NAPAIC rubbishes RCC rejoinder statement, advice them to not focus on frivolities
National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana) a well-recognized Civil Society Organization in the Upper East Region, has advised the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to not focus on frivolities and not dissipate its energy on trivialities but rather pay attention to concrete issues that are worth public attention. NAPAIC free advice to the RCC came a day after the RCC issued a rejoinder statement demanding a retraction from Ghanaweb and its correspondent over a publication they claimed is a security threat. According to NAPAIC, the RCC statement seeks to debunk a story that highlights how a High Court judge, His Lordship Justice Alexander Graham, fled the Upper East Region on March 16, 2023, as a result of a violent attack at his residence on March 15, 2023, by some unknown persons. However, NAPAIC in their press conference on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, used the medium to ask some interesting questions to the Regional Coordinating Council. Kindly read the full statement below: NAPAIC-GHANA National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana Email Address: napaicgh2014@gmail.com Date: 4th April, 2023. PRESS STATEMENT Ladies and gentlemen, we wish to welcome you to today’s edition of our news conference. We the members of the National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana) wish to thank you for honouring our invitation and for your presence. Our attention has been drawn to an eight-paragraph letter (a rejoinder) written by the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, and signed by Alhaji Abubakari Inusah who is a Coordinating Director at the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council. The letter seeks to debunk a story that highlights how a High Court judge, His Lordship Justice Alexander Graham, fled the Upper East Region on March 16, 2023, as a result of a violent attack on his residence on March 15, 2023, by some unknown persons. In our opinion, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council should have briefed the good people of the Upper East Region with security-related updates on the judicial front in the matter of His Lordship Justice Alexander Graham. We need answers from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/ Regional Security Council to the following questions: First, what was the state of intelligence gathered by the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council before the attack on the judge? Can the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council confirm as to whether or not that the judge has no police escort? Is the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council able to tell us where the judge currently is? Since the sudden exit of the judge from the region in the wake of the attack on his residence, there has been no sitting at the High Court ‘2’ in Bolgatanga. The absence of the High Court judge is a serious security threat going by the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. When justice is denied, litigants who are not getting justice as required owing to the absence of the judge are most likely to take the law into their own hands, thereby creating anarchy or lawlessness. It is the responsibility of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council to ensure and to guarantee the protection of judicial service staff including judges. The question we ask is: what has the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council done as to how they have protected Justice Alexander Graham so far and how other judicial service staff are being protected? The Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council should rather focus on ensuring and improving the security of judicial service staff in the region than running a banter with credible media houses like Ghanaweb over a harmless publication and seeking a baseless retraction and an unmerited apology. For example, a bungalow once occupied by Deputy Upper East Regional Ministers in Bolgatanga has been empty for a very long time. It is safer to accommodate Justice Graham inside that bungalow (since it is fenced and it is within a security zone) than the apartment where the violent attack took place. But we find it so appalling that the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council has not taken this security idea into consideration for the safety of the judge but it is rather shamefully focusing its energy on writing and issuing a frivolous rejoinder to a media house (Ghanaweb) that is doing its job in a very professional manner. We find it absurd and strange for the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council to base a rejoinder on a news publication headlined “Talensi: Gold Baron taken to court over alleged plot to harm philanthropist” only to shift the rejoinder to what has nothing to do with what the main story is all about. In our opinion, this so-called rejoinder from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council is nothing but a smokescreen aimed at expressing a hidden displeasure of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council about a story that has exposed an alleged plot to attack a philanthropist Hon. Zongdan Boyak Kolog. Perhaps, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council wished the story about the alleged plot to attack the philanthropist was never published for some selfish reasons. That is our opinion. If some elements within the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council are feeling uncomfortable because certain stories which must be told are being told with facts to the public, such elements need to be reminded that “he who brings a sugarcane to the house should not be surprised when flies suddenly begin to pay him unexpected visits.” We would like to conclude by advising the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council to not focus on frivolities and not dissipate its energy on trivialities but rather pay attention to concrete issues that are worth public attention. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. ………………………………………………………….. Zumah Tii-roug (NAPAIC-Ghana member and recorder) (0244242748) ……………………………… Akobulgo Zotipeliba Ayeo Vice-President, NAPAIC-Ghana. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0256336062
April 7-10th declared Good Friday and Easter Monday
Ministry of Interior have declared Friday, 7 April, and Monday, 10 April public holidays. The two Christian holidays are in commemoration of Good Friday and Easter Monday respectively. “The general public is hereby informed that Friday, 7th April, 2023, and Monday, 10th April 2023, which mark Good Friday and Easter Monday respectively, are statutory public holidays and should be observed as such throughout the country,” the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. Easter marks the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0256336062
John Mahama NDC ballooned Ghana’s debt stock by 819%-–Stephen Ntim
National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr. Stephen Ntim has revealed, the administrations of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that took over from President John Kufuor added the most to Ghana’s debt stock. Mr. Ntim made the revelation at a press conference on Tuesday, 4 April 2023. “One of the central claims of the NDC’s false State of the Nation address is that this government has over-borrowed. This is not true, but the NDC keeps repeating it”. According to him, “The NDC likes to promote this misinformation by computing our debt stock using nominal figures because it hides their unprecedented rate of debt accumulation. The best way to compute our debt to see which government has borrowed more by using the rate accumulation”. Below is the full statement: THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY, STEPHEN AYESU NTIM, RESPONDS TO THE NDC’S SO-CALLED TRUE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS DATE: TUESDAY MARCH 28th, 2023 @ 11:00 am VENUE: ALISA HOTEL 1. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Media, and dear People of Ghana! Good morning, and thank you for honouring our invitation to attend this press conference. 2. On 8th March 2023, the President of the Republic of Ghana delivered a Message on the State of the Nation (SONA) under Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution as a symbol and practical demonstration of accountability, and with the utmost respect to the people of Ghana. 3. The President, in his delivery, addressed critical issues of concern to all Ghanaians. The focus of the SONA was on the economic situation of our country and how quickly we are stabilising the economy and working our way back to the period of rapid economic growth. 4. The SONA provided an honest assessment of our country’s situation and sought the support of Ghanaians in addressing the challenges facing our country with hope and confidence. 5. Then, on 20th March 2023, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), as usual, produced a distorted account of the President’s state of the nation address in an attempt to ride on the emotions of Ghanaians for their political gain. Activities leading to the NDC’s UPSA press conference were dramatised as though the NDC had something unprecedented to present. It was an anticlimax because, in the end, nothing new was said except the same old exaggeration and deliberate misrepresentation of facts. 6. The statement read by the NDC Chairman, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, was far from a document seeking to discuss the state of our country. There was no serious analysis of the economy, no assessment of sectoral developments, and no attempt to propose solutions to the current economic challenges. 7. Ordinarily, we would refrain from responding to the NDC on the SONA. However, given the extent of misinformation contained in their statement, we owe a duty to Ghanaians to straighten the distortions designed to incite disaffection rather than to inform Ghanaians. 8. My clarification of the NDC’s statement will focus mainly on the economy and comments on the other matters to do with the misinformation about the size of the government and the subject of corruption. The Economy 9. First, let me thank the good people of Ghana for supporting the government as we work together to resolve this historic economic crisis that has disrupted the global economy and impacted Ghana. 10.Ghana’s economy was the toast of the world until Covid-19. Before 2020, Ghana was hailed among the fastest-growing economies in the world. But COVID-19 disrupted the growth momentum of our economy and later the Russia-Ukraine War. As a result of these factors, Ghana’s economy, which was among the fastest-growing economies in the world, started to decelerate in 2020, and the government has committed everything in its toolkit to regenerate it. 11.Ladies and gentlemen, the ravaging impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the global economy are visible all around us. But somehow, the NDC has refused to acknowledge or admit this fact to continue misinforming Ghanaians that this government has mismanaged the economy. 12.So, the NDC’s press conference was merely a repetition of their denial of the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the economy. The NDC hopes that by consistently propagating this blatant misinformation, it will get enough Ghanaians to come to believe it. 13.Ladies and gentlemen of the media, I am concerned about this deliberate misinformation campaign by the NDC to deny the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on Ghana’s economy. This is because, over time, by hearing this lie repeatedly, it begins to resemble the truth for the consumption or acceptance of the general public. 14.The media is not exempted from this misinformation campaign because you, too, are feeling the pinch of the hardships in the country. Our pensioners were recently demonstrating against the inevitable Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, and many others are concerned about increasing taxes. These real bread-and-butter issues that make it difficult for anyone to believe it is not the government’s fault that we are going through these hard times. This is the opportunity the NDC seeks to exploit, to weaponise the hardships caused by these external factors to make the government unpopular. 15.The plain truth is that this government has managed the economy diligently and well. The hardships we are experiencing in Ghana are being experienced everywhere because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War. Workers in some of the world’s biggest economies are demanding salary increases due to historic global inflation. It is happening in—the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In the United Kingdom, I was told a couple of weeks ago that they had to ration vegetables and cooking oil. Can you imagine rationing pepper in Ghana? 16.The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, confirmed the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the United States economy and how difficult the effort to rebuild has been. 17.Kenya, one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa, has recently run out of U.S. dollars. Most fuel and oil importers