Breaking: Goaso Electoral Commission Boss has reportedly passed on
The Electoral Commission boss at Goaso, which is the capital for the Asunafo North Municipal Assembly in the Ahafo region, Madam Martha Osei Agyemang has reportedly passed on. The 36-year-old woman passed on in Wenchi also in Ahafo region. It was reported that Madam Martha complained she was unwell due to stress at her work place. As an Electoral Commission boss in a whole Municipality, there has been lots of work load on her since it is getting close to the election. She however decided to see her personal doctor in Wenchi, for which she left Goaso on Wednesday. News received was that, she was getting well and had planned her return to work, and this unfortunate thing happened. According to relatives, Madam Martha is not married but she left behind a young boy. The body of the deceased has been conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
NDC administration will bring Ahmed Hussein-Suale’s killers to justice – Mahama
John Dramani Mahama, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), says his next administration will ensure that killers of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale face justice. Mr. Mahama gave the assurance at Wulensi, the hometown of the late Ahmed Hussein-Suale, during a community engagement with the chiefs and people of the Wulensi Traditional Area in the Northern Region. “The media fraternity and all who are here, I want to draw your attention to something. This is the hometown of Ahmed Suale, the journalist who was murdered in cold blood. And whose killers up to date have not faced justice. I want to assure all the people of this Constituency and his family that when I am elected, we will use the forces available to us by the State to find those who killed him and bring them to justice.” Ahmed Hussein-Suale was a Ghanaian undercover investigative journalist and an associate of fellow investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. He was murdered by unidentified men on Wednesday, 16 January 2019. GNA Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publication
UER: Do not be swayed by their partisan and ….- Senior Lecturer to Journalists
A Senior Lecturer and Media Consultant to the Ghana Journalist Association, (GJA), Dr. Bonnah Koomson has advised journalists not to be swayed by their partisan and ideological affiliation to mislead the public with inaccurate and biased election reportage. He intimated that in as much as media practitioners are not barred to belong to a political party, that legitimacy should not in any way be compromised as they are duty-bound to sustain the country’s prevailing peace and stability through balanced reportage. Dr. Koomson advised on a day media engagement on election reporting jointly organized by the GJA and the Electoral Commission. In all about 30 journalists drawn from the Northern, North East, Upper East, and Upper West Regions attended the training workshop. They were schooled on the GJA guidelines on election reporting as well as electoral laws and preparations among other topical electoral issues. For his stressed that per the GJA guidelines on election coverage, Journalists are mandated to cross-check every piece of information that they receive and be fair to all subjects of the news. He acknowledged that journalists can monitor election results and inform the public with provisional results, but warned that anything short of ethical reporting amounts to an electoral offense punishable by law. Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
People With Mental Health Conditions Have Same Right Just Like You On SRHR- CHRAJ
A Senior Investigator and Public Education Officer with the Tamale Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) office Inusah Iddrisu has admonished the general public to take the rights of people with mental health conditions seriously before the law catches them. Mr. Iddrisu made the call in Tamale during the two days Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Advocacy training workshop for Mental Health Alliance Member organized by BasicNeeds-Ghana. Engaging with Apexnewgh.com after his legal presentation on Rights for people with mental health conditions said UN took a decision to come out with a resolution, and the resolution set out the rights that persons with a mental condition should enjoy, and according to Mr. Inusah, the resolution has tasked state parties to come out with policies and programmes and institution to ensure that the rights set out in the resolution are enjoyed by people with mental conditions in their respective space or countries. “…so, Ghana going by the resolution in 2012, came out with the Mental Health Act 846, and in that particular, they have set out the rights people with the mental condition will enjoy and that includes, their right for a decent life, their right to health, their right standard treatment, their right to confidentiality when they go to health institutions and their right to employment. People with a mental health condition should not be discriminated against based on their mental condition and employer should not terminate the employment of an employee base on his or her mental condition and even if they lived in your house as a tenant, with a certain mental condition, you should not evict that person based on his or her mental condition. The act has provided for the procedure the employer should take to ensure that the rights of these people are protected.” However, he advised employers who are taking undue advantage of these categories of people due to their vulnerable conditions, to get copies of the Acts to guide them and their various institutions. “… i would entreat employer to get themselves copies of the Act so that anytime they want to act base on persons suffering from a mental condition in their respective institution, they should refer to the Act and work in line with the law so that do not violate the rights of these categories of people.” He further pointed that, Sexual and Reproductive Health Right (SRHR) is one of the legal rights the law has provided for everybody to enjoy, because, it is a particular right that gives an individual or couple the opportunity to take a decision on their sexuality or their reproductive rights and that includes, when and how they should produce, the spacing and then how they should do it. “…sexual materials including medication, access to the reproductive health drugs, in fact, it should be there a very accessible and affordable so that everybody can get it.” “…but then, we are talking about a person with mental conditions and then, when we talked about reproduction, we are talking about people who can form an opinion and concern to the Act and know the consequences of what they are doing and so if the person cannot take that decision, the law provides for any denial or limitation to the enjoyment of the right must be subject to an assessment capacity. So, even though these rights are set out by law, it means that everybody is supposed to enjoy it.” He stressed Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: Make sure you choose a representative to be part of …..- EC Director
The Upper East Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) William Obeng Adarkwa has urged all political parties to make sure they chose a representative to be part of the District Inter-Party Advisory Committee (DIPAC) that is to be formed. Speaking at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting (IPAC) to brief representatives of the political parties, the media, and security services, he encouraged the political parties to elect credible members to the District Inter-Party Advisory Committee. Addressing the Committee, Regional Director assured that, the EC will work in collaboration with IPAC to increase awareness on the modalities in the electoral regulations as well as guide party agents in the execution of their role for sanity to prevail at the voting centres. Through IPAC forums, political parties participated in key electoral processes such as voter registration, the development of the Election Code of Conduct, and the procurement of electoral materials. This has resulted in the Electoral Commission largely succeeding in building confidence and achieving credible improvements in electoral management, leading to the conduct of four successful general elections with few complaints from the participants. The IPAC Meeting aimed to give a briefing on the preparation put in place so far by the EC regarding the voting exercise and the expected conduct of the various political party representatives before, during, and after the elections. It also created an opportunity for the party representatives to express their satisfaction or otherwise over voting material received so far by the EC in the region, their safe custody, and their subsequent dispatch to the various polling stations with few days to the polls. BACKGROUND In the 1992 founding elections, the opposition parties disputed the presidential election results and subsequently boycotted the parliamentary elections, which were held separately. There were a few pockets of violence around the country. In the interests of peace and stability, the Commonwealth Observer Group recommended dialogue, even if it was informal but the initial NDC-NPP dialogue failed because of deep mistrust between the two parties and suspicions about the electoral process. In March 1994 the Electoral Commission created the Independent Party Advisory Committee, an informal and non-statutory body comprising representatives of political parties and of the Electoral Commission. The main functions of IPAC include serving as a channel of information for the commission and the parties and to enable them to discuss all aspects of the programme and activities of the commission with parties and donors. It is to ensure that parties and donors make an input into the management of the electoral process and, at the same time, bring out their concerns for general discussion; to facilitate regional, district, and constituency level IPAC meetings. The Electoral Commission, with donor support, also embarked on a comprehensive programme of reforming the electoral process and enhancing its credibility. Although IPAC decisions are not binding on the EC, it has served as a forum for generating proposals for electoral reform and has succeeded in building trust in the electoral process, especially among political parties. Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: Police will not countenance persons that are bent on ……- Regional Police Commander
The Regional Police Commander, DCOP disclosed that his office is adequately prepared for any eventuality and ultimately poised to safeguarding the relative peace in the region as some number of police personnel together with the military had been deployed to man the various polling centers across the region. Speaking in an interview, he encouraged the public to come out freely on the day of the election and exercise their franchise adding the police will not countenance or tolerate persons that are bent on fomenting trouble or indulge in acts that have the potency to jeopardize the relative peace being enjoyed in the region. The Upper Regional Police Command says recent agitations by some members of the opposition NDC over the safety of voter materials had been duly resolved and were currently under its protection. The Upper East Regional Police Command on Friday, November 20, 2020, took delivery of voter materials meant for both presidential and parliamentary elections in the upcoming December 7 elections. Upon its arrival, some party agents of the NDC who were present at the time impressed on the police to lock the Joint Operation Centre, where the materials were being kept with a padlock. Although the police assured them of its total safety, they declined and insisted the place be locked with their padlocks aside from that of the police. They also threatened to spend the night there till they are convinced that the materials are safe and not tampered with. This generated heated verbal exchanges between the agents and the police. In the heat of the confrontation, some persons believed to be supporters of the NDC and numbering about a hundred massed up at the center to express their displeasure about the position of the police. It took the intervention of some NDC party bigwigs including the former Defence Minister, Mark Woyongo to calm down nerves. The Regional Police Commander, issues surrounding the unfortunate incident had been duly resolved and urging them to discard any media reportage that goes to suggest that there was tension in the region. DCOP Kwaku Ampofo-Duku allayed the fears of the public following some media reports that seem to suggest that there was tension in the region adding adequate measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of the materials Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: Collaborate with us to establish …- Wildlife to Traditional Authorities
The Regional Manager has, therefore, extended warmth invitation to Traditional Authorities in the nine political districts along the eastern wildlife corridors to collaborate with the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission to prevail on the government to establish an ecological park to rake in revenue for the development of their communities. Speaking in an interview, he further indicated that under the cooperative agreement signed between the Government of Ghana and the Government of Burkina Faso as well as best practice in the world of conservation the wild animals needs to be conserved and the only way out is to turn the menace of the elephants into economic gains. He maintained that the six gazetted forest reserves in the corridor spanning Bawku, Bawku West, Binduri, Tempane, Zebilla, Nabdam, Talensi provides the ideal condition for foliage and reproduction hence the need to create space for them to co-exist with humans. Mr. Binlinla revealed that under the Sustainable Land and Water Management Project, the Forestry Commission through the Wildlife Division conducted a study dubbed the Northern Savannah Biodiversity Conservation Project funded by the Global Environment Facility of the World Bank from 2002-2008. The research looked into the pattern of movement of wild animals and identified specific routes called corridors in Northern Ghana namely the Eastern Wildlife Corridor and the Western Wildlife Corridor. On the Eastern Wildlife corridor, the wildlife migrates from the Kaborentenba National Park in Burkina Faso through to the Upper East to the North-Eastern parts of the northern region stretching into Red Volta Valley far east into Forer’ d’e au olione in Togo. For the Western Wildlife Corridor, the wildlife moves from the Nasinga Game Ranch in Southern Burkina Faso to cross the border through the Upper West to the Mole National Park in the Savannah Region. Speaking in an interview, he observed the presence of the African Elephants can serve as a magnet to attract tourists to boost the local economy while conserving the elephants from going extinct. Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: HUMAN WILDLIFE CONFLICTS AS A RESULT OF ENCROACHMENT ON RESERVES- WILDLIFE DIVISION
The Regional Manager of the Ghana Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission in charge of Upper East, Upper West, and northern Belt, Joseph Binlinla has cautioned farmers, small scale miners, and charcoal Burners to stay away from encroaching in Government gazette forest reserves as those illegal acts limit the natural habitats of the wildlife and result in the human-wildlife conflict with resultant negative consequences on humans and farm produces. Speaking in an interview Mr. Binlinla observed that it seemingly appears as if wildlife especially elephant and human conflicts is escalating due to human population overlapping with well-established wildlife territory arguing that before recorded history, there have been wildlife migrations of Elephants and other wildlife including the Angulis, the Dyketes, and snakes. He expressed concern that as a result of population explosion, more land has been put under cultivation in order to feed attributing the encroachment of man into the areas, hitherto known by these wild animals as their preserve long before the settlement of man in those vicinities to the annual destructions by the animals in those particular domains over the years. While assuring the farmers that measures are being taken by the Wildlife Division to manage the situation for peaceful co-existence. To manage the elephant human conflict Mr. Binlina prevailed on them to adopt crop breeding techniques to go about their farming activities peacefully adding that the relative peace in Ghana makes the country a suitable habitat for the elephants accounting for their high presence in the eastern corridor. The importance of the presence of the African elephants to the ecosystem cannot be overemphasized as they maintain the biodiversity by creating space for smaller animals to feed and have access to water during the dry season, with their high sense of smell they use their trunks to dig out sources of water. They helping in tree dispersal particularly with the Odum tree, the seed needs to pass through the guts of the elephant before it can germinate and grow to become a habitable tree. In some cultures in Ghana, the tail of an elephant is used as paraphernalia for warriors, on the staff of linguists to signal authority with the ivories used as ornaments. Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications