Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

The honorable Member of Parliament for Damongo in the Northern region, Adam Mutawakilu has lauded the establishment of the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) describing it as a good initiative to help bridge the developmental gap between the south and the Northern sector of the country.

According to him despite the many challenges that has bedeviled the initiative in the past, it has generally been a good intervention by the previous NDC Government.

As MP for Damongo which is located within the SADA zone, he said he can personally attest to the fact that 85% of trees grown in the area survived.

The outspoken lawmaker who is the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament urged the NPP government to sustain and endeavor to improve upon the gains chalked by SADA to improve the lots of people living within the catchment areas of the initiative.

His comments follows accusations by some beneficiaries of SADA`s tricycle project against officials of the Authority of breaching the terms of payment agreement for tricycle purchased.

The operators of the tricycle and SADA signed a two-year agreement on the payment modalities and one year maintenance of the motor kings which were sold to them on high purchase.

SADA, under the agreement was supposed to service the tricycles for a year with subsidised spare parts but has not been doing that.

Mr Adam Mutawakilu urged both parties to settle the matter amicably.

By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com

Deputy Chairman of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament, Collins Owusu Amankwah says the time has come for Ghana to adopt the use of technology to begin collating data on the number of licensed firearms in the country.

The collation of accurate data, he noted, will help address issues of illicit arms with its attendant challenges for public safety.

“I am one of those who are of the view that we need to be more sophisticated, we need to have accurate data because people are holding guns with impunity” he observed.

The MP has therefore called on the Ministry of Interior to use technology to track firearms in the country to help curb situations of insecurity.

According to him the increasing incident of gun violence in the country demands a more tactical modus operandi by the Police and other security services to ensure safety of citizens in the country.

“We need to digitize the old manual way of retrieving and filing records. We need to computerize the system so that we can track all the arms in the system” he said.

The Manhyia North lawmaker advocates that people who possess arms should be questioned to ascertain where they acquire the arms from.

“We need to question them, where did you purchase this particular arm, be it gun, rifle, or whatever firearm we can talk of. We need to question people,” he said.

The National Commission on Small Arms and Light weapons indicated that there are about 2.3 million unlicensed arms in circulation in the country.

By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com

Chairman of Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Ayensuano, Samuel Ayeh-Paye has expressed the hope that the contentious road towing policy may still happen in future in a new form.

This, he said, is however subject to parliamentary review of the Legislative Instrument (LI) on the road tow.

He debunked claims by section of the public that Parliament enacted a bad instrument for its citizens hence its rejection.

The Chairman explained that the LI was not prepared and passed by Parliament and emphasised that the Executive is responsible for introducing bills and LI into Parliament for consideration and possible approval if need be.

Parliament he said is obliged to listen to the public to make an informed decision hence has not erred in anyway.

The Chairman assured that the concerns raised by the public will inform the committee and Parliament to make the best laws for the country.

He called for stakeholder involvement in order to undertake public education for greater understanding on the levy.

Ghanaians he said would have appreciated the levy if the procedure was well explained and expressed optimism that the LI on the implementation of the levy would be re-laid before Parliament with the full embrace of all Ghanaians.

Per the suspended LI, Vehicle owners and motorcyclists were expected to pay compulsory annual fees, range from GHC 20 to GHC 200 tied to the acquisition of road worthy certificate, to cater for towing services.

This was to aid the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) in partnership with the private sector to rid the country’s roads of broken down vehicles to curb incidents of road crashes.

Road Safety Management Limited (RSML), a subsidiary of the Jospong Group had been awarded the contract to carry out the exercise

By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for the South Dayi constituency in the Volta region, Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor has urged regulatory bodies in the country to sit up in the performance of their functions for greater outcomes.

He expressed worry about the apparent laxity on the part of some regulatory bodies that has resulted in lawlessness in the country.

According to him, Ghana would have been better off had its established regulatory and monitoring institutions perform their work efficiently.

“If regulatory institutions work, well, the country would be better off’’ Hon Dafeamekpor said.

The MP’s call came in the wake of a revelation during the Public Accounts Committee sitting of Parliament that most Telecommunication operators in that country have not renewed their licenses for many years running with the regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA) looking on helplessly.

Officials of NCA appeared before the committee to respond to queries raised by 2015 Auditor General`s report against the telecom sector regulator.

By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Nsuta-Kwamang Beposo, Kwame Asafu-Adjei has urged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to endevour to bring agro-chemicals and other farm inputs closer to farmers.

This, he said, will help in fighting the devastating effects of the fall-army worm that has destroyed farm produce.

The MP urged government to act as a matter of urgency and stated that the extent of damage by the armyworm invasion was not anticipated.

This came to light when Parliament Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs tours army worm infested communities in the Brong Ahafo and Central regions.

Over 13,000 farms have been affected by army worms destroying food crops.

By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com

President Akufo-Addo should mediate the political crises in Togo or Ghana will suffer the negative consequences of escalated tensions and violence that has gripped our neighbouring nation, Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Okudzeto Ablakwa, has urged.

“It will be good for President Akufo-Addo to begin to engage with his colleague and if he can play some mediatory role between President Faure and the opposition parties,” Mr. Ablakwa said on Monday, August 21.

His comments follow anti-Gnassingbe protests in Togo’s capital, Lome, on Saturday, August 19 with others in Sokode in Togo, and Ghana’s capital Accra.

The demonstrators were demanding the country’s return to its 1992 Constitution which allowed multi-party democracy with a limited Presidential term of office. However, the clash between security officials and the protesters led to multiple deaths and scores of injuries.

For Mr. Ablakwa, it will be in Ghana’s interest to have peace in Togo. In view of that, he has proposed “engagements because they [Togolese] are our immediate neighbours and we will bear the brunt.

Remember that in 2005 [there were] similar protests with a face off with authorities in Togo which led to at least 500 being killed and many people had to cross over into the Volta.”

He said it is the democratic right of citizens to protest or demonstrate and was unfortunate that it resulted in deaths.

“My initiate thoughts is that the situation is quite unfortunate,” he lamented in an interview with Joy FM.