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Ghanaians have been urged to avail themselves for the COVID-19 vaccination which is still ongoing in the country. The parliamentary Select Committee on Health at a press briefing bemoaned the low turnout in the vaccination exercise against the COVID-19 virus, and encouraged people who are yet to be vaccinated to do so. The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye said though the country has opportunity to vaccinate over 22 million people, only 18 million has been vaccinated so far.

He blamed peoples refusal on superstition and some several other reasons.
The said in view of this, the health committee is touring the vaious regions begining tomorrow to campaign for the citizens to get vaccinated. The Ranking Member of the Committee, the Ranking Member, Mr. Minta Akandoh said the virus has come to stay and it is important to take appropriate measures to avoid any new wave so that we can properly return to our normal lives.

He said data available to the committee indicates that the vaccination rate in some regions of the country including Oti, Volta, Eastern, Western North, and Ashanti Regions is very low, particularly in the rural districts where health infrastructure is very weak, posing danger to the citizens living in those areas.

According him in the event of any new wave in those places, the effect would be devastating, adding that “whether we like it or not we would witness another wave of COVID-19” like it is happening in other countries. He debunked the conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccines stating that all parliamentarians have submitted themselves to the vaccination exercise including many other Ghanaians and they are doing well, as such people should not fall for such deceits from people.

He called on the Ministry of Health to begin to do more by making the vaccines available at the districts to enable people access it, and not wait for any emergency before responding to it.

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Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis Xavier Sosu said Ghana has not executed anybody under the death penalty under the 1992 fourth Republican Constitution despite having it on its status books for a very long time. According to him amendments to the introduction of the legislation are meant to cure mischief that may occur in its applications.

“I do not think we would want to wait until a particular president comes and his interest is that I want execution, so anybody on death role just bring that person for it to be carried before we wake up as a nation to that reality that so long as it remains on our statuary books the potential of getting people killed still remains”, he asserted.

He noted that research carried out point to the fact that, when a person is convicted of murder or sentenced to death, they are not treated as person who has life, and if one is sentenced to life in prison there are some privileges one has.

But if one is on death role they are kept in the condemned cells where you have limited access to light. The conclusion of being on death role and not being executed amounts to some violation of rights; it is well grounded both in, “our laws and international laws. The challenge over the years is for the abolishing of death penalty in our constitution”.
Again, he pointed out that the clause is an entrenched provision and would require referendum, adding that over the years, there have been challenges trying to get around that. Amnesty International and several CSOs who have been trying to work around that have done multiple stakeholders engagement that led to discovering the new path which is to amend the criminal and other offences Act.

He made this remarks on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 when a United Kingdom (UK) based organization, Death Penalty Project led by its Executive Director Saul Lehrfreund with his team called on Ghana’s Parliament to off support in this direction since they have been working in this field. “Our research shows that if we were able to do that, we would achieve 95 percent abolishing death penalty, and even if we would retain death penalty in the constitution, it would be for treason and high treason”.

A memorandum was introduced, a draft has been done, it has gone through various processes of consultations, it has been gazetted and they are seeking the blessing of leadership so that hopefully next week it can be captured in the business statement and could be read for the first time and referred to the committee on Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. With that the committee properly takes charge of the bill, he stated.

He further pointed out that as part of their work, they would visit Nsawam prisons and engage with all people who would have interest in the matter after which there would be clause by clause consideration and referred it back to the plenary.

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Following efforts to amend existing laws to get capital punishment off the laws of Ghana, First Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu has pointed out that Ghana is willing to be part of the international community in this regard by amending its law. According to him Ghana’s Parliament and Ghanaians will be guided in the course of this journey more especially by Ghana’s culture and history; saying “we will listen to the voice of our people as we go out on this matter”.

Mr. Osei-Owusu pointed out that in the second Parliament of the fourth Republic, he recall the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee when a group came and they met with the Committee and they had a long discussion about amending the law but no action was taken on the discussion.
He was frank to point out that he has not seen the bill on the amendment on capital punishment, but has taken note that it was gazette three weeks ago, and he would take time to look at it. The First Deputy Speaker made this remarks on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 when a United Kingdom (UK) based organisation – Death Penalty Project led by its Executive Director Saul Lehrfreund with his team called on the Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Bagbin, who is out of the country and was received by his Deputy Joseph Osei-Owusu.

Welcoming the delegation, the First Deputy Speaker noted that capital punishment has been part of Ghana’s laws since the 1960s and recounted that there has been some few changes, and as a student under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) there was an amendment. “The law states that you should be sentenced to death by hanging; an amendment came that the judges should just leave it for government to determine how they would carry that out. In that particular instance there was a gentleman who had angered the whole country when he murdered his girlfriend, a medical student in the 1980s”.

Again, the anger in the country then was high when he was convicted, the hanging had been stopped. He noted that from 1965 no more handing had been carried out, so when people are sentenced to death they were allowed to stay in prison for a while and committed to life sentence over a period about thirty to thirty-five years. And you would be there and nobody would recognize you, “but on that particular incident the anger of the country was so high that the gentleman who murdered the girlfriend was taken out of prison and shot”, he recounted.

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The Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh Dompreh has called for constructive criticism of the National Identification Authority as it remains an important national institution. Mr. Dompreh asked his colleagues in the Minority to cease the attack on the National Identification Authority (NIA) as this tends to demonize the authority.

Addressing the parliamentary press corps after the NIA officials briefed parliament on the floor on Thursday July 14, 2022, he indicated that the NIA is an important national institution and if care is not taken people would begin to see officials from the authority with a certain kind of impression when they visit the various district and communities.

“We know the path they have traversed, I can personally testify the number of times I have been to the NIA and at a point in time they could not boost of even one desktop, but today they are well resourced with computers”. He added that government has frequently and consistently being supporting the NIA with budgetary contributions, “So I’m saying simply that we should be careful not to demonize the NIA”.

According to him, he is surprised at how his colleagues from the Minority are alarmed and speaking as if the NIA has committed a crime, but noted that where there are concerns, they should be raised but there should be some moderation because we know where the NIA is coming from, and stated that most of the things are normal institutional challenges that the NIA is facing.

He said the NDC had the opportunity to sanitize the NIA and take it to the height they are desirous of but they failed to do it. “You failed at one breath, just bring the NIA any budgetary support to the NIA they couldn’t do it; they should stop pretending, they should be measured in their criticism of the NIA”, he stated.

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Mr Kwame Agbodza, the Member of Parliament for Adaklu, has accused the bosses of the National Identification Authority (NIA), and the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensah of doing the bidding of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). Mr Agbodza in a spirited rebuttal to Mr. Annoh Dompreh, the Majority Chief Whip’s call for the Minority not to demonize the NIA and to be measured in their criticism of the institution said their questions to the NIA are justified and aimed at helping the NIA to serve the people better.

Mr. Agbodza said though he agreed that we should have a Ghana Card, but trying to make it compulsory for every transaction is problematic. “Today somebody is lying at the hospital, he is sick, he needs access to his money to buy drugs, a draconian declaration that if you don’t have Ghana Card you can’t have access to your money; this is a mindless way of doing things. It is better we get angry and correct things now”, he asserted.

He said the NPP deliberately does not want NIA to have the resources to register illegible people; “this government has gotten money to pay 200 million Ghana cedis to dig a hole beside parliament to call it a cathedral, building of a cathedral and having a peaceful election which one is more important to Ghana?”

He accused the government of recruiting its party members into the NIA to achieve an agenda for its parochial interest. “The recruitment of the NIA was done through the party” and states that in the Adaklu District, the NIA district director was initially the constituency youth organizer of the NPP, “currently we’re told is the brother of a youth organizer from Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region”.

According to him, in the 2021 census result from Adaklu, there are about 38,000 people captured with about 25,000 people being fifteen years and above, and are eligible to be registered under the NIA. But so far only about 3,200 have been registered; “so Jean Mensah is trying to tell me that whenever she does her register only 3,200 people in Adaklu would qualify to vote? He queried.

He said it is time somebody calls Jean Mensah to order, because she is dragging this country to chaos. “We have the opportunity to call her to order; “I’m saying that my brother the Majority Chief Whip says that we’re trying to create a bad blood between or demonize NIA. No, it is not the fault of NIA. In fact much of the NIA staff are NPP card bearing members , so if somebody is demonizing anything which is the action we’re taking, is to make sure that this deliberate action by the NPP is corrected.

“You cannot register only about 3,000 people in Adaklu, and even out of that about 1000 people haven’t gotten their card yet”. He disclosed that there are places in Adaklu that one cannot generate digital address, yet the NIA is demanding that to register for the Ghana Card the person should bring digital address; “are they supposed to conjure it? He queried. He said the NIA card cannot be the only basis for this exercise yet, “because majority of people have been denied.”

He noted that he had a situation where he had to bus people from Adaklu to Adaklu Waya to go and register for the Ghana Card, and even that many of those who registered still don’t have their cards. He also queried if there is anybody in this country who doesn’t know that the NIA, the boss and everybody there are doing the bidding of the NPP, “they say it the way it is”. Who doesn’t know that Jean Mensah is an appendage of the NPP?” “Well we can pretend that we don’t know what is going on”.

He bemoaned the GHC250 being charged for registering for the Ghana Card in Accra for those who can afford it; stating that that amount is out of reach for his people in Adaklu, and lament that it is not as if Ghana cannot procure the card and make it easy for people to register, “it is deliberately made such that ordinary people can’t register and NPP would be in control of who actually gets registered so that if they say that the new voter registration is only for people who have now attained age 18 and above, it would only be their people that would register”.

The NIA was in parliament on Thursday, July 14, 2022 to brief the House and the minority raised a lot of issues concerning the operations of institution. But the Majority Chief Whip thought the actions of the Minority amount to demonizing the NIA and called for constructive criticism since the NIA has come a long way, and remains an important institution to the state.

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The finance Ministry is seeking for the Mid-Year Budget Statement to be postponed to Monday, July 25, 2022. According to a deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, the mid-year budget statement originally scheduled for Wednesday, July 13, 2022 has to be rescheduled to allow the Finance Ministry to have a fruitful engagement with the delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before turning its attention to the mid-year budget statement.

Addressing the press on Tuesday, Madam Abena Osei-Asare said the Ministry has started some negotiations with the IMF, which mission is for data collection, and they need all the space and time to enable them furnish them with all the data they are requesting for, and that is the reason they are requesting parliament to postpone the mid-year statement. She asserts that the IMF would leave by Wednesday and they can now get back to parliament for the budget statement.

She assured that they are almost done with preparations to deliver the mid-year statement and noting that they are still within time as the law stipulates July 31 as the deadline. She said it is not out of place to reschedule the date for such exercise; adding that “this is something we’ve been doing every time; and we scheduled the date for 13th before the announcement of the engagement with the IMF; so clearly as human as we are, we should all understand that in this data finding mission of the IMF, we need that space and time to address that and give them the what they want”.

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The Minority in Parliament has lashed out at the Electoral Commission for making plans to spend another fortune to compile a new register for the 2024 elections with the Ghana card as the only source of identification. The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, addressing the Parliamentary Press Corps on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 said the development is a matter of democratic concern as it threatens the stability of our country since it concerns the right of a Ghanaian citizen to vote.

“The Electoral Commission of Ghana is desperately planning to discard the 2020 voter register which cost the taxpayer about $80m and replace it with a new voter register. In 2020, the EC against all sound and technical advice replaced the 2016 biometric voters register. We all recall that this decision of the Commission was without consensus by all political parties, civil society and all critical election stakeholders”. He said that registration exercise in 2020 by the EC currently put the voter population of our country at over 17.4 million.

“Our understanding is that the EC is seeking through a constitutional instrument to make the National ID card the only source of justification to register onto the voter register”. Asserts that their primary concern is that, in the past since 1993 voter registration exercise undertaken will normally have the provision of a guarantor in so far as it is established that they are Ghanaians and are of age and of sound mind to participate in Ghana’s Electoral process to vote and be voted for.

“Our understanding further, which is our primary technical concern is that the National ID Card is not available to Ghanaians who deserve to have it”, stating that there are many Ghanaians who are still struggling to have access to a national ID card. “This must be made increasingly available to every qualified Ghanaian”. “Currently, the National Identification Authority has registered over 16,654,000 million persons, printed 16,341,000 million number of cards and issued 13,300,000 cards against a voter register of 17 million. Juxtaposing these figures show a critical technical imbalance” he stated.

He said we may not have a voters register to rely on for the conduct of the 2024 Parliamentary and Presidential elections because the number of Ghanaians on the voter register far exceeds that on the national ID card data. “And yet the National ID card has other persons including foreigners on it”. According to him, the EC by law and duty ought to have conducted limited voter registration exercise in 2021 and 2022 which they failed to undertake; therefore eligible Ghanaians who have attained the ages of 18 years and above have been denied the opportunity to get registered and exercise their right to vote as Ghanaian citizens.

“The NDC when it regains power will deploy a new technology that allows anyone who attains 18 years to walk into any office of the EC and get registered”.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

Parliament is expected to adjourn sine die on Thursday, July 28, 2022 baring any last minute changes, Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh told the House on Thursday, July 6, 2022 when he presented the Business Statement for the ensuing week. According to him fifty-five (55) questions have been programmed; forty-seven (47) are oral questions while eight (8) are urgent questions, and in accordance with order 72 the Speaker would allow statements to be made.

Mr. Frank Annoh-Dompreh urged Committee chairs and their rankings to assiduously work on referrals before them in the light of the time space left before the House goes on recess.
And further revealed that leadership is in talks and yet to confirm if next week Tuesday, July 12, 2022 the Minister for Food and Agriculture would come to the House to address issues relating to the poultry industry.

Additionally, leadership of the House is working to ensure that concerns to do with the National Identification Authority (NIA) and under the Interior Minister is addressed, whiles concern raised by MPs are also addressed by the National Security Minister.

He further noted that the Defense and Interior Committee have had discussions with the National Security Minister to find an appropriate date for him to come to the plenary and brief the House.

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The Member of Parliament for Pru East, Dr. Kwabena Donkor has asked the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta to resign his position as a matter of national duty to offer the president the free hand to appoint a new capable hand to lead the country’s negotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to Mr. Donkor, though Mr. Ofori Atta has excellent record as a private businessman who has contributed his quota to national development, his performance in the public sector leaves much to be desired.

He asserts that the Finance Minister having categorically stated a few weeks ago that this country would not go to the IMF and then beat a retreat and now we are in discussion with the IMF, “duty and honour requires that he steps down”. According to him, Mr. Ofori Atta has come to the end of the road, adding that though he has a lot of respect for him, “the national interest requires that he resigns for somebody else, another captain to lead the team towards the negotiations”.

Failure to this, he said the country would be negotiating from a position of weakness. “When a Minister says we would never deal with the IMF and he is dragged unwillingly before the court of public opinion to go negotiate with the IMF, he would be negotiating from a serious position of weakness and this country would not get the best out of that negotiation”.

He advised that the Finance Minister taking the initiative to tender in his resignation would save him the little honour left, and he can become an adviser to the government in the negotiations but not as the minister responsible for finance. The former Minister for Energy under the erstwhile John Mahama Administration also believes Ghana has gotten to a point in its governance system where ministers must begin to take responsibility.

“A minister who categorically states that we would never go to IMF cannot be dragged unwillingly to IMF to lead our negotiations; if we love our country we need somebody who would believe in what he or she is doing to lead the negotiations”.

He noted that If Ken Ofori Atta does not resign, “I believe the parliament of Ghana must keep faith with the people of Ghana; and the people of Ghana deserves better than this. Parliament has the power to ask him to go and parliament must act”.

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Member of Parliament for Tamale South Haruna Iddrisu has said the President Nana Akufo-Addo and head of the economic management team and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia should be blamed for the country heading back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after exiting similar program just two years ago.

He said the government should take full responsibility for the country’s economic woes, a situation that has forced them to start discussions to seek bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to him the quick turn around by government who early indicated that it would not go to seek bail out from the IMF agreement to re-structure its debt points out its reckless and irresponsible borrowing.

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps on Wednesday, July 6, 2022, he said government’s unjustified profligate expenditure has led Ghana to this journey.

Haruna Iddrisu said on the 1^st of July, the President and his chairman of the economic management team, the vice president had to beat a retreat in formally announcing to the Ghanaian people the desire and intention of his government to engage with the IMF to bail out Ghana from its economic challenges and difficulties.

“They are behaving like a class six ( 6 ) pupil who tells the mother and father that last year I got ‘F’,  and I have marked the NDC’s John Mahama ‘F’, and after six (6) years they get an ‘F’ and they say,  my ‘F’ is better than your ‘F’; that is the childish behaviour they are into. As if they are right, they should stop any attempt to shift blame”.

The Minority further pointed out that the E-Levy remains an unpopular tax instrument and therefore the fact that it passed; it had no support of the Minority. They rejected it because it was not popular and it is much of double tax.

And in many jurisdictions, it would not stand constitutional acceptability; he cannot see why he takes his income, pay tax on income and sending two thousand to her mother on an electronic platform, “I still have to pay tax on it, so our position on it has not changed”.

He urged government to work on expenditure reduction particularly focusing on social interventions, while they reduce their opulent expenditure. “We are concerned as Minority because they arrogantly rejected every reasonable suggestion from us and other respected economist on working together to improve the economy”.

Mr. Iddrisu further noted that the current government should have learnt that once Ghanaians voted for a hang parliament the days of imposition were over.

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