Day: December 9, 2021

Ho, Dec. 09, GNA— The Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Llikpe Traditional Areas, have written to the Electoral Commission (EC) concerning its failure to create a Constituency for the area.

The EC on December 6, 2020, issued a Notice suspending the participation of voters in the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Likpe (SALL) Areas in the Parliamentary elections in the 2020 general elections.

Ing. Seth K. Owusu and Dr. J. K. Addae, Co-Chairmen, Joint Steering Committee (JSC) in a letter to the EC Chairperson and copied to the Majority and Minority Leaders, stakeholders, and selected media houses, said the failure of the people voting in the Parliamentary elections meant the non-representation for the SALL people in the 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

“Contrary to Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution, the denial of voters in the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe Areas from participating Parliamentary elections meant the non-representation for the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) Areas in the 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic.”

The statement said the people of the area believed the EC exceeded its mandate by disenfranchising the registered voters in the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Likpe Areas thereby subverting the integrity of their democratic order.

“Indeed, your notice did not suggest that the registered voters in Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Likpe areas were being erased from an entire electoral cycle.”

The letter said the EC’s failure to remedy the “anomalous situation” degraded the SALL area into a “de facto colony within a democratic republic; our people having no representation in the legislative house but subject to legislative acts of compatriots.”

It said they expected that after the said notice, the EC would take the necessary steps to restore their full electoral rights of citizenship as guaranteed under the Constitution.

“Sadly, there has been no urgency or indication of ethical responsibility to lift the suspension of the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi, and Likpe (SALL) peoples’ rights and heal the gaping injury to our representative democracy.”

It said they wished to remind and urge the EC to fulfill its duty by taking the necessary steps to cure “this unconstitutional and embarrassing situation” which happened a year ago adding that “every extra day of inaction is too much a miscarriage of justice. Ghana including all its people deserves better.”

It said, “We trust that the infinite spirit grants you wisdom to do right and justify the high expectations and goodwill of the nation.”

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, Dec.9, GNA— Mrs Adelaide Anno-Kumi, Chief Director, Ministry of the Interior, says prison conditions in the country can improve when Civil Society Organisations, the diplomatic community, Non-Governmental Organisations and citizens support activities of the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS).

She said such supports, could be in the form of education, vocational skills training, and job offers that carried a “moral, spiritual, social, health and sport-based nature.”

Mrs Anno-Kumi said all such programmes, activities and services should be delivered in line with individual treatment needs of prisoners.

She said this at the launch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Ghana Prisons Service collaborative Project in Accra.

The project is a three-year structured support scheme estimated at $2.8 million.

It will strengthen the compliance of the GPS with the United Nations Standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners (The Nelson Mandela Rules).

Mrs Anno-Kumi said the project would improve the general condition in prisons and promote a refined classification of prisoners.

She said it would focus on areas such as healthcare services for prisoners, accommodation for inmates, skills developments and the training of staff.

The Chief Director said the project was in line with Government’s vision to retool the Ghana Prisons Service to become a centre of excellence in corrections’ management and administration.

She said the purpose of imprisonment was to primarily to protect society against crime and reduce re-offending.

Mrs Anno-Kumi said, however, that aim could only be achieved if the period of imprisonment was used to ensure that at the time of reintegration back into society, they could live a law-abiding and self-supporting life.

She urged the Prisons Service to introduce new initiatives to address challenges such as low feeding rate, staff accommodation and facilitate justice programmes.

The Chief Director advised prison officers to ensure that inmates were treated in a manner that would not detract them from their human dignity.

Mr Isaac Kofi Egyir, Director-General, GPS, said the Service could not perform its roles effectively without the continuous development of human resource.

He mentioned overcrowding, inadequate health facilities, lack of education, training of new entrants, limited opportunities for human resource development, as some of the challenges that hampered their operations.

The Director-General said partnerships with international development agencies, civil society organisations and philanthropic individuals were needed to improve the GPS.

He lauded UNODC for the collaboration and urged participants to take advantage of the opportunity and cooperate with the resource persons.

Ms Stephanie S. Sullivan, Ambassador of the United States of America (US) to the Ghana said each year, approximately, 15 million people were imprisoned worldwide.

She said how the inmates were treated whilst they served their prison term had a tremendous impact on society when they were released.

The Ambassador said the US would continue to support Ghanaian efforts to strengthen operations of the Prisons Services.

Source: Ghana News Agency

With 2021 coming to an end, Twitter has released its annual data highlighting some of the biggest moments & events that drove the most engaging and exciting conversations across the calendar year that happened #OnlyOnTwitter.

Ghana Twitter is the place where people come together to see what’s happening and discuss the most topical moments, conversations, and movements taking place. As we draw closer to its end of the year, Twitter reflects on how Ghana spent its #YearOnTwitter and those #OnlyOnTwitter moments. What music and musicians made us dance? What movies made us smile? Which sports heroes kept us hoping?

The most liked Tweets in Ghana

Tweets from Sarkodie & First Lady among the most liked this year

A simple greeting from Sarkodie to the people of America has taken the number one spot as the most liked tweet in 2021. His message read, “Good morning America”.

Rebecca Akufo Addo’s birthday wishes to her husband and President of Ghana was the second most liked Tweet posted back in March.

Manchester United’s Tweet to formally announce the signature and welcome Ronaldo came in third place in terms of Likes. However, the official announcement welcoming Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford is also the most retweeted Tweet of the year in Ghana.

On August 1, Black Sherif’s Tweet about his 1st and 2nd sermon hit song took the fourth position, and Kinaata’s throwback photo of Castro and himself in a studio became the fifth most liked Tweet of 2021 in Ghana.

Interestingly, former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey’s post expressing gratitude to the President of Ghana and acknowledging Twitter’s decision to set up operations here in Ghana was the 7th most retweeted Tweet of the year.

Leading Twitter Handles

Sarkodie, Shatta Wale & Stonebwoy included among the most popular Twitter accounts

Competition is certainly stiff, but this is the list of people who have made it to the top of the rankings. According to findings shared by Twitter from January 1 to November 15, Social media influencer and Pulse Twitter Influencer of the year, KalyJay was ranked first during the recorded period.

Sarkodie, Shatta Wale & Stonebwoy are among the musicians who made it to the top of the rankings. Elsewhere, media personality Nana Aba came through as the number one woman when it came to the biggest Ghanian Twitter handles.

Top Ten Music Tweets with the most likes

Gyakie becomes the only female in the list

Here are 10 Tweets from Musicians with the Most Likes:

1. Good morning Kumerica from Sarkodie.
2. Black Sherif’s Tweet on 1st and 2nd sermon song.
3. Kofi Kinaata’s Tweet about Castro.
4. Stonebwoy’s Tweet to support Sarkodie’s on his “No Pressure” Album.
6. KiDiMusic’s Tweet on the VGMAs.
7. This Tweet posted by Joey B expressing his respect for La Meme.
8. King Promise’s Tweet showcasing a photo with Omar Sterling.
9. A Tweet shared by Manifest.
10. Shattawalegh’s Tweet showing love for Sarkodie’s album.

This Tweet was posted on Africa Day by Gyakie, making her the only female artist to appear in the Top 10 of Musicians’ Tweet with Most Likes for the year.

Popular Hashtags in Ghana in 2021

Born on Twitter in 2007, the hashtag celebrated its 14th anniversary earlier this year on August, 23rd. Hashtags provide a means through which people all over the world can share their voices and join global conversations in real-time.

As the annual Year On Twitter data shows, entertainment and sports are never far from the hearts of Ghanaians. This year, the people of Ghana took to Twitter more so than ever to express themselves and share their thoughts on what’s happening using a variety of the hashtags highlighted below.

From #mufc to #BBNaija to #daterush to #nopressurealbum and #UCL, Twitter in Ghana was certainly abuzz with conversation and participation as this football, reality TV, and music-related hashtags came out strongly as the most popular ones.

Most followed football clubs

Twitter embodies the roar of a sports stadium no matter where you are and who you support. Football supporters will watch the match on TV but will never miss the conversation about their favorite team on Twitter. Their fandom and need to connect with fellow supporters make Twitter the perfect place to stay up to speed with what’s happening with their favorite club.

Analysis of the data highlights that Chelsea FC, Manchester United & Arsenal are the three most followed football clubs in Ghana.

No- 1 Emoji used by Ghanaians

And when it comes to using Emojis, the Ghanaians seem to enjoy the lols and sharing their humor and laughs with everyone else. The “Face with Tears of Joy” was the most used emoji by Ghanaians in 2021, only on Twitter.

Source: Ghana Web

Accra, Dec 9, GNA— Naa Dr Alhassan Andani, Board Chairman of the Family Health Medical school Endowment fund has appealed to government to at least provide 30 per cent tuition fees of students in private Medical institutions.

This, he said would help train more medical doctors to serve every corner of the country to avoid the current state, where 85 per cent of medical doctors were concentrated in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi.

Naa Dr Andani, who was speaking during the graduation ceremony of the second batch of Family Health Medical school in Accra said medical education was expensive and therefore needed collective intervention to train more to serve the urban and rural communities.

Forty- seven graduands made up of 26 females and 21males graduated after passing through all the courses and examinations.

Naa Andani also appealed to traditional authorities to partner government and the training institutions by pooling resources together to sponsor brilliant but needy students in their communities who will return to serve those communities.

In that way, he said they would be making attempts to bridge the yawning gap between cities and rural communities in terms of receiving professional doctors and other paramedics.

He also entreated the graduands to accept postings to rural communities, where they could easily impact positively on the people than going to congest the already”satisfied” health facilities in the cities.

He announced that the Family Health Medical school Endowment fund was already operational and called on individuals and organisations to support the fund to train more medical doctors into the system.

Professor E.Y Kwawukume, Founder and President of Family Health University College announced that management was working towards acquiring a Presidential Charter to make them a fully-fledged autonomous University and appealed to all stakeholders to support in that direction.

He said they were also poised to launch their second strategic plan in the first half of 2022 to provide the blueprint for the university to move towards greater achievements.

He said the school had also bolstered her faculty with highly qualified and seasoned professionals to make it the centre of excellence.

On infrastructure, he said the college had undertaken more projects to improve facilities and structures that would provide students best training environment to promote discovery, teaching and learning.

Mr Simon Sackitey was adjudged the Family Health University College Founder’s overall best MBChB graduating student after winning: Professor Jonathan Hubert Addy’s prize for best graduating student in medicine and Therapeutics, best graduating student in surgery and best graduating student in clinical studies.

Sussie Anku was adjudged best graduating student in Child health, and Community Health while Nicholas Tettey Nartey was adjuged best graduating student for the prize of Professor Timothy R.B Johnson’s for Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Nkawie (Ash), Dec. 09, GNA – The Nkawie Circuit Court has sentenced a 31-year-old driver to 10 years imprisonment for stealing at Abuakwa-Maakro in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality.

Darko Mensah, who was a caretaker of a house belonging to a woman domiciled in Belgium, was said to have stolen various household appliances installed in the house and bolted away.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and was convicted on his own plea by the court presided over by Nana Bruce.

Police Chief Inspector Comfort Amankwaa, prosecuting, told the court that the complainant was an evangelist who resides at Anomangye, a suburb of Kumasi.

She said the complainant’s daughter who is domiciled in Belgium entrusted her house at Maakro into the care of the convict about five years ago.

The prosecution said on August 13, 2019, the complainant called and informed the convict that his daughter and husband were coming to Ghana and that they would be staying in their house at Maakro.

The convict agreed and assured the complainant that he would be in the house waiting for them on that day.

She said however, when they went to the house, the convict was nowhere to be found but a neighbor brought the keys to the complainant and his daughter.

The prosecution said when the owners entered the house, to their surprise, all the household items including deep freezers and fridges, microwave ovens, television sets, mattresses and beds, generator and others, valued at over GHc 150,000.00 had been stolen from the house.

She said a report was made to the Abuakwa Police who arrested the convict and upon investigations, he was charged and brought before the court.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Yamfo, (A/R), Dec. 09, GNA – Dr Freda Prempeh, the Member of Parliament of Tano North constituency in the Ahafo Region has cautioned contractors executing various government projects in the area against shoddy works.

During inspection visits to some project sites in the constituency, Dr Prempeh also the Minister of State in charge of Works and Housing asked the contractors to speed up and complete the projects within schedule to benefit the constituents.

Contractors have abandoned work on several projects including educational facilities such as classroom blocks, dormitories, hostels, and some major roads in the area.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered that most of the contractors executing the projects had not been on site for months because of lack of funds to continue the projects.

But, Dr Prempeh asked the contractors to resume work, and assured to follow-up and facilitated payment processes.

Some of the abandoned projects, the MP inspected included separate boys and girls dormitories, administration, and masonry blocks at the Yamfo Vocational Institute.

Dr Prempeh also inspected the progress of work on the construction of the Community Health-based Planning Services (CHPS) compound at Rubi and a Kindergarten block at Tano-Ano.

She, however, lauded the progress of work on the extension of electricity to Rubi, Beposo, Koope, Asuade, Agona, Tano-Ano, and Atudrobesa, which would open up the farming communities, and better the living conditions of the rural folks.

Dr Prempeh said every community in the constituency had in one way or other benefited from development projects including health and educational facilities as well as potable drinking water and durbars grounds.

She assured the people the government would do everything possible to ensure that works on abandoned development projects in the area were resumed and completed.

The MP later told the GNA she had lobbied for the construction of more than 150 boreholes, many durbar grounds, markets, Astro-turf pitch, as well as CHPS compounds and classroom blocks spread across the local communities in the constituency.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, Dec 9, GNA— The Government is to pay an additional GHC80 million for the completion of the Flowerpot flyover project supposed to be completed in 2018 at GHC67 million.

After a new variation order, the project, which commenced in 2016 and currently at 16 percent complete, is estimated to cost the country about GHC147 million.

The Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC) received this information when some members visited the project site near Spintex in Accra, for firsthand information on how GHC3.6 million of oil revenue was used in 2019 to finance the project.

A government official, explained to the team that the project stalled after four months of commencement due to the failure of the Government to honour a certificate that was raised by the contractor.

“…And so, he was awaiting invoices that were raised,” the official told PIAC members.

The official also told PIAC that a new project period had been set from January 2021 to January 2023 as the contractor had agreed to continue with the project after renegotiations.

The Vice-Chairman of PIAC, Mr Nasir Alfa Mohammed, advised that oil revenue should be invested in legacy projects that would have a significant impact on citizens.

“The situation where funds are invested in projects scattered around the country does not make the desired impact on citizens hence making it difficult to assess the impact and track how oil revenue Is being spent.”

Speaking about the flyover project, he said: “we cannot point to a significant impact of the oil money on that project and when we are mentioning projects that oil money has gone into, it is too insignificant for us to say oil money has gone into this”.

The team also inspected the 1.5-kilometer upgrade of the Powerland-Sakora Road in Madina, which was valued at GHC1.49 million with 90 per cent of funding coming from oil revenue.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Holders Chelsea and Premier League rivals Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United will discover their Champions League last-16 opponents in Monday’s draw.

Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United won their respective groups, while Chelsea went through as runners-up.

The three English teams who topped the group are among the eight seeded clubs, along with Ajax, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Lille.

Chelsea join Paris St-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Sporting Lisbon, Inter Milan, Benfica, Salzburg and one of Atalanta or Villarreal – who play their rearranged game on Thursday – as the non-seeded sides in the draw.

The draw for the Europa League knockout round play-off also takes place on Monday.

Here is everything you need to know about both draws.

How to follow the last-16 draw

The draw is taking place at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, with the ‘ceremony’ scheduled to start at 11:00 GMT.

Uefa’s website is live streaming the draw, while the BBC Sport website will have text commentary and reaction.

The live stream on Uefa’s website will appear on this link.

The 16 teams will be put into two pots – one for the seeded teams, who are the eight group winners, and one for the unseeded teams, who are the eight runners up.

Teams from the same national association cannot be drawn against each other at this stage.

That means the four Premier League clubs cannot meet, while teams cannot face opponents they faced during the group stage, either.

For example, Group A winners Manchester City will not be drawn against Paris St-Germain, who were runners-up in the same pool.

Who is in the last 16 & why Ronaldo v Messi could happen

Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United are all seeded along with German giants Bayern Munich and record 13-time winners Real Madrid.

The eight unseeded teams, who all finished runners-up in their respective groups, are Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, PSG, Sporting Lisbon, Chelsea, Red Bull Salzburg, Villarreal and Benfica.

Manchester United and PSG could potentially meet in the last 16, which would put Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – widely regarded as two greatest players of their generation – on a collision course.

Who could Liverpool face? PSG, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Villarreal or Atalanta, Red Bull Salzburg

Who could Manchester United meet? Atletico Madrid, PSG, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Red Bull Salzburg

Who could Manchester City play? Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Red Bull Salzburg, Villarreal or Atalanta, Benfica

Who could Chelsea draw? Ajax, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Lille

When will the last-16 ties be played?

Ties will take place over two legs. The first legs will be spread out on 15, 16, 22 and 23 February, with the second legs on 8, 9, 15 and 16 March.

Seeded teams will be away for the first leg before being at home for the return matches. All kick-offs are at 20:00 GMT.

The draw for the quarter-finals is on 18 March.

What changes are there this season?

The away goals rule has been removed, so ties level after 180 minutes will go to extra time.

If the teams still cannot be separated after the additional 30 minutes then it goes to a penalty shoot-out.

When is the final and where?

St Petersburg, Russia, will stage the 2022 Champions League final, with the game scheduled for 28 May 2022.

How about the Europa League?

The draw for the Europa League knockout round play-off features 16 teams.

They include the eight runners-up from the Europa League group stage – who will be seeded – while the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage will be unseeded.

Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla are among those dropping down from the Champions League.

Rangers are among the seeded clubs, while Leicester City could feature depending on the outcome of the final round of games in Group C.

The Foxes are top of the group with eight points after five games. Napoli, who they face in Italy on Thursday, have seven points along with Spartak Moscow, while Legia Warsaw have six points.

West Ham, who entertain Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday, will not feature in this draw as they have already won their group with one game to spare.

They move to the round of 16 and the draw for that is on 25 February 2022.

Celtic, who have featured in this season’s Europa League group stage, are dropping into the Europa Conference League.

Source: Modern Ghana