Fifty-five (55) students of the Accra Girls Senior High School have tested positive for COVID-19, a joint statement by the Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service has announced.
The July 13, 2020 statement indicated the cases were recorded after 314 persons including students and staff of the school were tested. 259 persons, however, tested negative.
The statement noted that similarly, a few other schools have reported sporadic cases which have not to experience a surge, but the schools were not mentioned.
Actions Taken
According to the statement, there has been identification and segregation of contacts from other students.
”There has been sample collection and laboratory testing of all contacts identified and suspected cases.” the statement said.
”All confirmed cases have been transferred to designated national isolation and treatment centres for management.” bIt said.
The statement indicated there has been a restriction on the number of students that attend dining at a particular time.
The statement also said there has been enforcement in Social Distancing Protocols, enhanced hand hygiene and proper use of the facemask.
There has also been total disinfection of the school with an adequate supply of Personal Protection Equipments for health workers designated on the campus.
”Education onCOVID-19 prevention and control has been intensified within the school the statement said.
The statement also said there has been counselling and psychological support being provided to the students.
The statement said parents of affected students have been duly informed of the situation
It also said a quarantine and isolation centre has been designated in the school.
It also indicated the staff of the school have been assured.
Other affected schools
According to the statement, a few schools have recorded sporadic cases which have not surge.
The GES said similar measures have been implemented in such schools.
Calls for the closure of schools
There have been many calls by various interest groups on the government to close down schools to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among the student population, but the government has dismissed such calls.
Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has said the calls are untenable.
Speaking during an interview on Adom TV’s ‘Badwam’ programme on Monday, July 13, 2020, the Minister said he disagreed with the calls for SHSs to be closed down and the students sent home on the back of the reported cases.
“Those of us in leadership must listen to public concerns, and be guided by the evidence in making recommendations to the President.
“Even if my child were in school at present, I would not, with the evidence as it stands, recommend to the President that schools should be shut down”, he argued.
Dr Prempeh noted that considering that there are 721 senior high schools in the country, with a population of about 400,000 and 13 reported cases across 5 schools, the calls for the schools to be shut down were not tenable.
Kwamena Mintah Nyarku is the NDC parliamentary candidate for Cape Coast North
The Electoral Commission has withdrawn the voters’ identification card of the National Democratic Congress’ parliamentary candidate, Kwamena Mintah Nyarku.
Joy News reports that the Cape Coast North MP hopeful, Kwamena Mintah Nyarku allegedly gave false information when registering for his voter ID card.
This has led to the commission withdrawing his voters’ ID card.
The card withdrawal decision by the EC might prevent Mr. Nyarku from contesting for the 2020 parliamentary seat of the Cape Coast North constituency since he may not have a voters card when the nominations and registration opens.
The electoral laws of Ghana disallow persons to contest for a year’s election if the individual is not a registered voter.
Kwamena Mintah Nyarku has the option to appeal the High court for legal redress.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has expressed concerns over the Electoral Commission’s “disrespect” for gazetted centres in the ongoing voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools.
The two-day exercise is to offer final year students of voting age the opportunity to be on the new voters roll.
The Minority Leader said there should have been consultations with the political parties before the exercise began.
“The Electoral Commission published registration centres in a gazette, they should respect what was published. That is for the purpose of transparency and accountability in the registration exercise. But where students are domiciled in particular constituencies, it is for them to do a wider consultation with the political parties and make a determination that guarantees the students rights to vote.”
Mr Iddrisu’s concerns come in the wake of a suit by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) challenging the Electoral Commission’s decision to organise voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools (SHS).
The EC commenced a two-day registration at premises of the various senior high schools beginning July 10, 2020.
The exercise is supposed to end today [Saturday, July 11, 2020].
The decision to commence registration in SHSs was communicated to political parties after an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9, 2020.
This was after some members of the public raised concerns about the exclusion of SHS students from the ongoing voter registration exercise.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Bernard Antwi Boasiako has been sued by businessman Ibrahim Mahama for defamation.
Mr Mahama, who is the founder of Engineers and Planners, is seeking damages of GHS5 million after Mr Boasiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, purportedly claimed that he made his wealth from unlawful means.
Chairman Wontumi allegedly suggested that the businessman benefitted from stolen state funds when his brother, John Mahama, was President.
In the writ, Mr Mahama quotes Chairman Wontumi, who was speaking on Wontumi TV, as saying:
“He has bought a car, it is said he has bought a car for Hajia for Real. Then he has bought a house and given it to her in addition, then he has snatched Kenpong’s girl. Because the money that [he has], it was when we just came into power, that his brother went and stole money for him. Do you understand?”
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Mr. Mahama says he read the comments to mean he is “in possession of stolen wealth or money… tainted with stealing.”
He is thus seeking an unqualified apology and “retraction of the said [defamatory] statements within seven days of judgement.”
Mr Mahama stressed that the comments were “palpable lies made without justification and is or was actuated by malice, disdain and ill-will.”
The editor of daillymailgh.com, Kenneth Mensah, has also been sued and is facing the same defamation claims.
Kenneth Mensah published Chairman Wontumi’s comments on his website.
Mr Mahama noted a lack of remorse from the defendants in the case saying they “have not made any attempt to apologise or to even pull down the malicious publications.”
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The recent nomination of Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the running mate of former President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has unsurprisingly elicited an interesting debate about women’s participation in politics in Ghana.
Whilst some have welcomed it as a momentous landmark for women empowerment, others are also sceptical about whether her nomination would make any real difference in the fortunes of the NDC, going into election 2020 in December.
To put the issue into perspective, it is important to mention that this is not the first time a woman has made it to this level. As a matter of fact, in the 2016 elections former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, arguably the country’s most iconic gender activist in the last forty years, ran for president on the ticket of the National Democratic Party (NDP). On that occasion, not much excitement was generated by her candidature because the NDP found itself outside the radius of all political pollsters and analysts. And to be fair, even though some people dismiss her with a comical wave of hand, Madam Akua Donkor was also elected presidential candidate by her party, the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), in 2015 albeit she was disqualified from the race in the end.
The question then is, what makes the nomination of Professor Opoku-Agyemang so special to have generated so much political commentary? Could it be because the NDC is the biggest opposition party and has a track record of forming a government in the Fourth Republic or the pedigree of the professor or both?
Who Is Professor Opoku-Agyemang?
So, let us get to know Professor Opoku-Agyemang. She was born on 22nd November 1951 in Cape Coast. She attended Anglican Girls’ Secondary School at Koforidua and Aburi Presbyterian Girls’ School. She then had her secondary education at the Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast from 1964 to 1971. She completed B.Ed.(Hons) in English and French at the University of Cape Coast in 1977 and obtained her Masters and Doctorate degrees from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1980 and 1986 respectively.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang taught and worked at the University of Cape Coast, starting in 1986. From 1997, she held the position of Academic Director of the School for International Training in the History and Cultures of the African Diaspora. She held various academic positions including Head of the Department of English, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Warden of Adehye Hall, Valco Trust Fund Post-Graduate Hostel, and Dean of School of Graduate Studies and Research.
In March 2007, Professor Opoku-Agyemang was one of five scholars selected to deliver presentations during the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. From 2008-2012, she became the first female to be appointed Vice-Chancellor of a public university, the University of Cape Coast. In October 2009, she was elected Ghana’s representative to the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Ahead of the 2012 general elections, she moderated the presidential debate with Hon. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, current Minister of Information (who was then a broadcast journalist with the Multimedia Group). Subsequently, she was appointed Minister of Education between 2013 and January 2017 during the administration of former President Mahama.
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After she left office, following the defeat of the NDC in the 2016 general elections, she was appointed Chancellor of the Women’s University in Africa (Zimbabwe) in October 2018. To her credit, she has served on many local and international boards and committees including Centre for Democratic Governance, Editorial Board of The Harriet Tubman Series on the African Diaspora (Africa World Press Inc. USA), the Africa Initiative in Canada, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons as Eminent Citizen.
She belongs to the following professional associations; Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS), University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), English Studies Association (ESA), African Studies Association (ASA), United States, African Literature Association, United States and International Fulbright Scholars Association, Commonwealth of Learning among others.
Her sterling performance bagged her enviable national and international awards and recognitions. She has been honoured with honorary degrees from the University of West Indies and Winston-Salem University. She has also received an award for Global leadership from the University of South Florida in Tampa. In addition, she has been acknowledged for Outstanding Performance in Advancing International Education, School for International Training, Vermont, USA on two occasions.
To crown it all, she is also a proud recipient of the Officer of the Order of the Volta Award (the highest national award in Ghana) for Academic Distinction. Thus, with such pedigree, many analysts believe that her nomination is far from being symbolism for gender tokenism.
Challenges of Women in Politics
Achieving equality and equity for all citizens particularly, women, has become topical in contemporary debates in global politics. These issues progressively gained dominance after the Beijing Conference (1995) which elevated the discourse to include women due to their low representation in political circles. Policy frameworks such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and the Beijing Platform of Action (1995) gave credence to women’s participation in both decisions making as well as increasing their representation in political power structures which is dominated by their male counterparts.
However, regardless of all these efforts to promote women and enable them to participate in political governance women still grapple with the reality of having such dreams fulfilled. This is because there are those who believe that women do not deserve such prestigious offices as they are deemed fit for the kitchen rather than the political arena where decisions are made. Little wonder global statistics indicate women account for less than 10 percent in active politics.
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In 1992, during the very first European Summit on Women in Decision-Making in Athens, it was declared that “women represent half the potential talents and skills of humanity and their under-representation in decision-making is a loss for society as a whole.” Male patriarchy is one of the hurdles women face in politics. This discrimination is not limited to political circles but cuts across other important institutions.
In many countries such as Ghana, strong patriarchal systems remain in place relegating women to the roles of the home and kitchen as mothers and wives; making it difficult for women to break into the elite class. Gender stratification is unfavourable towards women; making them unpopular candidates for political office regardless of their qualifications.
There is also the issue of political backlash. Indeed, women are also deterred from doing politics aside the patriarchal nature of it simply because of the fact that women who put themselves up for public positions tend to receive heavy backlash in the form of accusations of sexual impropriety. This more often than not turn many of them away from engaging in politics. The few courageous women who engage in politics are scrutinized in areas like; a sense of fashion, physical appearance, marital status and their private life.
Hillary Clinton was no exception when she ran for the highest office in the United States of America. In her book, “What Happened”, released in September 2017, she wrote: “It’s not customary to have women lead or even to engage in the rough-and-tumble of politics. It’s not normal — not yet. So, when it happens, it often doesn’t feel quite right. That may sound vague, but it’s potent. People cast their votes based on feelings like that all the time.”
In spite of all the biases and discrimination against women, they still strive to break the glass ceiling that limits their progress. Women who have made indelible marks in leadership include the likes of Margaret Thatcher who was the longest continuously serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 11 years and recorded some sterling achievements. It is on record that by the end of the Thatcher era, unemployment reduced significantly. It is also worth mentioning Angela Dorothea Merkel, a scientist, who has been Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany since 2005. She is today a respected world leader, a pivotal democratic figure, who has adeptly shaped German foreign policy and contributed significantly to the European Union (EU).
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Another prominent female personality who made a significant impact in international politics was Benazir Bhutto, a Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation. Also, at age 37, Jacinta Arden became the world’s youngest female Head of Government and Prime Minister of New Zealand. In March 2019, she skillfully led the country through the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, rapidly introducing strict gun laws in response. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, she has received praise for handling the pandemic in New Zealand with so much dexterity.
In Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia was the first woman to be elected as president of her country and also the first woman elected in June 2016 as Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). One of her unforgettable achievements was the reduction of the country’s national debt which stood at an approximately US$4.9 billion in 2006. The United States became the first country to grant debt relief to Liberia, waiving the full $391 million owed to it by Liberia in early 2007. In September of that year, the G-8 headed by Chancellor Merkel provided $324.5 million to pay off 60% of Liberia’s debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), crediting their decision to the macroeconomic policies pursued by the Sirleaf administration. Through her efforts she brought women into the peacekeeping process, this achievement won her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.
Professor Opoku Agyemang’s nomination marks an important milestone in the annals of Ghana. it is novel in Ghana’s political history, particularly under this Fourth Republic by a major political party. It deepens our democracy as an all-inclusive governance system, giving women the hope that there is finally a representative of them on what has been known as the table of men for all these years. It surely indicates that, finally, our society is beginning to acknowledge the qualities women possess.
I hope Ghanaians would render their support not just for her, but to all women who would be contesting in the December 2020 general elections. I congratulate Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. She has exhibited that indeed, she defied the odds in achieving excellence. The credentials of the distinguished professor show that she is not just a token, but rather a woman who qualifies for the position she has been nominated for. It is my hope that she would receive support and encouragement from women groups as she shatters the glass ceiling to set the pace for young women, going into the future.
Priscilla Mawuena Abotsi | African Center for Women In Politics (ACWP) | Deputy Head, Political Desk in Charge of International Relations | Email: mawuena2505@gmail.com
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Basic school pupils in the Binduri District of the Upper East Region have expressed dissatisfaction with the size and thickness of nose masks distributed to them by government.
Government as part of measures to curb the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, following the reopening of schools, provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) including nose masks to ensure the safety of pupils against the widespread of the pandemic.
In the effort, PPEs such as nose masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizers were distributed to the pupils. Each pupil in the Binduri District received one nose mask and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Schools were also provided with ‘Veronica Buckets, Tissue paper, Liquid soap and classes were decongested to adhere to the social distancing protocol.
In the Binduri District, schools have resumed serious academic work, religiously adhering to the preventive protocols. When GhanaWeb visited some schools with the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) in its “I am Aware Project” to sensitize pupils on Coronavirus and assess government’s response to help curb the spread in public institutions in the wake of the pandemic, it was observed that pupils put away the nose masks government distributed and made use of what they acquired themselves.
At the Binguri Junior High School (JHS) for instance, only one pupil in a class of 16 wore the government distributed noses masks to school. They rest put on self-acquired nose masks.
The pupils lamented that the nose masks government gave are larger than their faces, too thick and do not properly cover their mouths and noses thereby exposing them to the risk of infection. They explained that the straps are long, loose and the fabric thick and wide making it difficult to hold on to their faces.
The pupils further lamented the unavailability of waste bins in the schools to properly dispose off used tissue paper and other waste material. The inadequacy of hand sanitizers was also mentioned with explanation that what they received would soon get used up.
“The nose mask is too heavy and thick and also white and too big to wear and when we wear it, we cannot breathe”.
“When you put it on, you will be feeling hot and sweating. You will have to remove it every 5 or 10 minutes and while you are removing, others too want to remove so we will all be sitting without the nose masks which is dangerous. So that is why we are using our own nose masks which fit us well and not what they gave us”.
“Another challenge too is we don’t have dustbins where we drop the waste tissue paper inside when we finish cleaning our hands. We always drop it on the floor which is not good for us”, some of the pupils told Correspondent Senyalah Castro in an interview.
District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Yakubu Abagre Ayinga, when contacted on the issue blamed the mass production of the nose masks for the large sizes. He said because individual measurements of the pupils were not taken for the production, it was expected that the masks will not perfectly fit the faces of the pupils.
The DCE, however, assured to step in to address the issue. He stated that he would engage tailors to adjust the sizes of the nose masks to achieve accuracy to ensure pupils in the district are safe from the viral infection. He also assured to timely provide the schools with waste bins.
“Actually, I haven’t heard any incident after schools reopened for the final years but as time goes on issues come up and we will see how we can solve them. The information I am hearing about some of the nose masks being bigger than what the students need is expected because they are small children, if they don’t measure for the mass production of the masks it is difficult to determine some of these things. Sometimes it can be bigger, other times smaller or even mixed up. So, we (the assembly) are going to intervene to see what is happening and what we can do.
The assembly has engaged tailors through the local government to produce nose masks and so we will look at it from that angle and let the tailors also look at the students and see whether they can also reduce the sizes of the nose masks. On the issue of dustbin, I will speak to my director because we have some here at the assembly and I am sure what we have will be enough for the schools here”. The DCE assured.
The DCE said as a representative of government, he was committed to ensuring the safety of the pupils and fighting off the disease in the district. He urged parents and all in the district to join hands in the fight against the disease which has eaten so much into the world and caused deaths.
In a related development, the Executive Director of the Rural Initiatives for Self Empowerment Ghana (RISE Ghana), Awal Ahmed, has called on government to provide the opportunity and enabling ground for local producers of nose masks to curtail the supply challenge and issues with sizes.
Mr. Ahmed, who has observed some gaps in government’s efforts in providing PPEs to some public institutions especially in rural communities in the region such as schools, says when producers are helped to thrive, the fight against the pandemic will be made easier for vulnerable groups in society.
Mr. Ahmed noted this when he joined the “I Am Aware” citizen group in Binduri Wednesday to monitor public institutions such as schools to assess the response of government in helping them fight the coronavirus.
He said: “when the citizen groups were monitoring, they realized that inasmuch as government has done well in terms of responding and providing the necessary protocols and accoutrements for pupils to adhere to the covid-19 protocols, there were some gaps. For instance, some of the nose masks are produced and introduced to the districts from different locations so you find some of them very big for our children and you find that some of the schools do not have the full complement. Even though the process is still ongoing, I think that going forward, the government needs to pay attention to and provide opportunities for local producers to be able to produce this material so that we can get sizes fit for the children”.
President Nana Akufo-Addo was on Sunday, July 12, 2020, seen in a live Facebook stream interacting with some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) via social media platform Zoom.
The live recording, done by Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin showed the president looking robust and in good health.
The caption on the video indicated that the President was in a meeting with members of his party’s communications advisory team.
This comes barely a week after President Akufo-Addo went into self-isolation following close contact with a member of his Cabinet who has tested positive for Covid-19.
The video is the second peek Ghanaians have had of the president who is alleged to be isolating at the Presidential Villa of the Jubilee House.
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With the President completing nine days out of the mandatory 14 days isolation, a picture with wife, first lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo and two of their children have been trending on social media.
During the weekly update by the Information Ministry, sector Minister Kojo Oppong- Nkrumah said President Akufo-Addo is ‘hale and hearty’ and continues to work from home.
According to Mr Oppong-Nkrumah, the President has even given instructions over safety in schools, following the recent outbreak of the virus in some Senior High Schools during a meeting with members of the Covid-19 Response Team, on Wednesday, July 5.
The National Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, has assured Ghanaians that the newly elected running mate of John Mahama, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, will restore the honour and dignity of the office of Vice President should the NDC win power in the upcoming general elections.
Speaking at the party’s press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, July 8, 2020, he said “Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang is a God-fearing leader who exudes profound humility, honesty, competence, decency and patriotism. She can be trusted to restore the honour and dignity the office of Vice President has lost in the last three and half years when elected”.
Sammy Gyamfi again condemned the actions of some high profile members of the NPP who have tried to tarnish the reputation of John Dramani Mahama’s running mate.
Following the unveiling of Prof. Opoku-Agyemang by the NDC on Monday, July 6, 2020, the governing NPP organized what Sammy Gyamfi refers to as a “poorly assembled press conference in a vain attempt to denigrate the personality” of Prof. Opoku-Agyemang.
“The NDC has noted the desperate fabrications being peddled around by the NPP about the sterling record of Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang as minister of education. Barely after the big announcement was made, the NPPs Director of Communications, Mr. Yaw Buabeng Asamoah who has become synonymous with panicky autopilot parody whenever the NDC address the nation on critical national issues hurriedly put together a poorly assembled press conference in a vain attempt to denigrate the personality of the impeccable Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang,” he stated.
Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, during their press conference on Monday, said, “it does not matter who the running mate is, if the main man himself is indecisive and incompetent, we still have a problem. It is our view that after having looked so long and wide, the NDC still has a problem” adding that, it was during her tenure as Education Minister that trainee teachers’ allowances were scrapped.
The NDCs National Communications Officer has, however, refuted all these claims calling it mere fabrications to discredit their candidate.
Meanwhile, many have lauded John Mahama for nominating Prof. Opoku-Agyemang as his running mate.
On July 6, 2020, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) held a press conference a few hours after the opposition National Democratic Conference (NDC) officially announced Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as their vice-presidential candidate.
Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoah, the communications director of the NPP, who addressed the conference made some claims about the NDC’s vice-presidential candidate, who is also a former minister of education. He highlighted what the NPP considered to be the failures of Prof. Opoku-Agyemang during her tenure as minister of education while touting his party’s successes.
“Research and Book allowances of our hard-working Lecturers were cancelled. Today we have reintroduced Book and research allowance and the government has also put together a stand-alone bill to dedicate enough resources for the fund,” Mr Asamoah said at the press conference.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, during his speech at the acclamation of the President Nana Akufo-Addo as the presidential candidate of the NPP on June 27, 2020, also made a similar claim.
“We have restored the book and research allowance,” Dr. Bawumia said.
Fact-check Ghana has verified the claim on the cancellation of the book and research allowance and conclude it is false.
Explanation: In 2013, the Government of Ghana through its functionaries announced that it was going to review the book and research allowance, a system that provided research support to lecturers and researchers. The government said it wanted to replace it with the national research fund.
The decision was also announced in the 2014 budget statement (pg. 190) by the then finance minister, Mr. Seth Terkper.
“In order to encourage more research work in tertiary institutions and to realize its full benefits, Government has decided to review the existing system of payment of the book and research allowance and replace it with a Research Facility. Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Education through the National Council for Tertiary Education has set aside GH₵15 million towards the establishment of a Research and Innovation Facility,” the budget statement said.
The decision was opposed by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG), which staged a number of strikes to register their protest.
UTAG and POTAG contended that they did not oppose the establishment of the national research fund, as it was an idea they first mooted in 2006. They, however, believed that the fund should not give rise to the scrapping of the book and research allowance but should complement it. Their demands were, however, not fully accepted by the Government of Ghana.
Despite the disagreements, the ruling NDC government in their last year in power, 2016, paid the book and research allowance for the 2015/2016 academic year. This was announced by President John Dramani Mahama at the last session of the series of the 50th congregation ceremonies of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi on July 6, 2019, when he said the government had released GH¢37 million to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to pay the book and research allowance.
The payment was further confirmed by the then President of UTAG, Dr. Harry Agbanu, that the various universities had picked up their checks from the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE).
These pieces of evidence, therefore, prove that the government of the NDC did not cancel the book and research allowance warranting its restoration or reintroduction as claimed by the NPP and Dr Bawumia.
The Kwahu Traditional Council in the Eastern Region has ordered the closure of two pro-NDC radio stations, Kwahu FM and Afram FM by midday today July 9.
The Traditional Council has also banned all political activities of the opposition National Democratic Congress in the Kwahu Traditional Area.
The announcement was made today at a press briefing addressed by Nana Akouko Boateng, Chief linguist to Kwahuhene Daasebre Akuamoah Boateng today at his palace .
According to the traditional council, the NDC failed to honour a summon for invoking curses on Kwahu land on non-residents who attempted to register in the ongoing voters registration exercise.
The traditional council accused the NDC officials led by Mark Oliver Kevor for calling them hypocrites on his two radio stations.
The Opposition National Democratic Congress NDC, in the region has since the beginning of the voters registration exercise invoked two major curses on Kwahu land, one in River Nkwakwamu in Nkawkaw and the other in Kwahu Afram Plains South, against non-residents being smuggled to register in their stronghold constituencies .
According to the party executives, they have resorted to invoking curses as a result of the security agencies failure to stop the busing of non-residents to its stronghold constituencies by elements of the ruling New Patriotic Party ostensibly to win the seats.
The Regional Communication Director of the Party Dallas Williams believes their actions are in demand for natural justice in lieu of diminishing justice in the country due to lethargic attitude by the police .
However, a statement issued by the Eastern Regional Director of the ruling NPP David Prah stated that “Eastern Regional Executives of the New Patriotic Party need not to bus people outside to Afram Plains to register before winning that seat this time around, looking at the impeccable records of development and human centered policies carried out by the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.”
“The people of Afram Plains and the entire Eastern Region are the living witnesses of the massive developmental projects going on and will vote overwhelmingly for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP Parliamentary Candidate.”
The Statement added “the only challenge of the NDC is that they as a party are ill-prepared for the voter registration exercise. It should be noted that not a single incidence has happened in the region. We in the NPP are seriously mobilising people to register and for sure, we will continue to do that.”
“The Eastern Regional Executives of the NPP are on the ground carrying effective monitoring to ensure that the voting public register towards the victory 2020 for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP”.
