Wednesday, December 15, 2010

ASSEMBLY RECEIVES HEAVY EQUIPMENT (PAGE 35, DEC 13, 2010)

THE National Security Secretariat has presented heavy equipment to the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Assembly to enhance the district’s development programme.
The equipment comprises a grader, tipper truck, pay loader and a roller.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mrs Georgina Nkrumah Aboah, who inaugurated the equipment last Thursday, said a committee had been set up with an oversight responsibility under the district’s security council to ensure effective and efficient management of the equipment.
Mrs Nkrumah Aboah said rehabilitation works on the bridge at Kuntanase, which collapsed during the recent floods, would soon be completed to make the road accessible.
She said the assembly had awarded contracts for the rehabilitation of a number of feeder roads in the area.
The roads are Jamra-Towoboase, Brakwa-Ogonaso, Adumanu-Anhwiam and Asikuma-Abuakua.
Mrs Nkrumah Aboah said funds had also been made available for the reshaping and spot regravelling of the Odoben town, Breman Asikuma-Assin Manso, Breman Asikuma town roads as well as the Odoben-Kuntanase roads.
She advised the people to channel their grievances through the appropriate quarters for redress instead of embarking on demonstrations.
The DCE also urged the people to participate fully in the up-coming district assembly elections whilst advising candidates and their supporters to desist from actions that could mar the elections.
She commended the National Security Secretariat for providing the equipment, which she said, would go a long way to boost development in the district and nearby ones which would also benefit from the equipment.

Monday, December 6, 2010

PLUMBER INFLICTS WOUNDS ON RIVAL (MIRROR, DEC 4, 2010, PAG 35,)

From Joe Okyere, Cape Coast

FOR his extreme jealousy, Kojo Eyi, a 31-year-old plumber, is in the grip of the law for inflicting blade wounds on a man he suspected of having an affair with his ex-wife.
Eyi has been remanded by the Cape Coast Circuit Court One, presided over by Mr Samuel Asare Nyarkoh, to reappear on December 13, 2010 after pleading not guilty when he made his first appearance last Wednesday.
According to Chief Inspector Francis Kingsford Ockom, Eyi has three children with his ex-wife, Ewura Esi, who operates a chop bar at the Anaafo Market in Cape Coast.
Inspector Ockom said Mr Solomon Otoo Arthur, 38, was a Cleaner at the Ghana Commercial Bank, Cape Coast Main Branch and a regular customer of Ewura Esi.
He said on Sunday, November 28, this year, around 7.30 p.m., Arthur who lived at Abease, visited Ewura Esi and the sister, Aba Kakraba, in their house at Coronation, a suburb of Cape Coast.
Inspector Ockom said, whilst Arthur was in the house with Esi and the sister, the accused went there to visit the children.
He said the accused left the house without uttering a word and Mr Arthur also left the house later to his house.
Inspector Ockom said at about 8.30 p.m, whilst Mr Arthur was about to enter the bathroom to take his bath, he heard a knock at another entrance to the house and asked who was knocking.
He said Eyi suddenly entered and attacked Mr Arthur and inflicted multiple wounds on his face, neck, back and the left arm with a blade, accusing him of having an affair with his wife.
He said Arthur managed to escape to a nearby house and informed the inmates about his ordeal.
He said the inmates, who saw blood oozing from the several wounds inflicted on Mr Arthur, arrested Eyi and handed him over to the police.
The police issued Mr Arthur with a medical form to go to the hospital for treatment.
He said investigators, who visited the scene, retrieved two blades believed to have been used by Eyi for the dastardly act.
The Judge, however, urged the investigator to speed up his work for the court to take the necessary action.

ZOOMLION TO ESTABLISH COMPOSTING PLANT AT AGYEN (PAGE 38, DEC 6, 2010)

ZOOMLION Ghana Limited, a waste management company, is to establish a 300-tonne capacity sorting and composting plant at Agyen Kotoku, near Nsawam in the Eastern Region as part of its waste management improvement services in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zoomlion, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, made this known at a press briefing on the activities of the plant in Cape Coast.
Mr Siaw Agyepong said the plant was expected to be ready by February, 2011.
He said the country generated enough waste which could feed the plant to turn it into manure for agriculture.
Mr Siaw Agyepong said the company had also set up a subsidiary known as the Zoil Services to deal with oil spill due to the discovery and production of oil in the country.
The CEO said the company also intended to go into large scale agricultural venture to train the youth in agriculture under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) in agriculture (NYEP).
Mr Siaw Agyepong said the venture would provide employment for the youth who would pass out after their training under the NYEP.
On the promotion of waste management in the Central Region, he said a number of interventions had been introduced to address the situation.
The interventions include the introduction of “bola taxis” and the formation of clubs in basic schools in the region as well as eco- brigades to keep the coastal areas clean to boost tourism.
Mr Siaw Agyepong said the main challenges the company faced were irregular payment from clients, poor sanitary habits and sourcing funding.
He said the company was poised to make a major breakthrough in waste management in the country.

OBRAACHIRE TRAINING CENTRE TO REDUCE POVERTY (PAGE 38, DEC 6, 2010)

“If you want one year of prosperity for your community,grow only crops. If you want 10 years of prosperity, cultivate only trees. But if you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people,” so goes a Chinese saying.
Since the youth shall remain one of the greatest assets that any community can possess, there is the need to invest greatly in them for the sustainable development of society.
It is against this background that the Obrachire Skills Training Centre was established in January 2010 to alleviate rural poverty and youth unemployment by providing tuition-free market-driven vocational and technical skills training, as well as excellent job placement services.
The fast growing skills training project targets unemployed and underemployed youth at Obrachire and its surrounding communities in the Central Region, who failed to complete primary or secondary education to have access to vocational and technical education.
The trainees undergo six months intensive skills course in hair technology, baking and pastry arts, cookery and mobile phone repair technology.
As resources unfold, the centre will invest in other market-driven vocational and technical programmes of study, the next in line being batik tie-dye technology.
To ensure that students become responsible members of society and maintain their employment, trainees also undergo life skills, entrepreneurial skills and leadership training as core courses.
After successfully completing six months of study in a particular programme, the students serve as interns with top class business establishments for two months in order to gain rich job experience and make a smooth transition from school to work.
The centre is blessed with affable and passionate instructors and job placement experts who establish career paths for each student and work around the clock to secure good-paying jobs in line with the career goals of each student.
The Obrachire Skills Training Centre has great potential of becoming a springboard to financial freedom and dignity amongst the youth and is therefore, critical to family strengthening and community development.
So far, 21 inmates who have completed various training programmes are to undergo attachment whilst 21 others are being admitted.
At the launching of the first Students Representative Council Week celebration last Monday, the Director of the Centre, Mr Joseph Tetteh, said what was troubling was the fact that some members of the society had engaged themselves in all sorts of unimportant matters aimed at distracting the progress of the centre and holding back the community’s clock of development.
He appealed for support for the centre to provide skills for the youth in the area.

ASEBU RELAUNCHES EDUCATIONAL FUND (PAGE 22, DEC 3, 2010)

THE Asebu Traditional Council has relaunched its education fund to promote education in the area.
The relaunch of the fund formed part of activities marking this year’s celebration of their annual Apayamkese festival, which has the theme: ”Celebrating the past to inspire the future. Education, the key to our development.”
Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people at Asebu last weekend, the Omanhene of the Traditional Area, Okatakyi Amanfi VII said the theme for the celebration was informed by the role of education towards development.
Okatakyi Amanfi said the collapse of the two fruit processing companies, L. Rose Limited and Fruit and Flavours Limited in the area had affected the ability of farmers to send their children to school.
He, therefore, appealed to indigenes and well wishers to assist by donating generously to sustain the fund.
The Omanhene also appealed to the government to rehabilitate roads in Asebu town as well as those in the area to enhance economic activities.
A lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Professor Nsiah Gyasi described the fund as a bold step that would help to stem the tide of high drop-out rate and teenage pregnancy in the area.
He advised the people against high funeral costs, which depleted their already meagre incomes.
The flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in the 2008 election, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom pledged to donate GH¢50 each to 10 students in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District who would excel in the Basic Education Certificate Examination within the next five years.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Anthony Christian Dadzie donated GH¢1,000 towards the fund, and Mr Kobina Arthur Kennedy donated GH¢1,000.
The Central Regional Minister, Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe, who was represented by Mr Patrick Aniagyei, a Presidential Aid at the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council on behalf of the national Democratic Congress (NDC), presented GH¢500 to the fund whilst Mr Arthur Kennedy and Nana Ato Arthur, the immediate past Central Regional Minister on behalf of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, donated GH¢500 towards the fund.

AHOMKA FM MAST COLLAPSES (PAGE 22, DEC 3, 2010)

GUSTS of rain last Sunday morning caused the collapse of an old antennae used by Ahomka FM, a private radio station on top of block three of the SSNIT Flats at Elmina.
Even though no one was injured in the incident, an Audi 80 car which was parked at the entrance was slightly dented as part of the collapsed antennae landed close to the vehicle hit it.
The operation of the FM station at the Flats had been challenged by the residents, due to the danger the erection of a mast in a residential area poses to lives and property.
Following a court’s ruling, the station relocated to Iture, near Elmina but the antennae was not dismantled.
A resident of Block three, who claimed anonymity, described the incident as a miraculous escape for a former resident who used to park his car at the spot where the collapsed antennae landed.
In a related development, residents of SSNIT Flats have appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana to pull down a concrete pole for streetlight between Block three and Block four which poses danger to lives.
The cement covering the iron rods has peeled off as a result of corrosion leaving it to stand precariously.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

SET UP BODY ON ETHICS OF OPOMETRY PROFESSION (PAGE 35, DEC 2, 2010)

THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called for the setting up of a qualified body to enforce the ethics of the optometry profession.
Mr Mahama said even though the profession had served the country in diverse ways in the healthcare delivery system, it was faced with challenges in its bid to offer quality services to the people.
Addressing the third induction ceremony for 105 newly qualified doctors of optometry from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) for the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 year groups to the Ghana Optometric Association, the Vice-President said the move would also help to weed out unqualified personnel from the system.
These were contained in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Steve Okrah, the Director at the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council at the auditorium of the School of Medical Sciences in Cape Coast.
Vice-President Mahama said the government would strive to ensure that the optometry profession was regulated to achieve its full potential in line with the “Better Ghana” agenda.
He said the nation should look forward to a greater opportunity for every Ghanaian to get access to comprehensive eye care services, eradication of preventable blindness, as well as all other provisions of the Vision 2020 in collaboration with all stakeholders in the eye care sector.
He pledged the government’s support for them to enable them to contribute their quota towards national development.
The Head of the Department of Optometry, Dr Alfred Owusu, reminded the participants that their induction imposed on them a sense of responsibility to conscientiously and honourably promote their profession with regard to highest standards of their practice, ethics and ideas in optometry.
The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Professor Naana Jane Opoku–Agyemang, admonished universities in the country to ensure closer collaboration for the optimum use of resources and equipment for the training of students.
At the ceremony during which the newly qualified doctors took their professional oath administered by a judge of the High Court, Osagyefo  Agyemang-Badu II, the Dormaahene, Dr Anthony Kpetsey of the KNUST, took the Dr F.K. Morny Memorial Prize for the OD in Optometry Licenser Examination.
Dr Mary Anderson of the UCC was adjudged the best in ODs in 2008/2009 with Dr Michael Ntodie also of the UCC for 2009/2010. Dr Ernest Awiti Bafoe of KNUST for 2008/2009, whilst Dr Nartey Tawiah Emmanuel also of KNUST won the 2009/2010 awards.
On behalf of the newly qualified doctors, Dr Kpetsey called on the government to expedite action on their postings to district hospitals, salaries and provision of equipment for them to deliver.