Director of Sanitation at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, Wisdom Aditsey, has identified poor sanitation as the Assembly’s primary challenge.
Despite regular clean-up efforts, Aditsey informed the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the persistent issue of littering and indiscriminate dumping of waste throughout the city of Tema poses a significant obstacle to maintaining cleanliness in the harbor city.
“People just throw trash everywhere, making it tough to control. We clean up, but the next morning, there’s more garbage left behind, and we have to struggle to pick it up again. It’s frustrating.”
Wisdom Aditsey stated that the Tema Metropolitan Assembly is facing challenges due to limited resources to effectively maintain cleanliness in the city. He called for support from stakeholders to address the resource constraints and enhance the assembly’s efforts in keeping the city clean.
“We need to monitor specific areas 24/7 to maintain cleanliness, but it’s expensive to hire people for constant surveillance, and the Assembly can’t afford it.”
He said despite regular public education on how to dispose waste properly, the situation was getting out of hand.
The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) has issued a warning to food vendors operating without valid health certificates.
According to the authority, individuals who fall within the said category will be apprehended and prosecuted.
The Metro Environmental Health Officer, Wisdom Aditse, stated that this measure aims to reduce the occurrence of contaminated food being sold to residents in the Metropolis and the nation as a whole.
Obtaining a health certificate, which is granted after undergoing a screening process, is crucial to ensure the prevention of communicable diseases being transmitted to buyers and to ensure that sellers maintain hygienic conditions for the safety of the public.
Mr. Aditse further explained that the screening exercise also provides an opportunity to educate vendors on the importance of maintaining cleanliness in their facilities and selling areas to prevent the transmission of diseases to customers.
He emphasized the necessity of annually renewing the health certificate to verify the seller’s health status.
Failure to comply with this requirement may result in legal action being taken against them.
“When we screen you now, at the end of the year it expires, so you have to be screened the following year.”
The Environmental Health Officer advises consumers to exercise caution in their food choices, be observant of unhygienic food establishments, and promptly report any concerns to the Assembly.
Mother of the missing police bodyguard has urged the management of the Ghana Police Service to help find her son.
This was sighted in the Chronicles Newspaper dated May 29, 2023.
The mother of the police officer, identified in the report as Elizabeth Teiko Odonkor, 69, spoke to the media from her base in Opesika, in theYilo Krobo Municipalityof the Eastern Region, and claimed that the uncertainty surrounding her son’s condition whether he was alive or dead had caused sleepless nights for her entire family and friends as well.
The Manye (Queen mother), as she is affectionately known, continued by stating to the newspaper that she had been experiencing nightmares and was unsure of what to do for the previous thirteen years and eight months.
“Without the police telling me anything, I feel incomplete, especially now that his father also died six years ago,” she stated amid sobbing.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 22, 2009, General L/Cpl, Michael Adamtey Odonkor, with staff number 38222, prepared his outfits and readied for work, more so to meet his boss who was the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor who had travelled to China and was expected at the airport.
The report continued to explain that the wife of L/Cpl Odonko also a policewoman [name not given], took his toothbrush and paste to the bathhouse at the Tema Newtown police barracks where they lived. After having her bath, the wife returned to their room only to meet his absence.
When he was not showing up, a report was made at the Charge Office for investigations to commence.
The newspaper stated that the missing police officer General L/Cpl, Michael Adamtey Odonkor, Number 38222, served as the bodyguard of the then Director General of Police Operations,Commissioner of Police (COP) and later Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor and on Tuesday, September 22, 2009, he disappeared and his whereabouts remain unknown to date.
L/Cpl Odonkor’s family was visited by COP Kudalor and his wife on several occasions and gave them assurances that investigations into their son’s whereabouts were ongoing.
In 2011, some workers of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) were excavating at Tema Newtown in 2011, they accidentally stepped on some human bones. The detectives collected the bones and sent them to the Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis.
The mother of the missing police officer, Elizabeth Teiko Odonkor, was brought down as part of the scientific study for the DNA test. There hasn’t been any information about the analysis’s success or failure since that time.
The ‘White House’, one of the iconic buildings in Tema, is rotting away.
The building is falling apart and steps must be taken immediately to refurbish it to provide the needed office accommodation for the various decentralized departments under the Tema West Municipal Assembly (TWMA).
The two-storey building which looks solid and attractive from afar has not seen any major renovation works since its construction many years ago.
Checks from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), the mother assembly of the TWMA, revealed that Tema ‘White House’ was named after the USA White House to mimic its importance and power when the revolutionary officers hijacked it in the early 1980 after it was built to house the TMA.
The cadres of the 31 December Revolution used the space for summons, adjudication and other revolutionary activities.
Mr. Frank Asante, Tema Metropolitan Public Relations Officer told the Ghana News Agency that, the edifice was constructed to house the TMA, as part of the Tema Ministry Enclave concept.
He said the area also had the offices of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Audit Service, Labour, Rent Control, Health Directorate, Ghana Revenue Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, and Agric Department, among others.
He said Nii Armarh Ashitey opted for the construction of the current office of TMA at the business central area to house the Assembly.
When the revolutionaries vacated the building, some decentralized departments were accommodated in it.
In 2010, the then Tema Metropolitan Security Council (MESEC) toured the building and took the decision to relocate the Electoral Commission, and the Tema Magistrate Court from the second floor which had serious structural cracks with the concrete ceiling falling off on workers.
Thirteen years after, when the Ghana News Agency visited the ‘White House’ which is now under the TWMA, it was observed that even though the first and second floors have been vacated, the ground floor still houses the Tema Metro offices of the National Service Secretariat, Non-Formal Education, and Co-operative Department.
Two of the offices have also been recently painted ready to house the Tema West Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Climbing to the first and second floors of the ‘white house’, deep structural cracks and fungal-infested walls were what greeted the GNA. The offices have been long abandoned.
Deep holes have been created in the ceiling as large parts of concrete have fallen off after long years of neglect. The iron rods holding the concrete roofs, are exposed and very rusty, an indication of corrosion due to contact with water, leaking from the roof.
One of the offices had household items with the door locked with a small padlock. The GNA gathered that a lonely woman who was ejected from her room around the area took over the place and made it her home.
Yousif, a Burkinabe haulage truck driver’s mate, who the GNA spotted charging his mobile phone in one of the most corroded and algae infested rooms which used to house the Magistrate Court, said the woman often goes out in the morning and returns at night to sleep.
Ms. Afia Mansa, a food vendor, operating on the compound of the ‘white house’, said she was the unofficial caretaker of the building as she updates officials of the TWMA whenever they visited the place.
Ms. Mansa said day in and day out prospective tenants came around to look at the possibility of renting the place.
Meanwhile, checks at TMWA revealed that the Assembly’s engineers recently visited the White House. GNA
The Managing Editor of The Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has described as reckless the removal of the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu by the leadership of the National Democratic Congress.
He said the NDC has created room for speculation amongst the party’s political opponents.
“This is a reckless move, absolutely reckless move. So what have you achieved? You have created conditions for all manner of speculations. I was listening to some of my friends in the NPP discuss this matter, come and see, it’s like they have won a bonanza.
“One of them actually went to the extent of saying John Mahama directed this move because he has a rift with Haruna, he wants to show Haruna some sense. This is not true, John Mahama was not comfortable with this move,” Mr. Pratt said on the Alhaji and Alhaji show on Radio Gold.
He described the popularity of the MP for Tamale South as legendary adding that his removal will affect the fortunes of the party up north.
“His popularity is legendary and anytime he has been touched, there have been repercussions. He is not God, he is not all-knowing, he is not omnipotent, he is not omnipresent, he can be removed. But if you want to remove him there are things that you have to do knowing the political circumstances. Were those things done?” the Editor of the Insight Newspaper asked.
According to him, though the outgoing Minority Leader has his shortcomings, he is the primus inter pares in the Northern region.
“Haruna Iddrisu may have all his faults, but he is the primus inter pares [first amongst equals] in the Northern Region. I have been to Tamale on many occasions, I went to school in Tamale, and I know Tamale fairly well. This is a man who comes to Tamale and he doesn’t drive a car. I have seen him riding just an ordinary bicycle moving from place to place holding caucuses in the streets, and playing cards with members. I have seen him on a motorbike going to funerals and so on,” Mr. Pratt noted.
There have been some disagreements amongst the Minority caucus after the party replaced Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu with Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP for Ellembelle also replaced Ketu North MP, James Klutse Avedzi as the Deputy Minority Leader while Kwame Governs Agbodza replaced Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak as the Minority Chief Whip.
Some MPs signed a petition to reject the decision of the party over lack of consultation. Another set of MPs also petitioned the leadership of the NDC to ignore calls for the reshuffling to be reversed.
The Council of Elders of the NDC subsequently called on both sides to cease fire.
A total of 296 companies have so far been captured under the government’s flagship programme, One District One Factory (1D1F) as of September 2022, Mr Kofi Addo, Lead Officer for 1D1F, Ministry of Trade and Industry has explained that the companies captured were either in operations, under construction or in the pipeline adding that the sector had many companies under its radial.
He revealed this during the inauguration of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly’s (TMA) District Implementation Support Team (DIST) which has membership from the Assembly, Ghana Standard Authority, Ghana Drug and Food Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana National Fire Service, Tema Regional Police Commander, and others.
He said out of the number, 125 were in operations, 144 were under construction while 27 were in the pipeline noting that those in the pipelines had all their documentations ready to start the construction for the project.
1D1F Lead Officer also said out of the 261 districts in Ghana, the programme had so far covered 52 percent of them and was working to capture the remaining 48 percent.
He stated that the Greater Accra Region had1D1F projects in 19 districts of which the Tema Metropolis had two companies benefitting.
Mr. Addo said the Ministry of Trade and Industry had a 10-point industrial promotion agenda, which the 1D1F was part, adding that others were the Strategic Anchor Projects, Business Regulatory Reform, Industrial Park and Special Economic Zones, and the Industrial Revitalization Programme, among others.
He mentioned that the key principles of the 1D1F include private sector driven, explaining that a district could have more than one factory under the programme, and support from the district implementation support team.
He added that an existing company could be captured under the 1D1F programme for expansion or creating of new subsidiary just like in the case of Pharmanova, Everpure and Kasapreko who have expanded to other areas with the help of the initiative.
“When you have people saying we are just bringing old companies under the programme, it is not true, we capture expansions, building of new structures, and totally new companies,” he explained.
The 1D1F Lead Officer added that two districts could also come together to have one company under the programme when they realized that their raw materials and other resources could not support full independent projects.
He said among its objectives were value addition, support in import substitution, support for export, industries support, as well as opening the country up for economic activities through which jobs would be created.
He said some incentives 1D1F companies received was five years’ corporate tax free, access to utilities, duty exemption (import duty, VAT, EXIM levy and NHIS levy) for all capital goods being imported for the project.
Mr. Addo also stated that agreement had been signed with 15 commercial banks, which ensured the capping of interest rate on loans for such companies at 20 percent to ensure stable funding for the project adding that the government also subsidized 10 percent of the interest rate for companies with majority Ghanaian owned shares.
Mr. Michael Okyere Baafi, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (MOTI), on his part urged Ghanaians to embrace the programme, as it had come to stay as an important way to industrialize the country.
Mr. Baafi said Ghana had gotten to a stage, where it did not have a choice than to industrialize, stressing that industrialization must be a way of life for the people.
He added that “1D1F should be taken like Christianity, it must be a way of life for us, and just like social media it has come to stay.”
Mr. Yohane Amarh Ashitey, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive chairing the inauguration said he believed in allowing the private sector to lead in industrialization therefore his resolve to ensure that the 1D1F programme was utilize by many to get more industries in the metropolis in addition to existing ones.
A total of 296 companies have so far been captured under the government’s flagship programme, One District One Factory (1D1F) as of September 2022, Kofi Addo, Lead Officer for 1D1F, Ministry of Trade and Industry has explained that the companies captured were either in operations, under construction or in the pipeline adding that the sector had many companies under its radial.
He revealed this during the inauguration of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly’s (TMA) District Implementation Support Team (DIST) which has membership from the Assembly, Ghana Standard Authority, Ghana Drug and Food Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana National Fire Service, Tema Regional Police Commander, and others.
He said out of the number, 125 were in operations, 144 were under construction while 27 were in the pipeline noting that those in the pipelines had all their documentation ready to start the construction for the project.
1D1F Lead Officer also said out of the 261 districts in Ghana, the programme had so far covered 52 percent of them and was working to capture the remaining 48 percent.
He stated that the Greater Accra Region had1D1F projects in 19 districts of which the Tema Metropolis had two companies benefitting.
Mr. Addo said the Ministry of Trade and Industry had a 10-point industrial promotion agenda, which the 1D1F was part, adding that others were the Strategic Anchor Projects, Business Regulatory Reform, Industrial Park and Special Economic Zones, and the Industrial Revitalization Programme, among others.
He mentioned that the key principles of the 1D1F include private sector driven, explaining that a district could have more than one factory under the programme, and support from the district implementation support team.
He added that an existing company could be captured under the 1D1F programme for expansion or creating of new subsidiary just like in the case of Pharmanova, Everpure and Kasapreko who have expanded to other areas with the help of the initiative.
“When you have people saying we are just bringing old companies under the programme, it is not true, we capture expansions, building of new structures, and totally new companies,” he explained.
The 1D1F Lead Officer added that two districts could also come together to have one company under the programme when they realized that their raw materials and other resources could not support full independent projects.
He said among its objectives were value addition, support in import substitution, support for export, industries support, as well as opening the country up for economic activities through which jobs would be created.
He said some incentives 1D1F companies received was five years’ corporate tax free, access to utilities, duty exemption (import duty, VAT, EXIM levy and NHIS levy) for all capital goods being imported for the project.
Mr. Addo also stated that agreement had been signed with 15 commercial banks, which ensured the capping of interest rate on loans for such companies at 20 percent to ensure stable funding for the project adding that the government also subsidized 10 percent of the interest rate for companies with majority Ghanaian owned shares.
Mr. Michael Okyere Baafi, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (MOTI), on his part urged Ghanaians to embrace the programme, as it had come to stay as an important way to industrialize the country.
Mr. Baafi said Ghana had gotten to a stage, where it did not have a choice than to industrialize, stressing that industrialization must be a way of life for the people.
He added that “1D1F should be taken like Christianity, it must be a way of life for us, and just like social media it has come to stay.”
Mr. Yohane Amarh Ashitey, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive chairing the inauguration said he believed in allowing the private sector to lead in industrialization therefore his resolve to ensure that the 1D1F programme was utilize by many to get more industries in the metropolis in addition to existing ones.
