Month: July 2021

The  Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has questioned the kind of relationship the military intends to have with the civilian population with their recent acts of lawlessness.

Leading the Minority clad in red armbands, Mr. Haruna bemoaned the state of insecurity in the country occasioned by acts of lawlessness perpetrated on civilians by the military in recent times.

“There is indication that military-civil relation is at its lowest end and the undermine is led by men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces’.

Mr. Iddrisu who was reacting to the brutality meted out to some civilians in Wa, yesterday Thursday July 1, 2021 for an alleged phone snatching incident involving a man in mufti, which many believed might be a military man said the country was barely dealing with the Ejura shooting incident by the same military resulting in the death of two persons then this one.

“You could see men of the Ghana Armed Forces beating and humiliating Ghanaian’s civilians; the rights and freedoms of those Ghanaians are guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution. And stated that whatever grievances any of the soldiers has they cannot take the law into their own hands. “We will not accept a state of lawlessness in this country, a state of lawlessness led by men in uniform”

“And don’t forget, your uniform and number of ammunitions will not be enough to contain a civilian rejection that enough is enough”.

He expressed worry at the visibility of the military in internal matters, adding that they have raised that issue on the floor of the House, “not forgetting the sacrilege of what happened here with even with the invasion of this House by the military the night of 7th January”.

According to him, the security agencies have defined roles; “maintenance of order is the preserve and mandate of the police, territorial integrity for the Ghana Armed Forces, where necessary they can keep the peace, but they have no moral duty to undermine the peace, and to abuse the rights and freedoms of innocent Ghanaians, these cannot continue”, he lamented.

He thus appealed to the Speaker to direct the Committee on Defence and Interior to visit Wa and investigate the issue.

Meanwhile, the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu who presided of proceedings on Friday when the issue was brought to the floor of the House, directed the Defence and Interior Committee to visit Wa, investigate report to the House.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

Former deputy minister of the Interior under the John Mahama led government; James Agalga has said the three-member Committee set up by the Interior Minister does not have legal backing to compel witness to come before it in case they refuse to come when invited.

According to him this would hamper the work of the Committee compared to a Commission of enquiry that would be a creature of the constitution and its scope of authority and powers is spelt out, and has the powers of a high court.

He further pointed out that the ten days given the Committee to do its work looking at the nature of work, he does not think they would be able to do their work and the reason why the Minority is kicking against the Committee and prefers a Commission.

As to whether if a Commission of enquiry is instituted to look into the Ejura incident that would allow for the purposes of prosecution to be carried out, he responded by saying that it is wrong to say if a Commission of enquiry does it work action cannot be taken against those found culpable in court.

“The police on their own without instruction from any Committee had arrested two individuals in connection with the murder, we expect that a docket would be built out of the arrest made and should be forwarded to the Attorney General for prosecution”, Mr. Agalga stated.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Minister for Railways Development, John Peter Amewu, on Thursday, appeared before Parliament and told Members that government has not sold any railway land within the Abuja/CMB market enclave to any private developer or corporate body.

Those lands, he noted, still remain the properties of the Ghana Railway Company Limited but have only been leased to ten entities namely; Ghana Cocoa Board, National Investment Bank, Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Wood Merchant and Trading Company, and Pioneer Merchant.

The rest are Original Embossment, J. a. Lord Care Enterprise, First Eye Limited, Geofort Enterprise and Conna Bless Enterprise.

He said one of the main challenges affecting the development of the railway sector is encroachment on railway lands.

This, he noted, is partly attributed to the neglect of the railway sector for a very long time which has made people to believe that the railway operations were never going to be revived.

“This was aided by the weak administrative and institutional oversight responsibilities. All these contributed to create a fertile ground for wanton encroachment on railway lands across the country. Private individuals and corporate entities have encroached on lands within and outside the right-of-way and thus making government’s commitment to revamp the sector difficult and costly”, he noted.

Mr. Amewu made these remarks when answering to a question posed by the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Klottey Korle, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings.

The NDC lawmaker had asked the Railways Development Minister the status of the land in and around the Abuja/CMB Market and whether any portion of the said land has been sold and if so, to whom, having regards to the developments in the area.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Committee on Defence and Interior, James Agalga has said the Committee set up to prove into the shooting incident in Ejura should be able to invite the Minister for Defence, Dominic Nitiwul to appear before it, but noted that as things stand now, he believes they cannot do so.

Soldiers were involved in a shooting incident that claimed two lives in Ejura on Tuesday, resulting in public condemnation of the behaviours of the men in uniform in recent times, a situation that compelled the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery setting up a three-member Committee to investigate the incident, after the president directed him to do so.

The members of the committee are George Kingsley Koomson, Chairman of the committee and a justice of the Appeals Court, security analysist Dr. Vladimir Antwi Danso, and the Executive Director of penplusbytes, Juliet Amoah.

He further doubted if the Committee is in position to invite even the National Security Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah to appear before it.

In an interview he pointed out that ideally the interior minister’s committee should be able to invite the defence minister and national security to help unravel the circumstances around the shooting incident, “we would not jump the gun here”, he indicted.

  Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has revealed that a total of 85 requests were made for information during the first year (2020) of implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Law.

These requests were received and processed in 32 public institutions out of which 72 of those requests, representing 85%, were granted. Thirteen of those requests were either deferred, transferred, referred or declined in accordance with the RTI Act.

This follows the submission and analysis on the annual reports on RTI activities by 219 public institutions.

Per Section 3(1) of the RTI Act, each public institution is required to compile and publish an information manual to document the nature and scope of information that may be accessed by an applicant within that institution.

Mr. Nkrumah, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase Ayeribi, made this revelation when he presented a brief on the implementation of the RTI Act, 2019 (Act 989) on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, July 1, 2021.

The RTI Act, is an Act to provide for the constitutional right to information held by a public institution, subject to the exemptions that are necessary and consistent with the protection of the public interest in a democratic society.

The Act seeks to strengthen democracy, open governance, and sustainable development. The RTI Act (Act 989) was passed by Parliament and assented to by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on May 21, 2019.

Section 86 of the Act makes provision for the commencement of RTI implementation across public institutions by January 2020.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor has set the record straight pointing that government is not engaged in burning of excavators and lamented that it is a wrong impression out there in the public domain.

According to him the instruction government gave out to the security services is to de-commission and de-mobilise all equipment which are being used for illegal mining in the red zone of the country, including forest reserves and water bodies.

“The security personnel are then employing their own measures, whether burning or removing of parts of excavators used in the illegal mining activities”.

He made this known on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at a press engagement, after answering a question on the floor of the House, when Member of Parliament for North Tongue Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa wanted to know the legal policy and justification for the burning of excavators in the ongoing fight against illegal small-scale mining (galamsey).

He further pointed out that under Article 36 of the 1992 Constitution, it is the duty of government to protect the environment and pointed out to members of the parliamentary press corps that they are aware of what illegal mining is doing to the environment and water bodies.

“If we do not take measures, very soon Ghana would become a net importer of water, our forest reserves are being depleted and land being degraded, children being born in these mining communities have health issues, some of them are born deformed and our cocoa industry collapsing”.

He urged Ghanaians to support the efforts of government in protecting the environment, with the noble exercise government is undertaking.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, has said through the crusade of his Ministry to clamp down on illegal mining activities, water bodies within the country are a bit clean and there is improvement with toxics (turbidity) found in the country’s water bodies.

According to him the country has never made such a huge impact when it comes to stopping the activities of illegal mining since the 1980s and Ghanaians have to ask themselves what is working this magic?

“Ghanaians have noticed that there is a huge price to pay if we engage in illegal mining, this is not NPP and NDC matter it is our country’s matter, the beauty of any country in the world is vested in its vegetation, landscape and rivers if you destroy everything you would be left with no country”.

He said this when he engaged members of the press in parliament after answering a question on the floor of the House and Ghanamps.com wanted to know if there has been any improvement after his ministry’s crusade to stop illegal mining.

“It’s about the survival of our country, Ghanaians should support government to ensure we protect the environment for all of us”.

On the issue of prosecution of those involve in the illegal mining, he pointed out that the next level has started, and that people are being charged and they are before court, both foreigners and Ghanaians, and this crusade by government is sincere and they are determined to stop the illegal mining menace.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com