Category: General

Mr John Tia Akologo, a former Minister of Information under the President John Evans Atta Mills’ regime, has passed on at age 69.

He died on Sunday morning, March 24, at the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga after a short illness.

Mr Salifu Abdallah, the Upper East Regional Director of Communications, National Democratic Congress (NDC), who confirmed the sad news to the Ghana News Agency, said he was taken to the hospital on Saturday for medical check-up but died on Sunday, unfortunately.

‘He was not sick, even yesterday, he was with us at a programme, very active engaging in some activities of the party and we never expected this. So, his demise is a very big blow to us as a party,’ he said.

Mr Abdallah described the late former Minister as a counsellor whose experience from various fields had contributed to strengthening the NDC and development discourse of the country.

Mr Akologo, who was also a journalist, had been involved in grassroots politics since the 1980s.

In 1982, he became the Pres
s Secretary of the Upper East Regional Secretariat of the Peoples Defence Committees and Workers Defence Committees set up by the Provisional National Defence Council.

He was elected the Member of Parliament for the Talensi Constituency in the 1992 general election on the ticket of the NDC and retained the seat in subsequent elections until 2012, when he lost to Mr Robert N. Doameng Mosore, an independent candidate.

The late Akologo was appointed Minister of Information in 2009 and in 2014, and later as Ghana’s Ambassador to Cuba by former President John Dramani Mahama, where he served until 2016 when the party lost power.

He also worked in various fields including the Bolgatanga office of the Ghana News Agency.

Until his demise, he was a member of the National Council of Elders representing the Upper East Region.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Kofi Sakyi, a taxi driver, who absconded with his employer’s taxi valued GHC75,000 has been sentenced to 60 months imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court.

Sakyi, aka, Mosquito, was sentenced after the court found him guilty on the charge of stealing at the end of the trial.

The court, presided over by Mr Isaac Addo, handing down sentence, said the accused was a first-time offender and he had been in custody for some time.

It, however, noted that the vehicle in question was not found.

The prosecution led by Chief Inspector Jonas Lawer said the complainant Fatima Ali was a businesswoman residing at Accra New Town whilst the accused person, Kofi Sakyi Isaac, aka Mosquito, was a taxi driver residing at Accra New Town close to the complainant’s residence.

The prosecution said in September 2023, Sakyi approached the complainant, who owned a Hyundai 110 taxicab with the registration number GS 5447-22 valued GHC 75,000.00 to give him the taxi for work.

The court heard that the Complainant gave the taxi and its
ignition key to the accused person, who immediately started work.

The prosecution said Sakyi had been taking the Complainant’s daughter to school at Haatso-Accra and back home after school as his additional duty.

On January 21, 2024, the prosecution said the Complainant was expecting the accused person to pick up her daughter to school, but he did not show up.

According to the prosecution, the Complainant, therefore, contacted Sakyi on phone, but he gave excuses that the car developed mechanical fault and that he was fixing it.

It said later in the afternoon same day, the Complainant again called Sakyi to pick her daughter from school but to no avail because he had turned his phone off.

On January 25, 2024, the matter was reported to the Police and intelligence gathered was that the accused was hiding in Agona Kwanyako in the Central Region.

On January 31, 2024, investigation was extended to Agona Kwanyako, but it was later detected that Sakyi had the hint of the Police and moved to Takoradi.

The prose
cution said on February 5, 2024, at about 1:30am intelligence led to the arrest of Sakyi at his hideout at Agona Swedru.

During interrogation, Sakyi denied the offence in his cautioned statement and said he was attacked at Kwame Nkrumah Circle by two unknown guys, who requested his service to North Kaneshie.

The prosecution said Sakyi led the Police to the scene but could not identify the exact location where the alleged incident took place.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ashanti Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), has initiated steps to engage school children on the need to prioritise food safety.

The goal is to sensitise the young ones to appreciate the importance of eating healthy food and how best to handle them to avoid contamination as part of a broad strategy to reduce foodborne diseases.

In line with this, officials from the regional office of the Authority have visited the Ellen Gould White Preparatory School at Adum to engage the pupils on food safety and the dangers associated with tobacco use.

They were educated on practices that exposed food to contamination and how to preserve food to ensure they are wholesome for consumption.

Ms. Mabel Adwoa Nyarko, a Senior Regulatory Officer of the FDA who led the discussion, admonished the pupils to be wary of anything they consumed in order not to fall sick.

She said food was supposed to provide them energy and nutrients required to grow as children and must not be the reason to visit the hospital
.

‘Make sure you always wash your hands under running water before you eat so that you don’t contaminate the food with germs and other bacteria,’ she implored the kids.

She reminded them that eating healthy food would nourish their bodies and stimulate their growth and charged them to adopt healthy eating habits both at home and in school.

Buying food from vendors in a filthy environment, she said, could also expose them to foodborne diseases and entreated them not to patronise such vendors in their own interest.

Mr. Daniel Yaw Geraldo, the Public Relations Officer, Ashanti FDA, said it was important to target pupils at the basic level of education as part of public sensitisation on food safety so that they would grow up conscious of the importance of food hygiene.

He said equipping the children with the right information on food safety would empower them to do the right things even when their parents or guardians were not available to supervise them.

On tobacco, Mr. Geraldo admonished adults to desist
from sending children to buy cigarettes, saying that, such practice could subtly introduce minors to smoking.

Pubs and other entertainment facilities must have designated areas for cigarette and shisha smokers as prescribed by the Public Health Act, to protect non-users of tobacco, he stated.

Mr. Osei Assibey, Proprietor of the school, applauded the FDA for taking such education to children at that level, saying that it was the way to go as a country in building a culture of food safety amongst the population.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Continuous quality improvement in healthcare delivery services is key in any strategy to rebrand the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

Professor Ellis Owusu Dabo, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said the new KATH agenda would require the implementation of strategic policies to achieve the desired results.

He said the strategies must include research, innovation and creativity among staff, continuous training with cutting-edged technology, quality and excellence client service delivery, and improvement in ethical values of workers at the facility.

He was speaking at the 2023 annual performance review meeting of the hospital on the theme: ‘The new KATH agenda-recalibrating efforts for enhanced health service outcomes: the role of stakeholders’.

Prof. Dabo said KATH needed strong partnerships and collaboration with all key stakeholders in the recalibrating efforts to improve health outcomes at the facility.

He said the success of a teaching hos
pital requires concerted efforts of diverse stakeholders from industry, researchers, policy makers, healthcare professionals among others, to achieve the desired goals.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor praised the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for leading the initiative to mobilise financial resources to undertake comprehensive rehabilitation of the hospital and called on all Ghanaians to support the efforts by contributing to the fund, to ensure the successful completion of the project.

Prof. Dabo said KNUST would continue to partner KATH to train health care professionals, undertake research and promote community services for the benefit of the Ghanaian people.

Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah, the Chief Executive of KATH, said management with the support of the board and other stakeholders, launched several initiatives in 2023 to improve the infrastructure base, operational systems, governance structures, services, staff morale, supervision and discipline at the hospital.

These interventions were part of the
new agenda to enhance service outcomes through improved productivity, accountability, staff capacity and welfare, patients’ satisfaction, resource mobilisation, cost reduction, retooling and research capacity, he said.

He said the net effect of these interventions was the general decline in the number of death cases at the hospital, and increase in the number of admissions, surgeries, OPD attendance, patients experience and revenue.

Prof. Addai-Mensah said the introduction of payment of patients’ bills via mobile money transfers had enabled these clients and their benefactors to honour payment of invoices from everywhere in the world.

Again, the hospital, in collaboration with the Ghana Post, had introduce home delivery of medicines to chronic but stable patients.

This would save such clients time, inconvenience and the drudgery of commuting to the hospital just to refill their medicines, with all the attendant transportation risks.

Additionally, centralised intravenous additive services had been introdu
ced by the pharmacy unit of the Child Health Directorate to make life saving but expensive medications readily, affordably and safely available to needy patients.

He said this new service had drastically helped in reducing the cost of medications and infections and maximised therapeutic outcomes, by ensuring the delivery of appropriate doses, while preventing misidentifications and overdoses to save lives.

Prof. Addai-Mensah said in 2024, management with the support from the board would continue to invest in the adoption of innovations and conduct operational research as part of the overall strategy to optimise the delivery of tertiary healthcare services at the hospital.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A 52-year-old Headteacher of the Kwanyako Methodist Basic School has been enstooled as Odikro of Abura Edumfa in the Central Region at a colourful ceremony at the weekend.

Known in private life as Mr Solomon Joewell Gaisie, the Odikro now bears the stool name, ‘Nana Edumadze Kobina IX.’

The event was a spectacular cocktail of vibrant cultural display, musketry, music and symbolic regalia, which summed up into fitting testament of the rich heritage and tradition of the people of Abura Edumfa.

Nana Kobina expressed gratitude to the Almighty God and the people of Abura Edumfa for their support and assured them of a good stewardship as expected of him.

He called on all to unite, avoid backbiting and gossiping and support his well-intentioned initiatives for the development of the town.

One such initiative is a health care facility that would offer first hand treatment to the people.

In addition, once every month, a clean-up exercise would be organised to keep the community clean.

He assured the people of a
n all-inclusive type of rule, where he would accommodate the views and suggestions of his people to advance development in the area.

On education, he cautioned parents to enrol their children in school to secure their future for the development of the community and the nation.

The Odikro expressed appreciation to the kingmakers and the people of Edumfa for the confidence reposed in him and assured them of his determination to continue with the good works started by his predecessors.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Godfred Nti Anewu, New Patriotic Party’s (NPP), Parliamentary Candidate for Assin Central, has donated 40 packets of roofing sheets and 10 bags of cement to assist victims of a devastating rainstorm that hit Assin Fosu recently.

The rainstorm affected 130 residents, destroyed 21 houses, five public buildings including schools, churches, the chief’s palace and some electricity poles, rendering some parts of the town in total darkness.

Properties estimated at GHS227,000 were destroyed while two persons were injured during the disaster.

Mr Anewu, who together with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), toured the community to ascertain the extent of damage, said, the gesture was to help reduce the suffering of the victims as some had no rooms to lay their heads.

In addition, he noted that the items would cushion them to repair their houses and happily live with their families again.

Mr Samuel Kwakye, Municipal Director of NADMO, said though the disaster was natural in some areas, others c
ould have been prevented.

He cautioned the public to take weather warnings seriously, adopt strict maintenance culture and desist from indiscriminate cutting down of trees that served as wind breaks to avoid unforeseen eventualities.

Some of the beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the Candidate for coming to their aid.

Source: Ghana News Agency