Month: February 2011

After several weeks of complaints over the conduct of the 2010 Population and Housing census, leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has together with his family finally been counted by census officials.

Mr. Ohene Agyapong, who is Member of Parliament for Assin North, had strongly deplored what he said is the shoddy work done by the census officials, arguing some Ghanaians, including his family, were not counted.

Officials of the GSS however argued the census was successful, and advised people who claimed to have been exempted from the exercise to come to the Service to be enumerated.

After several weeks of persistence which became intense after the release of provisional results last week, Mr. Agyapong’s household was enumerated by officials from the GSS over the weekend, almost four months after the exercise officially ended.

Public Relations Officer of the GSS, Michael Adu Gyamfi disclosed this in an interview with Adom News.

In a related development, Mr. Agyapong has indicated that the provisional results of the 2010 Population and Housing census are inaccurate.

He says the figures have the potential to create chaos and confusion in the 2012 general elections.

In an interview with Adom News, he said he finds it strange that the figures in the Volta region have shot up while those in the other regions remained either the same or have only increased slightly.

He accused government officials of manipulating the results for their own political interest.

“This will create a bloated register in the 2012 elections there is no doubt about that and I will challenge anyone on that. Imagine that you have these huge margins in the Volta Region, this is unacceptable, we better watch out”, he said.

He has however blamed leadership of the NPP for not being vigilant enough during the enumeration period.

Source: Adom News

The Member of Parliament for Okaikoi South, Nana Akomea, has said inefficient building inspectors of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) particularly in Accra should be severely punished.

He said, the lack of supervision by these public officers has resulted in a situation where a lot of buildings have been wrongly cited across the capital and even in some cases on water ways creating a lot of problems when it rains.

His comments come following a heavy downpour in Accra, yesterday, February 10, 2011 which caused severe flooding in several parts of the capital city.

Some of the areas where the floods caused extensive damage to individual property were Adabraka Official Town, Abossey Okai, the Obetsebi –Lamptey Circle, Odawna and the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, however no lives were lost as has been the case in previous rains.

Officials of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) who received lots of distress calls from residents across the capital yesterday were on hand to deliver rescue services.

Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana Show Friday, the Member of Parliament for Okaikoi South, Nana Akomea bemoaned the high level of obstruction of several water bodies in Accra, due to the unchecked citing of buildings.

“ People have built less than 100 feet from storm drains in some cases on water ways, we have allowed this to go on for too long a time such that if we have to take action we have to break the whole city’’, he said.

He added that the relevant authorities should step up their work to ensure that the citing of structures across the capital, conforms to the planning and engineering designs of Accra to avoid the perennial loss of live and property during heavy rains.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Okere, Dan Botwe, has predicted that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will bag 20% of electoral votes in the Volta Region, in the up-coming 2012 general elections.

According to him, the NPP has over the years progressively improved its percentage of votes in the Volta Region which has not been favorable to the NPP, adding that there is every indication that the NPP will win the next elections.

He made the prediction on Peace FM’s Kokrooko show on Friday, February 11th 2011, when he was responding to claims by the NDC that Nana Akufo Addo’s recent comments while addressing party faithfuls in Koforidua re-enforces the belief that the NPP is a tribalistic political party.

Nana Akufo Addo’s in his address alleged that “They (NDC) have intentions to intimidate us in 2012 because they believe that we the Akans are soft and cowards”.

Hon. Dan Botwe who refuted the assertion argued that no political party could be as tribalistic as the NDC.

Citing a book authored by the current Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Kofi Awoonor , titled “The Ghanaian Revolution”, Dan Botwe describes how on page 57 of his book, Prof Awoonor seeks to justify why, in his calculation, ‘Ewes in the Armed Forces have achieved the reputation of being the notorious coup makers and plotters against successive governments.’

He ascribed this, in part, to Ewes seeing ‘themselves in opposition to all governments in Ghana, which inevitably become Akan (Ashanti) dominated.’

He continues, ‘The contest for power is reduced in simple terms to a fierce contest between the Akan (Ashanti) and the Ewes.’

Hon, Dan Botwe wondered, “what amounts to preaching tribalism than what is contained in Professor Awoonor’s book, and the President has appointed such a preacher of tribalism as the Chairman of the Council of State”, he asked?

He noted, it was important that such tribalistic tendencies are discouraged to ensure Ghana moves ahead as a developed country in unity.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party and Member of Parliament for Manhyia, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has threatened to drag the Electoral Commission to Court if it makes an attempt to expand the size of Ghana’s Parliament from the current 230 Constituencies to 255.

Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has told Citi News there are moves by the Electoral Commission to create twenty-five additional constituencies across the country.

He said he is aware the EC intends to use the provisional results of the 2010 National Population and Housing Census, which has put Ghana’s population at more than twenty-four million, as the basis to create more seats in the nation’s legislature.

In an interview with Citi News, the MP warned he may be forced to sue the Commission if it goes ahead to increase the seats by that margin.

“From the way the EC exercises its mandate to be able to create constituencies, in the last ten years, the EC would have added over a quarter, that’s over 25% more seats to Parliament than in 2000. We were a 200 member Parliament in 2000. In 2004, they created 30 seats; in 2012 they want to create another 25. So 55 seats in a spate of less than ten years. I think it’s too much. When they created 30 seats, the whole of Parliament had to be reconfigured at the cost of millions of Ghana cedis” he said.

According to Hon. Opoku Prempeh, apart from the financial burden put on the nation by the creation of more seats, the mode of creating the constituencies is not the best.

“It should not be arbitrary that the EC says Manhyia is too large so I have divided Manhyia but I won’t do Oforikrom and will do only Bimbila. It is too arbitrary the way they are creating the seats” he bemoaned.

There is currently a public outcry following a proposal by Members of Parliament to be paid Gh¢7,000 from an initial Gh¢2,500 salary.

The Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South, Stephen Balado Manu has strongly defended recent comments by the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo Addo, which has been viewed by his political opponents as highly provocative and setting a tone for violence in the impending 2012 elections.

According to him, Nana Akufo Addo comments were well thought out and could not have better.

The Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during an address to party supporters in the Eastern Region on Tuesday 8th February 2011, warned that the NPP will not tolerate any attempts by members of the NDC to intimidate its members in the 2012 General Elections.

According to him, the NPP was founded with courageous and bold people who are ready to die for the party if need be to wrestle political power in 2012, adding that NPP supporters will match its political opponents boot for boot in 2012.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament Ahafo Ano South, stated he was hundred percent in support for those encouraging words from Nana Akufo Addo, as the NDC has over the years used intimation and bastardization to cow down NPP supporters.

“Look at what happened at Atiwa, Chereponi, Agbogbloshie and others where NDC thugs rained mayhem on NPP supporters injuring lots of them, have you heard the police do anything about it?, we need such tough leaders like Nana Addo to inspire our youth to be resilient “he said.

Hon. Balado Manu, also debunked the assertion that Nana Addo’s statement “They have intentions to intimidate us in 2012 because they believe that we the Akans are soft and cowards”, meant that the NPP were tribalistic.

“Which party in Ghana can be more tribalistic than the NDC, when the party in the run-up to the 2008 elections drew a map of Ghana which had former president filling spaces for other regions leaving the space for the Central region blank, what did that mean?, when the then candidate Mills said “adze wo fie oye’’ what was he implying’’ he asked.

Hon Balado Manu continued….“The NPP right from its formation can never be said to be tribalistic, my constituents know that I am hundred percent (100%) Northerner, but they have allowed me to occupy a seat in Ashanti region since 1997’’ he added.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Mfantseman West, Aquinas Quansah, has called for the formation of a committee among stakeholders to scrutinize contents on bill boards across the country.

According to the MP, the absence of such a committee has resulted in some advertisers putting out certain messages on bill boards which could be described as very problematic.

His comments comes in the wake of huge bill boards erected across the country by a religious organization, Family Radio predicting that Saturday May 21 2011, will be judgment day when the world will come to an end, with Jesus Christ returning to the earth to complete the judgment process began after creation when man(Adam) first sinned against God.

There have been similar claims and prophecies about the end time in the past some of them leading to catastrophic consequences.

The most recent of them was in 2000 when more than 500 members of a Ugandan cult, acting on a prophecy by their leader on the destruction of the world that year, locked themselves up in the church and after singing for some hours set the small wooden building ablaze killing all of them leaving the charred bodies which was retrieved by authorities.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Mfantseman West, Aquinas Quansah who has communication background condemned such unguarded bill boards which have the potential of creating fear and panic among section of the public.

He noted that it is in the interest of the country to have the various District Assemblies and the Advertisers Association of Ghana to settle their differences, and further constitute a commitee to censure art works on bill boards before they are finally erected along the streets.

Story by :Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Esikuma Odobeng Brakwah Constituency in the Central Region, Paul Collins Appiah Ofori has described President Mills’ call for public office holders to declare their assets as a camouflage.

President John Evans Atta Mills proposed that public holders should declare their assets on assumption of office, to ensure transparency and accountability.

President Mills at a meeting with staff of the Customs Excise and Preventive service, (CEPS) at the Tema Port last Friday, stated that the declaration of assets will help reduce bribery and corruption in Ghana.

President’s pronouncement follows the release of a video documentary by Anas Aremeyaw Anas that exposed corrupt practices that take place at the Tema Ports, dubbed “Enemies Of The State” .

But the Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odobeng-Brakwa Constituency who is known for his vociferous crusade against corruption, says the president’s call is just a camouflage saying nothing good will come out of it.

He told Adom News that the appropriate means of curbing corruption is to ensure that the law takes its course against perpetrators of the crime in Ghana.

He said government should use the revelation by Anas Aremeyaw Anas to prosecute the culprits to serve as a deterrent to others.

Source: Adom News