Month: April 2014

Bunkpurugu Legislator Solomon Boar has described as “absolutely unnecessary” a dusk to dawn curfew imposed on Nankpanduri within his Constituency.

“It appeared like a belated April fools message to me. I asked myself; ‘what was the import of that imposition?’ I could not understand why the Interior Minister should come out to impose a curfew now which I consider as highly belated and highly unnecessary,” Boar told XYZ News.

The Interior Minister imposed the curfew on the advice of the Northern regional Security Council following inter-ethnic clashes between Mamprusis and Kokombas on one side and rival Bimobas on the other side.

Three people have been killed in the ethnic skirmishes which also saw houses torched and guns fired.

In the MP’s view, the curfew should have been imposed immediately the conflict started a week ago and not now. He also wondered why a curfew would be imposed on an area which has nothing to do with the curfew.

“Where we have 99% of the harm being caused is not Bunkpurugu Yunyoo District or Bunkpurugu Constituency. It is in the East Mamprusi District. Then you decide to slap a curfew on the township of Nankpanduri with the belief that the conflict is going to escalate or what? That is what I find very difficult to believe.

The Member of Parliament for North Dayi, George Loh said the posture of the minority over the three hundred and six million dollars for the Ridge Hospital Expansion Project is an indictment on parliament.

He said parliamentary committees are supposed to do thorough work on any bill or document brought before them. Hence, when members who had representatives on the committees and approved documents only to go public raising red flags, then it appears parliament is not doing its work.

Mr. Loh therefore questioned the motive behind the press conference held by the minority, adding that it does not speak well of them as parliamentarians representing the interest of the people.

The North Dayi MP who was contributing on AM: TALK on Multi TV made it clear that he was not against bringing back the document to parliament for a second look but said the right questions should have been asked at the committee level and not wait, approve it only to turn around and make it look as if they were not part of it.

But the New Patriotic Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North in the Greater Accra Region, Mr. Joe Appiah, refuted Mr. Loh’s accession adding that the issue was raised at the committee level but was thrown out.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Hon. Kwabena Kokofu, Member of Parliament for Bantama, has advised the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to serve building constructors with notices before they demolish structures.

Speaking to host Tweneboah Koduah on U TV, Hon. Kokofu was of the view that the AMA should review its action of demolishing structures cited at illegal places across the country. He also advised the Mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuiye to step his game to ward off such practice.

According to him, the AMA should stop victimizing the Ghanaian citizenry but rather identify the people while they are setting up the illegal structures.

Hon. Kokofu also advised Ghanaians to avoid putting up structures along places demarcated by the Assembly as risk-prone areas.

The Member of Parliament for Tema Central, Kofi Brako, has expressed optimism that recent robbery attacks and criminal activities within Tema and its envious will be resolved as soon as possible.

He said the Tema Metropolitan Security Council has instituted measures to address the situation.

In an interview, he said: “We have assessed the security situation in Tema and agreed on a number of measure to be implemented as soon as possible and am very hopeful the situation would be brought to normalcy.”

Mr Brako said some of the proposed measures were to ban the use of motorbikes within the municipality after 6pm and the lighting of all dark spots within the communities, industrial areas and harbour.

On the need for increased security measures in Tema, Mr Brako indicated that the Tema Central Constituency presently was blessed with several security posts in the communities such as 4, 7 and 11, and suggested the re-activation of community watchdog committees as a medium-term measure.

The MP also disclosed that he had filed several questions on the floor of parliament on the security situation in Tema for further deliberations.

Tema has in recent times experienced increasing spate of armed robbery and gruesome murders.

It would be recalled that on March 25, 2014 a Partner of Quasam Forex Bureau was shot in the head in front of his house by two unidentified armed assailants on a motorbike.

Source: Finder

Efforts by the legislature to meticulously examine government agencies that entered into dubious contracts are hitting a snag due to government’s undue interference, Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, Alex Afenyo-Markin has implied.

Picking on the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) specifically, he averred that “government is not allowing Parliament to scrutinize the activities of SADA”.

The MP’s comments followed Joy News’ investigations, which uncovered alleged financial malfeasance of various degrees at SADA.

In the first of a series of investigations titled the Sad SADA Story, Manasseh Azure Awuni reports of a murky investment deal of GH¢74.5 million by the authority .

Reacting on the exposé, Afenyo-Markin, who is a member of the Parliament Finance Committee told Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday that the discovery does not come to him as a surprise.

“This explains why SADA could not supply the Finance Committee with any of the information requested,” he recalled.

He said even though SADA is executing “laudable” projects, he suggested companies that overly benefited from these projects are being “protected” by the government, which has provided them a leeway to escape accountability.

Such ignoble contracts have denied the people of the north their fair share of development, Afenyo-Markin stated.

He further revealed that issues such as that of SADA that need thorough scrutiny, have regrettably been reduced to partisanship.

As a Member of Parliament in the opposition, he said, his attempts to ensure that the nation gets value for money have been misconstrued as he “wanting to embarrass government”.

He is therefore prevailing on the Chairman of the Finance Committee to invite Chief Executive of SADA or the sector minister to appear before the Committee to be interrogated.

The Minority Spokesperson on Energy, KT Hammond has criticized government over the recent hikes in petroleum products and utilities.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) recently increased prices for various petroleum prices. Petrol went up by 7.06percent, diesel by 5.25 percent and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) by 4.74 percent.

According to Mr. Hammond, who also is the MP for Adansi Asokwa, the current economic challenge the country is facing is a result of the incompetence of the Mahama administration.

“Why should petroleum prices be consistently increased? Why should we be subjected to the incompetence of the administration and the economic mismanagement of this country? It is simply this; someone is not managing our cedi well,” he lamented

In his opinion, things can only change if government fixes the exchange rate battle between the cedi and its foreign exchange partners.

Government has come under criticisms for the depreciating cedi and other economic challenges facing the country.

An economist, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia recently said Ghana’s economy is crises situation.

According to him,Ghana might resort to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) for a bail out from the ailing economy.

He stated that “government should as a matter of policy and urgency, significantly cut down on borrowing for now. The government should anchor fiscal policy on a debt reduction target and immediately announce it.”

Reacting to the statement by Dr. Bawumia, Mr. Seth Terkper stated that government had not ruled out a bailout by the IMF to help restore economic stability.

citifmonline.com