I have only one wife – Bawumia reacts to Ramatu story
The office of the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has reacted to reports suggesting that the Vice President has another wife named Ramatu. According to the office, Dr Bawumia has only one wife in the person of Samira Bawumia with whom they have been married for the past 17 years even though his religion as a Muslim permits him to marry up to four wives. The couple has four children, three boys and one girl. In a statement issued on Friday, March 12, 2021 by the Spokesperson of the Vice President, Dr Gideon Boako, the public was therefore asked to “ignore the propaganda and deliberate falsehood.” How the Ramatu issue came about On January 7, 2021, the then newly elected Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin when he was introducing the guests at the inauguration of President Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Bawumia mistakenly referred to the wife of the Vice-President, Mrs Samira Bawumia as “Ramatu.” When Mr Bagbin realised that he had made a mistake, he clarified the mistake and said it came as a result of what had been written for him. The Speaker after realizing he mentioned a different name said; “oh this is the name I was given” and he corrected himself and subsequently went ahead and introduced Mrs Samira Bawumia. After that incident, some media reports suggested the Vice-President had a second wife known as Ramatu who was unknown to the public. Some reports went ahead to circulate a photograph of the said Ramatu. On Tuesday March 9, 2021, when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo presented the 2021 State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament and it got to the section of the introduction of the guests in Parliament, some Members of Parliament from the Minority side in a chorused voice shouted “we want Ramatu” repeatedly when it was the turn of Mrs Samira Bawumia to be introduced. This compelled the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Bagbin to respond to the Ramatu chants and said he does not know anyone who has a girlfriend called Ramatu. “Honorable members, I don’t know which of you has a girlfriend called Ramatu but we don’t have any dignitary here called Ramatu,” Mr Bagbin said. Since then, the speculation of the purported second wife of the Vice-President has deepened. Ignore fabricated Ramatu story In the statement from the office of the Vice-President, it was explained that “the attention of the office of the Vice-President has been drawn to stories and pictures circulating of a woman supposedly named ‘Ramatu’ who is being claimed as a wife of the Vice-President.” “The office of the Vice-President wishes to inform the general public that the Vice-President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has never met or seen this purported Ramatu let alone take her as a wife.” “She is a figment of the imagination of people trying hard to tarnish the image of the Vice-President for their own purposes.” “For the avoidance of doubt, the Vice-President has only one wife, his dear Samira Bawumia and they have been married for 17 years even though his religion permits him to marry up to four wives.” “We ask the public to ignore the propaganda and deliberate falsehood,” the statement said. In a radio interview in March 2020, the wife of the Vice President, Mrs Samira Bawumia revealed that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia could not propose directly to her when they first met. Explaining how they met, Mrs Samira Bawumia said she completed the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in the year 2000. “We [me and Dr Bawumia] met years later… we met through mutual friends,” who introduced us and it was love at first sight. According to her, Dr Bawumia was attracted to her the moment they first met and concluded he had met his soul mate, “a catch,” she said amidst laughter when she appeared on the Ekosii Sen radio programme on Accra based Asempa FM on March 9, 2020], which was monitored by Graphic Online. The couple has four children, three boys and one girl. Mrs Bawumia was on the radio programme on that day to talk about a wide range of issues in line with the International Women’s Day (IWD) [March 8] but in responding to a question from a listener who wanted to know how the couple met, she said Ghanaian men in general normally do not propose to their women and that is exactly what Dr Bawumia did when they met. Speaking in the Twi language, Mrs Bawumia said Dr Bawumia had to beat about the bush but she [Samira] concluded he was interested in her when they first met, she said amidst laughter. Graphic Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
Legon Cities unveils Victorien Adebayor
Ghana Premier league side Legon cities have officially unveiled Nigerien forward Victorien Adebayor. Adebayor, a former Inter Allies player completed a loan move to the Royals months after moving to Danish club HB Koge after failing to settle at the club. He is expected to help the club in their fight against relegation. The 24-year-old was a huge figure in the domestic top flight after netting 23 goals in 27 games for Inter Allies during his two-year stint with the Club. He was the top scorer in the truncated League last season scoring 12 goals in 13 appearances. Legon Cities have struggled all season, ending the first round 15th on the table having won only 4 matches, with 7 draws. Football Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
Mikel Arteta explains Partey’s substitution in Arsenal’s Europa League victory at Olympiacos
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta insists Thomas Partey‘s early substitution in the second half of their Europa League game against Olympiacos was purely tactical. Thomas Partey provided the assist as Arsenal took a 34th-minute lead through Martin Odegaard, but had to be replaced ten minutes after the break by Dani Ceballos. “No, it was all tactical decisions or things that we wanted to change in the game,” Arteta revealed. “Because I wanted to change him and bring somebody else in to try to find some other stuff and try to change the shape with the way we were playing inside,” he added. Olympiacos leveled three minutes after Partey’s substitution through Yousef El Arabi, but a late surge by the English giants saw them reclaim the lead to go on and win 3-1. Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhães put Arsenal in the lead with ten minutes left before Egyptian star Mohammed El Nenny sealed victory five minutes from time. Partey has now made 17 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal and has two assists to his credit. He is yet to net his first-ever Arsenal goal. Ghana soccernet Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
SA millionaire Motsepe elected CAF President
South African businessman Patrice Motsepe has been elected the new President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). He was elected by popular acclamation on Friday, March 12 in Rabat, Morocco as he was the sole candidate for the top job on the African continent. He replaces Dr Ahmad Ahmad, who was in 2020 handed a 5-year ban by the sport’s world governing body. This was recently reduced to two years. 3news Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
How YEA booted out Awal Mohammed as PRO and replaced him with Metro TV’s Kwasi Afriyie
Fresh details are emerging over how Mr. Awal Mohammed, Public Relations Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) was booted out under dramatic circumstances for Kwasi Afriyie, formerly of Metro TV to replace him in the coveted position, MyNewsGh.com reports. Information available to MyNewsGh.com indicates that Awal Mohammed was booted out and has been unemployed as far back as late 2017 with Emmanuel Kwasi Afriyie replacing him in 2018. Awal Mohammed rose to national fame when as the Deputy National Communications Officer for Zongo Caucus, the official wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Zongo communities announced his defection to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in October 2016. Awal Mohammed who made the announcement in a press statement dated Wednesday, October 5, 2016, said as a senior member of the NDC communications team in the Ashanti Region, his decision to defect from the NDC to the NPP was based on his “principles and convictions”. He expressed disappointment the NDC did not state any policy to address concerns of the Zongo community in its recently launched manifesto. Awal Mohammed added that he believed the NDC as a party had failed to tackle the high unemployment situation in the country resulting in untold hardship on many people, this is believed to be why he was quickly sorted with a YEA appointment when Akufo-Addo won after December 2016. However, some members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) expressed their displeasure over the appointment of Awal Mohammed to serve as the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the YEA. They said it was a betrayal of the rank and file members of the NPP who had toiled long before Awal Mohammed came to the scene and still had no appointment. According to a press release signed by Prince Milonu, a communication team member of the NPP in the Ashanti Region, the Awal’s appointment “has in many ways betrayed the long-held principle of the party for rewarding long service, loyalty, and hard work among its members”. The release indicated that the decision by the president makes “nonsense of the sacrifices and dedication of other equally competent young persons who have served the party well over the years”. Mr. Milonu said in the statement that he was “saddened by the lack of appreciation shown to us by the party and now many of us are now laughing stock in the eyes of our colleagues in the other party”. The release pointed out that the appointment will set “a very bad precedent that will have dire consequences for the unity especially among the youth of the party going forward in the future”. It is this and other matters MyNewsGh.com has been made privy to, that triggered Awal Mohammed’s removal as YEA PRO. MyNewsgh Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
Banking sector clean-up: Ghana has become a major tourist attraction – Minister
Caretaker Minister for Finance, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has averred that the Ghanaian economy has become more attractive to foreign investors after the financial sector cleanup. He furthered that many jobs have been created as businesses are flourishing. “The banking sector clean-up has been completed, businesses were doing well and creating jobs…and suddenly Ghana has become a major tourist attraction.” He however noted that the economy suffered a setback after the coronavirus pandemic. “We were indeed on a part of fiscal consolidation by 2019 and poised for economic transformation then out of nowhere, the COVID-19 pandemic hit us. Mr Speaker, the history of Ghanaians is a story of resilience, faith in God and ingenuity when faced with adversities and uncertainties.” He said this during the 2021 budget presentation in parliament Friday, March 12, 2021. As part of its efforts to restore confidence in the banking and specialized deposit-taking sectors, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) embarked on a clean-up exercise in August 2017 to resolve insolvent financial institutions whose continued existence posed risks to the interest of depositors. The clean-up saw the revocation of licenses of 9 universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, 8 finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions. The move by the central bank was a comprehensive assessment of the savings and loans and finance house sub-sectors carried out by the BoG in the last few years after it identified serious breaches. Ghanaweb Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
Gov’t introduces 10p ‘borla’ tax to keep Ghana more clean
The government of Ghana has instituted a sanitation and pollution levy (SPL) to accrue revenue to keep the environment clean. Caretaker Finance Minister Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made the announcement on Friday, 12 March 2021 when he delivered the 2021 budget. He said “notwithstanding the progress that we have made in the areas of sanitation and pollution, there is still a lot more to be done”. The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs listed them as follows: i. Improve urban air quality and combat air pollution; ii. Support the re-engineering of landfill sites at Kpone and Oti; iii. Support fumigation of public spaces, schools, health centres and markets; iv. Revamp/reconstruct poorly managed landfill facilities; v. Construct more sustainable state-of-the-art waste treatment plants both solid and liquid in selected locations across the country; vi. Construct waste recycling and compost plants across the country; vii. Construct more sanitation facilities to accelerate the elimination of open defaecation. viii. Construct final treatment and disposal sites for solid and liquid waste; ix. Provide dedicated support for the annual maintenance and management of major landfill sites and other waste treatment plants and facilities across the country; and x. Construct medical waste treatment facilities to prevent generation of infectious diseases especially under the Coronavirus Treatment Programme. He said: “Mr Speaker, these are all very critical investments that have to be made for the benefit and dignity of all Ghanaians. These will ensure sustainable sanitation management, improve the quality of life and reduce the number of deaths and diseases from poor sanitation”. “To provide the requisite resources to address these challenges and fund these activities, the government is proposing a Sanitation and Pollution Levy (SPL) of 10 pesewas on the price per litre of petrol/diesel under the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA)”. Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
Mahama donates GH¢13,000 to families of deceased, fisher council
Former President John Mahama has made a donation of GH¢13,000 to the families of the teenagers who drowned at Apam, Central Region, last week and the fishermen council that assisted with rescue efforts. Mr. Mahama’s running mate in the 2020 general elections, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, made the donation on behalf of her boss when she led a delegation of party members of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to visit the bereaved families on Thursday, 11 March 2021. Last Sunday’s incident claimed the lives of more than 20 teenagers. So far, 13 bodies have been retrieved from the sea. The delegation sent by Mr Mahama, led by his 2020 running mate, included the party’s parliamentary caucus of the Central Region and some region and constituency executives of the party. Among the MPs were Mr Richard Gyan-Mensah, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, Mr James Gyakye Quayeson, Mr Abeiku Crentsil, Mr David Vondee and Mrs Gizella Tetteh Agbotui. The party executives included Mr Theophilus Aidoo Mensah, Mr Kojo Quansah, Ms Faustina Lamptey, Alhaji Muhammed Kassim and other constituency leaders. The delegation met with the bereaved families and the Fishermen Council. The donations are to support traditional rituals and the burial service of the young victims. Prof Opoku-Agyemang consoled the bereaved families and engaged the two survivors and their families. Also, she registered her profound gratitude and appreciation to all those who helped with rescue efforts, especially the Fishermen Council, the youth of Apam, management and staff of St. Luke Catholic Hospital and the district police command. Classfm Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
IGP petitioned to remove Kassena-Nankana Municipal Police Commander over rampant robbery cases
Following several incidents of armed robbery case in Navrongo, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, has been petitioned to remove DSP Oppong Agyare Francis as the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Police Commander, over what the petitioner describes as his “lackadaisical approach” to rising cases of robberies in the area. There have been several reports of armed robbery cases within the municipal capital, Navrongo, and its environs, the most recent being the broad daylight robbery of a Mobile Money agent adjacent to the Navrongo police station. In two weeks, over five incidents of robbery cases reportedly occurred, a situation which is said to have stirred fear and panic among residents, some of whom have vowed to protect themselves however possible. A recent visit to the region by the IGP on the back of these insecurities did not make the situation any better. The reaction of the municipal police commander to all of this in the view of the petitioner, one Mark Kubuga, smacks of incompetence and makes him “inapt for his current position”. The petitioner makes specific reference to comments made by DSP Oppong Agyare Francis on March 4th, 2021 when he granted an interview to a local Radio Station, where is said to have blamed the youth of Navrongo for the increasing cases of robberies. He is quoted as saying the cause of the robberies is that the youth of the area spend long hours in bushes with their girlfriends abandoning their motorbikes which get stolen. “One thing our intelligence has gathered is that sometimes, some of the youth will leave their motorbikes in the open, enter a bush with their women doing what they want to do and at the end lose their sense and thieves will come for their motorbikes. Most of the motorbike snatching incidents are caused by this attitude by the youth. So, I’m appealing that if the youth stop this behavior, cases of motorbike snatching will decrease,” he said. This, the petitioner said does not only prove that the commander is not serious about his work but also insulting the youth of Navrongo. He wants the command to retract and render an unqualified apology. The petitioner thus implores the IGP as the head of the Ghana Police Service clothed with operational and administrative control under of the service Article 202 (2) of the Constitution of Ghana, 1992, to intervene and remove DSP Oppong Agyare Francis. He believes that will make way for “crime detection and prevention”. Meanwhile, the commander is expected to meet the Paramount Chief of Navrongo, Pɛ Denis Aneakwoa Balinia Adda, today on the way forward in fighting crime in the area. Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093
I won’t appoint deputy regional ministers – Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has charged all 16 regional ministers to ensure that they maintain total security, peace, and order in their respective regions where they are to serve. The president gave the regional ministers the charge when he addressed them at the Jubilee House on Thursday the 11th of March 2021, at a swearing-in ceremony where he administered three oaths – the Oath of Allegiance, the oath of office, and of secrecy, to them. “As Chairpersons of the Regional Coordinating Councils of your respective regions, you have the most regular and direct impact on the lives of the people. You set the tone for the administration and development in your regions. Another important role you play is that of the chair of the Regional security council. You do not need me to tell you that your most important function is to help ensure peace, law, and order in your regions” President Akufo-Addo stated. “All our plans and programs will come to naught if there is no peace. You must be careful and tactful in managing issues of intelligence and security” the President added. Commenting on the workload of the regional ministers, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reiterated his decision not to appoint deputy regional ministers, which means that, there would be much more work for the regional ministers to do. To this end, President Akufo-Addo urged the regional ministers to know that they have a responsibility to take up all the duties of a regional minister as stated in the 1992 constitution of the Republic. “Article 256 of the Constitution of the Republic, outlines your responsibilities succinctly. You represent the President in the region, and you are responsible for the coordination and direction of the government administrative machinery in the Region. As you all already know, I have taken the decision not to appoint deputy regional ministers, this means you have to shoulder the work by yourselves as I know you can,” Akufo-Addo said. Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, the Minister responsible for the Volta Region, in response to the charge of the President on behalf of his colleague regional Ministers, indicated they will do everything within their power to support the vision of the President aimed at bringing development to every one 9f the sixteen (16) regions of the country. “We want to assure his excellency, the good people of Ghana and our regions that we shall take this assignment with seriousness, dedication, commitment, and loyalty that it deserves. Mr. President, on behalf of my colleagues, I promise that you can always count on us. We will be your worthy representatives in all the sixteen regions of our beloved nation, Ghana,” Dr Letsa noted. The sixteen regional ministers appointed by President Akufo-Addo to serve in his second term government include George Boakye, Ahafo Region, for the Ashanti Region, Simon Osei-Mensah, Bono Region, Justina Owusu-Banahene, Bono East Region, Adu Gyan, Central Region, Justina Marigold Assan, Eastern Region, Seth Kwame Acheampong, Greater Accra Region, Henry Quartey, MP and Northern Region, Shani Alhassan Saibu. The rest are North East Region, Yidana Zakaria, Oti Region, Joseph Makubu, Savannah Region, Saeed Muhazu Jibril, Upper East Region, Stephen Yakubu, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih, for the Upper West Region, Volta Region, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa a, Western Region, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, MP and for the Western North Region, Richard Obeng. Daily Mail Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093