Author: newsfilegh

At least 17 prisoners have died over the past week in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s biggest prison, a charity says. Aid workers say the deaths were caused by a lack of food and medicine, as well as poor hygiene. Makala Prison in the capital, Kinshasa, has received no food supplies in the last two months, state officials say. “It’s terrible! People are dying almost every day,” a prison official who did not want to be named told the BBC. Food shortages mean the more than 8,000 prisoners who live there rely on their families to bring in meals. The…

An application by the Attorney General to defend Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah in a quasi-criminal case in the ongoing COCOBOD trial has been rejected by the court. The state had wanted to defend Dr. Adu-Ampomah in a case of perjury but the Accra High Court ruled that since perjury is a quasi-criminal matter, the AG’s action contradicts the constitution. Dr. Adu-Ampomah who is the third prosecution witness, was cited for perjury by Samuel Cudjoe, counsel for Dr. Stephen Opuni. The motion for the perjury was supposed to have been moved on Thursday January 9, 2020 in which Dr. Adu-Ampomah was to…

Member of Parliament for Bantama, Daniel Okyem Aboagye, says there is nothing wrong for anyone to beg for power, claiming Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo even begged to become president. Rejecting media reports that he begged Ashanti regional chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, to make him go unopposed in the party’s parliamentary primaries, he said he sees nothing wrong with begging, once it is for a good course like attaining power. MP allegedly kneels before Wontumi; begs to go unopposed? “I’m never afraid of competition. I wouldn’t say I was begging to go unopposed, but even if I have to…

Political science lecturer, Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo, says though the Electoral Commission has made legitimate case for a new voters’ register, the appropriateness for the compilation raises questions. “We need a new register and I agree with the EC, given the challenges with the old one,” he said in a new article on the controversial voters’ register issue. In his view however, for the EC to undertake activities such as the compilation of a new voters’ register in an election year, no matter how well intentioned that may be, raises suspicions. He said although the EC cannot be faulted for…

Member of Parliament for Bantama Daniel Okyem Aboagye has denied going down on his knees to beg the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, to allow him go unopposed in the upcoming NPP parliamentary primary. Reports emerged this week that the MP at a meeting with leadership of the New Patriotic Party in the Ashanti region Sunday went down on his knees to plead the executives to allow him go unopposed in the 2020 elections. MP allegedly kneels before Wontumi; begs to go unopposed? The MP appears slighted by the media reports, has told TV3 that…

A 10-year-old boy who was kidnaped from Kintampo in the Bono East Region has been rescued by the police and the suspect. Mahamadu Fulani, who is a herdsman, was said to have transported the boy to Yendi and demanded 20,000-cedi ransom before he could release him. According to the police, Fulani on January 6 took some cattle belonging to the boy’s father for grazing in the fields. He was said to have taken the boy along. Though they were supposed to have returned the same day, the police say, the suspect later in the day called the boy’s father on…

It must have been a great relief for many, especially media practitioners, to have finally heard the announcement by the government, through the Ministry for Information, that the much-anticipated Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989) is now effective. “Long overdue!”, one would say, but as to what that exactly means to the ordinary Ghanaian has been captured in my first article in this series. Right to Information Act effective today: What does it mean? Those who literally broke their backs and risked their lives to campaign relentlessly and advocate vigorously to see the RTI come to pass must have…

Ghanaian songstress MzVee, who for two years battled with depression, has not only bounced back from the disease, but also returned from her music break with a new single that is likely to be a banger. After three successive albums in four years and the release of a hit single, the afro-pop-cum-dancehall female recording artiste uncharacteristically left the music scene, triggering speculations of pregnancy and issues with her then record label, Lynx Entertainment. It however emerged on January 6, 2020 that the Daavi hit maker was forced to abandoned music due to depression, a medical condition she said made her…

Cases of false paternity fraud have shot up in the Ashanti Region, the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Police has disclosed. Paternity fraud is a situation where a mother deliberately tricks a man into believing he is the biological father of a child that is not his. Classified as emotional abuse, DOVVSU says the past two years has seen an increased in false paternity in the Ashanti region compared to physical abuse of men. Although the Ashanti Regional Coordinator DOVVSU, Supt. Sussana Dery, declined to give figures citing lack of authorisation as the basis, she described…

The Sahel region has experienced “a devastating surge in terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets” in recent months according to the region’s United Nations envoy. Mohamed Ibn Chambas made the comments when he was speaking to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. He said that the “unprecedented terrorist violence” had shaken public confidence in the region. He said attacks have increased five-fold in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger since 2016. More than 4,000 deaths were reported in 2019 compared with an estimated 770 deaths three years before. The UN outlined the most recent attacks: Five soldiers died in a…