In a heartbreaking tragedy, a father and his infant kid were buried after being electrocuted by a suspected malfunctioning water heater.
Charles Segbedzie-Pongo, 51, and his 4-year-old child, Fiifi Sefadzi Segbedzie-Pongo, tragically lost their lives in Tema a suburb of the Greater Accra region.
The final funeral rites were held on June 10, 2023, at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Lorenz Wolf Parish in Tema Community 1.
The devastating incident occurred when the father and son went to take a shower.
The exact details of the said malfunctioning water heater are not yet known, but the incident serves as a reminder of the potential dangers posed by faulty electrical appliances.
The news of this tragic event spread rapidly, eliciting deep sorrow and empathy from the public. Kwame A Plus, musician cum politician, took to Facebook to express his condolences and raise awareness about the importance of regularly inspecting and maintaining water heaters. In his heartfelt post, he emphasized the gravity of the situation and the immense pain associated with such a tragedy.
“Father 51, son 4, went to shower. Faulty water heater. Both electrocuted. Everybody will die, but this is heartbreaking and painful; like, there are no words in any language to describe such a tragedy. Please check your water heater. It has destroyed many lives. It can end your life tragically. My condolence to their family and loved ones. May their souls rest in peace,” wrote Kwame A Plus.
As well as Media Personality Nana Aba Anamoah also wrote “Father and son electrocuted by a faulty water heater. So so sad.”
In a heart-wrenching incident, a young girl has tragically lost her life after what is being reported as a failed abortion attempt. The incident has sparked shock and concern, shedding light on the pressing issue of unsafe abortions and the need for proper reproductive healthcare.
The girl, 12-year-old Augustina Gabriel, who resides at Telekubukazo, a community in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, is reported to have been pronounced dead on arrival at the St. Martin de Porres Hospital in Eikwe.
Narrating what happened, Jonas Kubatey, the Ellembelle Social Welfare Officer, who confirmed the news of the death of the girl, said that there were suspicions that she died from the effects of a failed abortion.
He added that she was five-months pregnant at the time.
“We believe she took unprescribed medicine to get rid of the five-month-old pregnancy but she started having complications and was rushed to the Esiama Hospital where she was given First Aid. The Hospital even noticed that the placenta was already out before she was rushed there.
“Her situation was getting worse so they transferred her to the St. Martin de Porres Hospital at Eikwe where she was pronounced dead on arrival,” he said.
The officer further explained that the person who impregnant the deceased Augustina was a 21-year-old man living in the same area with her, and that her parents were aware of this relationship.
“She started having an affair with the boy at the age of eleven to the extent that the girl sometimes sleeps over at her boyfriend’s house.
“Her parents, who are herbalists, were even aware of the situation and they agreed to it since they were benefitting financially from the relationship,” he further added.
He added that the young man has since been invited to aid in some investigations.
Jonas Kabutey, however, stated that the case of the late Augustina is not an isolated one.
He explained that similar cases are a norm in the area, and being the paralegal of the Western Region, he called for support to be able to get this situation addressed properly.
“These issues are rampant in the Ellembelle District and when that happens, the parents refuse to report the case. They take money from the suspects and allow the case to slide. We need the intervention of NGOs and other organizations to help in curbing the situation.
“We need to have a lot of education for the people of Ellembelle on some of these things. We have Free Education so we don’t understand why parents allow their girl children in the Ellembelle District to follow men instead of being in school,” he stressed.
For many who witnessed the colonial era, events from this period may have left an indelible stamp on their memories. Many years after these incidents, some probably have not forgotten the dehumanising nature of colonialism.
Ghanaian author, Ama Ata Aidoo was among the lot who may have never lost touch with the reality of some ghastly events that came along with colonisation and neocolonialism.
The prolific African writer died on May 31, 2023
In an interview, which has resurfaced after her demise, the prolific writer recounted a profound event which occurred during the colonial era that had significantly changed her life and formed the basis of her afrocentric legacy.
“When people like me talk about Colonisation and neocolonialism, it’s not because one is just being intellectually smart. We have personal touches with it, you know, and I cannot forget it,” she said.
Ama Ata Aidoo – Quotes
As the colonial powers exerted greater control over the Gold Coast, Ama Ata Aidoo lost her grandfather as a result of the brutal treatment given to some nationals who opposed them.
“I think that for me and members of my family, Elmina Castle has got a very special significance because they tortured my father’s father – my real grandfather – to death. [He was tortured] by the colonial government.
She probably lived with this unforgettable memory until her demise on 31 May 2023.
The chilling incident, however, altered the course of Ama Ata Aidoo’s life and also laid the foundation for her afrocentric legacy since it formed the basis on which her father enrolled her in school.
Ama Ata-Aidoo
Aggrieved by the murder of his beloved father by neocolonialists, Ama’s father realised the importance of educating the children and families of the village on the history and events of the era. As a result, he opened up the first school in their village and influenced Aidoo to attend Wesley Girls High School where she first decided she wanted to be a writer.
From an early age, Ama Ata Aidoo was exposed to the harsh realities of colonialism. She saw her fellow Ghanaians suffer under the weight of discrimination, economic exploitation, and cultural erasure. The colonial powers had painted a distorted image of Africa, portraying its rich history and vibrant cultures as primitive and inferior.
As Ama Ata Aidoo grew older, her determination to challenge these narratives grew stronger. She embarked on a journey of self-discovery, immersing herself in the works of African intellectuals and writers who sought to reclaim their heritage and celebrate their Afrocentric identities.
Inspired by the resilience of her people, Ama Ata Aidoo began to articulate her experiences through powerful storytelling. Her words carried the weight of history, as she fearlessly confronted the colonial horrors that had shaped her nation. Through her writings, she sought to reclaim the narrative of Africa, amplifying the voices of those who had been silenced for far too long.
As the years passed, Ama Ata Aidoo’s voice resonated far beyond the borders of Ghana. Her words ignited a fire in the hearts of Africans across the continent, encouraging them to reclaim their history and shape their own narratives.
Today, Ama Ata Aidoo’s legacy endures; her writings serve as a powerful reminder of the colonial horrors that once gripped Africa. Her afrocentric perspective continues to inspire generations, urging them to embrace their cultural identity, celebrate their heritage, and fight against the injustices that persist.
According to sources, he passed on over the weekend.
Dr. Joe Abbey until his demise was the Executive Directive of the Center for Policy Analysis, a think tank that focuses on economic research and analysis.
Dr. Abbey contributed immensely to Ghana’s economic issues and debate.
He also once served as a Government Statistician and a Diplomat.
In addition, he did some consultancy work for the Ministry of Finance.
Dr. Abbey was 82 years and would have been 83 in August 2023.
A search party has begun looking for some 50 persons who went missing when a boat ferrying them on the Black Volta River capsized.
A report by graphic.com.gh said that the incident, which took place at Dorkorchina, an over-bank community in the Bole District, in the Savannah Region, has so far claimed the life of one person.
The report added that the victims were travelling from Dorkorchina to Banda Ahenkro in the Bono East Region on Saturday, May 27, 2023.
Only two victims made it ashore after they reportedly swam to safety.
They are presently in their respective homes in Dorkorchina, the report added.
Preliminary investigations, as stated by Kipo Sulemana, the Bole District Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), show that the boat was overloaded with passengers and goods.
The boat, the report added, hit a tree stump in the river and capsized, leading to the catastrophe.
The passengers are said to have been without life jackets.
Kipo added that there is a search party already on the lookout for those who are missing.
He, however, stated that they are faced with a challenge because the community where the incident happened is inaccessible.
Tina Turner, the American-born singer who left a hardscrabble farming community and abusive relationship to become one of the top recording artists of all time, died on Wednesday at the age of 83.
She died peacefully after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, her representative said.
Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock and roll and evolved into an MTV phenomenon.
In the video for her chart-topping song “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” in which she called love a “second-hand emotion,” Turner epitomized 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt, and stiletto heels.
With her taste for musical experimentation and bluntly-worded ballads, Turner gelled perfectly with a 1980s pop landscape in which music fans valued electronically-produced sounds and scorned hippie-era idealism.
Sometimes nicknamed the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s. The decade saw her land a dozen songs on the Top 40, including “Typical Male,” “The Best,” “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me.” Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.
By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade.
The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s. She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room.
“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” singer Janet Jackson wrote about Turner, in a Rolling Stone issue that placed Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.
“She’s transformed herself into an international sensation – an elegant powerhouse,” Jackson said.
In 1985, Turner gave a fictional turn to her reputation as a survivor. She played the ruthless leader of an outpost in a nuclear wasteland, acting opposite Mel Gibson in the third instalment in the Mad Max franchise, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”
Most of Turner’s hit songs were written by others, but she enlivened them with a voice that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called “one of the more peculiar instruments in pop.”
“It’s three-tiered, with a nasal low register, a yowling, cutting middle range and a high register so startlingly clear it sounds like a falsetto,” Pareles wrote in a 1987 concert review.
‘ONE-HORSE TOWN’
She was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in the rural Tennessee community of Nutbush, which she described in her 1973 song “Nutbush City Limits” as a “quiet little old community, a one-horse town.”
Her father worked as an overseer on a farm and her mother left the family when the singer was 11 years old, according to the singer’s 2018 memoir “My Love Story.” As a teenager, she moved to St. Louis to rejoin her mom.
Ike Turner, whose 1951 song “Rocket 88” has often been called the first rock and roll record, discovered her at age 17 when she grabbed the mic to sing at his club show in St. Louis in 1957.
The band leader later recorded a hit song, “A Fool In Love,” with his protégé and gave her the stage name Tina Turner, before the two married in Tijuana, Mexico.
Tina employed her strong voice and strenuously rehearsed dance routines as lead vocalist in an ensemble called the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. She collaborated with members of rock royalty, including The Who and Phil Spector, in the 1960s and 1970s and appeared on the cover of issue two of Rolling Stone magazine in 1967.
Ike and Tina Turner bounced between record labels, owing much of their commercial success to a relentless touring schedule. Their biggest hit was a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.”
Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he pummelled her during a car ride and she struck back, according to her memoir. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Ike and Tina Turner in 1991, calling them “one of the most formidable live acts in history.” Ike Turner died in 2007.
EUROPE BOUND
After leaving her husband, Turner spent years struggling to regain the limelight, releasing solo albums and singles that flopped and gigging at corporate conferences.
In 1980, she met new manager Roger Davies, an Australian music executive who went on to manage her for three decades. That led to a solo no.1 – “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – and then in 1984 her album “Private Dancer” landed her at the top of the charts.
“Private Dancer” went on to become Turner’s biggest album, the capstone of a career that saw her sell more than 200 million records in total.
In 1985 Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach who became her long-term partner and in 1988 she moved to London, beginning a decades-long residency in Europe. She released two studio albums in the 1990s that sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme song for 1995 Bond movie “GoldenEye,” and staged a successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.
After that, she retired from show business. She married Bach, relinquishing her U.S. citizenship and becoming a citizen of Switzerland.
She battled a number of health problems after retiring and in 2018 she faced a family tragedy, when her oldest son, Craig, took his life at age 59 in Los Angeles. Her younger son Ronnie died in December 2022.
Her name continues to draw audiences years after her retirement. Musical stage show “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical,” with Adrienne Warren initially acting and singing the star’s life story, was a hit first in London’s West End in 2018, and later on Broadway, and is still running. And in 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life, “Tina.”
She is survived by Bach and two sons of Ike’s that she adopted.
Five persons have escaped death by a whisker after a dilapidated two-storey building collapsed at Winneba Junction in the Effutu Municipality of the Central Region.
The caretakers and children who were staying in the building had gone to work at the time of the collapse on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, at around 4:00 PM.
Report gathered by Kasapa News Yaw Boagyan revealed that the building situated on a water-logged plot along the Winneba to Cape Coast High got residents calling for its demolishing due to how weak it looked.
According to eyewitnesses, they saw some of the roofing sheets falling down, and the wall collapsing making people around the building run helter-skelter.
A few moments later, the whole building came crashing down with properties worth thousands of Cedis destroyed.
Information gathered indicates that the owner of the building had on several occasions asked the caretakers to vacate the dilapidated facility as it posed great danger to them but they refused to leave.
Fortunately, nobody was injured when the building collapsed.
Fire Service Personnel were informed and rushed to the scene for possible rescue efforts and assessment.
ADO1 Ebenezer Fiifi Dadzie advised the general public to seek for building permits from the Fire Service before raising up any structure as the collapsed facility was on a water-logged area.
Police were informed of the incident and have commenced investigation.
A five-year-old girl is said to have died when a building collapsed on her during a heavy downpour at Ada Magazine in the New Juaben South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The deceased, Kukua Esther, was in the building with her 7-year-old brother at the time of the unfortunate incident on Saturday.
According to reports, both children were rushed to the Koforidua Central Hospital, however, the girl was pronounced dead my health officers.
The boy, who sustained injuries, is still receiving treatment while the body of the young girl has been deposited at the morgue.
Narrating the incident, mother of the kids, Diana Labotey said, “The children were standing behind me in the kitchen, but I noticed they were feeling cold, so I asked them to go into the room. So after 10 minutes, I heard a loud sound, so I rushed into the room and noticed the back of the building had collapsed on the children. The head of the girl was badly damaged, so when we rushed them to the hospital, she was pronounced dead, but the boy is still at the hospital.”
Personnel from the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the Ghana Police Service, who visited the scene, have commenced investigations.
Ghanaian highlife musician Kwadwo Akwaboah has died.
The announcement of his death was made by his son Gladstorm Akwaboah, also a musician known in contemporary Ghanaian music as Akwaboah.
Kwadwo Akwaboah (seated) performing with his son Gladstorm Akwaboah
According to Joy Entertainment sources, he passed away at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi in the early hours of Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
In a Facebook post, Akwaboah shared a photo of his father with the caption: “RIP DADDY.”
Some of Kwadwo Akwaboah’s popular songs are ‘Awerekyekyere’, ‘Hini Me’, among others.
Note: This essay includes discussions of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
My daughter, who is now a 28-year-old therapist leading a happy and productive life, almost didn’t make it to adulthood due to mental illness.
Faith was 9 years old the first time she threatened to hurt herself with a knife. It was the spring of 2004 and my husband and I were watching “The Sopranos” when Faith came downstairs after bedtime, grabbed a paring knife from the kitchen counter and stood between the paused TV and us. Tony Soprano was frozen on the screen behind her, a forkful of pasta halfway to his mouth. He looked as dumbfounded as I felt.
“I’m a terrible person,” Faith said as she squeezed the handle of the knife.
My whole body tensed.
Her teacher had called that afternoon to tell me that Faith and her friends played a mean trick on the new girl in their third grade class.
“You’re not a terrible person,” I said. “You did something that wasn’t kind or respectful, and it’s normal to feel bad about that. But you’re not a terrible person.”
She scratched the point of the blade across her palm ― not hard enough to do anything, but still.
“Faithy, why don’t you put down that knife,” my husband said.
“I like it,” she said.
“Give me the knife.” I held out my hand but did not get off the sofa. Faith was small, but strong and unpredictable.
She looked at me with eyes that were both fierce and desperate. She didn’t move. She was just a little girl. She wore tie-dyed pajamas with chicks on them. Her long brown hair was damp from the shower. Her chest rose up and down as she breathed, and I found myself matching her, breath for breath.’
Faith, age 14 in 2009, at a program in Hawaii called Pacific Quest. “Though located in paradise, it was anything but,” the author writes. “Here she is washing her clothes on a washboard.”
Courtesy of Brenda Ferber
“Faithy,” I said, softening my tone. “Do you want to maybe see a therapist?”
Her shoulders relaxed and she nodded. She took three steps toward us, handed me the knife, and fell into our arms.
Over the next eight years ― hampered by questions like “Is this just a phase?” “Are we helicoptering?” and “Can we afford this?” ― we took Faith to social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. She tried medications that didn’t help. She spent five days in an adolescent behavior wing of our local hospital, where she became aware of the problems caused by her aggressive communication. She attended a wilderness therapy program in Hawaii for two months and learned to nurture herself like her seedlings in the nursery there. She went to a therapeutic boarding school in Montana for three weeks. That place was such a disaster, the only thing Faith learned was that if she shouted loudly and clearly enough, we would always come to her rescue.
All along, even while Faith was sending out nude photos of her teenage body, harming herself to dull her emotional pain and fighting the urge to die, she excelled at school, sports and friendships. Her smile lit the room. Her enthusiasm and energy were contagious. She charmed every kid, adult and animal she met.
My husband and I were confused, stressed, often overwhelmed. We knew that the very traits that were making childhood and adolescence so difficult for our daughter — her intensity, sensitivity and passion — would someday make her an extraordinary adult. There’d be no stopping Faith… if we could get her to adulthood alive.
“Use your powers for good,” we told Faith again and again. Faith, age 17 in 2011. “Depression doesn’t always look sad,” the author writes. “Only a few months after this photo was taken, Faith was telling the author she wanted to end her life.”
Faith, age 17 in 2011. “Depression doesn’t always look sad,” the author writes. “Only a few months after this photo was taken, Faith was telling the author she wanted to end her life.”
Courtesy of Brenda Ferber
One day in 2012, when Faith was 17, she squeezed in next to me on the sofa in our living room. I was reading a book, our dog nestled at my feet. My daughter looked more depleted than ever. She’d recently been kicked out of her elite boarding school, considered too promiscuous and emotionally fragile to be part of their community. She was back at our local public school with kids who didn’t understand her and a softball team that didn’t want her. She’d blown the last semester, getting all D’s and a sympathy A from her math teacher.
The reality of her situation had set in, and she was depressed in a way I hadn’t seen before. There was no mania or anger fueling her depression, just a weary hopelessness, a soul-sucking resignation.
“Things will get better,” I said.
“No. Don’t say that. They won’t.”
For years, I’d been telling Faith this, reminding her she was strong and resilient. For years, I’d listened and comforted and sometimes yelled and screamed. All along, I had tried to shape my daughter into the person I thought she could be. The person I wanted her to be. The person I wished she could be. That person was not “mentally ill,” but rather a tough teen who would grow out of her issues with the right help. And yet, here we were. Clearly, my optimism and hope for my child, combined with the stigma and fear of mental illness, had kept me from accepting the truth for far too long.
Faith stroked our pup’s silky fur. She kept her head down and said, “You’re going to be OK, though. When I die. You’ll get over it.”
I took a breath. “Faith. I won’t.”
“Mom. Kids die all the time. If I had cancer and died, you’d get over it. You’d move on.”
“No. You don’t understand. I’d never get over it. And besides, you don’t have cancer. If you had cancer, I’d try every single thing to cure you. Western medicine. Eastern medicine. Everything in between.”
She met my eyes. “But then, if you tried it all and I was still sick, you’d let me die, right?” The author enjoying a snuggle on the sofa with Faith and their pup at home in Deerfield, Illinois. “This photo is from 2012, a few months after Faith’s energy healing,” the author writes.
The author enjoying a snuggle on the sofa with Faith and their pup at home in Deerfield, Illinois. “This photo is from 2012, a few months after Faith’s energy healing,” the author writes.
Courtesy of Brenda Ferber
She was right, I would. But this wasn’t cancer. Or was it? What was the difference, really? This depression was killing her, surely as a malignant tumor.
I thought back to one afternoon when Faith was six weeks old, and I was putting her down for a nap. She was crying uncontrollably, and I was a sleep-deprived new mom. Faith wasn’t wet or hungry, hot or cold. She was simply inconsolable. I stood there, rocking her in my arms, back and forth, back and forth, willing her to stop crying and go to sleep. Please, I prayed, I needed this nap.
She didn’t let up. My movements became bigger and stronger, swinging her really. And then, all of a sudden, I thought about whipping her to the floor. If I threw Faith to the ground, the crying would stop, right?
Right.
I didn’t throw her to the ground. Instead, I held her tighter as I fell into the rocking chair and sobbed. She snuggled into me, and the two of us cried together, connected in our misery.
That traumatic moment still haunted me. I was terrified by the power I had to hurt my child, frightened by how her strong emotions could provoke such desperation in me. But perhaps I was missing the point. I hadn’t hurt Faith when she was an infant. In fact, I’d done exactly what she needed: I cried with her. She had these big emotions that might not have made sense, but I was there with her. I held her until they passed. And I kept holding her.
I looked at my daughter snuggled next to me on the sofa, devoid of expression, beaten down to a shadow of herself. Maybe, all the years of trying to shape Faith into a person who didn’t struggle under the grip of mental illness had been a mistake. Maybe, telling a person that things will get better is not always what they need to hear. Maybe, what I should have been doing was what I’d done when Faith was six weeks old: be there with her in her pain.
Fear had prevented me from doing that ― fear of losing Faith to madness, to suicide. But I finally understood my fear was not stopping that from happening. All it did was keep me from empathizing when my daughter desperately needed it. I had to find courage. I had to validate what Faith was experiencing, even if that meant embracing the possibility of losing her.
So I did.
The author and Faith at a family wedding in 2021.
Courtesy of Brenda Ferber
I said, “OK, I hear you. If we try everything else, and you still feel this bad, you can end your life.”
Faith took a deep breath. With those words, she was no longer alone. I had metaphorically fallen into the rocking chair and cried with her. She knew I would hold her for as long as it took.
I don’t normally tell people about that conversation, because it’s so easily misunderstood. It sounds horrific ― something a mother should never and would never say. I would have done anything to save Faith’s life. I didn’t want her to die by suicide. And yet, those are the words that tumbled out of my mouth.
One of my close friends told me it wasn’t horrific at all ― it was a radical act of love. That’s how I like to think about it. Because what those words conveyed to Faith was that I understood the depth of her pain. That what she was feeling was real. That I was right there, by her side. That we would try everything under the sun to help her.
Suicide is horrifying. We don’t know how to talk about it, so we often shy away from the topic altogether. Or we tell our loved one not to think that way. What does that do, other than invalidate them in their loneliest, most hopeless moment? The truth is, withholding my permission would not have stopped Faith from dying by suicide if that’s what she were determined to do. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone dies by suicide every 11 minutes. I have to believe most of those people had loved ones who were urging them to hold on a bit longer, telling them things would get better.
If I could redo that conversation with Faith when she was 17, I’d say: I hear you. You’ve been in pain for years, and you deserve relief. I’m grateful for your courage to let me know what you’re feeling. I’m in awe of your resilience, and I see how exhausted you are, even though you’re so strong. I’d ask her if she had a plan. I’d ask her if she had what she needed to carry out the plan. I’d ask her if she had a time frame for when it would happen. I’d ask every scary question in a calm, nonjudgmental way, and I’d keep on listening and validating and loving.
Courtesy of Brenda Ferber
We like to think we have control over how our kids turn out. But our kids are who they are. We can model our values for them. But the job of parenting isn’t to shape our kids into the happy and competent adults we want them to be. It’s to discover who they are. To love and accept them fully, even if that means accepting their mental illness ― not as a phase, but as another aspect of their life. By discovering, accepting and loving, we give our kids the ability to shape themselves into happy and competent adults.
What happened after this conversation in 2012? My daughter felt heard and understood. She tried Western medicine. Eastern medicine. Everything in between. Energy healing and a new medication did the trick. Something shifted. Faith found a way to go on. She’s 28 now and she manages her mental health every day. She has her master’s degree in social work, and she works as a therapist. Things did get better for Faith ― not because I said they would, but because Faith made it so. And let me be clear, she still has a mental illness. But for now, it’s under control.
As for me, I became a crisis counselor for Crisis Text Line. I give strangers all over the world the empathy and validation they need to get through their darkest moments. My daughter taught me how.
An 18-year-old Uk-based Ghanaian lady, Princess Owusu Ansah, has allegedly stabbed and poured boiling water on her friend in response to claims of having an affair with her lover.
The distressing episode unfolded when a video clip captured by Owusu Ansah on her mobile phone went viral on Snapchat.
The footage depicted the victim cowering under a duvet, screaming in agony as Owusu Ansah threw a kettle of boiling water over her.
Moments prior to the assault, Owusu Ansah is heard accusing her friend of engaging in relationships with other people’s partners and acting as though she could escape the consequences. After delivering a series of punches, she proceeded to pick up a silver knife, striking it against a radiator before stabbing her victim in the leg.
The attack took place on February 2, 2023, at the victim’s residence in the Dog Kennel Estate, Dulwich. Eventually managing to escape, the injured woman fled into the street and was later treated at Kings College Hospital for non-life-threatening stab wounds.
Members of the public who had seen the disturbing video on Snapchat promptly alerted the MetropolitanPolice.
In March, Owusu Ansah, hailing from Royston, pleaded guilty to charges of grievous bodily harm and criminal damage during her appearance at Inner London Crown Court.
On May 9, during her subsequent court appearance, Owusu Ansah received a three-year prison sentence for the heinous assault.
A man unintentionally drove by an accident scene that involved his wife.
Bolaji Onifade had been heading to his work inSalford, Greater Manchester, when he noticed emergency services at the scene of a horrific smash.
A pedestrian had been mowed down by a wealthy businessman’s son driving a £200,000 Mercedes G-Wagon at speeds of up to 91mph on October 25, 2021.
The 43-year-old thought little more of it as he drove to work, but just 20 minutes later his whole world was flipped upside down as he learned his wife Ibizugbe Onifade had been the victim.
He had offered her to pick her up from work but she had refused as she was working overtime.
The 38-year-old receptionist had been crossing the road at the time and died from impact of the car, driven by Mohammed Chowdbury.
Chowdbury had been on his mobile phone moments before he ploughed into her, and prior to that had been racing down a busy dual carriageway at 80mph, overtaking and undertaking drivers recklessly.
The speed of his driving was so great that it caused a fellow road users’ car to “shake as he drove past”.
The young man had previous convictions for driving without insurance and having a non-compliant number plate, and in both instances he provided the police with his brother’s details.
Similarly, only three years after he passed his driving test, Chowdbury had to attend a speed awareness course.
In a statement Bolaji Onifade, known as BJ, said: “That day changed my life forever. When I heard the news, I felt like I had come to the end of the world. What will I do without my wife?
“She was a lively and friendly person. We met each other at Salford University and got married later on.
“We had been trying for a baby and were considering IVF before COVID set us back. She would have been a wonderful mother. People should not be able to drive such high-powered cars when they are so young. If he had been driving sensibly, I would still have my wife.”
He added: “We went shopping in the morning and took our little nephew out with us. Then I took her to work, but before leaving I told her, “you haven’t said goodbye to the little one’.
“I offered to pick her up from work later but she said she would take a bus home as she was doing overtime.
“I was on night shift so went to work later. When I was driving along Ashton New Road, I noticed flashing police lights from across the road and thought there must have been an incident.
“Something told me to call my wife, but she didn’t pick up. I got my cousin to try and call her, but she also didn’t pick up.
”When I eventually got to work 20 minutes later, I got a call from my wife’s employer to say that there had been an incident and that police were going to attend my address.
“I thought the police don’t attend your address when it isn’t serious. I left work and came home, where they told me the news.
“We had been together for 10 years. She had studied quantitative business at Salford University and got her masters at a university in Nigeria.
“We enjoyed each other’s company, dong normal things all couples like to do. Going to church and socialising with friends. She also loved watching films. She has four sisters, two brothers and a mother back in Nigeria. I just pray that they are ok.”
At Manchester Crown Court, Chowdhury, of Chadderton near Oldham, whose family run a successful textile company, was jailed for five years and six months imprisonment after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving.
He was also banned from driving for eight years and nine months.
Prosecuting Brian Berlyne, said, “At approximately 8:55pm on Monday, October 25, 2021, Stuart Booth was driving in the Eastlands area of Manchester. Although it was dark, the street was well lit and a 30 mph speed limit was in place.
“The weather was fine, and the road was dry.
“As he drove along the road, a blue 4×4 Mercedes-Benz overtook him from the offside lane. The vehicle was going at such speed that his own vehicle shook as it was being overtaken. The defendant was the driver in question.
“At 9pm, PC Clark, an off duty police officer, noticed the same Mercedes speeding on the road near him. He noted that the car was travelling at excessive speed and over and undertook cars from the inside lanes of the dual carriageway.
“He also saw him doing a number of sharp breaks. He tried to follow the car, but the defendant sped through a red light. From there, PC Clark lost sight of him.
“At around the same time, the victim had just finished her work as a receptionist and made her way towards Alan Turing Way to catch a bus home.
“She crossed the road near the interchange with Ashton Old road and managed to reach the central reservation. She then looked around and believing the second half of the road was clear, she stepped out. She was then almost immediately struck by the defendant’s vehicle.
“Chowdhury immediately stopped and phoned the ambulance, which arrived a short time after. The victim died later in the night from the multiple injuries sustained from the collision.
“Although it was never fully confirmed the speed at which he was driving at the time, a police reconstruction of the incident measured his speed before the collision to be between 79 and 91 mph.
“He did immediately slow down when he saw the victim and was estimated to have been at between 40-50mph at that point.
“The victim was wearing dark clothing, but would have been seen regardless due to the bright road lighting. After being arrested at the scene, the defendant’s phone was seized.
“Analysis found that he had received no less than six calls between 8:51 and 8:57. The last call was taken at 8:57 and lasted for two minutes. At 9am he also used his phone to call the police.
“In interview, he denied driving dangerously and gave no account of his actions.”
In mitigation, Mohammed Nawaz, said, “He acquired an interest in cars at a young age, and by 14 he was spending more time fixing up cars than he was spending at school.
A local radio host has mysteriously escaped death after an attack by a aggressive machete-wielding mentally challenged man.
According to the Western Regional Correspondent of Despite Media, Appiah Dankwa, there has been an increasing trend of mentally challenged persons attacking and terrorizing residents of Takoradi metropolis.
Recounting one such incident on the Monday, May 8, 2023, edition of Peace FM’s Kokrokoo programme, Appiah Dankwa said a Nigerian reported to be mentally challenged recently attacked a local journalist who was returning to his home from the Takoradi market.
“Papa Taste (name of presenter) who is a drive time host had gone to the market to shop and was returning home. There is one mentally challenged man who is suspected to be a Nigerian and is also said to be into substance abuse, he terrorises the market women whenever he gets high. As soon as he sighted Taste, he shouted at him saying ‘you this person, you this person.’ With a machete he was wielding the man sought to attack Taste whose survival instincts kicked in at that moment. They wrestled each other until he was overpowered and bystanders came in,” the reporter said.
He added that the mentally challenged man escaped from the scene but was arrested after he resurfaced a few days later.
Appiah Dankwa who described the recent attacks on residents as worrying thus called for an appropriate intervention.
Despite the fact that laws of Ghana make certain provisions for the safety of mentally challenged persons and members of the public, people with mental health issues tend to roam the streets with no intervention of care.
Meanwhile, watch the latest episode of People and Places on GhanaWeb TV below:
He went from sleeping in uncompleted buildings to becoming a landlord.
On Friday May 5 2023, Kenyan President William Ruto established a panel to investigate the murders of more than 100 people who are thought to have starved to death. A court also mandated the cult leader’s continued detention.
The commission of inquiry, announced on Friday by presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed, will examine whether administrative or intelligence lapses contributed to the deaths.
Kenyan authorities have said the dead were members of the Good News International Church led by Paul Mackenzie, who they said predicted the world would end on April 15 and instructed his followers to kill themselves to be the first to go to heaven.
The death toll stands at 111 but could rise further, in one of the worst cult-related disasters in recent history.
Mohamed said Ruto had also appointed a task force to review regulations governing religious organisations.
Mackenzie has not commented publicly on the accusations against him nor has he been required to enter a plea to any criminal charge. His lawyer George Kariuki told the press on Tuesday that his client could face “possible terrorism charges”.
Mackenzie appeared in court in the port city of Mombasa on Friday, where prosecutors asked a judge to hold him for an additional 90 days as their investigation continued.
The judge said he would deliver a ruling next Wednesday on the prosecution’s request and ordered that Mackenzie remain in custody until then.
Mackenzie, who was wearing a black and pink jacket and holding his two-year-old daughter during the hearing, told journalists at the court that he and some of his supporters were being refused food in prison. Prosecutors denied this and his lawyer had told the press on Tuesday that his client was eating.
“He eats and drinks,” Kariuki said. “He is healthy. I have met him personally. There have been rumours that he has refused to eat, and that is not true.”
In March, Mackenzie was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of the murder of two children by starvation and suffocation but was then released on bail.
Relatives of his adherents say that after he was freed, he returned to the forest where they lived and brought forward his predicted world’s end date – which had previously fallen in August – to April 15.
This has led to criticism by some Kenyan lawmakers that security services missed opportunities to prevent mass deaths.
The US believes that since December, fighting in Ukraine has claimed the lives of around 20,000 Russian servicemen.
A further 80,000 have been wounded, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, citing newly declassified intelligence.
Half of the dead are from the Wagner mercenary company, who have been attacking the eastern Bakhmut city.
Russia has been trying to take the small city since last year in a grinding war of attrition.
Moscow currently holds most of Bakhmut, but Ukrainian troops are still control a small portion of the city in the west. The fierce battle has taken on huge symbolic importance for both sides.
Ukrainian officials have also said they are using the battle to kill as many of Russia’s troops as possible and wear down its reserves.
“Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the Donbas [region] largely through Bakhmut has failed,” Mr Kirby told reporters. “Russia has been unable to seize any real strategic and significant territory.
“We estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action,” he added.
The toll in Bakhmut accounts for losses since the start of December, according to the US figures.
“The bottom line is that Russia’s attempted offensive has backfired after months of fighting and extraordinary losses,” Mr Kirby said.
He added he was not giving estimates of Ukrainian casualties because “they are the victims here. Russia is the aggressor”.
The BBC is unable to independently verify the figures given and Moscow has not commented.
Image caption,A local resident pushes his bicycle down a street in Bakhmut in January
The capture of the city would bring Russia slightly closer to its goal of controlling the whole of Donetsk region, one of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine annexed by Russia last September following referendums widely condemned outside Russia as a sham.
Analysts say Bakhmut has little strategic value, but has become a focal point for Russian commanders, who have struggled to deliver any positive news to the Kremlin.
The Wagner mercenary group – which widely uses convicts and has become notorious for its often inhumane methods – has taken centre stage in the Russian assault on Bakhmut.
Its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has staked his reputation, and that of his private army, on seizing the city.
But he recently threatened to pull his troops out of Bakhmut.
In a rare in-depth interview to a prominent Russian war blogger, he vowed to withdraw Wagner fighters if they were not provided with much-needed ammunition by the Russian defence ministry.
Wagner fighters could be redeployed to Mali, he warned.
He has often clashed with Russia’s defence ministry during the war, accusing officials of not providing his fighters with enough support.
Mr Prigozhin also called upon the Russian media and military leadership to “stop lying to the Russian population” ahead of an expected Ukrainian spring counteroffensive.
“We need to stop lying to the Russian population, telling them everything is all right,” he said.
He praised the Ukrainian military’s “good, correct military operations” and command.
A top Ukrainian general said on Monday that counterattacks had ousted Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut, but the situation remained “difficult”.
New Russian units, including paratroopers and fighters from Wagner, are being “constantly thrown into battle” despite taking heavy losses, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on Telegram.
“But the enemy is unable to take control of the city,” he said.
Eunice, a stunning 28-year-old woman who was stabbed to death by her husband last weekend.
According to reports Eunice and her husband whose name has been (withheld) married just last year in a very wedding minimalist ceremony.
It was only after the wedding that Eunice got to know that her husband is a serial cheat and a womanizer also.
Before Eunice filed for divorce from her violent husband, she had suffered a series of both physical and mental abuses.
Although her husband had promised to have a change of his bad character to good but he never did and this is what influenced her to call the marriage a quit.
During one of their many heated arguments over the weekends, her husband used a cutlass to butcher her.
Unfortunately, she was pronounced dead after she was rushed to the hospital to receive treatment.
At the moment, the husband who committed the heinous crime is on the run.
Below are some pictures of the late Eunice, whose gruesome murder has left a lot of social media users who have come across the disheartening story teary.
A woman has reportedly lost her life while undergoing abortion to please her husband who doesn’t want a daughter.
This sad story was first shared onTwitter by a lady who’s believed to be close to the deceased woman who was forced into getting an abortion by her husband who wanted a son.
@_Mayowa_Sam revealed that the couple had three daughters before the recent pregnancy.
The woman’s husband who doesn’t want another girl child, made her undergo an abortion and she died after the procedure.
It was also gathered that the man has left the woman’s family in the dark since herdeath.
Read the tweets below to know more…
“This man asked his wife to go for an abortion, saying he is sure she’s carrying another baby girl. The wife died on Tuesday after the abortion. They had only 3 girls.
“The ladies family don’t know his whereabout at the moment.”
This man asked his wife to go for an abortion😭, saying he is sure she’s carrying another baby girl. The wife died on Tuesday after the abortion. 😭😭😭😭😭😭— BlackLuna (@_Mayowa_Sam) April 27, 2023
Foreign nationals looking to flee the turmoil by sea now frequently go through Port Sudan on passenger ships bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
But despite the huge numbers trying to get out, there are some who are making their way back to the war torn country so they can be with their families.
One passenger said: “Death will find us anywhere, it is important we are with our families.”
Warring factions trying to seize control of the east African nation of Sudan have plunged the country into chaos with at least 400 dead and thousands displaced.
Water and food are in short supply.
One woman told how she had left her one-and-a-half year old child at home while she went on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
“I’m suffering a lot ’til I found a ticket,” she said.
At Port Sudan hundreds of displaced people from all over the world were waiting to try and leave on a ferry.
A woman, who was also displaced by the Syrian war, said “We are suffering. Even in Syria we didn’t see war like this.”
The violence is a result of a struggle for power between two powerful generals and their armies: Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, who leads the Sudanese armed forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
In the village of Karma in northern Burkina Faso, on April 20, men in army fatigues killed 136 civilians, including 50 women and 21 children, according to a Burkinabe human rights organization.
“Our teams have documented and recorded 136 lifeless bodies in Karma, including 50 women and 21 children, among them babies under 30 days old killed on their mothers’ backs,” the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities (CISC) said in a statement sent to AFP on Friday.
The official death toll, announced on Sunday by the public prosecutor in Ouahigouya, capital of the northern region, was around sixty, while survivors and residents of Karma put it at “more than a hundred”.
Other nearby villages were also targeted on April 20 by these men in military garb, killing six in Dinguiri, two in Ménè, and three on the road between Ouahigouya and Barga, according to CISC.
In Karma, “they grouped civilians by the dozens and by neighborhoods, taking care to assign armed men to each grouping, with the slogan: ‘Kill everyone,’” said CISC President Daouda Diallo, winner of the 2022 Martin Ennals Prize, the “Nobel Prize” for human rights.
The CISC recalls that these massacres came after a jihadist attack on April 15, during which six soldiers and at least 34 army auxiliaries were killed near a village in the same region.
“Survivors’ testimonies indicate that the attackers accused the inhabitants of the village of Karma of harboring members of terrorist groups,” Diallo said.
The CISC “strongly and vehemently condemns this latest massacre,” recalling a series of deaths attributed to soldiers and auxiliaries in the fight against armed jihadist groups.
It demands a “full and impartial judicial inquiry into these horrific crimes against civilians, in order to bring all those responsible and the instigators to justice”, considering that “impunity opens the way to all possible abuses, ranging from settling of scores to large-scale massacres”.
On Thursday, the government “strongly” condemned “these despicable and barbaric acts” and said it was “following very closely the progress of the investigation”, opened by the Ouahigouya prosecutor in order to “clarify” the facts and “question all those involved”.
Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that began in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and has spread beyond their borders.
The violence has left more than 10,000 civilians and soldiers dead over the past seven years, according to NGOs, and some two million people internally displaced.
A Nigerian man is said to have passed away from shock after learning that his wife, whom he sponsored to relocate overseas for a better life, waspregnant by someone else.
This cruel story was shared by Twitter user @BolanleCole who claimed that the man had struggled to send his wife and two kids to the United Kingdom so they could have a better life while he remained in Nigeria.
Disappointingly, the wife started having an extramarital affair with another man when she arrived in her safe haven.
Their relationship resulted in pregnancy, which the husband only found out about it recently after his wife gave birth.
The tweep noted that the news of the woman’s infidelity and pregnancy was too much for the man to bear, leading to his sudden death.
A 35-year-old man, Dandu Painter, is accused of setting ablaze a 39-year-old man at Sefwi Bekwai in the Bibiani Anhweaso Bekwai municipality of the Western North Region.
This allegedly happened because the deceased Kofi Kumi is said to have insulted Dandu’s wife’s private part.
According to Adom News, Kofi Kumi is reported to have visited a drinking spot to take alcoholic beverages but refused to pay for them.
The drinking spot attendant alerted Dandu Painter’s wife to collect her money from the deceased, inciting an altercation between the two parties which eventually had to be settled by their families.
However, people in the vicinity began to taunt and make fun of Kofi Kumi, even going as far as to insult Painter’s wife. Outraged, Dandu Painter is believed to have gone and bought fuel and turpentine to set Kofi Kuma ablaze in retaliation.
Kofi was taken to the Green Shield Hospital at Sehwi Bekwai, but was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Yaa Foriwaa, mother of the deceased, has requested the Sehwi Bekwai Police Command and the Inspector-General of Police to arrest the fugitive, Dandu Painter, and bring him to book.
The body of the deceased has been deposited at Sehwi Ahweaso Hospital for preservation.
A lady, Bogpoka Banga is said to have murdered her 39-year-old husband, Agyei Abanga in their bedroom at Logre, Nabdam District,Upper East Region.
A report by the Chronicles newspaper on April 18, 2023, stated that the deceased’s body was found by family members after his first child (daughter), who escaped from her mother, informed her grandmother and the rest of the family about the issue.
The culprit is said to have run to nearbyWalewalewith three of their children.
The newspaper reported that the daughter informed the extended family that her father was hit with an object, locked up and asked to leave for Walewale.
Bawa Dagal-Kurug, head of the bereaved family, said, shortly after they received the news, they searched for her whereabouts.
He gave an account of the issue to the newspaper.
“He lives in his house with his wife alone, though he used to live in the extended family with us. He still has a room here. His name is Agyei, a contractor. He has four kids; the eldest among them came to the extended family to report that their mother woke them up early at dawn with them (the kids). The kids told her grandmother that she has seen the mother lock up their father in a room, with blood all over the place,” he said.
He added that when she is found, she will be made to face justice for the crime committed.
The police command in the Nabdam district, Inspector Amado Zakaria, said his outfit will work hand-in-hand with the family to ensure the culprit is arrested.
According to Isaac Opoku Asamoah, a senior technical official at theGreater AccraRegional TB Control, Ghana has 125 new cases of tuberculosis (TB) and 30 fatal cases each day.
He said tuberculosis is a silent killer, and adults in most parts of the developing world, including Ghana, are unknowingly exposed to TB bacteria.
Asamoah, who was speaking with the Ghana News Agency, mentioned that the progression from latent to active TB disease depends on the individual’s immunity.
He said among people with a higher risk of progressing to the disease are smokers, alcoholics, prisoners, people living in crowded and poorly ventilated rooms, mineworkers and individuals exposed to silica.
The technical officer said individuals with lowered immunity caused by medical conditions such as HIV, diabetes, cancer, kidney failure and malnutrition are also at higher risk.
Asamoah said the 2023 World TB Day in Ghana was commemorated with a series of activities, including nationwide screening, especially in densely populated communities, intensifying advocacy and sensitisation, among others.
He said that the Ghana Paediatric Society had offered a webinar to paediatricians to increase their awareness of childhood TB and enable them to screen more children in all facilities.
He said, “This is because TB in children is difficult to diagnose, and research done last year in Komfo Anokye [Teaching Hospital] found 50 TB cases among severely ill children on admission from January to June.”
Asamoah stressed that TB is a preventable and curable disease and said free diagnosis and treatment are available at all public and accredited private health facilities.
On the second day of clashes that left dozens dead, fierce fighting has persisted in the capital of Sudan despite a brief ceasefire to address humanitarian concerns, including the evacuation of wounded.
At least five civilians were killed and 78 wounded Sunday, bringing the two-day toll to 61 dead and more than1000 wounded, said the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate.
According to Abdalla Hamdok, Former Sudanese Prime Minister:
“Peace remains the only feasible choice for the people of Sudan to avoid plunging the country into a civil war. Therefore, I call for an immediate cease-fire and to reach an agreement, which leads to a permanent cessation (of hostilities).”
The clashes are part of a power struggle between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the armed forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces group.
The two generals are former allies who jointly orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed Sudan’s short-lived transition to democracy.
The international community, which watched helplessly as the coup d’état took place in October 2021 and has not managed to convince the generals to sign a plan to end the crisis, is multiplying its calls for a ceasefire. The Arab League is meeting urgently at 09:00 GMT in Cairo, at the call of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two influential players in Sudan.
The divisions between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, head of the army, and General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – thousands of ex-militiamen of the Darfur war who have become official auxiliaries of the regular troops – degenerated into violence on Saturday morning in the streets of this country of 45 million inhabitants, among the poorest in the world, torn by war for decades.
The violence continued Sunday morning. The deserted streets of Khartoum were filled with the smell of gunpowder after explosions and gunfire rang out throughout the night. The military had warned in the evening on Facebook: “the air force will conduct operations to finish with the rebel militias of the Rapid Support, civilians must stay home.
In the morning, heavy gun battles opposed military and paramilitary in the northern suburbs of the capital, as well as in the south of Khartoum, witnesses reported. Throughout the capital, men in fatigues, weapons in hand, were walking through streets empty of civilians, while columns of smoke have been rising since Saturday from the city center where the main institutions of power are located.
Artillery fire
Witnesses also reported artillery fire in Kassala, in the country’s coastal east.
According to pro-democracy doctors, 56 civilians were killed, more than half of them in Khartoum and its suburbs, while “dozens” of military and paramilitary personnel died, although no precise figures are available. In addition, about 600 people were killed.
The conflict had been brewing for weeks, preventing any political solution in a country that has been trying since 2019 to organize its first free elections after 30 years of Islamo-military dictatorship.
Impossible as it is to know which force is holding what. The RSF announced that it had taken the airport in a few hours on Saturday, but the army denied this. The RSF also claimed to be holding the presidential palace. The army denied this and said it was holding the headquarters of its general staff, one of the main power complexes in Khartoum.
Police in Kenya are looking into the deaths of four people who may have been starved to death at the order of a controversial cult leader.
Pastor Makenzie Nthenge is alleged to have told his followers in the coastal area of Kilifi to starve themselves in the hope of getting to heaven quickly.
Following a tip-off, police found 15 seriously ill people on Thursday, but only 11 made it to hospital alive.
Police are also looking into reports of a mass grave in a nearby forest.
Last month Mr Nthenge was charged in connection with the deaths of two children whose parents had joined his Good News International Church.
He pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. The current whereabouts of the pastor are not clear.
The identities of those who died on Thursday have not yet been established.
Some of the survivors, including a teenager, are currently in a critical condition having become so emaciated.
A security source told Kenya’s Nation Media group that those rescued from their homes were extremely unwell: “We found them in a very bad state, others fainted on the way to hospital.”
Police said they began their search for followers of the Good News International Church after receiving intelligence that “ignorant citizens” were “starving to death in pretext to meet Jesus after being brainwashed by a suspect”.
They were also warned about “a mass shallow grave of victims of that brainwashing totalling to 31 bodies in an unidentified place at Shakahola Forest”, the police statement said.
Kenya is a religious country and this is not the first time people have been lured into joining dangerous, unregulated churches or cults.
Brother of late Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumawu, Philip Basoah has suggested to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to allow a relative of the deceased MP to replace him instead of allowing other party members to contest for the seat.
He believes this is the best way the party can compensate Mr Basoah for his many years of hard work.
Speaking in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme “eight people are currently contesting the seat. But for someone who had worked hard in the constituency, they could have just said they won’t contest and even allowed a family member to go. But the number of people contesting really puts me off and shows they never cared about him,” he fumed.
He further made some shocking revelations following his death.
To Solomon Basoah, his late brother was not treated fairly while he was alive.
He said despite the MP’s loyalty to NPP, constituency executives worked against him.
“My brother really suffered before dying. Even in Parliament, a lot of people were aware of the treatment meted out to him. The constituency executives never liked him. They even organise meetings without his knowledge. If he were alive today and we are going for elections, trust me, the executives would have deserted him because majority of them are not in his camp,” he said.
Mr. Basoah also alleged that, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Samuel Addae Agyekum was spreading false rumours about the late MP even when he was battling for his life.
The pained brother said he is shocked eight people including some constituency executives have picked forms to contest in the by-election.
Asked if he would still do politics after his brother’s death, Solomon said “I won’t bother venturing into politics again. I am an Electoral Area Coordinator and after my tenure, I won’t bother to continue. My brother went through a lot and I cannot see myself going through that too,” he noted.
Three people have been remanded in police custody for the alleged murder of a 28-year-old lady at Dwinase near Kokotro in the Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti region.
Prime suspect, Mary Akosua Agyemang, 25 years, is alleged to have accosted the deceased, 28-year-old Vida Ennin, for gossiping about her over a man they have both dated.
The two women got into a brawl, Sunday evening, over who rightfully deserves to be the fiancée of the man, an excavator operator.
Mary is said to have left the scene of the brawl to buy a sharp knife. She allegedly returned to stab Vida in the face, breast and palm. She bled to death.
The Bekwai police later arrested Mary, also known as Serwaa, together with two others – Felicia Sarpong, 61 years and Ernest Achirem, 63 years – accused of attempting to shield Mary from arrest.
The deceased Vida Ennin
All three were arraigned before the Bekwai Circuit Court on Wednesday and have been remanded in police custody to assist in investigations.
Withdrawing money from a deceased’s account to organise his/her funeral is illegal, a private legal practitioner, Albert Gyamfi, has said.
According to him, the bank account of a deceased person is immediately closed by law when the person is declared dead; therefore, interfering with the property of the deceased is an act that is punishable by law.
He said the family should find a means of organising the funeral of the deceased person rather than withdrawing from his account, which is common in the Ghanaian socio-cultural context.
“Let me sound this warning; the general practice has been that when a person dies, people would want to go into his bank account for money for the organisation of the funeral. That is intermeddling. Wherever the family finds a room to organise the funeral, they should do so. And when probate has been granted, then if there’s any property to liquidate that debt, they use his property to do so.
“But you cannot go into his bank account, withdraw money for the purpose of a funeral. As soon as the person dies, doctors declare him dead, his bank account is closed until probate has been granted,” Mr. Gyamfi cautioned while contributing to a discussion on The Law on Sunday.
He, however, added that if an individual gathers the properties of a deceased person to safely keep the assets but does not deprive the entitled persons of the use of the property, such an act was not categorised as intermeddling with the properties of the dead person.
“If you look at Section 17, the law principally says, unlawfully deprive the entitled persons of the use. So, the law has a mens rea of your unlawfully depriving persons of the use. So, if I am only gathering them for safekeeping, I am not depriving people of the use,” Mr Gyamfi emphasised.
A private attorney, Albert Gyamfi, has stated that taking money from a deceased person’s bank account to pay for their funeral is illegal and punishable by law.
According to the lawyer, although this is a common practice in the Ghanaian sociocultural context, the act, by law, is characterised as intermeddling with the property of the deceased, an act that is punishable by law.
Mr Gyamfi further explained to the host of The Law, Samson Lardy Anyenini that the bank account of a deceased by law is immediately closed off when the person is declared dead.
Thus, no relative can access the bank account of the deceased until a letter of administration (LA) or probate has been granted to them to have access to the bank account, he said.
“Let me sound this warning, the general practice has been that when a person dies, people would want to go into his bank account for money for the organization of the funeral. That is intermeddling. Wherever the family will find a room to organize the funeral, they should do so. And when probate has been granted, then if there’s any property to liquidate that debt, they use his property to do so.”
“But you cannot go into his bank account, withdraw money for purpose of a funeral. As soon as the person dies, doctors declare him dead, his bank account is closed until probate has been granted,” Mr Gyamfi cautioned while contributing to a discussion on The Law on Sunday. Withdrawing money from a deceased’s account to organise funeral is a criminal offence – Lawyer
Subsequently, he shared that in a situation where an individual gathers the properties of a deceased person to safe keep the assets but does not deprive the entitled persons of the use of the property, such an act was not categorised as intermeddling with the properties of the dead person.
“If you look at section 17, the law principally says, unlawfully deprive the entitled persons of the use. So, the law has a mens rea of you unlawfully depriving persons of the use. So, if I am only gathering them for safekeeping, I am not depriving people of the use,” Mr Gyamfi emphasised.
Hence, referencing a scenario whereby the deceased person was the owner of a vehicle that was being used as a commercial vehicle, the lawyer advised that a driver in such a case keeps the sales received safe until legitimate administrators are appointed to whom the driver can give an account of the money received.
However, he warned that the inability of the said driver to account for the money is categorised as intermeddling.
So, the lawyer stated that, “If you are unable to account and some monies are gone somewhere, then you can be said to have been depriving the beneficiaries of the use, and you will be guilty of intermeddling.
“So gathering properties in good faith for purposes of administration in mind does not amount to intermeddling,” Mr Gyamfi reiterated.
Nollywood star Yul Edochie’s followers have expressed their sympathies to the family, sequel the passing of Kambilichukwu, the actor’s first child.
On Thursday morning, news of the actor’s first son being taken to the hospital after being unconscious broke.
According to a source who talked to Vanguard under the condition of anonymity, at the time this article was written, Yul had confirmed Kambilichukwu’s passing.
May’s sister who was at the scene said the boy read throughout the night preparing for his exam today. After his exam in school, he joined his mates to play football and that’s when he developed a seizure and was rushed to Mother and Child Hospital. All efforts by the doctors to resuscitate him proved abortive, the report added.
This is coming two months after Yul Edochie and his first wife May, celebrated their first son and second child as he turned 16; showering encomiums and blessings on him.
Reacting on social media to the passing of Kambilichukwu, Nigerians have expressed their sadness, commiserating with the actor over the tragic event.
@Xrixywalker: There’s no pain compared to that of a parent losing a child. Not just a new born, but a child they’ve grown to love. 💔
@TheOmegaMessiah: I cannot imagine the pain Yul and his family must be feeling. May God grant them the strength to bear this immeasurable loss. RIP to the young man. 😥🙏🏾
@ayadewale: My God ….this is what I never want to hear happens to anybody ….cos I know what I pass through when this happen to me ….mr yul be strong ….your comfort right now can only be from God ….😭
@spiderchi1: Very sad news indeed. 💔💔💔 This boy just turned 16 a while back. This is heartbreaking. May his soul rest in peace. My heart goes out to May. What manner of pain is she going through now? @YulEdochie return somebody’s wife and repair your home.
@OlawuyiTaiwoM: What? There is no word for a parent who loses a child. I pray God bless May and Yul Edochie with the comfort of His love that they may face each new day with hope and the certainty that nothing can destroy the good that has been given. I’m so sorry🥹
@D_Obidientbadie: May was just trying to recover after Yul’s betrayal , now this?.My goodness!this is too much for one woman.
@CharlesDaniel3: What a colossal loss!!! My deepest condolences to the entire family…🙏🙏🙏
In a daring prison break that shocked the nation, a convicted rapist who faked his own death is the target of a manhunt launched by police in South Africa, according to reports.
In May, Thabo Bester allegedly set himself on fire in a privately run prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, according to authorities. However, at the weekend, police claimed DNA tests proved the charred remains found in the serial rapist’s cell belonged to someone else.
“At this point, our priority is to find this fugitive of justice and establish exactly how he faked his death,” police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe told reporters on Monday.
Called the “Facebook rapist”, Bester allegedly lured victims on the social media platform before raping and robbing them. At least one victim was killed. In 2012, he was sentenced to life in prison for rape, robbery and murder.
On Sunday, police said an autopsy revealed the person found dead in Bester’s cell had died from blunt force trauma to the head before being set ablaze. A murder investigation has been opened.
The case has sparked outrage in South Africa, where women’s rights groups have long accused the government of not doing enough to tackle violence against women.
“The unfolding of this story has been like a movie and sent shivers down everyone’s spines. … I can imagine what it did to the victims,” said Bafana Khumalo, co-director of the NGO Sonke Gender Justice.
From October to December, police recorded more than 12,000 rapes across the country.
Doubts about Bester’s death were first raised by local media outlet GroundUp in November.
Photographs purportedly showing the convict grocery shopping in an affluent Johannesburg suburb have since surfaced. Some women have also come forward alleging the convict made contact with them on social media.
Before his escape, Bester also reportedly ran a scam media business from inside prison using a false name.
According to local outlet News24, he posed as head of 21st Century Media, a phantom event and production company that was a supposed subsidiary of the American company 21st Century Fox.
The media company promoted a 2018 event that advertised Hollywood superstars but turned out to be a scam, the paper said. A video of Bester addressing a company event via video call from behind bars while pretending to be in New York has gone viral.
“The escape of Bester … is testament to the incompetence of the Correctional Services system, and the endemic corruption in the sector,” the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party said in a statement.
Police have appealed to the public for any information relevant to the case.
“We want to find people who are directly involved in this matter as well as his accomplices,” Mathe said.
A popular epileptic only known as Lawer in the Akateng community near Asesewa in the Eastern Region has been found dead under unexplained circumstances.
The cause of death of the deceased estimated to be about 30 years old could not be immediately ascertained.
An eyewitness, Mr. Samuel Akor told GhanaWeb’s Eastern Regional Correspondent, Michael Oberteye that he together with police personnel conveyed the corpse to the mortuary of the Asesewa Government Hospital after it was discovered in the morning by residents.
He said, “Myself, police officers and the DEHO (District Environmental Health Officers) picked up the body,” he narrated.
The deceased was found dead at the Akateng taxi station by some members of the community where a combined team of Police personnel, NADMO and DEHO officials however picked up the body at 9am.
The body has since been deposited at the Asesewa government hospital pending preservation and autopsy.
The deceased, according to residents did not have a fixed place of abode as efforts to trace his relatives proved futile.
Assemblyman for the Tumesi-Akateng Electoral Area, Honourable William Yaw Tugbedzo confirmed the story to GhanaWeb. According to him, the deceased had no known relatives in the community and depended on stipends from benevolent individuals to survive.
He said, “He has been in the community for the past two years, he has been moving up and down and he didn’t have a fixed place of abode… moreover, the family isn’t known.”
He added that the incident was the first of its kind in the area. Police are however not suspecting any foul play in the incident.
33-year-old Ifeoma Ossai, has been detained by Ogun State Police Command agents after her landlord, Oladele, was allegedly killed on Monday over a minor argument.
The suspect, a single mother, was detained as a result of a report submitted at the Sango Ota Divisional Police Headquarters by the dead person’s brother, Olaleye Taiwo, according to a statement released by the State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi on Tuesday.
The complainant said the suspect and his brother disagreed over the payment of the electricity bill, while the suspect grabbed his manhood and dragged him with it.
The deceased was said to have become unconscious and eventually died.
The statement reads “Men of Ogun State Police Command on Saturday 11th of March 2023, arrested a 33-year old woman, Ifeoma Ossai, for killing her 50-year old landlord, Monday Surulere Oladele, over a minor disagreement.
“The suspect was arrested following a report lodged at Sango Ota divisional headquarters by one Olaleye Taiwo, who reported that his brother, Monday Oladele has a disagreement with his tenant over the payment of the electricity bill, and in the process, the said tenant grabbed the manhood of the deceased and dragged him with it.
“Consequently, the landlord fell unconsciously on the ground and he was rushed to General Hospital, Ota where the doctor on duty confirmed him dead.
“Upon the report, the DPO Sango Ota division, CSP Saleh Dahiru, quickly led his detectives to the scene where the suspect was promptly arrested and taken to custody for investigation.
“On interrogation, the suspect claimed that the deceased asked her to pay for the electricity bill, but she insisted that until water is directly connected to her apartment as promised by the landlord before she packed in she will not pay the electricity or any other utility bill.
“This led to a scuffle between them consequence upon which the suspect grabbed the manhood of the deceased and dragged him with it.
“The deceased subsequently slumped, and he was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead by the doctor on duty.
“The corpse has been deposited at the hospital mortuary for postmortem examination.
“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Frank Mba, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the Homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Departments for further investigation and diligent prosecution.”
A 55-year-old man has been found dead in his room at Mankessim in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region.
According to reports, the deceased, Kwame Entie’s lifeless body almost rotten was found after the residents started inhaling bad odour emanating from the direction of his room.
He was said not to be feeling well recently and visited the hospital and was recovering until his demise.
Residents say he’d not been seen in the past few days but their curiosity was aroused after they began to smell the bad ordor and alerted the Police.
His room was subsequently searched but was unfortunately found dead on Sunday, February 19, 2023 in the evening.
The body has been deposited at the Saltpond Government Hospital Mortuary for autopsy and preservation while police have commenced investigation.
The funeral date for late South African rapper, Kiernan “AKA” Jarryd Forbes, has been released.
The date was announced by the family of has announced that a memorial will be held in his honour.
The event is expected to come off on Friday, February 17, 2023. The memorial, the family noted, is open to the public for those who want to join the family remember AKA.
It will take place at South Africa’s leading event venue, Sandton Convention Centre at 3:00 pm (South Africa time). The memorial will also be streamed on AKA’s YouTube platform.
Following the memorial, the family will hold a private funeral ceremony on Saturday, February 18.
AKA’s family also thanked the public for the support they have received. “We as the Forbes family would like to acknowledge the outpouring of love we have received over the past few days.”
“Kiernan wasn’t just loved by us as a family, but by the nation, as we’ve seen from loved ones, friends, industry colleagues, media tributes and the MEGACY.”
Background
Kiernan Jarryd Forbes was shot just before 10:00pm (South African time) while standing outside the Wish Restaurant in Durban on Friday.
The deceased was seen interacting with some friends in a busy street when the unidentified person walked up to him and shot him in the head.
The suspect, then took to his heels.
Reports by South African media indicates that another person believed to be AKA’s bodyguard, sustained wounds during the shooting incident.
The family issued a statement to confirm the death of the artistes via his Twitter handle.
“It is with extreme sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our beloved son, and confirm his untimely and tragic passing on the evening of February 10, 2023. We are awaiting further details from the Durban Police.
To us, Kiernan Jarryd Forbes was a son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend, most importantly father to his beloved daughter Kairo.
To many, he was AKA, SUPAMEGA, BHOVA and the many other names of affection his legion of fans called him by. Our son was loved and he gave love in return. In this time of grief, we appeal for your compassion, space and time to congregate as family to decide on the upcoming days.
We thank you for the love and support we have received thus far and ask you to continue to keep us in your prayers.
An altercation between a man and a bar attendant has resulted in the death of the man.
According to reports, the man was butchered to death following an argument over the price of fruit juice in a drinking spot at Maakro in the Suame Constituency on Thursday.
The victim identified as Adam Nabil had a heated argument with the bar attendant regarding the exact price of “Don Simon” fruit juice.
The attendant is said to have called eight heavily armed men to attack and butcher Nabil.
According to a Daily Guide report, on February 10,2023, at 11am, Moses Ndandon, brother of Adam Nabil called on the station to inform them about the incident.
A police report on the incident said, “an argument ensued between the drinking spot attendant and his brother about the price of the said fruit juice.
“In the process, the drinking spot attendant went out and called some young men numbering 8, who attacked and injured his brother with cutlasses,” the police report added.
The report added that the victim sustained severe injuries on his neck after the attack as he had deep cuts and was rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
“Photograph of victim lying in hospital bed with plaster on his neck taken,” portions of the police report stated.
Meanwhile, efforts are being made to arrest the suspects.
A video footage has revealed that America rapper, XXXTentacion, withdrew a sum of $50,000 prior to his death. This was revealed on the opening day of the trial for the three men accused of fatally shooting the rapper.
In court on Thursday, February 2, 2023, one of the South Florida rapper’s friends detailed how he and the artist were ambushed while driving in his BMW.
“If I run, I can get shot, but I can live. If I sit…” Leonard Kerr began recalling for the court, while detailing how his friend XXXTentacion was killed while pulling out of the Riva Motorsports parking lot near Fort Lauderdale on June 18, 2018. The Associated Press said Kerr then trailed off “until he stopped to regain his composure”
According to Kerr, the two men confronted them with weapons, urging them to get out of the car. Kerr obliged, while XXXTentacion stayed in the vehicle. As Kerr fled, he heard “at least two loud bangs,” before he noticed the two men got back into their car and had taken the $50,000 XXXTentacion is seen withdrawing from his bank account in the above video.
XXXTentacion withdrawing $50,000 from the bank moments before he was killed in 2018 has been released following the start of his murder trial. pic.twitter.com/WtCSyxcvZz
Three men involved in the murder face charges, with Michael Boatwright, 28, accused of being the shooter; Trayon Newsome, 24, accused of being the other gunman; and Dedrick Williams, 26, accused of being the driver.
The trio were arrested after they hopped on social media and flaunted the money allegedly stolen from XXX.
“They go on social media and start bragging that they have this influx of cash,” prosecutor Pascale Achille said. “They flash it like it’s Christmas Day.”
The Ghana Police service has alleged that the late Shadrack Arloo who died during an arrest by some of its Officers at the West Hills Mall, died from swallowing a package that had narcotic substance, as he tried to resist arrest.
A police statement dated February 7, 2023, said that the late brother of Gospel musician Perpetual Didier resisted arrest by a police officer on duty who was being assisted by private security guards at scene.
The statement furthered that the deceased after swallowing the the package became unconscious and was taken to the Sonotech Clinic for medical attention but was pronounced dead on arrival.
“Police Statements taken from witnesses at the scene of the incident, including some private security guards at the mall, and the arresting Police officer revealed that the deceased had resisted arrest by the Police Officer who was being assisted by the private security guards.
“The narrative of the events, as gathered by the police, indicated that during the course of the arrest, the deceased pulled out a substance from his bag, which he quickly swallowed before anyone could stop him. He became unconscious shortly afterwards and was taken to the Sonotech clinic for medical attention but was pronounced dead on arrival,” part of the statement read.
It added that per a post-mortem examination conducted on the deceased, it was confirmed that the cause of death was Asphyxiation and Obstruction of the airway by a foreign body.
“On 7th February 2023, a post-mortem examination was conducted on the deceased’s body in the presence of Alfred Boafo, father of the accused, Dr Rosana Polinicio Segborwortso Pathologist of GA East Municipal hospital representing the accused, Mr Francis Xavier Sosu lawyer for the deceased, Louis Melabah Edeafor, uncle of the deceased, Isaac Anim Anno, father of the deceased and Anna Cobbina sister of the deceased.
“The pathologist gave the verbal cause of death as Asphyxiation and Obstruction of the airway by a foreign body. He also retrieved from the throat of the deceased, eight (8) zipped bags containing dry leaves suspected to be narcotic drugs tied in a piece of black polythene.
“The retrieved, suspected narcotic substances tested positive for cannabis when submitted for forensic examination, in the presence of all the interested parties,” he said.
Background
Gospel musician, Perpetual Didier alleged in a viral video that her brother was killed by some police officers.
According to her, the incident happened at the West Hills Mall in Accra on January 30, 2022.
The musician explained that her brother, was brutally assaulted by the uniformed policemen, leading to his untimely death.
“Someone should tag the IGP. I need justice for my brother. Tell him that this is a crime one of his men has done to my family by killing my brother. We are all Ghanaians with equal rights and freedom. Why will you use your position to take someone’s life?” she said in her Facebook Live video, amidst tears.
How the incident came about:
In her narration, her brother (the deceased) had gone to the West Hills Mall to withdraw money in order to purchase some items intended to be sent to his sister in Germany.
She added that, from what an eyewitness told her, the police demanded that her brother hand over his bag to be searched, but he refused.
This then led to the police officer getting agitated and then hitting and pushing him to the ground.
Perpetual added that her brother fell to the ground and hit his head on the floor, breaking his neck in the process.
He is said to have lost consciousness, at which time the police officer tased the motionless man on the floor.
It is believed that this worsened the state the young man was already in, leading to his death.
A motor accident has claimed the life of G/CPL Richard Datsomor of the Kpetoe District of the Volta region.
The incident occurred on Monday, January 6, 2023, in the evening.
The deceased died when the motorbike he was riding crashed into a cab on a section of the Denu to Adina road.
According to reports, suspect driver Seth Azaglo who was in charge of an Opel Astra taxi with registration number ER 1377-W reported that he was driving from Adina towards Denu and upon reaching a section of the road near the Agriculture Development Bank, Adafienu saw the deceased who was in charge of a Royal motorbike with registration number M-21-VD 2139 riding towards Adina fall suddenly together with the bike and rolled into his path and ended up hitting the front tire of the vehicle.
The suspect driver reportedly rushed the victim to the Ketu South Municipality hospital in Aflao for treatment but was pronounced dead by the Physician Assistant on duty, police reports indicate.
Officers from the MTTD of the Ketu Division proceeded to the hospital and found the body of the deceased lying in a supine position on a stretcher.
The deceased has since been identified as G/CPL Richard Datsomor of the Kpetoe District.
President Akufo-Addo has met the Ga state after the death of the Ga Manye, Naa Dedei Omaedru III.
He assured the Ga state of the government’s support to ensure that the late queen mother, who reigned for 59 years, was given a befitting funeral.
President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance last Friday when a delegation from the Ga State, led by a member of the Council of State, Nii Adjiri Blankson, called on him at the Jubilee House in Accra to inform him of the passing of the queenmother.
The delegation, which included chiefs, elders of the traditional set-up and children of the deceased, presented the President with assorted drinks and a full piece of red cloth in consonance with tradition.
President Akufo-Addo gave an assurance that he would be at the funeral because it was a family bereavement for him. Naa Omaedru, 88, was known in private life as Naa Dedei Ablah. She was installed Ga Manye in 1963 when she was 29.
She passed away at her Dansoman residence, surrounded by her loved ones, on December 26, 2022.
Credits
During her reign, Naa Omaedru was credited for selflessly devoting her life to public and voluntary service and championing important issues crucial to peace, education and opportunities for young people, especially the girl-child.
These included seeking the welfare of the girl-child and women to safeguard their future, setting a remarkable example of leadership to queenmothers in the Ga State.
She also stood for peace and unity and promoted these, not only among the people of the Ga State but also all Ghanaians, and advocated a united approach to the meaningful development of her people.
Charity
Naa Omaedru was known for her charity work, and in 2004, she donated items worth $12 million to the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled at the Ghana National Rehabilitation Centre in Accra.
One person was killed on Monday during a shooting that targeted a group of Chinese nationals in Ethiopia’s restive Oromia region, the country’s embassy has said.
The gunmen opened fire on nine Chinese nationals, killing one of them, during the incident in Garba Guaracha town, located around 160km (99 miles) north of the capital, Addis Ababa.
“Unfortunately one of them has died,” the statement confirmed.
The embassy has warned Chinese citizens to increase their security awareness and evacuate from “high-risk areas”.
In Oromia and bordering areas, “pernicious cases of armed attacks, kidnappings and robberies” are common, the embassy added.
The BBC’s attempt to reach to the region’s communications office was not successful.
While relative calm has returned to the war-hit northern region of Tigray following a peace deal signed in November, violence continues to surface in Oromia with fighting between government forces and rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) reported.
Clashes around the region’s borders with neighbouring Amhara have also claimed lives in in the past few weeks.
Last week 20 workers of a factory owned by Nigeria’s Dangote Cement were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in the region. They were later reported to have been released.
It was the second such kidnapping in recent weeks.
In December, some Dangote Cement employees were also kidnaped and released after ransom was paid.
Ghanaian musician Francine Koffie known in showbiz circles as Fantana has announced the demise of her longtime boyfriend.
In a long post on Instagram, the former RuffTown Records signee mourned the death of her boyfriend, identified as Ayanle Hussein.
Fantanadescribed how inseparable they were despite their religious differences and how she is heartbroken by his sudden death.
“Ayanle Hussein, my love. I can’t believe they took you away from me. My angel on earth, I am so broken. I cried and cried. I love you so much. You made me a better person; you thought me so much and believed in me. I’m sorry they did this to you. we loved each other so much. From day one, we were inseparable.
I’m going to miss praying with you on FaceTime, whiles you taught me about the Quran and I taught you about the Bible. I am going to miss your advice and how you never let me give up but always want me to be better. We had so many plans.
I was even making you move to Potomac just so you could support me when I audition for Real Housewives of Potomac. You supported everything I do even If It doesn’t make sense. There will never be another you! You were one of a kind. May Allah welcome you with open arms. I love you in this life, forever and Always”, the post read.
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The cause of Fantana’s boyfriend is currently unknown but it is believed he was murdered.
The 37 Military Hospital has been sued together with a doctor, the Chief of Defence Staff and government by a family of a 48-year-old man who died at the facility.
The plaintiff is also demanding GH¢2 million damages for medical negligence leading to the deceased’s death.
The family contends that the death of Solomon Asare Kumah at the hospital in October 2019 was due to a breach of contract and negligence by the hospital and the doctor, Col. Dr Gao Appiah who took care of him.
Per the writ filed in 2021, the family argues that, “the hospital and its employees failed to exercise due care when they wrongly inserted Solomon’s breathing tube under his skin thereby denying oxygen for a considerable amount of time and as such causing stain on his heart and other organs and thus causing his death.”
The particulars of the negligence complaint were that, the 3rd defendant (Hospital) and its employees responsible for Solomon’s care, particularly the 4th defendant, (doctor) failed to exercise due care when they wrongly inserted Solomon’s breathing tube under his skin thereby denying him oxygen for a considerable amount of time and as such causing a strain on his heart and other organs and causing his death;
“The 3rd defendant and its employees failed to provide the appropriate standard of care when they failed to notice within reasonable time that Solomon’s tube had been wrongly inserted until he (Solomon) became extremely bloated;
“The 3rd defendant and its employees responsible for Solomon’s care, particularly the 4th defendant, failed to exercise due care when they failed to ensure on 16th September, 2019, that the drill required for Solomon’s surgery was in good working condition before cutting open Solomon’s skull, thereby exposing his body and organs to considerable strain and clotting in the vein, a condition which required an expensive procedure costing Solomon and his family the Ghana Cedi equivalent of five thousand five hundred United States Dollars (US$5,500.00) plus other expenses to treat;
“The 3rd defendant and its employees failed in their duty of care to Solomon when they failed to notice that Solomon had developed symptoms of clotting in the vein; and the 3rd defendant failed in its duty as a referral hospital to ensure that it had the requisite tools and equipment to treat Solomon’s condition before admitting him,” the writ stated.
Reliefs being sought
The family per the writ issued in 2021 is seeking the following reliefs…
a. A Damages of two million eight thousand two hundred and fifty-nine Ghana Cedis and fifty-seven pesewas (GH¢2,008,259.57) for negligently causing the death of Solomon Asare-Kumah;
b. Compensation to the widow and family members for mental distress, which eventually led to the death of Solomon’s father;
C. General damages for breach the contract between Solomon and the dr3 defendant;
d. An order for the recovery of special damages for breach of contract and for negligence resulting in the following losses;
The sum of twenty thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢20,000.00) being funeral and other expenses incurred; the sum of thirty-six thousand two hundred Ghana Cedis (GH¢36,200.00) being the sums of money collected from Solomon and or his family by 4th defendant through deceit, and unconscionable contract; the sum of ten thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢10,000.00) being the expenses incurred by family during Solomon’s 60-day stay at the 3rd defendant’s facility; and sum of the Ghana Cedi equivalent of five thousand five hundred United States Dollars (US$5,500.00) being expenses incurred for the IVC filter procedure at the National Cardio Centre, Korle-Bu;
e. Any other reliefs the Honourable Court deems fit;
f. Costs including solicitor’s fees of forty thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢40,000.00).
EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, reports that the High Court in Accra is expected to rule on an application from the family seeking the Chief of Defence Staff and the Hospital to release the report of its investigation on the matter pending the determination of the substantive matter.
Parties
The Plaintiff is the customary successor, and the administrator of the estate of Solomon Asare-Kumah (deceased) and brings this action in the capacities indorsed on the writ.
The Attorney General – 1st Defendant is the principal legal adviser to the government of Ghana and the constitutionally designated defendant for all suits against the State.
The Chief of Defence Staff – 2nd defendant is the head of the Ghana Armed Forces, and has oversight responsibility for the operations of the 3rd defendant herein.
37 Military Hospital- 3rd defendant is a state-owned referral hospital located in Accra, and was at all times material to the facts giving rise to the instant action, the employer of the 4th defendant.
Col. Dr Gao Appiah (doctor)- The 4th defendant is an employee of the 3rd defendant and the consultant surgeon in charge of the care of Solomon Asare-Kumah during his stay at the facility of the 3rd defendant.
Ghanaian actress Priscilla Opoku Agyeman, popularly known as Ahuofe Patricia, has sadly announced the passing of her beloved mother.
The beautiful screen star, who shot to fame through comedy skits, took to social media to mourn her loss with adorable pictures of her lookalike mother.
In a post on her Instagram page, Ahoufe Patri paid a glowing tribute to her mother whose beauty gives pictorial evidence of the source of the actress’ incomparable beauty.
Additionally, she told her 2.8 million followers that she knows her mother is resting in the bosom of her creator but she feels lonely.
“I know you are resting. But I feel so lonely,” the caption of the pictures read.
Patricia, however, did not share further details about her mother’s death.
Concerned friends including Kalybos, Gloria Sarfo, MzGee, Berla Mundi, and others have throng her page to commiserate with her.
Highlife musician Roland Kwaku Dei Appiah known by his stage name Bisa Kdei has shared a bizarre moment in his life where he had a close shave with death.
The “Mansa” hit maker also revealed that, he was not the only musician involved in the accident but together with female singer Sista Afia
According to Bisa Kdei, he strongly believes that had it not been for prayers he and his team offered to God that moment, they would have been dead long ago.
Sharing his ordeal on Accra-based Hitz FM with Dr Pounds monitored by MyNewsGh.com, Bisa Kdei recounted “we were coming back from Aburi and something was telling me that we should pray repeatedly with my boys. So, I told them that I feel like something is telling us to pray so we parked on the roadside. By then I had signed Sista Afia a few days earlier. Sista Afia was even part of the team”.
“So, we parked and we all held our hands and prayed, fifteen minutes later we crashed with two cars. It was bad, and at that time, I thought I had lost my voice. All of us had our necks locked but I stood up like a robot and went to check on my boys; everybody was okay but the cars were all damaged. It was crazy”, Bisa Kdei revealed.
One person died on the spot while many others were injured when a commercial vehicle ran into traders at the Suame roundabout in Kumasi on Thursday dawn.
The injured were rushed to the Tafo government hospital while the body of the deceased, a female yet to be identified, has been deposited at the morgue.
The driver of the vehicle is in police custody.
An eye witness told the Ghana News Agency that the driver of the vehicle who was coming from Pankrono towards Kejetia lost control when making a turn at the roundabout and crashed into the traders who were selling by the roadside.
He said the deceased who would be around 40 years, was trapped under the vehicle for more than 20 minutes before she was removed.
A police source at the Suame Police station confirmed the accident and said they were investigating the matter.
After their coworker and government critic Martinez Zogo was killed, Cameroonian journalists demanded more protection.
Mr Zogo’s multilated body was found near the capital, Yaoundé, on Sunday, five days after being abducted by unknown people.
Prior to his death, he had threatened to expose corruption in government.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders called on the authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the killing, calling it a “grave blow to democracy and press freedom”.
“We urge the Cameroonian authorities to conduct an independent investigation that does not falter, and to end the climate of violence against media personnel,” it said.
The government spokesman said an initial investigation revealed the the journalist had been tortured. Rene Emmanuel Said said the killing was “barbaric and unacceptable”
Agorsor Christian, a 22-year-old commercial motor rider, has allegedly stabbed his colleague rider to death.
The Ghana News Agency (GNA) learnt the alleged act was as a result of the suspect’s attempt to pick a passenger ahead of the deceased.
Agbesi Davor, 33, died on his way to the Abor Sacred Heart Hospital after his colleague stabbed him in the chest with a screwdriver.
Mr Raphael Ahiable, the Assemblyman for the area, told the GNA that a misunderstanding ensued between the two riders at their parking terminal as to whose turn it was to pick a passenger first.
The suspect, to express his anger, pulled out a screwdriver and stabbed the deceased’s chest before absconding.
Mr Ahiable said the deceased was quickly conveyed on a motorcycle by residents in the area.
“It was initially planned to move him to Abor Hospital but was rushed to a health center at Avenorpedo on their way after they realised his condition was worsening but died upon arrival,” he said.
Sources at the Abor Police Command confirmed the incident to the GNA.
The sources said the suspect fled the scene before the police arrived, but was later brought to the police station by his father, Pastor Agorsor Gomez.
The police at Abor said the suspect was currently in custody as investigations continued.
The body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Sacred Heart Hospital Morgue at Abor for autopsy.
