Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

The Minister of the Interior Ambrose Dery has told Parliament the Police administration is yet to develop the eight-nine point eight one acre of land allocated to the Oda divisional police command in 1979 through an Executive Instrument.

According to the Minister, resources constraints have been a major factor to the construction of both office accommodation and barracks for Oda Divisional Command, but noted that some citizens have notice of willingness to help develop the land.

“Mr. Speaker, in spite of the setback, a group of citizens from Oda resident in the United States of America (USA) has proposed to construct the Divisional Police Headquarters on the allocated land for the Oda Divisional Police Command. The Police Command is yet to engage the leadership of the Association to discuss the way forward.

This came to light when the Member of Parliament for Akim Oda, Alexander Akwasi Acquah wanted to know the effort being made to accommodate the Oda divisional police command as they are in a rented apartment.

The MP who disclosed that some portions of the land have already been encroached added that the continues wait would worsen the situation.

But the Minister calls for collaboration as to how to deal with the issue of encroachment of the land but promised to draw the attention of the police administration to the issue that the MP has put up.

He, however, admitted that the best way out of the situation is for the construction to be undertaken, and noted that his ministry would want to build a lot of police stations.

He assured that there is no lack of commitment from their side, just that they do not have resources, and that when resources are gotten, they would develop the facility very fast.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Member of Parliament for effiduase- Asokore,  Nana Ayew Afriye speaking on behalf of the Majority Caucus said they remain resolute for the Finance Minister to be relieved of his position as stated earlier.

He said even though they have initially agreed to heed the president’s suggestions to allow the Finance Minister present the budget, recent comments by the Finance Minister has given them reason to reverse back to their initial position.

That is to say the finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta must not be the one to present the budget, and must not be the one to present the appropriation.

This, he said would very soon be their position. “We are going to be positively defiant on that posture until that action is taken”.

The Majority however made it clear that they would not support the Minority in their vote of censure in the chamber.

Mr. Afriyie indicated that the course of the NDC is premised on falsehood, propaganda and reasons that are not justifiable.

According to him, the Minority’s position might look like theirs but it is not the same.

He asserts that they (Minority) cannot come to the chamber to level claims that border on criminality over a person that would not be able to come to the chamber to defend himself.

He said they don’t have any personal issues with the finance minister, but their confidence in him has dwindled and he must go and that is the general feeling.

Ghanamps.com

The Minister of Defence, Dominic A. Bingab   Nitiwul has called on Ghanaians to dismiss any alleged recruitment and training of mercenaries to disrupt the 2024 elections.

“This president and all that we are doing will hand over to the duly elected president of Ghana on the 7th of January 2025.

The duly elected president would be chosen by the people of Ghana, and nobody will interfere in the choice of the people of Ghana; not from the military, not from the police, not from any politician.

The people of Ghana will lineup on the 7th of December, 2024, cast their votes, who ever emerges president will be sworn in on the 7th of January 2025, and would be given the mandate by this president”.

The Defence Minister who was responding to the Minority’s call for a bipartisan prove into an alleged training of mercenaries at Asutuary thus urged all political parties to go out there and campaign to win the hearts of Ghanaians, adding that nothing of such is taking place.

The Minority in their presser stated that their “attention has further been drawn to an expose by a Ghanaian journalist based in the USA, Kelvin Taylor which suggest the recruitment and training of mercenaries by government operatives based at the Jubilee House to cause chaos and mayhem in the country and blame the political opposition”.

This, the Interior minister said was not true. “No such thing is taking place this government has not brought anybody into the Jubilee House who is not a soldier, who is not a police, who is not into national security. We have not done it since we came to power, and we don’t intend to do it. No evidence of that nature”.

He, however, admitted to an enhanced security arrangement at the seat of government, adding that is a prerogative of government, but government has not recruited anybody outside the recognised security forces.

Ghanamps.com

The Member of Parliament for Krachi West, Helen Adjoa Ntoso said it is about time government put some premium on the plight of residents in island communities in her constituency. She said the conditions under which the people in island communities live need to be improved through government interventions particular in critical areas like education, health, and road infrastructure in order to assure them of some better lives.

Speaking with Ghanamps.com, Madam Ntoso noted that government is paying little or no attention to education in these island communities which spell doom for the future of most of the children who would aspire to become something other than the traditional jobs of their parents.

She said it took her intervention to assist about 95 percent of the schools in such communities through self-help projects to be built using mud (clay). She encouraged and supported them with the supply of cement, roofing sheets and wood.

But for the self-help initiative and her (MP) supports communities like Chenekope, Basare, Asutuare, Volivo, Okumah, Mauritania, Odumankuma, Adankope, Kponfre, Akweba, Gamorkope, Aglakope, Old Chantai, and Old Dobeso would not have a school.

And in recent times, when some of these schools have their roofs ripped off, she had to step in once again and has already provided about 300 bags of cement and 40 packets of roofing sheets, and next week, a lot more of the communities will have theirs.

These are Ghanaians, and they are entitled to the national cake, so government must distribute the resources to get to them too. They lack a lot of social amenities required to make lives better for them”, she emphasised.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

About a year after that infamous demonstration in which the Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis Sosu led residents of Ayi Mensah-Danfa-Otinibi and surrounding areas to draw government’s attention to the bad nature of their road networks, residents say the government is yet to undertake any significant improvement on their roads.

It was a demonstration that resulted in some altercation with the police where attempts were made to arrest the MP because according to the police the people erred in blocking portions of the road; and the MP being the organizer and leader of the demonstration would have to bear the brunt of such lawlessness.

A visit to the area revealed that very little has happened.
The contractor, Messrs Kwame Boadi, who actually moved to site immediately after the demonstrations started some works, but that was short lived.

He was only able to construct a gutter around the Kweiman Basic School which is less than a kilometer, and then abandoned the project, leaving the people to their fate.

The abandoned drains, residents say also brings its challenge as it causes the school to get flooded when it rains including people’s homes because the wtyer cannot get its path to move smoothly.
Residents say the road became so bad at a point especially during the rainy season that it took the intervention of the Member of Parliament to improve those seriously affected portions to make them motorable again.

Speaking with the MP on the seemingly no action on the roads after everything that had happened, he said it appears they are also becoming either victims of the general hardship, because almost all road contractors have not been paid for some time now.

However, government is becoming a bit discriminatory when it comes to payment of those contractors, because they can still witness some improvements in some parts and some quarters. “So why do we have a situation where some quarters are able to get some improvements and others are not able to get anything at all; that is where you see like there are some discriminatory ways of distributing the national resources and that is absolutely wrong and unacceptable”, he lamented.

He said it is his hope that government will improve its work and improve equitable distribution of national resources to ensure that places like Madina get its fair share.

According to him, roads in Madina have not seen any major improvement in the last six years except for Madina West and part of North Legon “but beyond that every part of Madina is messed up, and government doesn’t seem to really care about it”.

He disclosed that he was compelled to start the self-help project where he rallied some members of the community to use part of his SIF to get a grader to improve some portion, adding that that small stretch caused them about GHC120, 000.00.

He expressed hope that the government would be able to take some steps to be able to address the concerns of the constituents.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com