Lesotho Wire

Ghana will today mark the 76th anniversary of the 28th February Christianburg Crossroad Shooting.

There will be a solemn flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremony, which is held every year, to honour the three ex-servicemen, Sergeant Adjetey, Cpl Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey, who were killed in 1948 by the colonial police whilst matching to Osu Castle to present a petition to the then Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Sir Gerald Creasy.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Baeuumia, is expected to lay a wreath on behalf of the Government and people of Ghana.

Wreaths will also be laid on behalf of the security services, Veterans, and on behalf of Traditional Authorities.

One will also be laid on behalf of the fallen soldiers.

Every year, a parade contingent consisting of officers from the Ghana Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and the Veterans Association of Ghana is held to commemorate the Day.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Tema Court ‘A’ has sentenced Eric Gyimah, a serial taxicab thief to 25 years imprisonment in hard labour for robbing Mr Daniel Azure of his Toyota Vitz taxicab.

Gyimah, who had received a 15-year imprisonment sentence for a similar offence a few days ago, pleaded not guilty to the charge of robbery but was pronounced guilty by the court after a full trial.

The court presided over by Ms Agnes Opoku Banie, also ordered that Gyimah should refund Gh?15,000 that he stole from the complainant to him.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) George Doe, prosecuting, said while the complainant, who is a taxi driver, resides at Kasoa Amanfrom in the Central Region, the convict is a businessman residing at Adidome in the Volta region.

The prosecution said on May 18, 2023, at about 1340 hours, the complainant was in charge of a light grey and yellow Toyota Vitz taxi cab, driving within Accra, when the convict and two other men, now at large, hired his services to convey them to a building site at the Central Uni
versity area in Dawhenya to enable them to take pictures of the said building under construction for their brother overseas.

He said Gyimah then sat in the front passenger seat, while the two other men sat at the back. On reaching the Aflao Highway, a few metres after the Central University, they directed the complainant to branch onto a rough road leading to the supposed site.

The facts had it that on reaching a portion of the rough road, Gyimah asked the complainant to stop, which he did, and then the convict and the two men alighted from the taxi, telling the complainant to wait for them while they went and took pictures of the said building and returned.

He added that they returned and sat again in their various seats in the taxicab and asked the complainant to drive back towards the main road. On their way back, the two men in the back seat hooked the neck of the complainant with a rope and pulled his neck against the seat, while the convict pulled a knife on him.

The prosecution further stated that
the complainant, who held on to the knife, sustained some knife cuts on his right palm as Gyimah pulled it and inflicted multiple wounds on his leg.?

According to the prosecution, the convict then turned off the car engine, which stopped, and he forcibly took the ignition sensor, which was then hooked to the complainant’s belt hole.

The convict, together with his accomplices, then came out of the car, held the complainant, pulled him out, and dumped him into a pool of water collected in a hole on the road.

The convict then drove the taxi away with his accomplice sitting in it, and the complainant’s Samsung A11 mobile phone valued at Gh? 1,600.00, his A.M.A. licence, and his driver’s licence also in it.

The prosecution said the complainant then staggered to his feet and proceeded to the Dawhenya police station, where he made a complaint.

He said during investigations, the said taxicab was spotted in a mechanic shop at Sogakope with a new number plate embossed on it, adding that the mechanics mentioned Agb
odzahu Wobube, a nurse, as the one who brought the taxicab for repairs.

Agbodzalu Wobubo was then arrested, and upon investigation, it was mentioned that the convict was the one who sold the taxicab to him for Gh?30,000.

Wobubo then led the police to arrest Gyimah, who was subsequently identified by the complainant as one of his attackers.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Minister of Public Works (Mintp), Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, has terminated the contract of the company Bofas Sarl, as part of the rehabilitation work on the Babadjou-Bamenda road between the West and the North West region.

The company specializing in road construction is accused of abandoning work and non-compliance with contractual clauses. The decision to pathways with Bofas Sarl is contained in a release made public this week by the Ministry of Public Works.

According to MINTP, the company was expected to complete the road stretch on October 17, 2023. But in July 2023, during the last site visit carried out by Minister Djoumessi, there was a risk of postponement of the delivery date of work on the road.

This is the second deal that the Bofas company is reported to have lost in the space of three months. Last November 2023, its contract for the construction of the 49KM Esse-Soa road was terminated for the same reason with the project valued at about CFA 29 billion.

However, the project to rehabilit
ate the Babadjou-Bamenda axis (nearly 52 km) on the Yaoundé-Enugu corridor is financed by the World Bank to the tune of CFA 110 billion. In its configuration, the Babadjou-Bamenda road axis has four sections: section 1 Babadjou-Matazem (with a distance of 17km), section 2 Matazem and Welcome to Bamenda (18KM), section 3 Bamenda up to Hill station bypass (near of 5 KM) and the last batch consists of the construction of the urban crossing of the city of Bamenda (nearly 12 km). Only the works along the first section of the road have been completed to over 92%.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Mr Seth Terkper, a former Finance Minister has advised the government to focus on making the country’s four major revenue streams effective to produce the needed revenue for economic development and sustainability.

The revenue handles are income tax [personal and corporate], Value Added Tax (VAT), petroleum tax, and import duty.

‘As a developing/lower middle-income country, these are the four core taxes, which are the pillars of our revenue regime, and making them work would be to our gain, and help us avoid going back for external support periodically’ he said.

Mr Terkper said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, February 28, after he delivered a speech at a public dialogue organised by the PFM Tax Africa Network.

The dialogue was on Ghana’s ongoing US$3 billion loan-support programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

‘If you take the whole of the about 15 levies we have, they’re not contributing more than six per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and are distorting the
primary, which hurts businesses, even the more,’ he said.

He urged the government to scrap of the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy), and not introduce the 15 per cent VAT on electricity and emission tax, expressing confidence that doing so would engender compliance in existing tax handles.

‘The levies are distortive, and encouraging evasion and avoidance, so let’s clear them and focus on the country’s pillar tax regimes,’ the former Finance Minister said.

He expressed concern, saying: ‘For example, Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) – a digitisation measure that can help us expand the tax base has been there for more than seven years, and we’ve not been able to introduce a domestic IT system for the Ghana Revenue Authority when the plan and World Bank funding was there.’

He also called for pragmatic efforts in having a debt management policy that would discourage the government from borrowing beyond a certain threshold and ensure timely repayment.

On the way forward in the implementation of
the US$3bn loan-support programme, IMF, he said Ghana must be steadfast in policy and reform implementation.

That, the Fund said should include measures that would shore up revenue, and reduce expenditure, to ensure durable restoration of macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability.

Source: Ghana News Agency