Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

Member of Parliament for Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Francis Addae-Nimo has held a party for kids of the Dzorwulu Special School to mark his 50th Birthday, which fell on Monday, March 23, 2015. The event took place at the school’s premises in Accra.

In Addition to mouth-watering meals served with chilled bottles of minerals and water, the children were also given biscuits and toffees to make them have the feel of a great day.

There was a good music which saw the kids on their dancing feet, making merry and having fun to the fullest.

But that was not the end of the show, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) bigwig also made a personal cash donation of one thousand Ghana Cedis (1,000.00) to the management of the school to be used in buying teaching materials and aids for the school children.

Francis Addae-Nimo, after the party, told journalists his inspiration to celebrate his birthday with the kids was borne out of love and concern for the underprivileged in the society.

“I draw the inspiration from the fact that we need to show love and concern for this intellectually challenged young ones who are also our integral part of Ghanaian system and so upon consultation and discussion with my wife and other good friends of mine we chose to come to the Dzorwulu Special School to share the joy of being a 50-year-old man,” he explained.

Mr. Francis Addae-Nimo also expressed his desire to reach out to other children’s homes come this Easter Season.

“In fact I do dedicate this day to the children of Ghana, that’s why I came here. I will also be in my constituency during the Easter Holidays, there’s a children’s home also in my constituency and during the Easter Holidays, I will also be there to share with them and encourage them that we recognize their existence and that they are also part of the Ghanaian Society and whatever we need to do, being government or non-governmental, to help in their development so that they’ll also contribute to the society we will also not hesitate to do [it],” he posited.

Meanwhile, Mr. Addae-Nimo has advised parents not to hide children with disabilities in their homes but rather find a way to bring them out to schools so teachers can help train them to be somebody in the future and so they will not be a burden on society.

He also cautioned the public not to look down on the physically challenged in society but rather support them with love and care as demanded by all and sundry.

The Headmistress of the school, Mrs. Veronica Sackey who received the donation on behalf of the school thanked Mr. Addae-Nimo for the gesture, wishing him a long life, good health, prosperity and above all, success in his political career.

Myjoyonline.com

A resident at Odorkor Official Town has commended the Member of Parliament for the Ablekuma North Constituency, Mr. Joe Appiah for his intervention leading to improvement in some access roads in the constituency.

The resident, a middle age lotto staker who wants to remain anonymous was particularly impressed about the road linking Gloryland Hotel through Mount Calvary Cross , part of Odorkor Official Town, Darkuman and its environ.

“As a matter of fact, these roads were all in a deplorable state full of dust and portholes before he assumed office, but through his initiatives you can see how motorable they have become” he added.

He was however not happy about the drainage system, suggesting that open drains were not helping the fight against unclean environment.

“Because of the open gutters the drains are already chocked with filth and this will certainly bring problems to residents now that the rains are with us”, he added.

When Ghanamps.gov.gh contacted the MP, he disclosed that he had to lobbied the then Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr. Joe Gidisu to construct those access roads which he obliged and did that with Government of Ghana (GoG) funding.

He said it is his desire to see improvements on all road networks in the area but that can only be achieved over a period depending on financial strength of the government.

Dominic Shirimori/Alice Abubakari/ Ghanamps.gov.gh

Members of Parliament, especially the minority have strongly kicked against their recall from the Easter break to consider a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) 89, which is to guide the running of the District Assemblies elections.

Following a Supreme Court ruling, that cancelled the District Assemblies election which was originally scheduled to be held on March 3, the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Doe Adjaho tasked a special committee made up of Chairpersons and Ranking Members of the committees on Subsidiary Legislation, Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Local Government and Rural Development and Special Budget to deliberate on the cancellation of the elections and report back to the House.

The Committee among other things recommended that the Rt Hon. Speaker may consider recalling the House during the Easter break to enable the regulation meet the mandatory requirement of 21 sitting days of Parliament for the timely conduct of the election by the Electoral Commission.

However, Parliament is likely to go on recess for the Easter holidays on March 26, and reconvene by mid May and if that is the case it will mean that the new CI which was laid in Parliament on 20th March would have been there for only four days which is not enough to make it effective and that has necessitated the proposal to recall the MPs from the break.

But in debating the report, the proposal by the committee was met with strong opposition led by the Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who said such a recall must never be thought of, as previously the Electoral Commission has treated Parliament with utmost contempt.

“We’ve had previous occasions where MPs were made to sit on Saturdays and Mondays which are not Parliamentary sitting days just to enable a CI to mature to pave way for the EC to conduct elections, but they disregarded what Parliament did with impunity and now they need our support again, it will not happen this time, calling us back for seventeen more days will be most outrageous as MPs will be denied any rest from their tedious work” he said.

Other MPs such as K.T Hammond and Gifty Kusi were of the view that the EC must be told in clear terms that they cannot continue to push Parliament around, as if the august House is at its beck and call.

Ghanamps.gov.gh/Kwadwo Anim

Ghana National Gas Company has stated that it will monetize all natural gas liquids (NGLs), except Isopentane–which is less than 0.5 percent–contained in the gas extracted from the Jubilee Oil Fields and processed by the Atuabo Gas Plant in the Western region.

Hon. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, minister of Energy and Petroleum who together with the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Gas Company disclosed this to the Government Assurances Committee on Thursday, said the Government is currently looking for a company that can use Isopentane to produce energy so that it would be commercialized rather than flared.

Dr Sipa Yankey on his part also elucidated to the Committee that Isopentane is actually a waste product from the gas processing system but noted that the Gas Company is determined to sell it due to the ‘no flaring’ policy of Ghana’s petroleum industry.

He noted that his outfit has been working with a company that is prepared to take that waste product and then produce that into power and so sooner than later after the agreement has been reached and the company sets up its plant, the waste product will be used to produce power of about 21 Megawatts which will be added to the national grid.

Ghanamps.gov.gh

Even before the IGP-led special task force investigating the recent fraudulent police recruitment presents its report to Government possibly on Friday, some MPs have called its neutrality into question.

Speaking on behalf of his colleague MPs, a member of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markins told Joy News a ministerial committee would do “a better job”.

He fears that the police will not do a “thorough job” because several scams are being investigated by the police and “we are not getting appropriate responses”.

He said his suspicion is also grounded on the fact that the Interior Minister got wind of the recruitment scam, and informed the Service months ahead, and yet nothing was done with the intel.

Mr. Afenyo-Markins argued that under this “circumstance you cannot trust the police to be judges in their own court”, emphasising the need for President Mahama to commission a ministerial enquiry into the scam to “clean their own battered reputation”.

“The IGP (Mohammed Alhassan) himself must appear before the [ministerial] committee,” he said explaining that in some jurisdictions the IGP should have resigned or should have been asked to resign.

Director of Police Human Resource and Administration COP Patrick Timbillah who has been interdicted in connection with the fraud is set to face service enquiry. But the MP said, with the magnitude of the fraud, he disagrees with that approach, more importantly when civilians involved in the case are being tried in court.

Afenyo-Markins who is the MP for Effutu is however raising an eyebrow asking if COP Timbillah would “risk hostaging his professional fortune… it doesn’t seem to add up”.

He also suspects Mr. Timbillah may have been “set up” in the case, making it necessary for the top police officer to publicly speak about the issue.

The MP’s position contradicts that of the chairman of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Fritz Baffuor who had told Joy News the committee is satisfied with what is being done by the police service and have full confidence in them.

Meanwhile, a deputy ranking member of the committee, Major (rtd) Derrick Oduro said the committee would constitute its own independent enquiry into the issue.

The Minority in Parliament has sounded a note of caution to government to be extra diligent in the purchase of aircraft and other equipments for the Ghana Armed Forces Peace keeping efforts undertaken by the United Nations Organization and other agreed uses.

The group is calling for all the necessary and better particulars covering the purchase to be made available to the Committee on Defence and Interior as they begin to probe the purchase agreement.

Government of Ghana has entered into an agreement with AirBus Defence and Space S.A.U for the acquisition of one (1) C-295 CASA Aircraft and related equipment at an estimated cost of €33,325,126.00 under the Credit Facility Agreement between the Government of Ghana and VTB Capital plc, London (as Arranger and Facility Agent) for an amount of Three Hundred million United States Dollars (US$ 300 million).

The Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu raised the red flags on the floor of Parliament soon after the Paper (Agreement) was laid in Parliament and referred by the Speaker Rt. Hon. Doe Adjaho to the Committee on Defence and Interior.

“Mr Speaker, I’m sounding a note of caution, urging that all detailed documentation about this acquisition must be made available to the committee to do due diligence, as we have traveled this road before. I’m doing so with hindsight after what happened in the purchase of aircraft for the Armed Forces under the Mills administration where a committee was set up by the President to investigate the purchase after it had been done” he said.

The decision by the National Democratic Congress government to acquire five new aircraft for Ghana’s armed forces at a cost of $102 million in 2011, sparked a lot of uproar with the minority side led by its Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu accusing the government of corruption and claiming to “smell a rat” in the purchase.

The proposed purchase includes a Brazilian-made Embraer E 190 jet with hangar facilities, two Italian-built Breda BA 42 Guardian Surveillance jets and another two CT95 aircraft.

The debate on the purchase which was heavily debated in Parliament ended up with the minority abstaining from the voting, and the purchase being approved.

The Embraer E 190, which has a passenger capacity of 100, will be used to carry military personnel on peacekeeping missions and its proposed hangar facilities include an ambulance and a bus.

The furore surrounding the acquisition led President J.E.A Mills to set up a committee to probe the purchase.

Ghanamps.gov.gh

Parliament, through the Committee on Government Assuarance, on Monday 16th March launched the “Connecting Citizens to Parliament” www.assurances.gov.gh digital platform in Accra.

The project is to help Parliament’s Committee on Government Assurances (CGA) to undertake its mandate of monitoring all assurances and promises made by the executive arm of government. The project is a collaboration with Penplusbytes with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

“Connecting Citizens to Parliament” which started as a pilot last year with funding from Star –Ghana is now scaled up to reach citizens with technical and financial support from OSIWA. In this second more widely reaching phase, Penplusbytes has delivered well-developed digital platforms that enhance interaction between CGA, Civil Society Organization (CSO), citizens and other stakeholder to better track and monitor assurances and projects promised by government.

The “Connecting Citizens to Parliament” project is set to boost the capacity of the CGA on one hand and citizens on the other by increasing and closing feedback loops via sms web-platform, mobile app as well as social media tools such as whatsapp, facebook, twitter, etc.

Delivering a speech at the launch, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah stated that Citizen engagement is vital to the survival of democracy in current democratic dispensation, the case of the Arab spring , ie Tunisia and Egypt where governments were removed through the use of social media, adding that any government that wants to survive its mandate must engage the constituents.

He noted that the platform will bring together stakeholders such as MPs, government officials, ordinary citizens, CSOs, and the media to enable to the table using digital platform with the hope that we will have faithful deliberations on how collectively we can make democracy work for Ghana through closing the feedback.

Ghanamps.gov.gh

Member of Parliament for Juaboso in the Western Region Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has been nominated by President John Mahama as deputy Minister designate for Lands and Natural Resources.

His nomination follows the recent ministerial reshuffle by the President John Dramani Mahama which saw some ministers including Mahama Ayariga leaving the Sports ministry for the ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.

Hon. Mintah Akandoh was born on June 19, 1980 in Sefwi Antobia. He holds a BSc (Statistics and Mathematics); UCC, 2007. Until becoming an MP, he was a Public Servant, working as the Assistant Director in-charge of National Voluntary Programme, National Service Scheme, Head Office.

Hon. Mintah Akandoh is married with four children. He’s a Christian and an Anglican by denomination.

In the 2012 elections, he garnered 19,432 votes out of the 38,971 valid votes cast = 49.86%. Others candidates were: William Coffie (IND) 10,293 = 21.28%, Abdul-Karim Braimah Ibrahim (PNC) 255 = 0.65% and Khadijah Ama Nkrumah (CCP) 208 = 0.53%

Meanwhile, the chiefs and people of Sefwi Juaboso in the Western Region have commended President John Dramani Mahama for nominating their Member of Parliament (MP), Kwabena Mintah Akandoh as a minister designate.

Sompahene of Sefwi Wiawso traditional area and chief of Kofikrom, Nana Kwabena Nokwabour said the traditional area was grateful to the President for nominating their son for the position.

He stated that the people of the area would not put unnecessary pressure on their son simply because he has been nominated to the ministerial position.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

President John Dramani Mahama has reassigned Minister for Youth and Sports, Mahama Ayariga to the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.

Minister of State at the Presidency, Alhaji Dr. Mustapha Ahmed (MP) takes over as the new Minister for Youth and Sports.

Ghana’s Sports Ministry has seen two different Ministers in the last year ; Mahama Ayariga was appointed Sports Minister after the Black Stars Brazil debacle in the 2014 World Cup that saw the reassignment of Elvis Afriyie Ankrah.

Being reassigned may not come as a surprise after he publicly said Ghanaian journalists ask “useless” questions, while being quizzed on radio about the Black Stars expenditure at the AFCON 2015, in Equatorial Guinea.

The statement signed by Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah also announced new appointments by the President.

Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu has been assigned to the Presidency as a Minister of State.

The President has also reassigned the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda Member of Parliament (MP), to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

The statement also announced the President’s nomination of Deputy Minister for Defence, Alex Segbefia as Minister for Health and the headmaster of Tepa Senior High School, Peter Anarfi-Mensah, as Ashanti Regional Minister.

Member of Parliament for Juabeso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has been nominated as a Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to replace Ebenezer Okletey Teye Larbi (MP).

The following have also been nominated as Deputy Ministers of State: Samuel Yaw Adusei- Water Resources, Works and Housing Kenneth Gilbert Adjei- Defence.

Julius Debrah/Chief of Staff/presidency.gov.gh