Month: June 2011

The Minority Leader of Parliament, Hon Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has asked for a clear departure from the practice of electing the Speaker of Parliament from outside the House.

Article 95 (1) of the constitution of Ghana provides that there shall be a Speaker of Parliament who shall be elected by the Members of Parliament from amongst persons who are Members of Parliament or who are qualified to be elected as Members of Parliament.

Since Ghana’s return to constitutional rule, no Member of Parliament has been elected Speaker.

According to Hon Kyei Mensah Bonsu, the current trend of electing Speakers outside the house has not helped Parliament to grow.

The Suame MP noted that the nation’s constitution must be reviewed to state that only Members of Parliament must qualify to seek election of the post of the Speaker of the House.

“The time has come for electing a speaker from parliament. Some people will not agree but I think that is the path to tread”.

The Minority Leader, also called on the Constitution Review Commission to make a firm recommendation, for a strict separation of powers to help Parliament grow.

“If we want to have a strong parliament, then lets decouple the Legislature from the Executive so that Parliament will be positioned to really oversight the executive.

“If your party is in government the situation is even worse, which explains why even in constituting the leadership of the caucus the executive will still want to have a say. This happened during the NDC I, it happened during the eight years of the NPP and NDC 2 it is still happening. Is that the way to build our democracy?”.

Source: citifmonline.com

The 23 year old nursing student of Central University College, according to the father, was found loitering around the family’s Sakumono residence traumatized and unable to speak.

Dominic Azumah told Joy News he suspects his daughter was put under a spell.

According to the father’s account, the lady recounted how she met two strangers at Sakumono Estate Block A4 near the Sakumono Shopping Mall who used some charms to spellbind her.

He said one of the men, with a Nigerian accent, first walked up to her to “humbly” request for a direction to a supposed gathering of some students of the Methodist University in that area. Even though she had no idea about that meeting, the father said she tried reaching a sister who is a student of that school to see if she could be of help.

It was within that moment that another man, also with a Nigerian accent emerged from nowhere with tales about how she has not been successful in her financial management, Mr Azumah said.

“You appeared to be a very brilliant girl, but unfortunately whatever resources you get, whether it’s money or… it doesn’t stay. It goes and you cannot explain how you handle your funds. There is somebody who… is pursuing you and unless you work on it you will not be yourself,” Mr Azumah narrated what the daughter told him.

The man then held her palm and decided to perform some signs to prove his claims, the father said.

He said the man then placed a stick in her palm and was asked to turn her palm. Lo and behold, she found the stick at the back of the palm, which the man insisted was to establish the fact that “there is a hole” in her hand which is why her resources were going waste.

According to Mr Azumah, within five minutes they managed to psyche her up and she willingly responded to the spellbinders’ commands.

“They just told her please follow us, and she was following…picked a taxi at that late hour, drove her to Pampram (her school’s campus), took her to her house where her colleagues are,” Mr Azumah said, at the point she was asked to tell her friends that four men were pursuing her and they need four computers to enable them identify the people, which she obliged. She managed to get the men four laptops as demanded.

“Then after few prayers and incantation, and what and what, they asked her to go and pick a stone and come.

“It was when she went and picked the stone and returned [that] she did not see the people…and she regained her consciousness and realized that what has happened to her,” Mr Dominic Azumah recounted the mystery surrounding her daughters reappearance.

Source: joy news

The Member of Parliament for Subin, Isaac Osei has condemned the Ghana Police Service for using excessive force to disperse harmless demonstrating fishermen in Accra yesterday.

According to him, a measured and more calculated response from the police would have been apprioprate to deal with the demonstrators.

His comments the incident in which some members of the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council received various degrees of injuries after Police fired tear gas and shots to disperse them, as they attempted to enter the Castle to present a petition to the President.

This occurred moments after the rampaging fishermen numbering about 5,000 demonstrated from James Town to the Independence Square.

Upon reaching the Castle, some of the fishermen attempted to go straight into the castle although their leaders had agreed that the Castle junction was going to be their last point.

This resulted in a scuffle with the Police as they tried to control the rioting fishermen.

Four of them were quickly rushed to the Police Hospital after sustaining injuries.

However contributing to a panel discussion on e.tv’s BREAKFAST TV show on Wednesday, Hon Isaac Osei bemoaned the increasing use of brute force by the police on demonstrators in recent times.

Citing the recent Madina Zongo incident in which lives were lost, he urged the police to adopt and apply morden technics of dealing with riots and other similar activities to avoid casualties.

He was equally concerned about the indiscpline by demonstrators who always want to go out of the agreed program with the police to do their own thing, which invariably results in skermishes.

Source: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Adenta, Kojo Adu Asare has called on President John Evas Attah Mills to reinstate Dr George Sipa Yankey into the ruling NDC government.

According to the MP, Dr Sipa Yankey with the quality he is made of is a good material for any President to work with in any government.

The former Minister of Health and another, resigned in the wake of the Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal against him and other public officials, stating he was innocent of the allegations, but had to resign to end attacks on President John Evans Atta Mills and his government to allow them room to concentrate on their work.

Dr Yankey resigned his position mainly to “fight” the Mabey and Johnson case and also to enable him clear his name, declaring: “I have never taken a bribe”.

President Attah Mills after receiving the resignation letter directed an investigation into allegations of bribery against Ghanaian public officials in the said case.

However investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service set up under the direction of the Attorney General (AG) has cleared the seven former government officials after its inability to make contacts with Mr Myles Potter, the representative of M&J in Ghana and a materials witness in the case, because M&J has since closed its offices in Ghana and that there were no information on him and Mr Danny Annan, an Agent of M& J and another material agent who is deceased.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM, the Member of Parliament for Adenta, commended Dr Yankey for the matured manner in which he reacted to the allegations leveled against him.

“I admire this man so much, he never made any public statement about the issue even though his integrity was being questioned in the media and other places, but he kept his cool and stepped aside for investigations to be done, now that he’s been cleared it is my humble plea, that the President reinstates him” he said.

He added that Ghanaians attest to the wonderful works Dr Sipa Yankey was doing when he was at the helm of affairs and that it would be in Ghana’s best interest to fix him somewhere in government to contribute his quota to the development of the country.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Board Chairman of the Ghana National Fire Service Council, Alhaji Amadu Sorogho says the Council will make sure that the newly acquired fire fighting equipments for the Service undergoes regular maintenance to ensure its continues use.

According to the Board Chairman who is also the Member of Parliament for Abokobi/Madina, an elaborate time table has also been drawn for the equipments to receive periodic maintenance.

Concerns about how these equipments will be well handled have come up, considering the fact that Ghanaians over the years have been noted for poor maintenance culture especially of state assets.

President John Evans Atta Mills yesterday inaugurated 54 fire tenders and equipment for the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) in Accra.

The fire tenders out of a consignment of 127, forms part a procurement arrangement by the Government and Project Development International of the United States of America (USA) under a loan faculty of 49 million dollars granted by the US Exim Bank.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Abokobi/Madina Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, commended President Attah Mills for making good his promise of adequately equipping the Fire Service.

He states that the procurement of the fire fighting equipments has come in handy considering the high spate of fire outbreaks that have occurred in the last two years.

Hon. Amadu Sorogho disclosed that since Ghana is now an oil drilling and exporting country the government is in the process of procuring marine fighting engines to deal with any fire outbreak that may occur at the Jubilee Oil Field.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov

A multi-million Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) centre made up of 25 computers with an internet facility, has been inaugurated at Asasetre in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region.

The facility, which was established at the cost of GH¢ 60,000.00, has a library stuffed with books on Mathematics, English, ICT among other subjects to assist students in their research work and improve their academic life.

This brings to a total of two, the number of ICT centres solely sponsored by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah in the last two years.

Inaugurating the facility, the Western Regional Director of Education, Mrs Rebecca Affiba Dadzie said in order for Ghana to march the global competition, ICT knowledge was essential to the educational growth of students.

She appealed to the community to demonstrate the culture of maintenance so that posterity would also benefit from the facility.

The Omanhene of Nsien Traditional Area, Awulae Agyavi Kwame III appealed to parents to encourage their children to patronise the centre in order gain expertise in ICT.

Mr Buah, who doubles as the Deputy Minister of Energy, said he was committed to give his constituents the best education to take up the emerging opportunities on the job market.

The MP says he has sponsored the tuition of 140 students in English, Mathematics and Science at the cost of GH¢ 20,000 to enable them re-sit the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

Mr Buah called on the students to learn hard to make the establishment of the facility meaningful.

DS/GNA

The Member of Parliament for Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Francis Addai Nimoh, has said he is committed to ensuring an improvement in the education standards in his constituency which he is steadily on course to achieving.

He said the need for education for children cannot be over emphasized hence the need to make sure they receive quality education at all levels.

The MP, disclosed that the annual classes organized by himself for Junior High School (JHS) graduates will be held in the month of August.

The month long studies are organized for the pupils after which an examination is conducted and the best five performing pupils sponsored by the MP to pursue secondary education.

According to him, since 2009 he has been able to sponsor a total of 27 students who are currently studying in some secondary schools in the Ashanti region.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, Hon. Addai Nimoh stated that his decision to organize the course for the pupils is born out of his desire and vision to ensure an improved standard of education for students in his constituency.

He had observed that these JHS graduates wondered about aimlessly while others involved themselves in all manner of immoral acts which result in some of them getting pregnant, a development he believed could impact negatively on their future.

Hon. Addai Nimoh added that he would want to be remembered by his constituents as an MP who took issues of education at heart and indeed worked to improve educational standards in the area.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North, Justice Joe Appiah has added his voice to the call for peace to prevail in Ga Mashie.

The area over the weekend witnessed confrontations in which several people were injured following the installation of a new Ga mantse under the stool name Nii Tackie Adama Latse II on Sunday.

The new chief hails from Piam, one of the Royal Houses within the Ga state is a London based business man privately known as George Tackie.

Some kingmakers within the Ga state introduced the supposed new chief to elders of the Ga royal houses at a ceremony at the Ga stool house.

The Gbese Mantse Nii Ayibonte II, had earlier in the week threatened that he will enstool a new chief by August this year. He insisted there is no Ga Mantse, rubbishing the existence of Nii Tackie Tawiah II who has been acclaimed as the Ga Mantse and recognized as the chairman of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North, Justice Joe Appiah condemned the act of violence that was visited on persons in and around the Ga mantse’s place calling on the police to take immediate action to call the perpetrators to book.

He noted that the Ga State has to do more in developing the area and called for the two factions to come to a truce and look out for an amicable settlement of the chieftaincy dispute as the Ga State cannot develop without unity.

Hon. Justice Joe Appiah urged government to avoid interfering in the on-going dispute as that may worsen the already tense atmosphere in the Ga Mashie area.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh