Month: May 2011

It appears the issue about the wearing of a “magic’ ring by President John Evans Attah Mills will not die down anytime soon.

The Member of Parliament for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul has re-ignited the matter by providing evidence, which, he insists, supports his controversial claim that President John Evans Atta Mills, during the 2008 campaign period, wore a black magic ring.

The MP, last week was chided by a section of the public when he stated on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana show, that President Mills wore a magic ring on his middle finger which he said the then presidential candidate took off immediately after he won the elections.

Appearing on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana show on Monday 16th May 2012, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul provided a copy of the December 11, 2008 edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper which showed clearly President Mills indeed wore the unusually large ring over his long finger which already had a plaster stacked on.

He wondered if that plaster was there because Prof Mills had suffered an injury on that finger and was still determined to wear the ring despite the pain that he might have been going through.

“To me it is very strange that Prof Mills would wear a black, large, strange ring on a bandaged finger for what purpose” he asked?

“What makes it more bizarre is that the black ring also had some numbers engraved on it. What did those numbers represent?” he asked again.

Hon. Dominic Nitiwul cleared an earlier misrepresentation in the media that he said the magic ring aided President Mills to win the 2008 elections.

“We from the NPP came out with a report which clearly indicated what factors contributed to our losing the 2008 elections and we are clear about that’’ he said.

However the Member of Parliament for Adentan, Kojo Adu-Asare who was also a discussant on the show, called for politics in Ghana to be raised above such petty issues which does not improve the welfare of Ghanaians in any way.

He added that the President Mills is a committed Christian and will not put his trust in any other thing apart from the Almighty God who has continued to help him govern the country.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, and Campaign Chairman of Nana Konadu for 2012 Michael Teye Nyaunu, has stated that nomination forms for Nana Konadu’s candidacy has received the needed endorsement from various executives of the party nationwide.

The campaign team of the former First Lady, who is considered as President Atta Mills’ key contender for the NDC’s flagbearership slot, had claimed earlier that they were being frustrated in getting their forms endorsed.

They accused President Mills Camp of intimidation and bribery in a clear effort to frustrate the aspiration of the former First Lady who is bent on making history as the first person (woman) to have challenged a sitting President in the history of Ghana’s politics.

A duly proposed contestant is required to receive a total of 460 endorsements from two members of the executive at any level of the party from each of the 230 Constituencies of the country.

Speaking on Adom FM’s morning show “Dwaso Nsem” on Monday, the Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, Michael Teye Nyaunu, stated that his team has surmounted all the initial challenges that threatened to truncate Nana Konadu’s ambition of leading the NDC party come the 2012 election.

He said his office has received athe required endorsement from the ten (10) regions of the country which put Nana Konadu in a good position to keenly contest President Mills in the upcoming July congress.

Hon. Teye Nyaunu rubbished increasing suggestions that Nana Konadu will eventually step down for President Mills to contest unopposed, adding that the endorsement of the forms is evidence of support for Nana Konadu among the party’s core members.

“ We are not joking with our campaign for Nana Konadu to lead the NDC, we mean real business and we are going to contest come what may and eventual win the Flag bearer slot’’ he said.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Madam Samia Yaba Nkrumah, National Chairperson of the Convention Peoples’ Party, (CPP) has announced her intention to seek re-election as the Member of Parliament for Jomoro Constituency.

Addressing a large crowd of people at the Chief’s Palace at Half Assini, Madam Samia Nkrumah said, “the Political history of Ghana is always made by the Nzemas”.

The meeting was her first meeting with the people Half Assini and was to dispel rumours in the area that she may not contest the seat again following her election as the CPP chairman.

She pointed out that Dr Kwame Nkrumah, her father, made history by becoming the first President of Ghana and she had also made history for becoming the first woman to be the chairperson of a political party in the country.

Flanked by Executives of the Jomoro Constituency of the CPP, Madam Samia Nkrumah said this was made possible by the support of the people of Nzema and thanked them for contributing towards her election as the Member of Parliament for the area.

Madam Samia Nkrumah said under her stewardship as MP, more than 100 projects, including constructional and renovation works had been executed.

They include classroom blocks, market sheds, hand-dug wells, community centres, clinics and toilet facilities across the constituency.

According to her, these facilities were mostly supported by donors through her father’s international recognition.

She promised to collaborate with the District Assembly and other political parties to win more projects for the people in area.

The MP expressed the hope that the people would give her the same overwhelming support they gave her during the 2008 elections.

The chief of Half Assini, Nana Ayebie Amihere VI, in his welcoming address read for him by the Queen Mother, Nana Nuamah Amoah, appealed to the MP to help construct a bridge over River Alleshialey on the Half Assini-Adusuazo Road.

According to Nana Amoah, the road leads to the economic activities of the people of Half Assini, explaining that foodstuff and fish for people were from the area.

GNA

Hon. Kwesi Ameyaw Cheremey, the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Sunyani East constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, has been accused of diverting about 2,000 streetlight bulbs meant for installation to benefit his constituents.

His accusers believe that he had diverted the bulbs for his personal gain. The NDC Vice-Chairman for the Sunyani East Constituency, Mr. Abdulai Mohammed, in an exclusive interview with The Enquirer newspaper, fingered Mr. Cheremey, saying since the bulbs have not been fixed since 2009 when he was only an MP-elect, he should be appearing before the Parliamentary Committee to account for them.

He said, after taking delivery of the light bulbs, the MP failed to have them installed, and, as a result, has plunged his constituency in darkness and rendered the people insecure at night.

Reacting to the allegation leveled against him, Mr. Cheremey denied ever receiving 2,000 street bulbs and said it was only 500 bulbs and their accessories, some of which he has had installed, and but for the fact that the matter had reached the BNI all of them would have been fixed.

Mr. Cheremey pointed out that he has no case with the assembly and was therefore on the right track and that the assembly should make its homework well.

Source: The Enquirer

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Adenta Constituency, Kojo Adu-Asare has taken a swipe at his colleague MP for Lower Manya Krobo, Michael Teye Nyaunu for claiming that the Mills campaign team are intimidating party delegates not to endorse Mrs. Rawlings’ candidature.

According to him, he feels embarrassed at the statements of Mr. Nyaunu who, as a senior colleague and has so much experience as an MP must know better.

Michael Teye Nyaunu who is a leading member of the Konadu for 2012 campaign team alleged on Asempa FM Thursday 12th May , alleged that the members of the Get Atta Mills Endorsed (GAME) campaign team are persuading party delegates with an amount of GH¢ 4,000 and a motorbike each to declare their support for President Mills.

He also accused GAME of intimidating the delegates not to endorse the nomination forms of Nana Konadu in her bid to challenge President Mills for the NDC’s presidential candidacy slot.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday, Kojo Adu Asare said Hon. Teye Nyaunu’s suggestion that delegates are being bribed to endorse President Mills amounts to a big insult to the sensibilities of the delegates.

He said he was surprised that, Hon. Teye Nyaunu with his experience does not know that the NDC delegate congress is not won by the number of allegations you can peddle against your opponent.

Hon. Adu Asare noted that the campaign team of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings is doing her a great disservice by assuring her of victory, adding that the result in the impending congress in July will prove them wrong.

He added that his comments about Nana Konadu’s campaign team is not born put of malice but is intended for the good of the NDC party.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Minority in Parliament has rubbished government’s claims that it cannot be blamed for the delays in the commencement of the STX housing project.

The Mills administration has taken a lot of flak for the delays in the start of work, four months after an elaborate groundbreaking ceremony.

Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister Alban Bagbin has rejected suggestions that government is responsible for the delay, maintaining that consultations are still ongoing to ensure the final project is acceptable to all.

Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu however tells Joy News this vindicates the minority’s stance that government rushed in the execution of the project.

He said the government must be honest and accept responsibility for the situation instead of seeking to absolve itself of responsibility.

“If the government is saying they cannot be blamed, who should be blamed? Having misled the public into believing that they were going to do it in a couple of weeks, you tend around to say that government cannot be blamed.”

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said after bragging that “they were going to shame us in a few days’ time by starting the project,” the government was now pleading alibi.

He charged the government to tell Ghanaians what accounts for delays in starting the project.

Source: Joy News

Work on the controversial STX housing project will begin next month, Works and Housing Minister, Alban Bagbin has said.

He said STX officials will start clearing one of the project sites at Prampram, to pave way for construction of the project.

He was speaking to Joy News’ Araba Koomson on the sidelines of a workshop on improving access to housing in Ghana.

The minister attributed the delay in the start for the project to some technical challenges.

“We have been blamed for not starting the STX housing project early but it is because we want to do things properly.

“We’re trying to get all the planning on the ground; we want to make sure that even traffic management is taken on board,” he said.

He added that the project is also taking the future handling of sanitation seriously adding, “we are not going to build rooms but producing communities.”

He said the project handlers have finished the feasibility study on the Prampram site and believed clearing of the land will begin next month.

He said by July and August the physical houses will be seen sprawling at their various sites.

Mr Emmanuel Kwesi Bedzra, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho-West, has assured his constituents of his commitment towards transparency and honesty in the discharge of his duties.

He said effects were been made to ensure that resources meant for development projects in the area was not diverted or misapplied.

Mr Bedzra gave the assurance when he toured his constituency to inspect ongoing projects he started at Abutia in the Ho Municipality.

The projects were a clinic with a maternity block, a mechanised borehole and a six -unit classroom block for selected primary, junior high and senior high schools (SHS).

Areas he also visited included Norvisi -Kpolukope, Tedeafenui, Togadzi and Abutia -Kisifli in the Abutia traditional area.

Mr Bedzra expressed gratitude to the traditional rulers in the area for providing lands for developmental projects and urged others to emulate the good example.

The MP called for the needed support and co-operation to execute the better Ghana agenda in the constituency.

Mr Bedzra explained that it was not right for parliamentarians to wait until the election period before visiting their constituencies to interact with the electorates and finding solutions to their developmental problems.

Mr Bedzra said government was poised to abolish all school under trees with about 1000 six- unit classroom been constructed nationwide.

He said about 240 educational facilities have been constructed for some SHS across the country to accommodate the 4th year students, adding that the Volta region had received 24 of such projects.

Mr Bedra announced that about 25 communities in the Constituency would be connected to the National Electricity Grid, saying work was almost completed in some communities.

The MP presented street lights to some selected communities listed for the project.

Mr Bedzra noted that governance was a means of impacting on the lives of the people and must therefore not be seen as a business to amass wealth to the detriment of the citizenry.

He charged the electorate to support President John Atta Mills with prayers and hard work to drive home his vision for the country.

He also urged them to vote massively for the National Democratic Congress in the 2012 General Election to continue the good work of the Party.

Mr Seth Afumenyo, Assembly Member for the Kpota, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency expressed the hope that more developmental projects would be initiated in the area.

“Potable drinking water in the area is a major problem facing the people in the locality, which needs to be addressed urgently,” he said.

GNA