‘Pay us or we’ll reveal your dirty secrets’ – Kofi Akpaloo warned
Some of the parliamentary candidates who contested on the ticket of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) have clapped back at presidential candidate Percival Kofi Akpaloo for describing them as persons lacking common sense. The candidates are currently chasing the presidential candidate for the money they invested in the elections because he promised to refund the money after the polls. Mr. Percival Kofi Akpaloo has taken all his parliamentary candidates who lost in the elections to the cleaners describing them as persons lacking common sense. According to him, it makes no sense for them to demand refund of the monies they invested in their campaigns. The candidates a few days ago, accused Mr. Akpaloo of deception, fraud, and bad faith. Addressing a press conference, Madam Gifty Hammond on behalf of the candidates said Akpaloo promised them financial and logistical resources for their campaign in the run up to the elections but failed to deliver on his promise. She added that their Presidential Candidate also asked them to go for loan after which he will pay back for them but Kofi Akpaloo, who allegedly received financial support from the NPP including vehicles, has since been ignoring their calls and creating impression as though there is nothing amiss. Madam Hammond who was a Parliamentary Candidate for Ayawaso Central described the actions of their boss as fraudulent and that he shortchanged them for his personal gains. But Akpaloo responding described them as senseless and indicated that he cannot be the one to refund their monies back to them. Mr. Akpaloo denied asking them to go for loans to fund their campaigns. To him, it makes no sense for them to make such demands, and wondered why they did not join the NDC and NPP if they had money. He said the candidates want to ride on his popularity to remain relevant. He said it would not be important for him to respond to these things because common sense should tell them that they had no business to ask him fora refund. He quizzed who will pay the loans he took for the elections. He added the candidates borrowed his logo and did not pay for it and yet they are asking him to pay their loans. Mr. Akpaloo denied asking them to go for loans to fund their campaigns. To him, it makes no sense for them to make such demands, and wondered why they did not join the NDC and NPP if they had money. He said the candidates want to ride on his popularity to remain relevant. He said it would not be important for him to respond to these things because common sense should tell them that they had no business to ask him fora refund. He added the candidates borrowed his logo and did not pay for it and yet they are asking him to pay their loans. Reacting to these comments, the parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso Central Gifty Hammond expressed disappointment in the candidate for describing them as senless. According to her, the candidate asked them to use their own resources for the elections although they did not put the agreement on paper. She alleged that the candidate received financial support from President Akufo-Addo but has refused to give them their share of the money. “Akpaloo told us he was given financial support from the president. He asked us to use our money for the campaign and he will give us a refund after the money comes. But he has refused to give us our money. Some of our party officers have attacked us because they think we have been given money.” Speaking on Nyankonton Mu Nsem on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, she said every party supports their candidates but Mr. Akpaloo failed to support them. “If Akpaloo says we lack common sense we’ve heard him. He has proven that he lacks credibility. Next time, we would go into an agreement and have it documented.” On his part, Mr. Christian Kwabena Kwakye a party executive in the Western North Region asked Akpaloo to pay them or they will wash his dirty linen in public. He said there are dirty secrets they would expose to the public should Akpaloo fail to refund their money. He also confirmed Mr. Akpaloo told them he was given money from the presidency. “Mr. Akpaloo told us that he was supported by the president and so we want him to give us our money. We will not allow him to cheat us. We went into an agreement with him. We have evidence to that effect. We want him to pay us. We can prove that he went into an agreement with us. We do not want to make further comments because we may be forced to reveal more secrets. We will take our money from him. He did not incur any costs. His campaign was sponsored by the president. He did not use his money for the campaign. Akpaloo should pay us. If he does not pay us, he will hear from us across the world. He should be prepared for us.” Rainbowradioonline Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.
MTN Ghana excels at the 2020 project management awards
MTN Ghana has emerged tops at the 2020 edition of the Project Management Awards held in Accra. The awards, currently in its second year, seeks to recognise and award excellence in Project Management. MTN Ghana emerged tops in the following categories; Project Management Company of the Year Economic Impact Project of the Year Innovative Project Award Project Team of the Year Congratulating the MTN team, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr Selorm Adadevoh, said “these awards are a testament of MTN’s commitment to executing relevant and impactful projects that delivers value. Pearl Anakwa, Manager, Solutions Design and Support receiving Innovative Project Award on behalf of MTN In his remarks, Mr William Tetteh, General Manager for Capital Projects, thanked the organizers for the awards. He said, “as the person responsible for leading the execution of capital projects in MTN, it is my responsibility to ensure that the projects are well planned and executed within the project management framework. He admonished the team to continue to employ best practices to ensure that projects impact society positively.” MTN’s approach to project management is guided by the Bright Delivery Methodology (BDM) which provides a standardised project-portfolio management approach with a focus on delivery and benefits applicable to all projects across the business. It is this approach that won MTN Ghana, the Project Management Company of the Year award. Jerry Nyamekye, Senior Manager, Transmission Implementation receiving Economic Impact Project of the Year Award The team’s execution of the MTN Ghana Fibre Project which resulted in the laying of fibre to Urban Homes in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Koforidua, covering a total of 33 communities won the Project Management Team of the Year. MTN MoMo Limited’s launch of MAgric in partnership with GSMA to drive digitization in agriculture won the Economic Impact Project. The Innovative Project Award was underpinned by MTN TurboNet project which saw the provision of synchronised communication of all forms anywhere, anytime over the internet, making it possible for homes and business owners to serve their customers better. MTN Team at the Awards Ceremony The Project Management Award recognizes individuals or organisations who pursue best practice in economic development through projects and attained the highest standards of professional conduct and competence within the project management space. The maiden edition was held in 2019 which saw MTN picking five awards. jbklutse.com Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.
Locate Houses of NDC members, attack them if any market burns- Wontumi orders NPP youth
The Ashanti Regional Chairman for the New Patriotic Party(NPP) Bernard Antwi Boasiako affectionately called Chairman Wontumi has ordered members of the New Patriotic Party in the region to attack the residence of members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) if any market burns in the region. According to him, the NDC is behind the various markets that have been razed down by fire in some parts of the country and it’s imperative that they attack them anytime they burn any market in the Ashanti Region. When reminded that two wrongs does not make a right, the Chairman indicated that when there is no peace, Justice cannot be achieved and therefore, it’s imperative that the NPP attacks them as a pay back for their recklessness. “Mahama says he’s giving you money to burn down places? Look if they burn a market, wherever members of the NDC are you should attack them. If they cause mayhem, wherever NDC supporters are we should attack them.” He continued: ” when there is no peace, there’s no justice. So if they won’t give us peace how can justice prevail? How can you tell me that two wrongs doesn’t make a right”. Citing a reference from the bible with when Jacob stole the birthright of his eldest brother, Chairman Wontumi said if the markets are burnt there is no way it can be replaced and therefore there is the need to retaliate. “All I’m saying is that the people in the Ashanti Kingdom should identify wherever NDC members reside and if anything bad happens we should go after them.” Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.
Political parties appeal to NDC to concede defeat
The parties said it had become crucial for Mr Mahama to accept that he lost the elections and congratulate the winner, not only to protect the peace and stability of the country but to also preserve and affirm the country’s enviable democratic credentials. Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Party, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency at a cancelled march to appeal to the NDC to stop the continuous protests, said the 2020 elections would go in history as the most transparent and peaceful elections in the fourth republic, contrary to claims by some sympathizers of the NDC. “It is therefore surprising that the NDC Mr Mahama will find it difficult to accept the unequivocal verdict of the Ghanaian people as put out by the Electoral Commission, which has been corroborated by the Coalition of Domestic Elections Observers, and endorsed as free and fair by Civil Society Organizations, the European Union Observer Mission, ECOWAS Observer Mission and indeed by the International Community,” he said. He said the NDC was the only party that thought the 2020 election was not credible and transparent and that the Constitution of Ghana and Cl 127 provided them with a remedy to seek redress in court instead of the persistent protests. He said the party’s posture of projecting violence and protests, incite their supporters, which undermine the peace and tranquillity of the country and must be condemned at all angles. “The NDC cannot in one breadth touts itself as a democratic party and yet fails to use a democratic process to resolve its grievance. It is only the courts that can grant the reliefs the party seeks and not continuous unlawful protests.” The parties appealed to Mr Mahama and the leadership of the NDC to call their supporters to order and proceed to court to challenge the outcome of the 2020 elections if he was not satisfied with the results. He called on the security agencies to be resolute and protect the State and safeguard the country’s peace from any untoward protests, urging that NDC party appeal to put the national interest ahead of personal interest. The parties are Convention People’s Party, Peoples’ National Convention, LPG, Progressive Peoples’, National Democratic Party, Great Consolidated Peoples’Party, Ghana Union Movement, United Freedom Party, APC, and the Independent Presidential Candidate. The Electoral Commission on December 9 declared Candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party as the winner of the Presidential election, securing 51.302 per cent while Candidate John Dramani Mahama of the NDC 47.359 per cent. GNA Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.
Tamale Central MP snubs CID invitation
Member of Parliament for Tamale Central Constituency Alhaji Inusah Fuseini failed to turn up at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on Thursday, December 24 to honour an invitation to assist in investigations. He was invited to appear at 10:00am over comments he is reported to have made on live television, calling on former president John Dramani Mahama to declared himself president and form a parallel government. “I have said and I have advocated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, and former president of the Republic of Ghana declares himself President and forms a parallel government,” he said on the ‘Alhaji & Alhaji’ show on Pan African TV. But after 4:00pm when the CID closed official duties, the NDC MP had not turned up. The lawyer-cum-lawmaker had earlier questioned the substance of the invitation. “The invitation has a major defect. They say I should come and assist them in an investigation into comments I have made on Pan African TV which comment they quoted but investigations are not into comments. They are into crimes or alleged crimes and so the invitation itself is deficient. “Because I have a constitutional right to be told the nature of the offence that is being investigated but all the same, I do think that my lawyers will advise on the best possible line of action in terms of the invitation to the police,” he said. Meanwhile, the CID is considering other options to get Alhaji Inusah Fuseini to assist in investigations. Public Relations Officer of the Department DSP Juliana Obeng told TV3‘s Komla Klutse on Thursday that the police are constitutionally mandated to get a witness to assist in such any investigations whatsoever. 3 News Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.
‘We’re sorry’ – Railway workers apologize to Joe Ghartey for wrongfully tarnishing his reputation
The leadership of the retrenched Ghana railway workers have offered an unqualified apology to the Minister of Railways Development and Member of Parliament (MP) for Essikado-Ketan Constituency, Hon. Joe Ghartey, for wrongfully tarnishing his hard-won reputation. It would be recalled that in the run-up to the December 7, 2020, general elections, the retrenched workers had taken to the media particularly radio to maliciously claim that Hon. Ghartey, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice and one of Ghana’s highly respected lawmaker, had taken their severance package and refusing to pay them. According to them, the Government of Ghana had prior to the elections paid their monies to Hon. Ghartey but he was deliberately refusing to pay them. But that turned out to be a complete falsehood as the laws of Ghana does not even allow payments of such monies to be made personally to any Minister. Realizing the unfortunate reputation damage they have caused the Minister for no fault of his, the leadership of the October 1, 2006, retrenched railway workers on Thursday, December 24, 2020, visited Hon. Ghartey at his private residence in Essikado to seek his forgiveness. The retrenched workers were led by their Secretary, Edward Roberts, in embarking on the apology mission after months of churning out falsehoods against Hon. Ghartey who has the course of his 30 years political career behaved very well in public and private life. “As a result of plight, where we were living in a state of distress and pain, we allowed ourselves to be misinformed that our expected money from Government had been received alongside support to our existing Railway Workers. After a while, that we were not hearing anything from any quarters on the said money, we resorted to radio station interviews and along the line, made a certain unpalatable statement about you which was later found out to be untrue,” they said. “In view of this, we render our unqualified apologies to you on behalf of all of us and deeply regret any inconvenience our actions might have caused you as a person and as a Minister.” Prior to their visit, they had written an apology letter to Hon. Ghartey on December 17, 2020. In the letter jointly signed by their Chairman, John Kodwo Appiah, and Secretary, Edward K. Roberts, the retrenched railway staff said “we render our unqualified apologies to you on behalf of all of us (retrenched staff) and deeply regret any inconvenience our actions might have caused you as a person and as a Minister. Being a God-fearing person, Hon. Ghartey accepted their apologies and expressed his forgiveness for their wrongs against him. However, he seized the opportunity to highlight that though the apology was appropriate, the effect that ‘propaganda’ had on his political fortunes was dire. He shared that a larger portion of the Constituency who are a predominantly retired staff of the company was swayed by the misinformation. “Of course it affected the course of the elections. Some people saw it as ‘enemy action’, a deliberate action that was promoted by the NDC. Even if it wasn’t by them, and was a coincidence, it was a happy coincidence for them because they could go to the people and persuade them that their monies were with me and I don’t want to pay. And Railway is a big constituency on my constituency. I tell you. Look at Kojokrom, Ketan, BU…railway workers and pensioners, and their relatives are all over these communities. You could see clearly that my votes in those communities were affected by this.” Background In 2006, the Government of Ghana undertook a retrenchment Programme which allowed some railway workers to go on retrenchment As part of the retrenchment package, they were supposed to be paid some amount of money. During the former President John Agyekum Kufuor‘s Government, the retrenched workers were paid half of the money due them. And during the Mills/Mahama’s administration, they were paid the remainder of that amount of money owed them. But the retrenched workers went to court, arguing that the calculation they did in 2006 was wrong and that they were owed additional money. The High Court at the time agreed with the retrenched workers. Due to that, the Ghana Railways Company went to the Court of Appeals and the matter was struck out of the Court of Appeals because the Ghana Railways Company was not present in the Court. After the case was struck out by the Appeals Court, the Ghana Railways Company reapplied to have it enlisted, thus the matter is still before the court. As such, no payment whatsoever has been made by the government to Hon. Ghartey. Unfortunately, about three months ago, there was malicious media publications claiming that the government had paid the money for the retrenched workers and was being kept by Hon. Ghartey. The publications went on to suggest that the Minister had refused to pay the retrenched workers their severance package even though Government had released it to him, something which completely false. The laws of Ghana does not allow a Minister of State to directly or personally receive payments for Government workers and pay same to the workers on his or her own. But the malicious publications to some extent could have influenced the outcomes of the Parliamentary elections in some areas of the Essikado-Ketan Constituency in the Western Region which is a major railway Centre. So many of the residents in some areas like Kojokrom in the Essikado-Ketan Constituency, have their parents and grandparents being railway workers or former railway workers and thus issues of the railway are not taken for granted in the area. Melvin Tarlue Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.
A Plus recounts how some NPP bigwigs incited him to publicly attack Bryan Acheampong
Kwame Asare Obeng, popularly known in Showbiz as A Plus, has given a vivid account of what started his public outburst with Bryan Acheampong, the MP for Abetifi Constituency in the Eastern Region. According to him, from the days of following Nana Akufo-Addo during his first presidential campaign in 2008 until he won the 2016 general election and became the President of Ghana when the NPP decided to organize a concert in Kwahu, they chose to use some musicians who were not part of the musicians that were campaigning for Nana Akufo-Addo. So he, A Plus, asked those who were in charge of the Kwahu concert why they did not include the musicians who toiled with the party whilst in opposition. He explained that after he publicly criticized the party, they then requested that he should join the musicians going to Kwahu to play the concert but he declined. The musician in a Facebook live video indicated that Maame Afia Akoto, the current Deputy CEO of MASLOC called him one day to tell him what the NPP communication team had discussed in their meeting concerning Bryan Acheampong, the current Minister of State at the Ministry of National Security, and urged him A Plus to do a dirty job on him. “Maame Afia Akoto, the Deputy CEO of MASLOC, called to tell me that NPP communication team members have discussed at their meeting as to how Bryan Acheampong is stubborn, so they want me to attack him,” A Plus recounted. “Immediately I was told that I increased my attack on Bryan. In fact, I attacked him left, right and centre,” adding that at the time he was not so ‘politically wise and mature’. A Plus added that, after the NPP had won the 2016 elections, some party bigwigs told him again that Bryan Acheampong is likely to be appointed by the President to some ministry but they were also interested in that ministry, therefore, he should publicly vilify Acheampong. He did that with excitement because he had support from the top. “Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko then sent me a screenshot of what Bryan Acheampong [had] posted on his Facebook timeline, but added that ‘oh look at what your guy has posted but ignore’. In politics, this is a trick. If he [Gabby] wanted me to ignore, he would have called to tell me not to attack Bryan again but he wanted me to see the post and get angry over it but at the time, I was not aware,” he stated further. A Plus stated that he then got angrier and increased his attack again on Bryan Acheampong. He explained that at the end of the day, Afia Akoto, Gabby Asare Otchere and their likes benefited but he, A Plus lost. “I learnt this the hard way. So, I had to wake up one day, go to Bryan Acheampong and apologize to him,” he stressed. Background After the swearing-in of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on January 7, 2017, A Plus, on his Facebook timeline alleged that Bryan Acheampong, who became the MP for Abetifi (a prominent Kwahu constituency), had inflated the civil servants’ payroll with ghost names and was thereby robbing the state of millions of taxpayers’ money monthly. Bryan Acheampong did not take the matter lightly and threatened to sue A Plus. The musician replied on social media: “Bryan Acheampong, you think I’m one of those cowards you threaten with court abi [pidgin]? I’ll show you guys I’m the strongest man in Ghana… You can have all the money in the world… you’ll never win a court case against me. I will not apologise to you. Now, I dare you to do your worst. Go to court. Apuuuu [to wit, hogwash].” A Plus further claimed that Bryan Acheampong’s civil servants’ payroll software which he [Bryan] operated was “…an open secret, most NPP people know about but are covering up because it is owned and operated by an NPP person”. In a quick response to the allegations, Byran Acheampong through his Lawyers, SORY@LAW issued a statement asking the musician to as a matter of urgency apologize within 24 hours or face a lawsuit. “And please take notice that should you fail to heed to our clients demand from you within 24 hours from the date of this letter, we have our client’s instruction to take appropriate action against you, without further notice,” the statement read. Ghanaweb Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093.