Day: June 6, 2023

A justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, Yonny Kulendi, has recalled a very close, mutually-respectful relationship he has had with Justice Jones Dotse, who has just retired from the Bench.

Addressing a gathering at the Supreme Court during a valedictory ceremony to mark the end of the service of the senior judge, Yonny Kulendi said that it was the instruction of Jones Dotse that saw him make a major decision in his life recently.

Prefixing his reference to that story by saying that there is the need for everyone to have someone of great influence in their lives, he said that it took the ‘command’ of the retired judge to get him to accept the appointment to be a Supreme Court judge.

“You must each find in your life and space, a man or woman who can command you on major decisions of your life. For those who have been wondering, and still wondering why I left, by the grace of God, a reasonably-thriving life at the Bar, and took what I call an oath of poverty and service, that reason is My Lord Justice Dotse.

“He commanded me and I do not have an iota of regret that I obeyed. My Lord, thank you for commanding me, and today, in private conversations, I still address him as ‘Papa,’ but he addresses me, since I became a judge, as my brother,” he said.

Justice Jones Dotse retires from the Supreme Court after serving on it since June 2008.

Source: Ghana Web

Accra Hearts of Oak spokesperson, Kwame Opare Addo has admitted that the club is in a challenging situation.

He said the results show evidently that Hearts are not in a good space and that he is not going to hide from it.

“We will say we are in hard times on the pitch because the results have not gone our way in the past few matches and nobody is running away from it,” he told Asempa.

“This is not what we prepare week in and week out for. So we admit that since the results have not gone well, it has not been positive for us in the last few games,” he told Asempa FM.

Hearts of Oak are currently on four games losing streak after their 2-1 loss to Real Tamale United at home on Sunday, June 4, 2023.

Hearts of Oak have lost six, drawn one, and won three of their last 10 league games, including a run of four defeats.

The 21-time league champions occupy 11th position on the table with 44 points, just 3 points above the relegation zone with one game remaining.

They have to avoid defeat on the final day of the season in their away game against Berekum Chelsea on Sunday, June 11, 2023, to escape relegation.

Source: Ghana Web

The Queen Mother of Adum Banso, a small community in the Mpohor District of the Western Region, Obaahenmaa Yaa Manu I, has reportedly died.

Obaahenmaa Yaa Manu I, who is said to be the youngest queen mother in Ghana, was installed in July 2022.

The late queen mother is believed to be in her early twenties when she passed on.

Reports on social media indicate that she died during childbirth.

Yaa Manu I is said to be a very vibrant young woman who did not shy away from social media.

Audio-visuals on her social media accounts showed her dancing and making merry at events.

Her mother passed on in 2022 and was buried in September 2022.

Obaahenmaa Yaa Manu attended Prestea SHS in the Western Region and was a student of Effia Nkwanta Nursing Training College when she died.

Source: Ghana Web

The President of policy think tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has stated that the World Bank is actively involved in Ghana’s energy sector recovery programme, therefore, the Bank’s statement about a chunk of the country’s debt emanating from that sector is questionable.

He noted that some expensive power agreements signed by the previous administration that was to be reviewed were extended without caution from the World Bank despite being an active financial supporter.

In a post on June 5, 2023, he wrote “It is true that some take or pay power contracts signed by the NDC were very expensive. The current government set up committees to review them. However, the terms of these contracts were extended.

“In effect, as ACEP’s Ben Boakye puts it,” the same power plants the World Bank director complains about have been extended to long-term agreements without caution from the Bank”. The World Bank in Ghana has been a very active financial supporter of Ghana’s Energy Sector Recovery Programme for the past four years. So, there you are,” he added.

The World Bank (WB) Country Director to Ghana, Pierre Frank Laporte, has stated that Ghana’s energy sector debt is a major contributor to the country’s debt woes.

According to Laporte, the deficiencies in the sector characterized by the tariff systems and management issues coupled with expensive power purchases by the state in addition to the transmission losses were the major problems in the energy sector driving Ghana’s debts.

He said the mismatch between the production cost of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) vis-à-vis how much consumers paid led to an upsurge of debts since the Government could not make financial commitments to them (IPPs).

Laporte also said the Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs) the Government had signed were expensive. In addition to the exorbitant power purchases the country was paying for energy it does not use due to the “take or pay contracts.”

“In the case of Ghana, those contracts that have been signed as PPAs are just expensive and the kind of PPAs signed are take or pay. You pay although you do not use it. The fact is that in the past few years, Ghana entered into an agreement at the wrong rate and the wrong price, and it has impacted the debt situation,” he said.

Source: Ghana Web

Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a lead convener for the #FixTheCountry Movement, has slammed the government over the amount of money it pays caterers under the School Feeding Programme.

According to Barker-Vormawor, the amount the government is paying to caterers providing meals to students benefiting from the programme is woefully inadequate.

In a tweet shared on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, the convener added that the amount the government is paying under the programme means the students benefiting from it are being fed unbalanced diets.

“1 Ghana cedi! That includes the caterers profit? And they haven’t even been paid for months. Where are they shopping for supplies? What kind of food does one buy for less than 50 pesewas, then spend on cooking, and transporting the food?

“Very soon, either a major scandal will break that some caterers are mixing sawdust into their food; or we are nearing a major outbreak of food poisoning that will result in the death of school children.

“This is the largest Government funded Kwashiorkor programme I have ever seen,” parts of the tweet read.

Barker-Vormawor, a private legal practitioner, called on the government to cancel the programme if it cannot ensure that caterers under the programme are paid well so that they can feed Ghanaian students, balanced diets.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, has said the cost per meal for each school child would be increased from GH¢1 to GH¢1.20.

The GH¢1.20 proposal comes after caterers called on the government to increase the feeding price per child.

“The feeding cost per meal per day per child was increased from 80 pesewas (80Gp) in 2018 to GH¢1, and in 2023, the cost per meal per child per day has been proposed as GH¢1.20,” she said.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra, Lariba Zuweira Abudu noted that the school feeding programme has provided employment for people, especially women.

She said the GSFP has given caterers the opportunity to generate income to fend for their families.

She pointed out that there were about 34,350 caterers under the School Feeding programme who cooked for about 3,801,491 beneficiaries in 10,832 public basic schools across the country.

View Oliver’s tweet below:

In Re Nimfa vrs Quayson and 2ors [2023] SC, I wish to ask by way of matters arising:

A Ghanaian Justice, who is on secondment in The Gambia or Kenya and takes the Oaths of Office of any those Countries and sits in judgment and delivers rulings, where do you think their Allegiance lie?

Source: Ghana Web

The District Chief Executive for Agotime-Ziope, Ms Emilia Emefa Adzimah has been reported to the Ho Central police for an alleged assault on a party member.

The DCE is alleged to have physically abused a former Ho Central Women Organizer of her own party (NPP) Dzifa Doris Kaledzi.

The incident is said to have occurred during the funeral ceremony of the wife of the current Ho Central Constituency Chairman held at the Regional Police Training School Park in Ho.

According to an eyewitness, the DCE “pushed and shoved her and then hit her in the face with the funeral brochure which left a cut under her eyebrow.”

Asked reasons for the attack, the eyewitness said, “there was absolutely no confrontation from the young lady (victim). She was about taking a seat behind the DCE so when she got to the DCE’s seat, she requested from her (DCE) to adjust herself to pave way for her and that was it.”

When contacted by Starrfm.com.gh the victim confirmed the incident but declined any further comments.

Further checks from the Ho Central Police station revealed that an assault complaint has been lodged against the DCE.

Medical report of the victim indicate that the victim sustained an “abrasive injury at the upper eye lid” of her left eye.

Source: Ghana Web

Ordinarily, this should not be funny, but when the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Stephen Amoah, admitted that he could not pronounce a word contained in his own speech, it made the situation even lighter.

In a video snippet that has been shared on TikTok, the deputy minister is seen speaking at an event focused on Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs).

While it is unclear exactly where the event was, and when it was, Stephen Amoah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso, is seen and heard reading out a portion of his speech until he got to a word and made a brief pause.

Realising he was unable to properly pronounce the word, or, to ensure that he is not hanged, literally, for butchering an English word, the deputy minister retorted, “I can’t pronounce it.”

He continues to spell out the word: “B-R-A-I-L-L-E,” and re-states that he is unable to pronounce it.

He also added that this is because of where he comes from.

“… additionally, operation documents will be made available in (pauses). Is it in (makes attempt to mention the word)? I can’t pronounce it. B-R-A-I-L-L-E, I mean I’m from Kumasi, forgive me…” he said.

Source: Ghana Web

A container trailer, over the weekend, crashed into several vehicles on a road in Sokoban in the Nhyiaeso Constituency of the Ashanti Region.

The container trailer, in a viral video sighted by GhanaWeb, lost control and crashed into several vehicles in front of it.

The huge vehicle initially pushed a sprinter which was directly in front of it, and then it forced a a public transport mini-van (trotro) off the road.

This led to a collision involving at least five vehicles.

Some residents can be seen in the video praying and crying for help.

According to a social media user who shared the video, Sokoban Fatilow-Jounalist, the road the accident occurred on has become a death trap because of its poor nature.

He indicated that on April 10, 2023, Easter Monday, three people died in an accident at the same spot.

He asked whether the Member of Parliament for the area, Stephen Amoah, is aware his constituents are dying on the Sokoban road.

Source: Ghana Web