Clifford Ansu said, as quoted by myjoyonline.
Cristiano Ronaldo has responded to claims that he threatened to walk out on Portugal after being left out of the starting line up for the first time at the World Cup.
“I would never turn my back on my colleagues and my country,” he said in a statement following the team’s shock quarter-final defeat to Morocco.
The exit on Saturday had been the second time in succession that the 37-year-old had been dropped to the bench.
There had been suggestions following the last-16 clash with Switzerland that he had implored head coach Fernando Santos to let him go home.
But Ronaldo has now said in response that it was “not worth reacting to heat”.
“I was always one fighting for the objective of all and I would never turn my back on my colleagues and my country,” he said in a translated social media post. “Not much more to say for now.”
Ronaldo’s Portugal career appears to now be hanging in the balance. His club prospects are also uncertain after Manchester United tore up his contract over comments he made in an interview with Piers Morgan.
Against Morocco, he had exited the field in tears on Saturday, taking a final stoic glance at the crowd before cupping his hand and heading down the tunnel in tears.
“Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career,” he wrote.
“I fought hard for this dream. In the five appearances, I scored in World Cups over 16 years, always by the side of great players and supported by millions of Portuguese. I gave my all. Leave it all out on the field. I never turned my face to the fight and I never gave up on that dream. Sadly yesterday the dream ended.”
In a hint that this international career may be drawing to a close, he added: “The dream was nice while it lasted…”.
Ronaldo holds the world record as the all-time overall leading scorer in international play with 118 international goals in 196 matches. He is also a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, the recipient of four European Golden Shoes and has seven league titles under his belt.
Ronaldo is still deciding on his future, with a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia to weigh up in the coming days. He did not return to Lisbon on Sunday, with the Portuguese FA announcing only 14 players would be returning to the nation’s capital following the defeat.
Alongside the former Manchester United forward, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Diogo Dalot, Ruben Neves, Rui Patricio, Raphael Guerreiro, Rafael Leao, Joao Cancelo and Maheus Nunes, were also planning to travel home independently.
Of the initial 26-man World Cup squad, Danilo Pereira and Nuno Mendes had already withdrawn through injuries.
What happened? The Selecao entered that tournament as favourites to claim a sixth global crown, but their quest for more major honours came to a close at the quarter-final stage when suffering a penalty shootout defeat to Croatia.
There have been suggestions that Neymar, who is now 30 years of age, may have graced such a stage for the last time, but iconic countryman Ronaldo believes the Paris Saint-Germain forward will add to his haul of 124 caps and pull clear of Pele as his nation’s all-time leading goalscorer.
What they said:Ronaldo has told AP: “I think Neymar is very upset with the result of the World Cup for the Brazil national team. It’s normal that he’s feeling that way for now, but I’m also sure that he will come back stronger and continue playing with the national team. He’s still young… I think he can play the next World Cup.”
The bigger picture: Neymar, who has never won a senior international title with Brazil, is level with Pele on 77 goals at the top of a notable scoring chart and Ronaldo sees enough determination in the talented playmaker to suggest that he will want to go on to 2026. The two-time World Cup winner added: “I’m very happy that he showed the world a commitment for the last six months, for the Brazil national team. He behaved himself. He took care of himself. And he played a good match, the first match. He got a very strong tackle on his ankle. He made a huge sacrifice to play again for the national team. He played very good in the last match. I think he’s very important for us. So I hope that [he] gets well soon and back strong in the football world with PSG and the Brazil national team.”
The National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has explained what led to the confusion during the women and youth leadership elections at the party’s 10th Women and Youth Conference at the University of Cape Coast.
Speaking in an interview on Power FM, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, George Opare Addo, who is popularly known as Pablo, said that the election was delayed because of issues surrounding the eligibility of some of the delegates who were to take part in the elections.
He explained that there were issues with some delegates who had been barred from taking part in the elections by court orders, as well as the leadership of student groups that had intentionally not held their elections.
According to him, there was a court order barring three executives from the Eastern Region, the regional youth organiser and his two deputies, from taking part in the election, but his opponent was saying that all the executives from the region, including the constituency executives, were not to take part in the elections.
He, however, indicated that the issues raised were resolved with the help of the party’s lawyers, who were present, and the organisers of the conference, allowing the elections to continue.
“They made a lot of demands, which I accepted; my only demand was that I was not going to accept their move to exclude executives from three constituencies in the Eastern Region because they were misinterpreting the court order.
“And that one was based on facts, law. Because the law did not say that they should not be allowed to vote. The law stated those who were barred from voting, and they were the regional organiser and his two deputies,” he said in Twi.
He added that in the Greater Accra Region, some of the names on the voters’ registers had to be taken out, and the two parties to the youth elections came to an agreement for the elections to proceed.
Pablo was the eventual winner of the NDC’s youth organiser position, but the election was marred by violence.
The Ghana Police Service has even declared 16 people who were involved in the violence during the election, wanted.
Energy Minister Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh has reaffirmed the government’s resolve to save the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) from collapse.
According to him, during the launch of the Revenue Protection Task Force, revenue leakages and unfavourable tariff regimes posed threats to the survival of the company.
“If NEDCo were selling maize, every month, it buys and transports 100 bags of maize to Tamale but is only able to account for 52 bags; in spite of this, it has to continue to go and buy another 100 bags in the next month. Clearly, Ndana, if this is not checked, sooner than later, we would not have any NEDCo in the area and by extension, there will be no national grid; I am very sure that that is the last thing we would wish for even our worst enemies,” Dr Opoku Prempeh said at the palace of the Overlord of Dagbon Yaa Naa Abdulai Andani.
Under the instruction of the Energy Ministry, the management of NEDCO is taking steps to plug revenue shortfalls, including the deployment of smart pre-payment meters, which are less prone to manipulation and power theft.
He noted that the predicament of NEDCO has been “further worsened by the current tariff regime which sells electricity to NEDCo at 50.28 GHp/kWh but enjoins them to sell the same energy to lifeline customers at 41.91 GHp/kWh. What aggravates their woes is that, of the 82.46% of their customers who are residential, as much as 46.81% are lifeline customers so their losses amass even before they start selling the power”.
While bemoaning the challenges being faced by NEDCO, the Energy Minister disclosed that a similar task force under the directive of the Ministry of Energy, the Electricity Company of Ghana, has made some significant loss recoveries.
He prevailed upon the Overlord to lend support to the task force to carry out its mandate in the area.
“Your Majesty, by this singular act, it is our humble view that you would be demonstrating the highest traditional support possible for this drive to ensure the sustainability of electricity distribution in the north. Ndana, furthermore, may I ask humbly, that as the Overlord of Dagbon, to whom we all defer, you kindly consider making a public statement in support of the mass installation of the pre-payment meters,” he added.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has conferred a Sergeant rank on the police officer who was injured in a shoot-out with some armed robbers in Accra.
The officer and his team were following intelligence on some criminals who attacked a woman and robbed her at Caprice, a suburb of Accra, on Friday, December 9.
Two of the robbers were killed in the crossfire while one was arrested.
But one police officer, a corporal, suffered multi-fragmented fractures to the bone of his right thigh after exchanges with the robbers in their hideout.
The injured officer was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he has been receiving treatment.
He is billed to undergo surgery.
On Monday, December 12, Interior Minister Ambrose Dery visited him at the hospital.
A statement issued by the Ghana Police Service on Tuesday commended the injured officer and the other members of the operation team for “the role they played leading to the arrest of one of the robbers and the death of two others”.
The statement, signed by Grace Ansah-Akrofi, the Director of the Public Affairs Directorate, said adequate provision has been made under the Police Emergency Medical Intervention Fund (PEMIF) to provide him the best medical care in Ghana or any part of the world.
The Accra High Court has cleared and freed two defendants who were on trial with William Ato Essien, the founder of the now-defunct Capital Bank.
The two are Fitzgerald Odonkor, Managing Director (MD) of the bank, and Tettey Nettey, the MD of MC Management Services, a company said to be owned by Ato Essien.
According to the court, the second and third accused persons were found not guilty of the crimes levelled against them and have therefore been acquitted and discharged.
The presiding judge, Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, said that Ato Essien committed the crime and used the two accused (Fitzgerald Odonkor, and Tettey Nettey) without their knowledge.
On the other hand, the founder of now-defunct Capital bank, William Ato Essien, pleaded guilty to charges of misappropriation of depositors’ funds and other counts of stealing, abetment to stealing, conspiracy to steal and money laundering, among others.
This was after the court accepted the terms of agreement reached between lawyers of Mr. Essien and the prosecution to pay a total of GH¢90 million as refund to the state.
He was subsequently convicted on his own plea pursuant to the agreement by the parties.
The prosecution, represented by the Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, explained to the judge how they arrived at the GH¢90 million amount.
According to him, investigations conducted by the state showed that some GH¢65 million and GH¢35 million belonging to Capital Bank were used by another company; Capital African Group, to acquire shares in Capital Bank.
Upon realising this through its investigations, the prosecution said the share acquisition was reversed and the money was retained by Capital Bank.
These amounts formed part of some GH¢192 million the accused persons have been charged with and therefore, the share acquisition was revoked and the amount retained.
The prosecution further noted that the total amount from these two transactions was GH¢100 million and therefore the outstanding amount out of GH¢192 million currently stands at GH¢92.
The three were slapped with a combined 23 charges of stealing, abetment to stealing, conspiracy to steal and money laundering among others.
Brief facts
The prosecution, led by the then Attorney-General (A-G), Ms Gloria Afua Akuffo, accused the four people of engaging in various illegal acts that led to the dissipation of the GH¢620 million liquidity support given to Capital Bank by the BoG between June 2015 and November 2016.
It is the case of the A-G that Essien, with Odonkor’s aid, transferred the liquidity support to certain companies either controlled by him or in which he had interest.
She said, an amount of GH¢130 million of the liquidity support was transferred to MC Management Services, which was later presented to the BoG as the initial capital to set up Sovereign Bank, another bank in which Essien had an interest.
The A-G further alleged that between June and October 2015, Essien, aided by Odonkor, appropriated GH¢c27.5 million of the liquidity support by carrying it in jute bags.
“The money was purportedly used as payment for business promotion,” she told the court.
The AG also accused Essien of giving some liquidity support to his cronies in the form of a loan to be used to buy shares in Capital Bank.
Acquittal
Initially charged with (Essien, Nettey and Ordonkor) was Madam Kate Quartey-Papafio, whom the A-G had said as part of the scheme to further dissipate the GH¢620 million liquidity support, Essien transferred GH¢70 million of the money into her bank account at Cal Bank.
The prosecution further accused Ms. Quartey-Papafio of trying to withdraw the money in 2017, even though she was aware that Capital Bank had collapsed and was in receivership.
The withdrawal, the A-G submitted, was, however, prevented by the receivers of Capital Bank.
But, after the prosecution had closed its case after parading 16 witnesses, she was acquitted and discharged by the court upon its ruling on submission of no case.
In a ruling on July 8, 2021, Justice Kyei Baffour held that the prosecution failed to establish any prima facie case against Ms Quartey, to warrant her to open her defence.
He ruled that there was no evidence that showed that the businesswoman intended or acted in any way to steal money from Capital Bank.
According to the judge, the businesswoman only acted as a trustee for another person who wanted to purchase shares from the bank but had no knowledge that the said money was part of the liquidity support.
Also, the court held that the said money (GH₵70million) was still in the custody of the Consolidated Bank and had not been appropriated or stolen by the businesswoman.
“A prima facie case has not been established against her. Rather she acted childish in the deal. The law does not punish the fool but the one with evil intention,” the court ruled.
The presiding judge was Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge.
The case, which started on October 15, 2019, ended on December 13, 2022.
Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin has come under criticism from Minority Chief Whip Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka (Member of Parliament, Asawase), who has called his former boss a tyrant.
Muntaka, whose most recent exchange with Bagbin on the floor of Parliament was in connection with the procedure of the censure motion against Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, stressed that it was a hard thing to say about Bagbin but he felt obliged so to do.
“I am sorry to say this, when you want to turn the Chamber of Parliament into a palace, then you become a tyrant,” when pushed about whether Bagbin was a tyrant, he responded: “He is becoming a tyrant.”
He stressed that Bagbin had increasingly become intolerant and was seeing people who disagreed with him as being disrespectful.
“You are not a chief, you are supposed to be a Speaker of Parliament and a Speaker listens to both sides patiently even where there is a disagreement and that is the essence of democracy to sometimes even agree to disagree but where you personalised it as if a disagreement is a disrespect to you .. then I am sorry you are becoming a bad Speaker,” he added.
He added that even though Bagbin was his favourite of all speakers he has worked under, Speaker Mike Oquaye Snr, Bagbin’s predecessor was far better at building consensus during his time.
Muntaka’s comments ties in to recent submission by former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu who also slammed Bagbin over his directions on the same censure motion.
Amidu’s views were contained in an epistle titled; ‘Games in Parliament – The Speaker and the Minority’s Motion of Censure.’
It read in part: “Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin needs to be told to stop talking down on Ghanaians as though he is a village chief and we, his subjects.
“No humble, learned, erudite, and experienced person will ever seek to silence his critics in a constitutional democracy by telling them that: ‘In all humility, please note that there is deep thought in whatever I do. Don’t underrate my knowledge, skills, experience, and expertise in Parliamentary practice and procedure.’
“It is for the public or one’s professional peer group, to determine one’s level of knowledge, skills, experience, and expertise and not for one to subjectively assert them and trumpet his competences to the world,” the statement added.
Mr. Richard A. Quayson, Deputy Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has stated that the State has the primary responsibility to fight corruption and make its practice a high risk.
He added that the conversation on corruption should start with the Directive Principle of State Policy that dealt specifically with corruption and Chapter 24 of the Constitution.
He said Article 34 (8) mandated the State to play the leading role in the fight against corruption.
Mr. Quayson was speaking at the 2022 International Anti-Corruption Day Symposium organised by the commission which was on the topic: “Curbing Corruption through a Rigorous Conduct of Public Officers Law: The Perspective of CHRAJ”.
The CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner deduced that corruption was a system that thrives where effective preventative and enforcement systems are lacking.
He said the Code of Conduct (COC) for Public Officers can only be effective to curb corruption in Public Office when “we have in place a framework that delegates authority for implementation, compliance, enforcement, and sanctioning powers to specified integrity agency or agencies, which have in place rules, policies and procedures for inter-agency cooperation”.
It is, therefore, important that all prohibited unethical conduct was adequately defined so officials know what behaviors are prohibited and what constitutes violations, and which agency is responsible for enforcing compliance, as well as prevention and detection systems, he said.
Mr. Quayson noted that the lack of clarity in these and other areas corruption to thrive while handicapping institutions responsible for prevention and detection.
It also lowers the credibility of the Public Office and the Government as a whole and erodes the trust that people want to have in public institutions and the Government.
The CHRAJ Deputy Commissioner said equally important was that the range of sanctions and penalties for breaches of the Code are proportionate, dissuasive, and effective, stressing “we should not use a Code of Conduct law to criminalize conduct”.
Mr. Quayson said findings from the 2021 Ghana Integrity of Public Services Survey (GIPSS) revealed that corruption was still rife in Public Service, stressing that public trust appears to continue to diminish.
He said the findings reveal that a greater proportion of adults in Ghana have more confidence in religious and traditional justice systems relative to the formal one.
He said data from the GIPSS survey indicates that seven in every 10 representing 69.9 percent of adults hold the view that the religious and traditional leaders’ system effectively protected the rights of every citizen, a figure that was 10.8 percentage points higher than those who agreed that the formal justice system effectively protects the rights of every citizen 59.1 percent.
“This, obviously, should not be allowed to continue, and the ball is now in our court,” stressing that the public does not demand that public servants should be angels.
Mr. Quayson said their revulsion is with the unruly manner we appear to manage their interests and their scarce resources, adding “it may not always be the case, but appearances and perception alone can create disaffection and erode public confidence in public service”.
He said “the Government and Public Service owe it to the people in whose name and on whose behalf, we exercise the powers of the State to put our house in order and restore confidence and hope to our people”.
Contents of a leaked audio believed to have captured the voice of of the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, has revealed that during the party went without defensible figures when they petitioned the Supreme Court over the 2020 elections.
Speaking in the 14-minutes-plus leaked audio clip that has been shared multiple times on microblogging app; WhatsApp, the voice is heard explaining that even before the NDC went to court to challenge the declaration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the 2020 elected candidate in the elections, they had been experiencing some technical challenges.
“Only after collating five regions, we were told that the system that would help with that job had crashed and that is why, in truth, we did not have results to challenge the Electoral Commission. We came to the conclusion that looking at the region-by-region results, we had won, and even if we had not, Akufo-Addo had not won the first round and in the worst-case scenario, we needed to go for a second round, but where were the documents for us to use?” he said.
Asiedu-Nketiah further said that after devising new ways of putting together their own results, he got to court and was surprised when there were no ready figures for him to use in defense.
The voice of the person believed to be the NDC General Secretary added that being someone known to be very knowledgeable in electoral processes, not even his expertise would have helped him avoid the embarrassment that situation presented him with.
“We then decided to resort to manual collation and then Chairman elected himself as the head of that team and then he brought in some university students to help with the work. So, when the time came for me to stand in the docket to give evidence and I asked for the evidence, what I was presented with, should anyone use it anywhere in evidence, they will be embarrassed but here in Ghana, I am respected by many as someone who is very knowledgeable in electoral processes yet when I was in the docket, I was presented with indefensible documents,” he added.
Asiedu-Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito, is contesting the incumbent Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo for the position of NDC National Chairman.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Monday, December 12, 2022, reached a Staff-Level Agreement with the government on economic policies and reforms after a six-month engagement.
The Staff-Level Agreement, which is reached between a country requesting for Fund and the IMF Mission, is subject to the approval of the IMF Management and Executive Board and receipt of the necessary financing assurances before loans are granted.
However, Management and Executive Board’s approval is conditioned on the completion of a debt restructuring exercise to bring debt stock to sustainable levels.
In a statement, the Bretton Woods institution disclosed that, all other things being equal, Ghana will be supported by a three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of about $3 billion.
The Reform Program, it says, aims at restoring macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability while protecting the vulnerable, preserving financial stability, and laying the foundation for strong and inclusive recovery.
The programme also envisages wide-ranging reforms to address structural weaknesses and enhance resilience to shocks.
According to IMF, these reforms include developing a medium-term plan to generate additional revenue and advancing reforms to bolster tax compliance.
“ The Ghanaian authorities have committed to a wide-ranging economic reform program, which builds on the government’s Post-COVID-19 Program for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) and tackles the deep challenges facing the country.”
“Key reforms aim to ensure the sustainability of public finances while protecting the vulnerable. The fiscal strategy relies on frontloaded measures to increase domestic resource mobilization and streamline expenditure. In addition, the authorities have committed to strengthening social safety nets, including reinforcing the existing targeted cash-transfer program for vulnerable households and improving the coverage and efficiency of social spending,” part of the statement added.
The IMF noted that the structural reforms will strengthen public expenditure commitment controls, improve fiscal transparency (including the reporting and monitoring of arrears), improve the management of public enterprises, and tackle structural challenges in the energy and cocoa sectors.
It further added that “the authorities are also committed to further bolstering governance and accountability”.
Already, the government has launched a comprehensive debt operation in order to support the objective of restoring public debt sustainability,
This includes the recently implemented Domestic Debt Exchange programme.
Debt Exchange Programme
As part of the conditions to receive support from the IMF, the Akufo-Addo government introduced a debt restructuring programme to salvage Ghana’s dwindling economy.
The Debt restructuring Programme entails a government or institution refinancing its current debt commitments in order to avoid defaulting on its obligations or declaring bankruptcy.
Under the new programme which took effect on Tuesday, December 1, 2022, domestic bondholders are required to exchange their current bonds for a new set of four bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, 2032 and 2037.
This means that bondholders will not be able to receive any interest in 2023.
Announcing the program, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta noted that the domestic debt exchange is part of a more comprehensive agenda to restore debt and financial sustainability.
Background
Opposing suggestions for an IMF programme to bail Ghana out of its economic woes, the Akufo-Addo government in July 2022, made a U-turn and commenced official engagement with the IMF.
Not long after its decision, an IMF staff team led by Carlo Sdralevich visited Accra to assess the current economic situation and discuss the broad lines of the government’s Enhanced Domestic Programme that could be supported by a Fund lending arrangement.
The IMF team met with Vice President Bawumia, Finance Minister Ofori-Atta, and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
Dr. Ernest Addison. The team also met with the Parliament’s Finance Committee, Civil Society Organizations (CSO), and development partners, including UNICEF and the World Bank, to engage on social spending.
The IMF/World Bank and the government undertook a debt sustainability analysis (DSA) to inform the programme negotiations and affirmed the assertion that Ghana’s economic crisis has been exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has once again denied his preference and endorsement for candidates in the ongoing NDC national executive elections.
“Of paramount interest to President Mahama is Victory for the NDC in 2024 to work with expectant and suffering Ghanaians to “Build the Ghana We Want. He, like other supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), will work with whoever the delegates choose and elect,” a statement by Mr Mahama said.
This comes on the back of attempts by some candidates to push a narrative, despite his previous cautions, that he supports their candidature.
The former leader thus condemned a publication in a tabloid newspaper that he and his family are in support of one of the aspirants for National Chairman of the NDC.
“The said claim and the publication are false, and the rank and file of the party are encouraged to disregard them,” the statement issued by the 2020 Flagbearer of the NDC concluded.
The 19-year-old boy’s parents are fighting for justice for their injured son after an altercation between the Asanteman Senior High School and the Adventist Senior High School at Bantama in Kumasi.
The clash ensued on Sunday afternoon when students of Asanteman alleged their colleague had been attacked and robbed by students of the Adventist SHS.
Students from Asanteman massed up in their numbers and advanced to the Adventist campus wielding stones, clubs, and machetes.
The victim, a shopkeeper, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to GhanaWeb, was allegedly accused by the Asanteman SHS students of being a student of the Adventist Senior High School.
He was immediately attacked and hit in the head with a heavy stone by angry students from Asanteman Secondary School.
He collapsed on the spot and was subsequently rushed to the hospital by some bystanders who intervened to rescue the situation, the witnesses told GhanaWeb.
Reacting to this in an interview with GhanaWeb’s Ashanti Regional Correspondent, Nana Peprah, the mother of the victim, Madam Angelina Gyan, said she only wants justice for her innocent son.
She added that her son, who completed school in 2021, was a student at Kumasi High School and had never attended school at Adventist Senior High School.
Mr. Joseph Atta Danso, the father of the victim, said his family on Monday, filed an official complaint to the Suame Police Station for the arrest of the perpetrators, especially the assistant senior housemaster who led the Asanteman students.
Alleged involvement of Assistant Senior Housemaster of Asanteman SHS in the chaos
An assistant senior housemaster of the Asanteman SHS, whose name was only given as Reverend, was accused by the eyewitnesses of allegedly leading his students to cause mayhem at another school.
According to eyewitnesses who spoke to GhanaWeb, students of the Asanteman Senior High School who stormed the Adventist Senior High School to attack the ADASS students started pelting stones at the school after they were prevented from entering the premises.
“They tried to enter the school with violence but were not allowed entry. The next thing we saw was, the teacher (leader), who was supposed to do the right thing, ordering his students to attack the Adventist SHS, whose students were kept indoors.
“How could a whole teacher lead his students to fight students from another school? Have no one to blame, blame the teacher for the collapse of this innocent boy,” the disappointed eyewitnesses told GhanaWeb.
The National Youth Wing of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has denounced the violence displayed by some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the party’s Youth and Women Conference last Saturday, December 10, 2022, which was held at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Cape Coast.
In a statement dated December 12, 2022, and signed by NPP’s National Youth Organiser, Salam Mustapha, he described the images and videos of the violence as both shocking and disturbing, adding that it is hard to understand the reason for the violence at a conference of that nature.
The statement also expressed disappointment that the leadership of the NDC has not condemned its members and apologized for the misconduct of its members.
“It is difficult to comprehend how a supposed-to-be conference to elect leadership for their wings, will witness a gathering of gun cum machete-wielding thugs and vigilantes at the precincts of UCC, an intellectual hub. Elections are about ballots and not bullets,” the statement said in part.
The NPP Youth Wing then called on the police to pursue and arrest all persons involved in the violence and prosecute them to deter others engaging in the same misconduct.
Videos of the violence at the conference in Cape Coast show people engaged in fights, hurling chairs and other objects at one another. Gunshots were also reportedly heard. Notwithstanding, the conference took place and the leadership for the youth and women of the NDC were elected.
A popular member of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Alhaji Ahmed Bandoh, has expressed grief over what he describes as neglect by the party.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Bahmed Travel and Tours, the NPP has failed to come through for him in his time of need.
Alhaji Bandoh alias Bahmed is currently on admission at the Police Hospital in Accra after his left leg was amputated.
In a report by Graphic.com.gh sighted by GhanaWeb, the former Board NPP has visited him at the hospital even though some top officials of the party are aware of his current predicament.
“I have been loyal to the NPP party, and former President Kuffuor will bear me witness. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey of blessed memory would have done same,” a dejected Alhaji Bandoh said.
“No party member has been here to at least sympathize with me, but l can say on authority that l have paid my dues as far as this party is concerned,” he added.
Describing the party’s action as heartless, Alhaji Bandoh urged the youth to take a cue from his situation.
According to him, the NPP is likely to fail in the next elections if the party continues to treat its stalwarts this way.
“The youth should take a cue from what I am going through, with this kind of attitude towards people like me who have struggled and toiled for the party, l don’t think they can break the eight as they profess. The leadership of the party is heartless,” he stated.
On how he ended up with an amputated leg, Alhaji Bandoh said a sore developed on his legs a few days after he felt a cut while putting on his football boots.
The sore got out of hand a few weeks later requiring his left leg to be amputated.
The businessman has served in various capacities for the NPP including serving as the NPP’s campaign coordinator in the La Dadekotopon Constituency in the 2002 elections.
Ahead of the 2024 general elections, Alhaji Bandoh announced that he was going to contest the party’s parliamentary primaries.
The police have shot and killed two armed robbers over the weekend after a gunfight.
According to the police, the shootout followed its intelligence operations regarding the attack and robbery on a woman at Caprice in Accra on Friday, December 9.
“Sustained police intelligence operations since 9th December 2022, took the fight to the robbery gang at their hideout (name of location withheld for now),” the police said in a press release on Sunday, December 11.
“The robbers engaged the police in a shoot-out and in the process two were shot dead and one was arrested.
“One police officer sustained gunshot injury to his thigh and is receiving medical attention.”
The statement said the rest of the gang are being pursued.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, has promised to cover the printing costs of all the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates’ albums for the 275 seats in the nation before the party’s flagbearer primary.
The seasoned politician made this pledge during his official meeting with the new national executives of the party at the National Headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra.
In addition to the pledge, the minister, also known as Alan Cash, donated an amount of one hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GHc100,000) to the HQ to support the day-to-day administration and management of the party’s activities as well as its executives.
The meeting, which was to interact with the hierarchy of the party in line with solidifying relationships between them and the government, saw scores of top-ranking officials join the minister.
Addressing the assembled party faithful, Alan Kyerematen urged the leadership of the party to earn the trust of grassroots voters by conducting a fair and unbiased election.
He called on them to rally behind the leadership of the party and the government in these difficult economic times.
“We can only break the eight if we stay together and act as a unit. We can survive through cooperation and commitment to our various duties. The national executives will organize one of the best national delegate conferences in recent years. To this end, I am going to fund the entire printing cost of all 275 constituency delegates’ albums.
“It is to help the party conduct the election… A free and fair election will trickle down to the average voter since they won’t feel manipulated or machinated,” Alan Kyerematen told the assembled party sympathisers.
The soft-spoken trade and industry minister also urged members to support the government in its industrial transformation drive and job creation and to discuss how the party can win the 2024 general elections.
He used the platform to also highlight the success stories of the One District, One Factory (1D1F) programme, among a host of other activities that the party can take advantage of and communicate to Ghanaians the benefits that they can derive from them.
Accompanying the minister were Sylvester Tetteh, MP for Ngleshie Amanfrom; Carlos Ahenkora, MP for Tema West; Catherine Afeku, former Minister for Tourism; Yaw Buaben Asamoa, former MP for Adenta; Dr Alhassan Samare, former Upper East Regional Minister; Alhaji Mumin COP aka Jack Sparrow, a senior NPP member in the Northern Region and Board chairman of GNPA; and some others.
Alan Kyerematen has already contested in three previous flagbearer primaries and has been heavily tipped by political experts to replace President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the presidential candidate of the NPP in the 2024 general elections.
So far, names such as the vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, have come up as potential contenders for the vacant position.
The President of the Ghana Diabetes Association, Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, has been elected Chairperson of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) for the Africa Region.
Mrs Denyoh was elected at the end of the 2022 World Congress of the IDF held in Lisbon, Portugal, where she contested with three other candidates from Senegal, Mauritania, and Uganda.
Mrs Denyoh takes over from Professor Jacque Abodo of Cote d’Ivoire, being the first non-medical doctor to be elected as the Chairperson of the IDF for the Africa Region.
Her term will last from 2022 to 2026.
Speaking in an interview, Elizabeth Denyoh described her election as Africa’s representative on the global organisation as a “win for all Africa,” adding that “I promise to unite the continent together towards the fight against diabetes that is a major cause of deaths in females in South Africa.”
She pledged to work with the African Union (AU) to get governments to give waivers on taxes for diabetes consumables across the continent.
Elzabeth Esi Denyoh also said that she would work with the Food and Drugs Authorities (FDA), as well as the ministries of heath in Africa to ensure that unwholesome diabetes drugs are eradicated from the system so that “we have high quality standard medicines for diabetes on the African market.”
According to the IDF Chairperson for Africa, she would engage giant pharmaceutical manufacturers, including Pfizer and Gloxosmithkline, to produce diabetes treatment drugs, particularly insulin, on the continent.
As part of her vision for her four-year tenure, Mrs Denyoh said she would endeavour to ensure that the continent moves from over dependence on donor funding for the treatment of diabetes, to a system where “we can device mechanisms to become self-reliant in providing our own resources to treat our own citizens.”
She further pledged to dialogue with all stakeholders to enhance diabetes treatment and bring hope to diabetes patients .
“I wish to use my election as senior nurse to this great position as victory and urge all Ghanaian nurses that there are more opportunities out there for nurses outside the hospital walls,” she added.
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is an umbrella organisation of over 230 national diabetes associations in 170 countries and territories, representing the interests of the growing numbers of people with diabetes and those at risk.
The Federation has been leading the global diabetes community since 1950.
The Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA), has urged government to sustain its efforts aimed at stabilising the country’s local currency; the cedi.
In a release signed by its President, Joseph Obeng, GUTA said it has taken note of the recent gains made by the cedi against major trading currencies albeit with the efforts of government and the Bank of Ghana.
“The Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations wishes to appreciate the efforts being made by government and the Bank of Ghana to stabilize the Cedi.
“We urge the government to continue with more efforts to sustain the program and bring relief to the business community.”
On the back of the cedi’s appreciation, GUTA also urged members of the business community to cause adjustments to the prices of their goods and services to reflect the cedi’s appreciation.
“As the value of cedi begins to appreciate, GUTA wishes to appeal to members of the business community to adjust the prices of goods and services accordingly, to make the consuming public feel the impact of the positive trend.
We hope to see a further and continuous appreciation of the cedi and envisage that the economy will turn around in the shortest possible time,” GUTA added.
Ghana has over the past few months been thrown into an era of economic chaos largely brought about by a sharp depreciation of the cedi against major trading currencies including the dollar.
This led to a daily increment in the prices of essential commodities such as fuel and other goods and services.
However, the cedi over the past week has made significant gains against the dollar and has seen stability in the forex markets.
This has seen calls being made for a corresponding adjustment in the prices of goods and services. Fuel prices at the pumps have seen a reduction on more than one occasion following the gains made by the cedi, however, this is yet to reflect in the cost of transport fares which shot up as a result of the cedi’s depreciation.
Emmanuel Addae, a 57-year-old cocoa farmer from Twifu Heman Nsuaem in the Central Region, has been granted a nine-month prison term for stealing two plantain bunches.
Mr. Addae said he harvested the plantain, which belonged to his friend because he was hungry.
But the mistake he said he did was his failure to ask his friend before harvesting the food item.
In an interview with crimecheckghana.org at the Ankaful Main Camp Prison in the Central Region, Mr. Addae said because he was unable to bear the starvation he and his family were experiencing, he intended to inform his playmate after harvesting the food crop.
Unfortunately, he said, his friend had traveled so when he went to his house, he met his brother.
According to him, his pal’s brother was not kind to him so he reported him to the police.
Mr. Addae said he was however surprised that his friend did not do anything about the situation when he returned.
“My friend would not have had any problem with me harvesting his plantain if he were around but I was disappointed when he told me to go with the help of God when they were going to imprison me,” he complained.
The father of five who could barely afford three square meals for his wife and children said he was arraigned before a court in Fosu where he pleaded guilty. The court he said fined him One Thousand Two Hundred Ghana cedis.
Unable to pay the fine, he said the presiding judge sentenced him to nine months imprisonment suggesting that it is his habit of stealing people’s food crops on their farms.
Mr. Addae narrates his disgusting experience in prison after serving six months.
“When you want to use the toilet, you have to ask permission from the one in charge. The person could be a small boy dictating to you to use it or not. If the person is absent you do not have the right to use the toilet. You have to wait till he comes no matter how pressing your situation is. We are in the same room with the toilet pot and while you are using it, there are people around. It is normal because we sleep around the pot,” he explains.
Crime Check Foundation (CCF) paid a working visit to Mr. Addae at the prison as part of the implementation of its Petty Offenders project.
CCF paid the poor man’s fine after interacting with him about his crime. This was done with support from a Ghana-based donor, Simple Freddy.
Petty Offenders project
Crime Check Foundation is helping to decongest the prisons across the country with the paying of fines for persons who have committed minor crimes like stealing plantain in the case of Mr. Addae. The Foundation has facilitated the release of thousands of such offenders and successfully re-integrated them into society.
CCF continues to call on government to see to the immediate passage of the Non-Custodial Sentencing bill into law.
At Gomoa Akotsi, in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region mobile money merchant, Ebenezer Amoaquandoh is fighting for his life after being held up at gunpoint and robbed.
The robbers bolted away with an amount of thirty thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 30,000).
The incident according to the Ghanaian Times newspaper, happened at the Gomoa Akotsi Lorry station on Tuesday, moments after the vendor had closed his shop.
According to the victim, the unknown assailants, who were on a motorcycle first fired a warning shot and asked him to hand over the bag containing the money to them.
He also added that he was shot in the left thigh, and injured in the head for refusing to give out the bag.
The incident has since been referred to the Gomoa Ojobi District Police Command which has begun an investigation into the matter and called for support from the residents to bring the perpetrators to book.
Meanwhile, Amoaquandoh is currently receiving treatment at the Winneba trauma and Specialist Hospital.
A group of armed robbers who attacked and shot a woman at Caprice in Accra today, December 9, 2022, are being sought by the police.
The victim is said to be in stable condition and receiving medical attention.
Details of the attack are not immediately known.
A terse statement from the Police said “Special intelligence and operations teams have been deployed to trace and arrest the suspects involved; we will surely get them arrested to face justice.”
Police have detained Stephen Appiah, a 40-year-old man, on suspicion of killing his wife, Afua Abrefi.
The suspect reportedly hit the head of the wife against a wall multiple times during a furious misunderstanding leading to her death instantly.
The incident is believed to have occurred on Monday, December 5 ago at Ofoase Kokoben in Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
Starr News has gathered that, the suspect after committing the heinous crime wrapped the body of his deceased wife and dumped in a bush.
Family and friends observed the conspicuous absence of the wife and alerted the Police.
Upon investigation, the suspect was arrested and he confessed to killing the wife.
He led police to the scene where the body was retrieved and deposited at the morgue after taking the necessary inventories.
Police put the accused before Bekwai Magistrate court and has been remanded for two weeks to enable police conduct further investigation for proper charges to begin the committal trial.
Lamu Saminu, a 29-year-old school teacher, has been detained by the Katsina State Police Command for the brutal murder of his friend, Sanusi Bawa, a member of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The suspect, who admitted to the crime, said he served Bawa a locally prepared cow milk known as “Fura da Nono,” which he had mixed with rat poison because he wanted Bawa’s car.
Police spokesperson, Gambo Isah, said the suspect lured the victim into an empty building in the Mani Local Government Area of the state while parading him before reporters at the Command Headquarters on Tuesday, December 6, 2022.
He tricked Bawa into parking his car in the house’s garage and then served him the poisoned Fura da Nono meal, which caused the deceased to lose consciousness.
He then took a heavy piece of firewood and repeatedly struck the victim in the head until he passed away. He reportedly dumped the corpse inside a well in the compound and covered it with sand to steal the victim’s car.
The statement reads,
“On 1/12/2022 at about 1300hrs, the Command succeeded in arresting, a classroom teacher, one Laminu Saminu, aged 29yrs of Bakin Kasuwa Quarters, Mani LGA of Katsina state, a suspected killer friend of one ASC II Sanusi Bawa, an officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), Katsina state Command, his final year course mate at Federal College of Education, (FCE), Katsina.
“Nemesis caught up with the suspect when on 26/11/2022 at about 1400hrs, he lured the deceased into an unoccupied building in Mani LGA, deceived him to parked his motor vehicle Golf Saloon, green in colour with registration number AA 266 KUF inside a garage in the house and served him with a poisoned Fura da Nono meal, as a result of which the deceased became unconscious,”
“Consequently, he got heavy firewood and hit the victim severally on the head until he died and threw the corpse inside a well in the house and covered it with sand. All with the intent of robbing the deceased of his motor vehicle.
“In the course of the investigation, the suspect made a mistake and called the wife of the deceased through the phone that he needs the vehicle’s documents the deceased. He was subsequently traced and arrested and confessed to the commission of the offence.
“A pack of rat poison, heavy firewood and a motor vehicle, a Volkswagen, Golf, Saloon, green in colour, with registration number AA 266 KUF, belonging to the deceased was found in the possession of the suspect. “Investigation is ongoing.”
GBC News has learnt that the National Peace Council is taking steps towards resolving the various disagreements between the government and organized labour amicably in the current rising tensions among worker unions in the country.
The Council has already engaged with the labour unions to get them to reach an agreement with the government in the matter of the ongoing new Base Pay for public sector employees on the Single Spine Structure for 2023, the negotiation of which has stalled following a breakdown in the discussions.
The Executive Secretary at the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the Peace Council, Reverend Emmanuel Badu Amoah, made this known to GBC News.
The intervention by the Peace Council, according to the Executive Secretary, is pursuant to the Council’s mandate to pre-empt for resolution as well as amicable management of potential or real conflict that could disturb the general peace, safety, security and stability of the country.
Touching on the recently announced government’s policy of the Debt Exchange Programme which has since ruffled feathers among the labour movement and other interested parties, Reverend Badu Amoah, assured that, the Council is not losing its guard in that matter and that there is an urgent need for all parties to appreciate the concerns of each other in the ultimate national interest.
Over 36% of teachers who wrote the 2022 Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination have failed, according to the registrar for the National Teaching Council, Christian Addai-Poku.
The percentage represents 44,000 out of the 120,000 teachers who sat for the examination.
Speaking about the poor performance of the candidates, the registrar remarked that the findings were concerning because the teachers who are expected to facilitate knowledge transfer are performing poorly on the tests.
His comments were made at the Institute of Teacher Education and Development’s town hall meeting during the 2022–23 Cohort of Leading Girls’ Learning Program (INTED).
According to Addai-Poku, only 26% of the total instructor population at the second-cycle level teachers are female which is uninspiring, while adding that female teachers need to be encouraged to be more involved.
“Having more female teachers at the second-cycle level would enable the girls in the schools to have role models they can look up to in these female teachers,” he added.
‘INTED’ is a Leading Girls’ Learning Programme with support from USAID, which seeks to address attitudes and barriers against girls in second-cycle schools to improve their learning environment. The programme also builds the competencies and skills of teachers in second-cycle institutions to improve the teaching and learning outcomes in schools.
Mr Divine Ayidzoe, Chief Director, Ministry of Education, also added that very soon, an entrance examination for persons who wanted to enrol in the various Colleges of Education would be instituted to attract bright students who would advance the teaching profession in the nation, according to the Ghanaian Publisher newspaper.
Mr Kwabena Ampoful, Executive Director, INTED, added that INTED, over the past decade, had worked with development partners to improve the quality of teaching and leadership practices in Senior High Schools.
