Month: February 2011

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is offering a 50 per cent rebate on the party’s parliamentary fees for women candidates to encourage their participation in the party’s selection process.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey who is the Chairman of the party said this when he was addressing party members at a meeting in Takoradi as part of the nationwide tour of the party hierarchy. The tour is to sensitise people on their campaign strategies and canvass more seats to regain power from the National Democratic Party (NDC).

He advised ladies with the potential to take advantage of the offer and file their nominations when it is opened, saying the nomination forms would be available in all the constituencies, regions, and the head office.

He explained that the total of GH¢ 16,000 fee expected to be paid by aspirants would be used for party work especially to support all campaigns and pay party agents at polling stations among other commitments.

The National Chairman cautioned against frustrating aspirants to contest the 2012 parliamentary and presidential elections and said that the mistakes made in the last elections that caused the party so dearly must not be repeated.

He therefore urged potential aspirants to contest without fear or favour, saying that the primaries would be held in openness and transparency under the supervision of electoral officers.

The party’s flagbearer for the 2012 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo advised members to bury their differences, unite and forge ahead with a common goal to conduct clean campaigns devoid of inflammatory statements.

Nana Akufo-Addo implored members to re-examine themselves critically before filing their nominations as the work of a parliamentarian require commitment, hard work, courage, love, sacrifice and patriotism.

To ensure good campaigns, the NPP presidential candidate announced that a “Campaign Advisory Council” is being formed with ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor as the head and ex-vice president Alhaji Aliu Mahama his deputy, while a “Conflict Resolution Committee” headed by Madam Frema Opare is in the offing.

Source: GNA.

The Minister of Information, John Akologo Tia says the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, (NPP)Nana Akufo Addo is a frustrated and desperate man who is not worth his position as the leader of the main opposition group.

He notes that Nana Akufo-Addo’s “war-mongering” statement was made out of frustration and an obvious refusal to accept the fact that he has already lost the 2012 elections in advance.

“He should realize that he is not the only person who wants to be President in Ghana. Is the NPP the only political party in the country which is contesting the presidential elections? Why should he use words like ‘all die be die’? He is only desperate because his days in politics are numbered,” John Tia said.

Speaking on Adom FM’s morning show “Dwaso Nsem” Monday 21st February 2011, Hon. John Tia who is also the Member of Parliament for Talensi, defended President Mills’ comment on Nana’s ‘all die be die’ statement explaining that, as the President who is responsible for the welfare of Ghanaians and peace, he is must reply Nana Akufo-Addo.

“The President took an oath to defend the nation, he is also the father of the country so the President is responsible for the security of the nation,” he said.

Hon. Tia adds that the President was responding to issues concerning the security of Ghana and not reacting to any mere statements.

“President Mills is the father of the nation so if any group or individual wants to disturb the peace of the nation, he has the right to wake up and tell them,” he stressed.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Member of Parliament for Lower Manya, Hon. Teye Nyaunu has taken a swipe at business mogul and member of the Council of State, (adviser to the president) Alhaji Asumah Banda describing him as one who is “ignorant about governance”.

Alhaji Asumah Banda provoked anger among MPs after he reportedly criticized Ghanaian lawmakers for making too many demands on the national kitty.

News reports have quoted the successful Ghanaian Entrepreneur and seasoned statesman as having said that MPs were behaving like boarding school children who always want their parents to provide everything for them.

Contributing to the unending debate about MPs proposal for pay rise Alhaji Asumah Banda noted that the position of an MP was voluntary and therefore the legislators had no business to demand for their ‘comfort’ at the expense of the people they want to serve.

However, his comments have landed him in the line of fire from some MPs, who have described his comments as ill informed.

In a reaction to the comments by the business magnate, Hon Michael Teye Nyaunu, MP for lower Manya told Citi News that Alhaji Banda’s comments have exposed his ignorance about governance.

“For him to talk like that, he has deepened the negative perception that the populace has against parliamentarians. We are all trying to be law abiding, we are being guided by the constitution and for him to come out like this, it shows that he is short sighted in respect of the activities of parliament…I mean he doesn’t know so deep about what parliamentarians do”.

“I know Mr Banda very well…but for him to say that we are behaving like kids it is just unfortunate and I think he shouldn’t have come out with this at all”.

Most Parliamentarians are yet to register their SIM cards almost one year after the National Communication Authority made it mandatory for all to do so by June this year.

Information available to Adom News says an exercise to that effect was started last week but was suspended owing to the state of the Nation Address on Thursday February 17 but will continue this week.

A highly placed source at the National Communication Authority (NCA) said telecom operators have reported between 75 per cent and 90 per cent registered SIM cards between June 2010 and now.

The source fell short of mentioning the specific numbers or percentages that each operator reported saying that the NCA was yet to verify the figures and come out with actual numbers of valid SIM cards registered by each operator.

The verification would involve cross checking records of individual SIM card owners against the ID type they used in registering the SIM card.

“We will go to the respective institutions and verify the records of those who used their passports, drivers’ licenses, National Health Insurance card and Voters ID to register their SIM cards” the source said.

The source noted that there was a possibility that some records may not be check with the ID of the SIM card owners and that would mean that SIM card would be considered unregistered, even though telecom network may have counted it as registered.

Last year, almost all the operators posted lower subscriber-base than they expected and they blamed it on customers’ lackadaisical attitude towards SIM card registration.

Meanwhile, all the telecom operators have been instructed by the NCA to keep the provisional figures under wraps pending the verification slated for next month, March 2011.

But some of the telecom operators said most of the SIM cards registered are mainly from the rural communities and northern part of the country, and that most residents of Greater-Accra, Central, Volta and Western regions are still not registered.

“We want to take advantage of the debate of the Presidential State of the Nation Address in Parliament to register the MPs, since there is usually a full house during these kinds of debates,” they said.
The CEO of Tigo Ghana, Carlos Caceres had told Adom News that he expected a mass rush for SIM card registrations from next month, particularly in the southern sector of the country.

Vodafone Ghana CEO, Kyle Whitehall had also expressed similar sentiments in a chat with journalists.

Whiles some the telecom operators say they are confident that by the June 31, 2011 deadline, they would have registered all their customers, some expressed doubts about meeting the deadline.

Meanwhile the NCA has not given any indication of plans to extend the deadline, which means anyone whose SIM card is not registered by June 31, 2011 would lose his mobile phone number and all information on it for good.

Network operators have therefore been using separate interactions with the media to urge their customers to get their SIM cards registered and avoid losing their phone numbers and vital information.

Source: Adom News

The Accra Fast Track High Court trying the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central on his nationality status Friday adjourned the case following a request made to that effect by counsel for the MP, Mr. Yonni Kulendi, for time for the prosecutor to recover from his ailment.

Mr Kulendi told the court that the prosecutor, Mr. Anthony Rexford Wiredu, was fatigued, unwell, had a hoarse voice ‘ and needed enough time to convalesce.

Mr. Wiredu, a Principal State Attorney, who was in court, did indeed look unwell and worn out and did not utter a word during the proceedings except to introduce himself and the two other state attorneys who were with him.

Mr Kulendi noted that many lawyers died unexpectedly because of the pressures of the job and lack of time to rest and recover from ailments.

Consequently, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Charles Quist, adjourned the case to March 4, 2011 to enable the prosecutor to recover fully from his ailment.

Mr Justice Quist said he had observed that Mr Wiredu was, indeed, unwell and the court needed to give him enough time to recover

“Therefore all cases involving Mr Wiredu in this court are adjourned to Friday March 4,” he said.
The state of Mr Wiredu’s health has led to more than one adjournment in the past.

At an earlier sitting on January 17, 2011, a representative from the Attorney- General’s Office had informed the court that Mr Wiredu had been rushed to hospital due to ill-health, for which reason he could not make it to court.

The MP, Adamu Daramani Sakande, was on July 31, 2009, arraigned before the court, charged with nine counts relating to his nationality, perjury, forgery of passport, election fraud and deceiving public officers to be elected as MP. But he was exonerated on six of those charges on July 8, 2010.

He is currently facing three charges of false declaration of office, perjury and deceiving a public officer.

Source: Daily Graphic