Category: General

President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou has underscored the need to consolidation sub-regional democracy, at the opening of the First Ordinary session for 2019.

According to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the sub-region is beset by several challenges in areas of conducting peaceful elections.

He further congratulated Nigeria and the Republic of Senegal for conducting successful Presidential and Parliamentary elections, as well as in Guinea Bissau in accordance with the July 2019 roadmap adopted at the ECOWAS Summit in Lome.

“Recent Parliamentary elections in Benin took place amidst tension, ECOWAS will continue to strengthen its intervention mechanisms in order to support the organization of peaceful elections in all Member States”.

In the wake of mounting threats President of the ECOWAS Commission noted that it remain concerned about security issues,  as the community would continue working with its partners to stabilize and protect the region from, “terrorism, piracy, cross-border crimes and inter-ethnic clashes”.

Mr. Jean-Claude Kassi Brou noted that in terms of economy, the region’s prospects are promising given the good performance of major macroeconomic indicators.

And this effort will be continued to consolidate the regional economy with several achievements which will be presented during the session.

“We will continue to address the challenges of youth unemployment, migration, epidemiologic diseases, as effort will not be relent in addressing these issues and many more”.

He welcome the impetus given to the implementation of Supplementary Act A/SA. 1/12/16 relating to the enhancement of the powers of the ECOWAS Parliament.

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Speaker of the Economic Community of West African State Parliament (ECOWAS), Moustapha Cisse Lo has said the community Parliament will work towards enhancing security in the sub-region.

According to the Speaker, as an institution they had made giant strides in curtailing insecurity and strengthening political stability in the ECOWAS region.

In his welcome address to open the First Ordinary Session of Community Parliament in Abuja, Nigeria he congratulated President Muhammad Buhari on his support and selfless commitment towards the progress of the ECOWAS community.

“ECOWAS is improving free movement of goods in the region for the benefit of its economy and member states”.

Mr. Mustapha Cisse Lo applauded the synergy between the Parliament and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) towards the fight against impediments that could threaten progress in the region.

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Senator Foster Ogola, a representative of Nigeria in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament has said it is not quite healthy for the community Parliament to decide to boycott participation in Inter-Parliamentary Union meetings.

According to Senator Foster Ogola, for the Speaker of the Community Parliament, Mustapha Cisse Lo to say he will recommend to whoever will take over from him to boycott IPU meeting was unfortunate.

“As a leader you take a decision at a point base on your understanding of a situation at a moment, but that decision would not be binding on the new Speaker of the fifty legislature, he or she has the liberty to accept the decision”.

In an interview he noted that his advice is for ECOWAS Parliament to increase its presence on the international stage as a sub-regional legislature.

He further added that Speaker of the community legislative body has the right to rule the way he understands how ECOWAS Parliament was treated when it attended the IPU meeting at Doha Qatar.

Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mustapha Cisse Lo expressed reservation about the way and manner IPU did not extend courtesy to the delegation that went to Doha.

The next meeting of IPU would be in Belgrade in October this year and the issue came up for discussion on Wednesday at the opening of the first Ordinary Session in Abuja, Nigeria.

Senator Ogola again noted that, with the observer status of the sub-region community Parliament to the World Parliamentary Association (IPU), there is the need to participate and get to the level of being part of crafting the agenda of IPU.

“We need to have a voice, in that conference that is the way to establish our presence in that Parliament, not just to participate as observers, is just like ECOWAS Parliament we invite people to attend opening ceremony and they may not speak, because we have drawn up our programme already”.

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Three countries, Guinea, Niger and Mali on Thursday May 9, 2019 presented their country reports at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament at the ongoing First Ordinary Session for 2019 of the fourth legislature.

The First Ordinary session opened on Wednesday May 8, 2019 and countries are presenting reports that touched on political situation, security, human rights, promotion of women rights, children and that of refugees.

Guinea was the first country to present its report, by leader of the delegation Hadja Nantenin Konate followed by Niger presented by leader of the delegation Boukari Sani Malam Chaibou.

The English version of the Malian report was not read for presentation as at the time the leader of the delegation, Moussa Badiaga wanted to present the country report so the first Deputy Speaker had to hold on for five minutes after which the presentation resumed.

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Family of the late and former Member of Parliament for Ho East, Steve Senu Akorli has paid a courtesy call on Speaker of Parliament Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye to inform him about the death and funeral arrangements of the late lawmaker.

Mr Akorli served as an MP from 1993 to 2004 when he voluntarily retired. He also served as a Minister during the Rawlings administration.

Professor Oquaye noted that the late MP was someone who was very enthusiastic and inquisitive and was always asking questions.

Second Deputy Speaker Alban Bagbin on his part noted that the death of the late Mr Akorli was a great lose to Parliament and Ghana.

He added that, late Steve Akorli was chairman of the Technical Committee of the Parliamentary Service that restructured the Job 600 building that is currently serving as offices for MPs.

Late Steve Akorli was taken ill on 24th April 2019 and admitted at the Volta Region Hospital in Ho but was later airlifted to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where he later died.

He will be buried on April 25, 2019 at his home town of Adaklu Kpetsure after a church service at the Global Evangelical Church, East Legon.

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Speaker Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye has praised the people of Adaklu for producing some of the finest and quality Members of Parliament for the country.

According to the Speaker, the current Adaklu MP, Governs Kwame Agbodza has done well for himself in his ability to contribute to duty and the ability to be punctual to the work of the House, which he noted is crucial for Ghana’s democratic journey.

He describe the Adaklu MP as an example of “most example of punctuality” and one of the most respected MPs currently, “if there’s an example of punctuality, it is the man sitting right there”.

Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye made this observation when the family of the late former MP for Ho East, Steven Akorli called on him to inform him of the death and funeral arrangement of the late MP.

“It just occurred to me, this Adaklu people how do they do it, very soon I am going to ask others to go to Adaklu to learn something.  It is very important but it is true, it is not because he you are here”,
Otherwise, I myself, I don’t know the people am working and dealing with, so we appreciate your MP”, the speaker told the visiting delegation.

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Coordinator of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, Engineer George Aseidu has given assurance that the Kaneshie first light drainage construction work which had delayed would be completed in two weeks time.

According to the coordinator of GAMA, the project which should have been completed a month earlier that was March 31, 2019, had delayed because they uncounted major Ghana Water Company (GWC) pipeline which had to be relocated in the course of construction.

“These are major pipelines so we needed to work on them in working on them there was the need to divert some of the pipelines properly so that we would not have future problems, again we were confronted with major activities which were not part of what we had to do and to do it well has taken us almost four weeks”.

Speaking in an interview, he pointed out that the development accounted for a little delay in the expected time of completion of the work and added that when the drainage work is done in two weeks the remaining time will be used to instate the roads.

The World Bank is pumping seven million Ghana cedis into this project to end the perennial flooding.
At the time of the visit to the project site, a delegation from the World Bank were on location to visit progress of various works they had sponsored.

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The first ordinary session of the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) Parliament would commence today 8th May 2019.

The three weeks session is expected to end on the 3rd of June, 2019. The three weeks long Session will be declared open by the Speaker of Parliament, Moustapha Cisse Lo.

President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou and President of the Community Court, Justice Jerome Traore, Speaker of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso, Alassana Bala Sakande, that of the National Assembly of Nigeria Yakubu Dogara and their counterpart from Morocco are expected at the opening ceremony.

A statement from the communication division of the community Parliament says during the twenty-eight (28) day session, the meeting will adopt and draft agenda and draft work programme of the standing, joint and Ad hoc committees.

MPs will also consider and adopt draft report of March 2019 Extra Ordinary Session and the programme of activities of the Parliament for the second quarter of 2019.

Similarly, the session will feature presentation of country reports; that of standing committees, joint and ad hoc committees and reports of Parliamentary fact-finding Missions in plenary.

MPs would also have the opportunity to hold interactive sessions with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) – Nigeria on the theme, “Kampala Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa”.

And with the International campaign to abolish nuclear weapons (ICAN) on the theme “United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”

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Former Mayor of Accra Metropolitan Assembly and Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije has led a delegation to present an undisclosed sum of money in support of former President Rawlings’ foundation.

According to the former Mayor of AMA, the undisclosed amount is towards supporting underprivileged persons who require assistance with their health, education and other basic needs.

He further disclosed he and some of his constituents recognise the challenges the former President face in supporting many vulnerable persons who seek his assistance regularly so have decided to join force to support his work.

Former President John Rawlings, who received the contribution thanked the delegation for their kind gesture and noted that he will channel the contribution to help retired police officer, Chief Superintendent, Ben Mensah, who needs assistance for a kneecap replacement surgery.

The former president said Chief Supt Mensah, amongst a few others, had dedicated most of his working life to the good of the country and faced some precarious situations during the revolutionary period. He disclosed that the cost of the surgery is valued at GHS65,000 and called on other well-meaning personalities and institutions to contribute toward it.

Apart from  Vanderpuije, the other members of the Ablekuma South delegation comprised Rev. Charles Ankamah Tetteh, Mr. Raymond Nii Quaye Kotey, Madam Esther Naa Amerley Vanderpuije (Madam Indomie) and Mr. Emmanuel Nii Ankrah Vanderpuije, a junior brother of the MP.

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Secretary General of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, John Azumah, is calling for revisiting of the Act that established ECOWAS, if it wants to get full grips of the security of the sub-region.

According to the Secretary General of the community Parliament, if ECOWAS is to have a standing army force to take care of security situation, it should be derived from the Act which should be revisited.

He further pointed out that as things stand now the establishment of ECOWAS is purely based on pure economic consideration.

“If things have changed and we have realized that this is the situation there is the need to look at the Act, since we have sovereign states belonging to community and to be able to address security situations we need to really put checks in place and discuss how to deal with things as a full bloc”

He made this remarks on Starrfm, a private radio station in Accra – Ghana when questioned on how ECOWAS can get full grips of security situation in the sub-region with the spate of terror attacks.

Mr. John Azumah recall that ECOWAS started as an economic state, the idea first was allowing people to move freely, trade freely to improve upon their lives.

“As we went along there were political considerations, we were becoming more important and influential to an extent if we did not have a good political system, the trade system will not look good that brought the political side of it”.

Again, internally we had military regimes that had to be converted to democracy and added that ECOWAS has moved from economic to the political platform which is now, very important to have because of growth.

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