The deceased persons, Awudu Issaka, 33 years; Inusah Issaka 30 years; and the injured, Abu, who were all on the motor bike, were said to have been riding from Ejisu to Kejetia to transact business.

According to a relative who spoke with Today the three were all cold store operators who supply goods to customers from Ejisu to Kejetia.

According to reports, they were on a business routine when the accident occurred.

In an interview with the station officer of Tech Police Station’s Accident Squad Unit, Chief Inspector Andrews Augustine Duodu, he disclosed that the three were riding on an unregistered motor bike from Ejisu and heading towards Kejetia at a very high speed.

He said the rider who could not apply breaks as at a time when a trailer with registration number AS 2535 W was turning around the Oduom roundabout, run straight into the tank of the trailer during which the motor bike threw them over-board.

He further stated that the two died on the spot and were sent to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s (KNUST) Hospital and were later transferred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s Morgue for autopsy.

But Abu who sustained injuries was admitted at the KNUST hospital and later discharged.

STORY: RUTH ANDY

O.B Amoah

The Member of Parliament for the Aburi-Nsawam constituency, Osei Bonsu Amoah, last Friday expressed concerns about the inability of the Akuapem South Municipal Directorate of Education to hold its Best Teacher Award ceremony for the past four years.

He noted that the situation could serve as a disincentive to teachers in the area, and therefore called on the municipal assembly to collaborate with the relevant stakeholders to rectify the situation.

Mr. Amoah pledged to sponsor two years of the backlog and called on the Assembly to also sponsor the other two years, adding: “It is not right to fail to recognise the sacrifices our teachers are making to provide education for our children, to prepare them as future leaders, and we therefore don’t have any excuse not to honour them.”

The MP was speaking at a ceremony in Nsawam where he presented 120 sets of dual-desks and 28 computers to the municipal directorate of education for distribution to some selected schools in the area.

He also presented a set of jerseys and football to the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ football team in the municipality.

The donation formed part of Mr. Amoah’s effort at tackling the deplorable furniture situation in schools in his constituency and to promote ICT education.

Making the presentation, the MP expressed concern about the poor state of educational infrastructure in the area and pledged his unflinching support to tackling the problem.

He commended the municipal directorate of education, teachers, parents and students in the area for their contribution towards the municipality’s record of coming tops in the 2011 Basic Education Certificate Examination.

“While commending all the stakeholders, let me stress that we now have a higher responsibility of at least maintaining this enviable record of 74% pass if not improving upon it this year and the years ahead. I am convinced that with all of us working together, we will be able to raise the standard of education in our schools and we cannot do this without the requisite educational infrastructure and resources,” he noted.

Mr. Amoah particularly stressed the urgent need to give priority attention to ICT education, especially the practical training, adding:  “we need to invest heavily in ICT education so that our children will be able to compete favourably with their counterparts from the well-endowed schools and also be abreast of global happenings.”

Receiving the donation, Stella Nanor, Akuapem South Municipal Director of Education, lauded the MP for his commitment to the promotion of education in his constituency.

Mrs. Nanaor described education as the engine of growth in any human society and called for a collaborative effort among stakeholders to provide the requisite infrastructure and resources needed to improve education delivery in the area.

She expressed worry about the deplorable furniture situation in schools in the area, as well as the absence of textbooks needed for effective teaching and learning, and called on the authorities to come to the aid of the municipality.

The Pharisees and Sadducees constituted the top echelon of religion in those days, presiding over the most important spiritual decisions of the time. Religion then was not like a shirt you wore on a special occasion only; it was the very way of life daily. If your child was ill and had to be treated, chances are that the diagnosis and prescription came with input from a man-of-God; if you wanted a loan, there was a spiritual twist to it; if you had education, it was there. If the ruling government wanted to levy a new tax, it sought the advice and consent of the prominent local clergy presiding over matters in the Sanhedrin. Since Rome was somewhat a benevolent dictatorship, this arrangement saved it from alienating itself from the masses of the people, while still controlling them through these charlatans; a people who had strong faith in God (not their pastors and priests). The pastors and priests of that time (the Pharisees and the Sadducees) would exploit this strong faith in God routinely, extensively, and later, in the false arrest and murder of Jesus Christ.

It is this toxic environment that Jesus Christ stepped into, one in which the Pharisees and Sadducees had more and immediate access to the rulers, than the people themselves. Being acutely aware, and gripped by the fear, of their own mortality, rulers quickly succumbed to prophesies and proclamations of the Pharisees and Sadducees about continuity of reign or some impending downfall or if they did or didn’t adopt a policy (yes, there were policies then too; they just didn’t call them policies) that was supposedly faithful of faith-filled. By a confluence of historical, current and future events of the time, some of which appeared to mirror these Pharaseeic and Sadduceeic prophesies, rulers found themselves increasingly reliant on the clergy. This close nexus, paved the way for what would be the most telling conspiracy of all time, against God’s Son, leading eventually to His disgraceful death in between two common criminals.

So how does this mirror our experience today? Let’s return to Okomfo Damuah and his ilk for a moment. In those revolutionary days, Okomfo Damuah was probably just a lone wolf, espousing an idea that caught the fancy of the young Flt. Lieutenant who was exasperated by an opulent and a hierarchical society with so much to spend and spare, while many of us credited yorke gari. Still, the fact that Okomfo Damuah had access to the Head of State who was more feared in the wake of summary executions, speaks to the power and attraction of a form of worship that proclaimed the dignity of our local traditions in the context of a single, Christ-centred faith; but Okomfo Damuah didn’t go far enough, and thank God he did not, for the would have been more blood than the Let the blood flow cry of immature university students of the June 4th era. Still, Damuah lacked the hypocrisy, arrogance, power-drunkenness, and most importantly cunning that the current bread of Pharisee-like charlatans have.

Don’t get me wrong – the so-called Orthodox churches have that same conniving history with secular authority as well. For instance, the Catholic Church also had similar relationships with despots like Mussolini, a fascist Italian totalitarian, from which relationship the autonomy of St. Peter’s Square and the Church itself were guaranteed. To date, the Catholic Church is the only religious institution which appoints representatives to countries around the world, with the (yes, you guessed it) Latin-sounding title of Pro Nun Cio, a cute name for Ambassador, whose office is every bit as political as his secular counterpart’s. The principle then, of separation of Church and State, is almost laughable. In the United States, where there are more fights over this principle than anywhere else in the world, clergymen and women have parlayed their mission deep into the corridors of power; that none of their last forty-plus presidents have ascended the presidency without some public profession of their Christian faith is testament to this fact. It is also the country in which the election of John F. Kennedy was almost stymied by a palpable fear that because he was Catholic, the presidency would be answerable to the Pope; it is alleged the Catholic vote was guaranteed in an arrangement between Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK’s father) and the Godfather of the five most powerful mafia families of New York. See how messy this gets? But I digress…. To the Phenomenon of our time.

As I implied, our modern Pharisees and Sadducees are more cunning, perhaps charismatic and have a panache for trickery and stealing of people’s souls and money that far outstrips the crude vituperations of Okomfo Damuah’s sermons. These days, our pastoral men and women start first with A Day of National Prayer and Thanksgiving or a similar variation. Automatically, this seals a solid deal with the intrinsically peace-loving side of the Ghanaian. Look around us, I mean at the other countries in the sub-region. Many have gone to, or have been on the brink of, war, for any number of reasons. Ghana on the other hand has remained relatively peaceful, even at one time, embarked upon two revolutions in less than three years, with dire consequences, yet just managed to avoid all-out war. Don’t get me wrong – peace is good, and war is bad. But when our pastoral citizens reach out to this aspect of our character, they are capitalizing on a predictable aspect of our good nature to dupe us massively in the end. Not only that, many a time in our history, some of our rulers have turned to the clergy for assistance in thumping down dissent in the general populace against undesirable government policy or an issue which is embarrassing to the government.

Perhaps, pastors understand politicians better than we ordinary citizens do, because after the Day of National Prayer and Thanksgiving, the only other people who get a free prayer service from these thieving clergy are the politicians. The Catholic Church does it hierarchically, beginning and ending with the Pope, with the rest of us, including the politicians, falling in the middle. The other churches just go straight to the point – they pray for our leaders; some even mention them by name, and to give a semblance of non-bias, mention both incumbent and opposition politicians. With this strategy, they hedge their bets wisely, immediately guaranteeing that they can tie their religious and political fortunes to the winning party in the next election; at least the record will show that Pastor XYZ prayed for their success too, and thence commences the next tactic for exacting maximum influence over the next incumbent government.

The rest of us do not get any free prayers from these pastors. Like the Pharisees and Sadducees, they have a price tag for their prayers. Special Prayers can range from at least Fifty Ghana Cedis (500,000 cedis) to Five Hundred Ghana Cedis (Five Million Cedis). These are merely conservative estimates; I am told that prices far exceed these estimates running into tens of millions. The Cadillac brand of special prayers have their own category and include a very special Holy Oil. The price tag for a quantity that fits a small vial is a million cedis (100 Ghana Cedis). Again, I digress… this is supposed to come under the economics part; I just couldn’t help myself. Please pardon me….

An observed fact of the trajectory of these independent churches is that they have come full circle. In the late 1970s to early 1980s when they burst onto the national scene, their loudest criticism of the orthodox churches, in particular the Catholic Church, was that they were too structured and hierarchical. In very public gestures, they disowned the titles and priestly vestments worn by the clergy in these churches. They claimed Catholics worshipped the Pope, instead of God, and that sitting atop the Catholic Church in a lifetime capacity, the Pope became too powerful. They said these vestments set the clergy apart from their congregants and were excessive. These arguments resonated well with many a Ghanaian faithful who had the coincidence of a revolution that itself condemned neo-colonialism, materiality and hierarchy. It was probably about time that the orthodox churches were held accountable for their management, or even mismanagement of the collective Christian faith. Indeed, it is now clear that many of the problems in the Catholic Church today, were then being perpetrated.

However, as the membership in the new churches swelled and their message of a more puritanical, tongue-speaking and so-called more charismatic form of worship flourished, these churches were suddenly confronted with two very important problems: (1) How to manage their growing numbers; (2) How to tap what was apparently a vast human resource which was practically waiting to zombie at every pastoral command. The answer to both these difficult questions lay in one word – Structure; and with it, the realization that the very structure they had criticized the orthodox churches for, was the only solution to their gathering and growing problem of mass followers.

Suddenly, words like International and World slipped into the name tags of these churches, which in reality were little more than a motley congregation of people in rented school and other premises over the weekends. For many of these pastors, these words were grand and sounded impressive to current and potential members; they also conveyed order. They missed the memo on the fact that the words themselves conveyed an overarching control over subsidiaries, and therefore structure or hierarchy, which hitherto was a forbidden word, now featured prominently in these new churches’ names. Similar appendages were made to the pastors themselves. Pastors suddenly preceded their names with titles such as General Overseer, Main Missioner, etc., but many of these titles still lacked the kind of punch they would have liked. At least, if one looked up these phrases or individual words in an English Dictionary, their definition lacked that specific religious definition and connotation which conveyed power to, and commanded obedience from, church memberships, much like the way the orthodox churches did it. So in the end, the pastors could not help themselves. They just co-opted the word Bishop. Aha!! Now they had arrived, even though none of them to this day has a bishopric (in proper definition). And they were unwilling to stop there – some self-absorbed arched their congregations – declaring themselves Archbishops. If one closely examines the way they use this word in particular, you find that the title is used to mirror their large egos, exemplified in the grand structures which now house their churches. Take a drive on Spintex Road and you will get a real sense of what I am trying to describe here. Still the Bishop/Archbishop title aren’t enough; they have gone further to co-opt the entire set of orthodox church priestly vestments – the Bishop’s staff, episcopal ring, garments and mitre (hat) to match; soon, I think they will transcend these as well. Now when they don these vestments on any occasion, even the Heavens take notice – there’s a new Bishop on the block!!! Only thing is that they look like old wine in new bottles, still shouting, drumming and still enthusiastically stealing from their members, and with more power to boot; and still looking like the pudgy, puny, old orthodox priests they previously criticized. They have indeed come full circle.

One curious little development is the word Daddy. This word used to be a word of endearment used by kids of educated parents, especially, parents who had tasted some foreign, particularly western, lifestyle. Daddy then commanded respect, indicated sophistication or invoked fear, depending on the type of family setup one had. These days, virtually every pastor in any church is called Daddy, and the meaning is nothing close to what I have described above. The word is bandied about between arrogance, benevolent control, lasciviousness, total subservience and plain ignorance. Still it is amazing to behold even grown-ups who could easily mother or father a pastor, refer to him as Daddy. Do they call the women pastors Mummy too? I am yet to find that out.

At this stage, these pastors don’t play in the little leagues anymore; with that kind of power, they now play with the big boys, usually, their political friends, for more power. To be fair pastors are citizens too, and have an obligation to vote and exercise their civic rights and responsibilities. But where do they draw the line between their religious calling and their unabashed meddling in power politics? How many of us ordinary citizens have the luxury of responding with a non-tactile solution to a real, physical problem? How many of us have the advantage of foisting our spiritual view, however ludicrous or convoluted, on another person, with the routine assumption that they must listen and accept that view, and that any action otherwise is in the wrong direction? This is a pretty arrogant presumption that only flourishes because of our individual and collective bondage to these pastors, who are focused on nothing else than the material comforts of this world.

For now, I rest my case on the power and politics of this Phenomenon. We shall return to the subject in due course. Stay tuned for the next installment on the Grand Papa of the series – MONEY.

 ARTICLE BY: FRANCIS DERY

Email: deryfrancis@yahoo.com

Ghana has come a long way, expected to have politicians who are national interest thinkers and not otherwise. A situation where both political parties, that is, the NPP and the NDC are both declaring win for themselves in the coming 2012 election is a threat to the security and stability of our country, Ghana. The intended and ultimate goal of politics of a state, must ensure the continuous provision of the public goods, security and an enabling environment for prosperity. What are we seeing of the NPP and NDC? Enough is enough!

I must state, it is clear that these two political parties—the NPP and the NDC—are destroying the moral political standard of this country. This malfeasance is not only at the national level of our body politics, but has narrowed to our tertiary institutions as well. Antagonism and attack on each other has descended to the various university campuses—especially University of Ghana, Legon.

On 20th October, 2011 when a TEIN van, that is, the NDC branch on University of Ghana campus rerouted to make announcement at Akuafo Hall Annex A, it came under attack by students alleged to be NPP supporters. Stones were fired, windscreen and other mirrors got broken. This is a typical example of an ALL DIE BE DIE ATTITUDE. Is this how we want the faith of Ghana to be decided…?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, insecurity anywhere is a threat to security everywhere. This is a reflection that GHANA IS SITTING ON A TIME BOMB OF CIVIL UNREST.

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), under Dr. Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, with his humble and respected attitude is what Ghana needs in a time like this.

We all wish that this country lives to fulfil the creed on which it was established; Freedom and Justice, equality, Good governance and Respect for Human Rights.

ARTICLE BY: EMMANEUL OSEI, President Movement for Social Justice University of Ghana   

THE

GHANA captain, John Mensah’s headed goal was cancelled through another header by a Tunisian striker just at the stroke of half-time. The Stars qualification completed the semi-final haul with Mali becoming the third country to qualify earlier in the day after defeating favourite co-host, Gabon, 5-4 on penalties, after the two teams had settled for a one-one draw.

EARLY on Saturday, Cote D’Ivoire and Zambia became the first two countries to qualify for the semi-finals of the competition. On Wednesday, Ghana take on Zambia in the first semi-final clash in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, while Cote D’Ivoire play Mali the same day in the second semi-final match of the tournament.

WITH the victory, Ghana has on three times in succession, qualified to the semi-finals of the AFCON. The first was in Ghana 2008 when as host nation Ghana only managed a third position after losing the semi-final duel to Cameroun.

THE Stars repeated a similar feat in Angola 2012, after beating Nigeria to qualify to the finals to set up a crunch duel with Egypt. The Egyptians however beat Ghana to win a record seventh AFCON title, winning the last three of the AFCON tournaments.

MATCHES between Ghana and Zambia have over the years been played with keen aggression and the will to go the extra mile. The last time the two sides met in an AFCON competition was in South Africa 1996 when Ghana had in its fold top class performers like Abedi Pele, Anthony Yeboah, Nii Odartey Lamptey, Sam Johnson, Ibrahim Tanko among others.

AFTER losing 3-0 to host South Africa, Ghana squared off with Zambia for the third place which unfortunately the Stars lost by a lone goal. It was a match that the Black Stars although dominated, could not find the cutting edge to beat Zambia.

BUT perhaps the best of Zambia-Ghana matches were recorded in 1992 and 1978. In the Senegal ‘92 clash, Ghana beat Zambia by a lone goal. That was the era of Ghana’s football maestro- Abedi Pele, whose individual brilliance separated the two well-grilled sides that also had the dreadful Kalusha Bwalya as their key man.

WHILE Ghana boasted of Edward Ansah, Nii Darko Ankrah, Kwesi Appiah, Emmanuel Armah Senegal, Frimpong Manso, Stanley Aboraa, Ali Ibrahim, Nii Odartey Lamptey, Tony Baffour, Tony Yeboah and Abedi Pele, Zambia boasted as perhaps the best assembly of players in the country’s history. They included Efford Chabala, Wisdom Chansa, Fighting Somonkonde and Kalusha Bwalya.

THAT generation could however not realize the Zambian dream when they perished off the coast of Gabon in a harrowing plane crash. The only member of that squad to have survived the air disaster was Kalusha Bwalya, who decided to meet the team in Dakar, Senegal from his Belgium base. Kalusha was the key player of Belgian giant—Cercle Brugge.

BEFORE the ‘92 clash, Ghana had sweated out with Zambia during the opening of the Ghana ‘78 tournament in Accra. The Zambians took an early lead through danger man, Godfried Chitalu, before Golden boy, Abdul Razak and Opoku Afriyie to beat Zambia 2-1.

CHITALU, who later became the Technical Director of Zambia Football, was part of the team that perished in the plane crash. With the tightness of Ghana-Zambia matches, it is clear Ghana’s determination to break its AFCON failure will be put to real test by the well-knit Zambian side led by Christopher Katango.

He said stewardship, good financial and economic governance practices; and strong accountable institutions are the features when evident in a nation’s governance infrastructure would deliver the benefits of true democracy to all its citizens.

The PPP aspirant was responding to concerns raised by residents of Labawaleshie at a Town Hall meeting on Saturday, that; after queuing for long hours to register and vote politicians into power on many occasions, the electorate are yet to see the benefits of the exercise in their environment and living conditions.

Residents expressed disappointment at how politicians had taken them for a ride in both constituency and national governance for the past two decades, when in power but reached out to them through surrogate party activists in crafty ways with hand-outs to influence and buy their votes during elections.

William Dowokpor, who agreed with the sentiments of the electorate, advised them to persevere in exercising their democratic rights to register and vote. In doing so however, they must be guided by the bitter lessons they have leaned over the years and go for the alternative PPP that would deliver the real change that has eluded them over the years.

He said the alternative PPP had carefully devised a ten-point agenda for governing the country based on good stewardship that will in the shortest possible time, deliver the change Ghanaians can feel in their lives through jobs, quality health care, free compulsory continuous education up to senior high level and stamping out corruption through strong transparent and accountable institutions.

Sharing his vision for the Ayawaso West constituency with residents, William Dowokpor said he would be a “referendum MP”, involving the constituents in its governance. “I come as the “referendum” MP who will involve you in the decisions and contributions I will make in Parliament. We need to get it right this year in Ayawaso West Wuogon or the next four years will continue to be frustrating for all of us,” he cautioned.

The PPP candidate listed the five main concerns of the constituency as:

1. Reliability in utility and Public Services
2. Facilitating jobs for the youth
3. Accessibility of higher education to all
4. Security to life and property and
5. Involving residents in constituency governance

The five issues, which he said were of mutual interest to all residents would be tackled through his strong voice in Parliament and the involvement of the constituents in planning and executing constituency programmes in a truly “all inclusive” ways. “When it comes to solving constituency problems, there will be no party considerations under my stewardship as MP. We will involve whoever is prepared and willing to help us secure our mutual constituency interests” he insisted.

He advised constituents to stay tuned in to the Electoral Commission’s schedules, to ensure that they get registered in order to be part of the discerning electorate that would bring the real change, the constituency and Ghana need in the next November or December elections.

She was speaking on “Women’s Reproductive Health and Mental Health-What you Need To Know,” at a day’s awareness creation and sensitization workshop in Tema. The workshop, organised by Mindfreedom Ghana, an Accra-based mental health non-governmental organisation, with sponsorship from African Women Development Fund, was on the theme:  “Promoting Good Mental Health In Women’s Reproductive Health.”

Dr. Deganus said sex education would prevent adolescent children, especially girls, from unwanted and premature pregnancies and added that gender could have both positive and negative effects on the reproductive health of women.

She advised women to avoid sexual promiscuity since the practice was against African cultural values.

An official of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Dinah Baah-Odoom, noted that though some people looked physically strong, they had mental and psychological problems.

She explained that mental health was a state of contentment, happiness and hope.

Director of Mindfreedom Ghana, Mrs. Janet Amegatcher, urged society not to stigmatize mental patients, but endeavour to send them to hospital for treatment.—GNA

Mr. Kwaku Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh, Ejisu-Juaben MCE

The Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Kwaku Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh has blamed the upsurge in illegal mining on irresponsible leadership and selfishness of some traditional rulers and clan leaders.

He said these unpatriotic chiefs and clan leaders connive and collect huge sums of money from the illegal operators and allocate large parcels of land for them to carry their nefarious activities which does not only affect the environment but also other social lives in the affected communities.

Addressing the chiefs and people of Peminase, a farming community notorious for illegal mining activities, Mr. Yamoah Ponkoh, blamed the fallen standard of education in the community on the deep interest of parents in mining at the expense of their children’s education.

Most school children also run away from school and enter into mining pits to carry sand and prospect for gold.

Mr. Yamoah Ponkoh also inaugurated a kindergarten block for the community.    It was constructed by GETFund at a cost of GH¢119,691 and has a block of three classrooms, dining hall, office and a store.

He said the Assembly would team up with the central government to flush out the illegal miners and appealed to children to go to school instead of engaging in mining activities.

An opinion leader in the town, Opanin Kwasi Owusu, praised the government for the project and pledged the support of the people to ensure the proper use of the facility to help improve academic performance in the area.—GNA

FLASHBACK: The five-bedroom apartment was seriously damaged by the fire

Police at Breman UGC in Kumasi have begun investigations into circumstances surrounding the death of Samuel Agyemang, the main suspect in the arson attack that occurred at Breman Kwamtwoma, a suburb of Kumasi, last week Monday.

Mr. Agyeman is alleged to have set fire to the five-bedroom apartment which housed his wife, parents and children, killing four of them in the razing fire.

Another victim of the arson, Beatrice Agyeman, 22, died later that same day at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital after being admitted together with her other siblings.

The decomposed body of Mr. Agyemang was found by some commuters at the Manyam stream at Tafo Ahenbronum without any ‘mark of assault.’

The portion of the stream where the lifeless body was found has fueled speculations by some town folk as to whether he was punished by the stream god for his supposed dastardly act.

Station Officer at the Breman UGC Police station, Inspector William Adu Quaye, who confirmed the news to Today, said they had conveyed the deceased body to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for autopsy.

“For now we cannot say whether he was attacked by a group of people or he took some poison, because there was no mark of assault on him when we went to carry the body to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital,” he noted.

Inspector Adu Quaye called for restraint in awaiting the results of the autopsy to know exactly what led to the death of Mr. Agyeman.

Today in its Monday, January 30, 2012 edition, reported that a five-bedroom apartment had been set ablaze around 4 a.m., that same dawn.

Reports indicated that personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service unfortunately could not get to the accident scene on time because the bridge linking to the house had broken down hence the personnel had to alternatively use a diversionary long route.

By the time the personnel got to the scene however, everything in the house, including four out of the seven occupants in the house at the time had burnt beyond recognition.

Among those who died were wife of the suspect Afia Agyeiwaa 52, one of their sons Akwasi Owusu, 14 years, Daavi Sowuti Mede and Asumani Tawiah, also known as ‘Efo’ who were parents of the suspect.

Theophilus Berko and Nana Agyeman were part of the victims who survived but were not without serious burns all over their bodies.

The two are still receiving treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

STORY: RUTH ANDY, KUMASI, A/R

In an a press statement issued by its interim secretary, Kofi Asamoah, the party advised its regional and constituency executives to open nomination and ensure that all parliamentary candidates are duly elected by Friday, 30th March, 2012.

According to the statement, forms to contest a presidential position within the party could be obtained at a non-refundable fee of GH¢500.00 latest by Thursday, February, 16, 2012.

“All Presidential Aspirants will be required to pay a non-refundable filing fee of GH¢25, 000.00. (twenty-five thousand Ghana cedis),” it stated.

The statement also called on all interested parliamentary aspirants to obtain a nomination form from the regional secretariat of the PPP for a non-refundable fee of GH¢100.00.

Male aspirants, the statement noted, would be required to pay a non-refundable filing fee of GH¢1, 000.00 while female aspirants and male aspirants below the age of 35 years would pay GH¢500.00 as filing fees.

The statement also affirmed the PPP’s commitment to ensuring that 20% of parliamentary candidates are women.

STORY: KWAKU NTI