Local News

The President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Yaw Acheampong Boafo has called on the government to prioritize investment in basic education over the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy. Delivering his address at the Ghana Bar Association’s annual conference in Kumasi on Monday, September 9, Mr. Boafo said eliminating schools under trees and providing essential amenities like sanitary pads for poor girls should come before spending huge sums on secondary education. “As one comes before two, so basic education comes before senior high school education,” he stated. The GBA President argued that more resources need to be channeled into improving primary school infrastructure to lay a strong foundation for quality education. “Mr. President, we must invest more in basic education, eliminate schools under trees, and provide sanitary pads for poor young girls who cannot afford before spending so much on secondary education,” Mr. Boafo told President Akufo-Addo who was at the event. He also called for means testing of the Free SHS policy using data from the Ghana Card to ensure only deserving students from needy families benefit. “The Free SHS Programme must be means tested using the data compiled by the Ghana Identification Authority. So, rich parents do not suddenly transform to become peasant farmers as in the days of old when we had the coconut scholarship,” the GBA President stated. Implementation of the program began in September 2017, targeting first-year students in public Senior High Schools and Technical/Vocational Institutions. Importantly, any Ghanaian child placed in a public second-cycle institution through the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) during the 2017 school placement process became entitled to benefit from the Free SHS initiative. “The impact of the programme is evident. To date, a total of over GH¢ 9.9 billion has been spent on the programme and a cumulative total of 5.7 million young people have benefitted from this initiative, many of whom may not have had this opportunity,” Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam said in his mid-year budget review presentation.  

The Ghana Police Service has restored calm in Walewale following a disruption during the vote-counting process in the ongoing re-run of the New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Primary in the Walewale Constituency. In a statement, the Police Servicer disclosed that one person, identified as Kamara Bawah, has been arrested for causing damage to some ballot papers. “The suspect is in custody assisting Police investigation. “Security has since been strengthened within Walewale and its environs to ensure law and order”, the police concluded. Background The much-anticipated parliamentary primary rerun of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Walewale constituency has once again ended in controversy, as the election concluded inconclusively after police seized ballot boxes. Voting, which had already been delayed for several hours in the morning, wrapped up around 5 p.m. However, the sorting process was abruptly interrupted when the police removed the ballot boxes from the polling station. This marks the second time the Walewale primary has faced disruption.  

Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Godfred Dame says the government has worked to avert payments of crippling judgment debts to the tune of fifteen trillion Ghana Cedis since he took office in 2017. Attorney-General Dame noted that the litigations were both in the local and international spaces where the state has increasingly become exposed to suits in a rapidly changing world. The Minister of Justice who was speaking at the annual Bar Association Conference in Kumasi on Monday disclosed that the country had been saved “over GHC15 trillion since I assumed office”. He continued: “The era of dubious and scandalous judgment debts against the state, I can say without any fear of equivocation, is clearly a thing of the past. There has not been a time that the state has been more exposed in international litigation than the era in which we live.” Mr. Dame revealed that state lawyers have had to travel the world over to defend the country against arbitration claims. “The state has had to litigate in the domestic courts of Norway, from the Oslo District Court all the way to that country’s Supreme Court. It has had to defend numerous arbitration claims in the prominent Court of Arbitration, the London Court of International Arbitration, ad-hoc arbitration tribunal,” he said. He said that the outcomes in the litigations has been “favourable, with little or no cost to the state”. Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh  

Minister of Justice and Attorney-General (AG), Godfred Yeboah Dame has disclosed that seventy-six individuals including eighteen foreign nationals have been jailed for engaging in illegal mining activities since August 2021. Speaking at this year’s Bar Conference in Kumasi, Mr. Dame averred that the convictions included long-term prison sentences coupled with huge fines. “From August 2021 to date, at least 76 persons including 18 foreigners have been convicted. They include the acclaimed Chinese galamsey queen, Ayisha Huan who was convicted on 4th December, 2023 on offences committed between 2014 and 2016 in the era of the previous government. “Most of the convicts were sentenced under the new law, Act 995 to a minimum of 15 years plus a hefty fine for a non-Ghanaian. Currently, over 140 cases of illegal mining involving over 850 Ghanaians are being prosecuted in courts in the Western, Eastern, Ashanti, Greater and Upper East Regions of Ghana,” the AG said. The Attorney General was referring to the Minerals and Mining Act 2019 which stiffens the penalty for persons who engaged in illegal mining with special emphasis on foreigners. Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh