THE JFT EDIT

Residents of Kade in the Kwaebibirem Municipality of the Eastern Region have banned the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) from campaigning in the area.

To this end, they have warned politicians to stay off the place until their only access road in the area is worked on before the 2020 polls or it is game over.

The deplorable condition of the only access route in the area and government’s apathy towards repairing it, they revealed, has led to accidents and needless deaths.

Angry youth of the town in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com warned politicians to stay away from the community during campaigns next year unless roads are fixed.

“When it rains, the road becomes muddy, making accessibility a challenge but also providing a greater leeway for armed bandits. They should fix it or no political party should come here, no road, no vote.”

“We want to tell our political leaders that if our problems are not solved, we are not going to admit a ballot box into our community because we don’t know the reason for voting if voting cannot solve our problems”.

Many residents who have been victims of robbery attacks resolved that they will not be part of the 2020 polls if the road is not fixed as demanded threatening to chase out politicians who will dare try to campaign in the area.

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The Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has indicated that the government of President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo has fulfilled 80% of its campaign promises.

Speaking at the Oti Regional New Patriotic Party Women’s Wing Conference held at Nkwanta she stressed that every household in the country has directly or indirectly felt the positive impact of this government. According to her, that explains why Ghana has been identified as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

“We can say on authority that about 80% of all the campaign pledges have been fulfilled,” she said on Friday. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful underscored the government’s commitment to deliver on all of its 2016 electoral promises and to continue implementing policies that would enhance the livelihoods of the citizenry.

She, therefore, implored membership of the NPP to continue preaching the “good works” of the government as the country prepares towards the 2020 general election. “Am sure you will agree with me that the worse NPP government is far far better than the best NDC has to offer.

“So we will ensure that we will not curse this country again with the worse that we have ever experienced in governance and let the NDC come and take over again,” the Communication Minister vowed. She further stated that “and so for all of us sitting here as executives of the NPP, the time has come for us to get to work and make sure that this great party of ours is retained in power.”

The Oti Regional NPP Women’s Organiser, Olivia Yawa Aglago, indicated the conference forms part of an action plan aimed at winning 5 more parliamentary seats in the region. She added the women’s Wing in the region would embark on a rigorous door-to-door campaign to expand the membership of the party.

“We want to thank the President for creating the Oti Region for us with at least 5 parliamentary seats in the region, ” Madam Aglago expressed gratitude. Other party bigwigs who took turns to address the conference were the Oti Regional Minister, Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Deputy Sanitation Minister, Michael Dzato, National NPP Women’s Organiser, Kate Gyamfua and the Oti Regional NPP Chairman, Evans Dapaah.

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The governing New Patriotic Party has described former President John Mahama’s commiseration with issues pertaining to the law students as an act of pretense.

Last week, the law students embarked on a peaceful protest to reforms in the legal educational system. The protesters were however prevented from approaching the seat of government, where they had intended to petition President Nana Akufo-Addo, as the police dispersed them by firing rubber bullets and using water cannons, an action the police justified.

The law students then presented a copy of the petition to former President John Mahama.  John Mahama assured the students of a possible dialogue to address their issues.

But speaking to Citi News, the Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, said the former president has no solution to offer.  “The former president, now candidate pretends to be the most sympathetic person when he has had all the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and he couldn’t. I am saying that he is feeding on issues in a way that keeps him thinking that he is pretending to do something for the people involved but he is not doing anything for them,” said Buaben Asamoa.

“You meet law students and you are now saying that you are going to moderate a conversation, what kind of conversation? What are your ideas? What is the framework that is going to lead that conversation? Let us know so we can tell if your framework and ideas will lead to better legal education and whether his framework is better than what is happening now. That mere statement that he will lead a conversation is baseless because how and with who is he going to lead that conversation with and what will be the outcome? He is not telling us anything because he has no plan and policy. He is just going around pretending to be sympathetic, he is not sympathetic with anybody otherwise he wouldn’t have mismanaged this country so incompetently before,” the Adentan legislator argued.

Former President, John Dramani Mahama backed calls by some aggrieved law students and their sympathizers for reforms in the country’s legal education system when demonstrating law students called on him to give him a copy of their petition.

He said he was ready to spearhead the conversation on reforms in the legal education system.

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the Minority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament(MP) for the Asawase Constituency, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has lost his substance to continue serving as a legislator and so must be replaced, MyNewsGh.com reports.

The president was addressing a gathering of Zongo chiefs and a section of the people of Asawase on the second day of his tour of the Ashanti region when he made the remarks. “I know it’s not yet time to campaign for the upcoming elections but you benefit more if you start the work early” he said.

The president further told the gathering that, “Muntaka has stayed too long in the Parliament House; he has nothing new to do there so allow another person to also go there and try so that we can realise the development that we want”; the crowd responded with loud cheers.

The President’s comments are, however, a deviation from the initiative of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, in which the minister, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has been working with civil society to get the high attrition rate in Ghana’s Parliament in check.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu the Member of Parliament(MP) for Suame, who would be seeking a seventh term believes that, “Parliament is as strong as its members make it”, and describes the high attrition rate as “a shameful blot on Ghana’s political system”, calling on political parties to protect sitting MPs from losing their seats to new entrants. Some of his constituents are however calling for his replacement; they say there is not much to show for, for the 24 years that he would be representing them in Parliament.

Our checks, however, indicate that, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would let him stand unopposed in the upcoming primaries. There are other MPs on the ticket of the NPP serving currently in Parliament who are seniors to Muntaka Mubarak but are likely to seek reelection in 2020. Adansi Asokwa MP, Kobina Tahir Hammond and Assin Central MP, Kennedy Ohebe Agyapong both entered the house in 2000; five years before Muntaka.

Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak entered Parliament in 2005 after winning a bye-election to replace the late Dr Gibril Adamu Mohammed. Barring any changes, he would be facing off with Alidu Seidu, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Asokore Mampong for the second time. Both men were chosen by their respective parties by popular acclamation to contend for the Asawase seat in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Nana Akufo Addo also advised the youth of Asawase to be submissive to authority and listen to advice from the elderly so that there would lasting peace and development in the Asawase area.

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Girls’ Education Network (GEN) as part of the Happy School Girls project has called on government to abolish taxes on sanitary towels and any material used for sanitary pads.

In a statement released to mark International Day of the Girl (IDG), the gender advocacy group noted, menstrual hygiene was an integral part of hygiene, cleanliness and reproductive health to which every woman and girl has a right. High cost of sanitary pads on the market, it said, was making it difficult for many females to get access to them.

Currently, there is a 20% tax on imported sanitary pads. International Day of the Girl Child, mark October 11, is an international observance day declared by the United Nations. According to the Happy School Girl Project, “As Ghana joins the world to observe this special day, we call on Government and other stakeholders to heed to our long lasting call of having the tax on sanitary towels removed as well as any material used to produce sanitary pads.

“Together let’s fight in ensuring that pads are tax free if not free of charge so that the girl feels confident to access, transit and complete her education without having to put a stop to it for reasons of menstruation and its related issues” part of the statement reads. The theme for this year’s commemoration is “Girl force: Unscripted and unstoppable”. The group explained that “Girls are proving they are unscripted and unstoppable, hence, the theme for IDGC 2019”

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The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, has announced that road networks being constructed by the Akufo-Addo administration will last for at least 30 years.

According to him, the government wanted ‘value for money’ road projects, for which reason it would ensure that contractors engaged would do ‘professional’ work so that the roads would last longer. “We want to construct quality road networks that will last at least 25 to 30 years so that future generations will also benefit from it,” Mr. Amoako-Atta said during a mini durbar of Zongo chiefs at Aboabo in Kumasi.

He said gone were the days when contractors did shoddy work and the state lost a lot of money in the process, adding that his ministry would at all times demand quality work from contractors. The durbar was held on Wednesday morning to welcome President Akufo-Addo and his high-powered delegation who were on a three-day working tour of the Ashanti Region to inspect government projects.

Mr. Amoako-Atta stressed that the delay in the construction of road projects in Kumasi, including the Zongo communities, didn’t mean the government would not construct the roads. He said all was set to construct the roads. “Two weeks from now, you shall see action on the road projects in Kumasi. I am standing in front of the President and what I am telling you is the truth,” the Roads Minister, who sounded very confident, assured residents of Kumasi.

He said the contractor working on the dual carriage road project from Aboabo to Airport Roundabout, which was stalled for some time, would return to site in two weeks’ time and the people should expect quality work. Besides, he said the Airport Roundabout to Buokrom road project, which was also stalled, would see action very soon, stressing that the Akufo-Addo administration had not forgotten about the residents of Kumasi.

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The Ashanti Regional Chief Imam, Sheikh Abdul Mumin Haroun, has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for exuding integrity.

According to him, the President is a truthful leader, who always keeps his promises and, therefore, deserves to be praised for his good works. “Nana Akufo-Addo is not a 419 leader,” the Chief Imam stated, attracting applause from his audience during a public function at Aboabo. This was when the President, who is on a working tour of the Ashanti Region, addressed Muslim leaders, clerics and opinion leaders on Wednesday at Aboabo.

Sheikh Abdul Mumin Haroun, who spoke in Twi, said Ghana needed leaders with integrity in order to ensure proper growth. In that regard, he highly commended the President for always standing by his words and promises. Besides, the cleric appealed to all Muslims in the country to always support the President and his government with fervent prayers for him to succeed.

“Nana Akufo-Addo needs our prayers to enable him to roll out all his campaign promises in order to help transform the country,” the Chief Imam stressed. He said he was impressed with the industrious attitude of President Akufo-Addo who, according to him, had chalked up several successes in less than three years in office. “Allah has blessed President Akufo-Addo because he is not growing old. He is even growing younger with a baby face,” the Chief Imam said.

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The Volta Regional Police Command has arrested five people including an evangelist in connection with a robbery attack at a petrol station at Peki-Wodome in the Volta Region last Wednesday.

The five persons — Felix Dupe alias Gbaga, a 31-year-old evangelist; Godfred Alorvordzi alias Azagua, a 45-year-old trader; Raphael Agbo alias Aklikor, a 33-year-old driver; Edem Fiati, 28, alias Harder, an electrician; and Adzaho Evans, 29, owner of the Opel taxi cab used for the robbery — are suspected to have raided Kings Oil Filling Station.

The Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Edward Oduro Kwarteng, said in a statement that the suspects were picked up in the early hours of Thursday.

He said the National Police Control room received a distress call about the incident and swiftly deployed officers to the scene and with the support of the Peki-Wodome Neighbourhood Watch Committee, three of the suspects were arrested.

Preliminary interrogations revealed that there were six other persons including one Pablo (currently at large) involved and according to the police, Pablo who is a former worker of the filling station appears to have masterminded the robbery.

He said Pablo is suspected to have told his accomplices that the back door of the filling station was weak and could easily be broken into and based on that vital information, the gang attacked the place.

About GH¢2,211 and other valuables were taken by the suspects and further investigations revealed that Edem Fiati and Felix Dupe (the evangelist) are already standing trial in another robbery incident within the Ho municipality.

“The command wishes to express its appreciation for the excellent collaboration between the police and the Peki-Wodome Neighborhood Watch Committee and entreat other communities within the region to form similar groups to assist the police, as crime fighting is a shared responsibility,” the Regional Commander said.

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With effect from Monday, October 14, 2019, any contractor that has been engaged by a district assembly but is not living up to expectation will have their contracts terminated.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has boldly declared that his administration will not sit aloof for contractors to unduly delay government projects whilst the citizenry suffers. “From Monday, I will order the Minister of Local Government to terminate the contracts of contractors working with the various district assemblies, but not delivering,” he said. Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Drobonso in the Sekyere Afram Plains District of the Ashanti Region, the President insisted that he was in a hurry to improve the infrastructural base of the country.

He said he would not accept situations where contractors engaged by the various district assemblies fail to live up to expectation. “Those who have been awarded contracts but are not delivering would have their contracts terminated and new contractors would quickly be appointed to finish the job on time,” he declared. On security issues, he said his government had worked tirelessly to increase the movable vehicles in the Ghana Police Service from just 250 to 600, and his target is to increase it further to 1,000.

The President disclosed that “when we came into government, we had only 30,000 policemen and 250 vehicles, which were woefully inadequate, and we have increased the number of cars to 600”. He also said he recently participated in Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) meeting, where insecurity and robberies at Drobonso and the surrounding areas was discussed. He expressed worry over the situation and said he would instruct the IGP to appoint a police commander for Drobonso to help improve security in the area so that the robberies would stop.

Nana Dwamena Dankwa Dwebisaw, the Drobonsohene, lauded the Akufo-Addo administration for carrying out developmental projects in the area. He, however, appealed to the President to intervene so that the rampant robberies and general insecurity in the area would be curbed, saying that robbers were gradually taking over the area. The President, who was in his final day of his three-day tour of the Ashanti Region, was accompanied by the Education Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and some government officials.

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