Day: April 11, 2022

Cape Coast, April 11, GNA – Two men who robbed a businesswoman of her bag and inflicted cutlass wounds on her right hand in Cape Coast have been sentenced to a total of 65 years in prison by a Cape Coast circuit court.

The convicts, Daniel Bentum, a 33-year-old driver, who had already served a 15-year prison term for a similar offence, and Stephen Dadzie, aka Rasta, a 23-year-old receptionist, were handed 45 years and 20 years, respectively.

The court, presided over by Mrs Dorinda Smith Arthur, found them guilty of the offences of conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery and causing harm.

Three other accomplices, Justice Nkrumah, aka Appiah, Joseph Appiah, aka Shakiki, and Nana Amoah are, however, on the run.

The judge, in delivering her verdict, said she considered the physical harm to the victim using offensive weapons and the prevailing trend of robbery in the region.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector John Asare Bediako said Bentum lived at Amosima near Cape Coast, Dadzie at Saltpond, while the complainant was a resident of Pedu Africana in Cape Coast.

He said on May 28, 2020, around 2030 hours, the complainant was driving home from work during a downpour and on reaching Pedu Africana Junction, about 30 metres from her house, she spotted Bentum standing beside a taxi.

The complainant drove past the taxi and as soon as she pulled up and stepped out of her car, she was attacked by Bentum and Dadzie with a cutlass, slashed her right hand and bolted with her bag containing her passport, National Health Insurance Card and an unspecified amount of money.

She was rushed to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital by some witnesses and later reported the case to the police when she was discharged.

Detective Chief Inspector Bediako told the court that police intelligence later revealed the taxi as a yellow and blue Mazda Demio with registration number WR 4719 – 12.

He said on June 18, 2020, Bentum and Dadzie with their accomplices on the run, went to Saltpond for a similar operation but were apprehended and handed over to the Regional Criminal Investigations Department in Cape Coast.

Bentum told the police that he was contracted by his accomplices and later led the police to their houses at Yamoransa and Moree but they were nowhere to be found.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Akatsi (VR), April 11, GNA – The Keta-Akatsi Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church has held a consultative meeting with a section of chiefs from the Avenor Traditional Council for their contribution towards the worldwide preparation for the 2021-2023 synod in Rome.

The meeting, which saw Togbe Dorglo Anumah VI, Paramount Chief of Avenor Traditional Area and President of the Council, in attendance, was also aimed at strengthening the cooperation and collaboration of the two bodies for peaceful co-existence.

Togbe Anumah, in his welcome address, commended Bishop Gabriel Doe Kumorjie, the Bishop of the Keta-Akatsi Catholic Diocese, for the initiative, which was a departure from the usual mode of gathering views for the synodal processes.

“I am reliably informed that this is a departure from the usual mode of gathering views for synodal processes and is borne of the wisdom of His Holiness Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, himself,” he said.

Togbe Anumah said it was refreshing to many, including the chiefs, that the Catholic Church, an important player in the social fabric of the nation, had decided to engage the traditional leaders, who were the custodians of the land and its customs, for their input.

The dialogue was the initial step in the creation of value and the starting point and unifying force in all human relations, “without which humans are fated to walk in the darkness of their own dogmatic self-righteousness,” he said.

Togbe Anumah said their goal as leaders was to build resilient families, which would serve as building blocks for building resilient societies against poverty, diseases, and drug abuse, among other things.

On education, Togbe Anumah commended the Catholic Church for the numerous roles played in that sector to building strong human resource base and communities.

He mentioned youth development as another area of focus to the Traditional Council, which would be looking forward to partnering other stakeholders to equip the youth with requisite skills to function effectively in society and eschew crime.

On health, he said the Catholic Church had established hospitals in 32 locations in the country as well as polyclinics and health centres and called on it to build a major hospital in the Akatsi South Municipality or the Avenor Traditional Area.

“The Avenor Traditional Council has vast lands, which can be made available to support any developmental activity by the Catholic Church,” he said.

“We, therefore, look forward to partnering the Church to spearhead an agenda of religious tolerance, peaceful mutual co-existence, the annihilation of xenophobia, women empowerment, and the attainment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.”

Father Prosper Agboga Agbenyega, the Diocesan Coordinator of the Synodal Process, and Rev. Father Ignatius Edem Attipoe, Diocesan Director of Ecumenism, Keta-Akatsi Diocese, moderated the meeting.

In attendance also was Mama Yeasidi Ill, Paramount Queenmother of Avenor and some chiefs and queenmothers from the Traditional Area.

The synodal process, instituted by Pope Francis, aims to reorder the Church’s internal mechanisms for discussion and reflection to help shape a new way for understanding and articulating her internal self-understanding and mission of evangelisation.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Asamoah Gyan is not ruling himself out from playing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar later this year.

The Black Stars who secured qualification at the expense of Nigeria have been pitched in Group H with Portugal, Uruguay, and South Korea.

With the tournament set to kick off in November, Gyan, who last for the Black Stars during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] in Egypt is hoping to be fit to earn a call-up.

According to him, his return to the Black Stars is possible if he can join a new club.

“For now that I haven’t retired, I have to earn a call-up but I have to join a club to play and be fit so that I can earn the call-up,” he told Accra-based Peace FM.

It is possible and it has happened before like Roger Milla.

“It will depend on me but physically I’m not ready unless I find a club team to play a competitive football so that I can be fit,” Gyan stated.

Ghana having failed to play in the last Mundial in Russia will be hoping to put up an impressive performance.

Gyan was the skipper for the side when the team exited at the group phase of the tournament during the 2014 World Cup.

Ghana’s best performance came in 2010 when the team for the first time played in the quarterfinals.

Source: Modern Ghana

The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), with support from Ford Foundation, has initiated the ‘Mining Districts Development Scorecard’ (MDDS) project to track the usage of mineral revenues in mining Districts in the country.

The MDDS project seeks to track the transfer and use of mining revenues in mining districts to promote transparency and accountability and improve social and human development outcomes. The project’s long-term goal is to empower and strengthen community participation in natural resource governance and management for better development outcomes at the sub-national level in Ghana.

The MDDS project is being implemented in eight mining districts across six regions of Ghana. The Districts include; Tarkwa Nsuaem, Prestea Huni-Valley, and Wassa East/Mpohor in the Western Region; Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai in the Western North Region; Birim North in the Eastern Region; Obuasi in the Ashanti Region; Asutifi North in the Ahafo Region; and Upper Denkyira West in the Central Region.

These Districts were carefully selected based on the quantum of mining resources they receive; and their socio-economic outlook using the District League Table (DLT) scores and poverty scores from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

Another indicator for selection was the presence of social accountability-demanding groups such as the media and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) that can use the information generated from the project for advocacy engagements.
The two-year project will be executed in three phases.

The first phase, “the preparatory stage,” which is currently underway, has seen fruitful engagements with key stakeholders who have been entrusted and mandated to manage mineral resources and revenues. They include State institutions such as the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Office of Local Government Service, and the Minerals Commission.

The meetings sought to secure their support and partnership for the implementation of the project. The Center is scheduled to also meet with the Minerals Development Fund Administrator, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Administrator of Stool Lands, the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Civil Society Organizations, and Community Based Organizations focused on the extractive sector.

The project’s first phase will also include a scoping visit to the selected districts to identify key issues and actors for the project.

The second phase will focus on data collection within the eight Districts. This is to assess how much mineral revenues they receive, how much of it is being used, what the funds are being used for, and if they respond to the social development needs of the communities. The information gathered will be used to rank the eight Districts to determine the best performing mining District in resource governance management.

The third phase will see the launch of the report at the national level to be followed by community engagements within the eight selected Districts to activate community interest and oversight over the management and usage of mineral revenues allocated to them and also to uptake specific recommendations from the report after its national release.

According to Mr. Awal Mohammed, a Senior Research Analyst and Team lead, Social Accountability & SDGs Programming at CDD-Ghana, the project’s end goal is to solve the problem of transparency in the management of the revenues received from mineral revenues.

“There are some Districts which do not have mineral resources but they perform better than some of these mining Districts. Every District receives money from the Common Fund and the District Development Fund, while these mining Districts receive additional resources from mineral revenues, they still perform poorly in terms of development, and the DLT including other socio-economic indicators verify this,” he said.

“If we have transparent and accountable institutions managing these resources, they would be used effectively to respond to the socio-economic needs of the people to bring about the needed development,” he added.

Source: Ghana Web

Accra, April 11, GNA – Government has invested US$740 million in eight water supply projects and US$1.2 million in rural water supply to improve potable water access nationwide.

Those projects are at various implementation stages and expected to benefit an additional five million people in the water supply chain upon completion in 2023.

Yendi, Tamale, Damongo, Wenchi, Sunyani, Keta and Sekondi-Takoradi are some of the towns and cities where the eight water supply projects are ongoing.

Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, announced this in Accra on Monday when she updated the public on government’s interventions in the sector to improve access.

The 2021 Population and Housing Census stated that access to potable water is averagely pegged at 87.7 per cent nationwide, with urban areas having 96.4 per cent access and 74.4 per cent for rural areas.

Madam Dapaah said the investment in the water supply sector reflected the Government’s burning desire to improve access by every Ghanaian in line with the “Water for All Agenda” and was also committed to, at least, providing each region with one water supply system.

The Minister, however, bemoaned some negative human activities that were hindering the implementation of those interventions and noted that of the 53.2 billion cubic metres of Ghana’s natural freshwater endowment, only 14 per cent was being utilised.

She mentioned some negative human activities like illegal mining, encroachment on water supply infrastructure, stone/sand winning, farming along buffer zones of river bodies and release of effluent into water bodies as hindering the realisation of the maximum benefits of those interventions.

“The integrity of this renewable freshwater resource endowment, together with the availability of groundwater at various geological locations, is constantly being threatened by these irresponsible human activities and we must stop this evil,” the Minister said.

She underscored the need for collaborative efforts to increase the number of water monitoring stations to stop such unregulated human activities.

The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources would soon embark on house-to- house audit to deal with illegal connection by unpatriotic individuals to prevent loss of revenue by the Ghana Water Company Limited, she said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, April 11, GNA – The Ghana Education Service (GES) has called on the public to disregard news of alleged introduction of uniforms for teachers in the country.

The Service in a post said if they wanted to introduce uniform for teachers, they could not do that on their own voluntarily without the involvement of stakeholders.

The Service stated that, “GES is one of the largest Government agencies in Ghana. We employ more than half of all Government employees.”

“If we want to introduce uniforms for teachers, we won’t do that through social media and over the weekend.”

On Sunday, April 10, 2022, pictures were circulating on social media on alleged introduction of uniforms for teachers by the GES

However, some persons in the circulating pictures have denied that the uniforms were from the Service, saying they were their own creation.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Thomas Tuchel has admitted that it is ‘unlikely’ Chelsea will qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League.

The Blues are preparing for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Los Blancos, having lost the first 3-1 courtesy of a Karim Benzema hat-trick.

The defending champions travel to the Bernabeu needing to beat Real Madrid by two goals to stay in the tie, and Tuchel was realistic about his side’s chances of progressing further.

“It’s not the biggest chance, given the first game and the competition, the opponent and the stadium we play in,” he said. “But we never manage our input and effort by our chances. We never have, and we will not start tomorrow by giving less.

“It is unlikely we will make it but we will try and we will play to our full limit because this is what we do. It’s a big night and we will try to be in better shape and a better condition than the first match.”

“It is one of the biggest challenges to perform as an away team at the Bernabeu. Even more if you need a certain result. It makes it almost impossible but it is still worth trying.”

Chelsea knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League last season but were outfought and outplayed at Stamford Bridge.

And Tuchel confessed that they struggled to match the La Liga leaders with the same intensity they produced last year.

“We wanted to be more physical, we didn’t work hard enough,” he added.

“We faced a huge disadvantage versus Real Madrid in terms of our physicality. We need the physicality. We could not implement that enough in the last match.

“Last season we had the second leg in an empty Stamford Bridge but we were very intense. This time, we lost ball possession.

“We struggled with counter pressing and finding the intensity of runs. We need to find a way to play a more physical game.”

The Blues boss also added that Romelu Lukaku will miss out through injury, along with Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

“Romelu (Lukaku) will not travel with us due to the pain in his achilles,” he said.

“Callum Hudson-Odoi is still out, Ben Chilwell is still out. [Cesar] Azpi is in the group as he has tested negative [for Covid-19] several times and Ross Barkley is sick, so will not travel. Everybody else is in the squad.

“We need absolutely to learn from last week’s game. This is the beauty of the competition at this stage that you have two matches at short notice so you can learn from the first to the second leg.”

But Tuchel was still determined his side give their all despite the uphill challenge, and called for a ‘fantastic script’ to get them through.

“We need nothing other than a fantastic script if we want to overcome this,” said Tuchel.

“The task and challenge is incredibly high, given who we play against. We are always allowed to dream, sometimes it’s important to imagine things and dream about it but it will not shift the focus that we need to deliver and be ready.

“We will support our team and try hard, its worth trying hard in sports and the future of the game everything is possible. Hopefully we can fulfil our dream.”

Source: Modern Ghana

Accra, April 10, GNA – The Ada Traditional Council led by Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, the Paramount Chief of the Area has paid a working visit to Electrochem Ghana Limited, a salt and chlorine-alkali manufacturing firm.

The visit was to enable members of the Traditional Council to familiarise itself with the redevelopment of the company after the Council spearheaded the release of the concession to the Company.

Nene Akuaku III speaking at the end of the tour expressed satisfaction at the rate of development and commended the management for the fast pace of work within a year and half.

Other members of the traditional council who were part of the tour included Nene Korley IV, Divisional Chief, Nene Lomo IV, Divisional Chief of Lomobiawe; Nene Lanuer Okumo IV, Divisional Chief of Dangmebiawe; Nene Kpevu IV, Divisional Chief of Kabiawe Kponor and Nene Agudey Obichere III, Mankralo of the Ada state.

“The on-going work at this site and the number of developments in our township justifies the confidence the traditional council had in the company which was the compelling reason behind the Council’s request to government, to lease the concession to the company.,” he said.

He said the council would continue to support Electrochem Ghana and remain an important partner to create jobs and fuel development.

Dr Daniel McKorley, Chairman of the McDan Group noted that, “The company is in the construction phase with lots of engineering and structural works taking place and yet the company has not lost sight of its commitment to the improvement of the quality of life of the people and the overall development of the Ada state.”

He stated that the company was supporting the community and had invested about five million dollars into the construction of a sports complex at Sege, Ada.

Electrochem Ghana is the largest salt and chlorine-alkali manufacturing firm in West Africa with a concession spanning 41,000 acres at Ada Songor.

The company which was granted a 15-year mining lease to explore the salt resource in the Ada Songor launched its operations in January 2022 with a target to produce one million metric tons of salt per annum to supply to both the local and export markets.

Source: Ghana News Agency