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Former Minister of Lands and Forestry under the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration and Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale Central, Ahaji Innusah Fuseini, has described the swearing in of Professor Mike Oquaye as interim president as unnecessary.
The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, was on Sunday sworn in as the acting President of Ghana an emergency sitting of Parliament.
The swearing in administered by the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Sophia Akuffo, was in conformity with the constitutional requirement, which provides for the swearing in of the Speaker in the absence of the President and the Vice President.
However, speaking to Ekourba Gyasi on Atinka AM Drive Monday, Inusah Fuseini explained that, per the provision in the constitution, an interim president is only needed when the President is incapacitated and not when the President is out of the country.
According to Inusah Fuseni, the President is only performing extra territorial activities in Liberia and in the capacity as President of Ghana.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is attending the inauguration of George Weah as President of Liberia, while Vice President Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia is on medical leave in the United Kingdom (UK).
Former international football star George Weah has been sworn in as president of Liberia, the first peaceful democratic transfer of power in the West African country in more than seven decades.
Weah won 61.5 percent of the votes in December's election run-off, beating outgoing vice president Joseph Boakai who garnered 38.5 percent of the ballot.
Voter turnout was 55.8 percent, or just over 1.2 million people, according to the election commission.
The former world footballer of the year succeeded Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president.
Weah entered politics after retiring from football in 2002 and run for the presidency in 2005 losing to Sirleaf.
The last peaceful transfer of power between two democratically elected presidents took place in Liberia in 1944, when president Edwin Barclay was replaced by William Tubman.
The swearing-in ceremony at a stadium near the Liberian capital, Monrovia was attended by more than a dozen African and foreign dignitaries, including heads of state from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea.
Many Liberians regard the 51-year-old as a hero for his incredible rags-to-riches tale. He was born in a slum in Monrovia, but found fame in international football.
Weah has promised to eradicate corruption in the country of four million people and bolster the weak economy.
Monrovia is highly dependent on exports of iron ore and rubber, which have recently plunged in prices. The country is also trying to overcome the effects of the Ebola outbreak, which left more than 4,000 people dead.
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world with 80 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day.
Outspoken actress, Lydia Forson, has been assaulted by a security officer .
The assault followed a verbal altercation between Ms Forson and the said security official
The “Perfect Picture” actress posted the video of the said assault on her Facebook page Monday morning
She narrates in an article:
Today we chose a spot often used in movie production( mostly by NAFTI students as it is by their hostel).
A few minutes into the shoot a car drives up and a man with a walkie talkie jumps out and tells us we’re not permitted to be there.
Our director insists that we are, he together with the crew try to reason with the man but he refuses and the director decides that we should just leave to avoid what seemed like a situation that was escalating.
I observed all of this from a distance and noticed the man was fixated on the female crew member who happened to be the one driving. As she turned to leave he started to verbally assault her, why? Because she had “dared” challenge his claim that we weren’t allowed there; he continued to hurl insults at her until I heard him say finally “ you think you are somebody”.
That triggered me.
It’s something I’ve heard more times than I can count, especially when it’s in a confrontation with a man. I’m either “ashawo”, “too known”, or an “unmarried small girl”.
It’s usually comes from a place of disdain, anger and genuine surprise that a woman, who they believe they’re superior to, would even “dare”, stand up to their authority.
I’ve had too many men say to me, “My wife would never speak to me like that”, which is true in most cases, because the patriarchy that exist in our society does give a lot of men this false sense of superiority.
And by his utterances I could tell things were about to get ugly, so I walked up to him and said he didn’t need to go that far, especially since we were already leaving.
He immediately turned on me, like a poked bear ready to devour its prey.
Now before I continue you should know we were just about 4 women there with about 10 men.
Men who were shouting, calling him out and insisting that he was in the wrong, even when one rushed up to his face he didn’t as much as raise a hand to them.
But the minute I stepped in, I wasn’t allowed into the “boys only zone”, I was an intruder and my presence alone was a threat to the size of his balls.
Without hesitation he turned on me and started making threats; I took out my phone and decided to record his actions but that only aggravated him because it meant I had the upper hand, it meant he couldn’t lie about what happened later.
He quickly lunged at me and tried to hit the phone out of my hand, in the process he punched my arm and continued to come for me.
Save for the crew, this man was ready to beat me to a pulp and he said as much.
When I told him he didn’t have the right to, he responded with a smirk on his face “I can beat you if I want, my authority gives me that right and no one can do anything about it”.
Yes, you read right.
But he wasn’t alone, a policeman was there with him and although he didn’t join in the attack did very little to the man.
He said he was only there to “observe” and not participate; when asked if his “observation” meant to watch a civilian being assaulted he asked for “proof” of assault.( he’s the one in the blue,clearly in the middle of it all)
When their supervisor showed up, much to the dismay of everyone there ( and there were several witnesses) the policeman said the officer didn’t verbally or physically assault any of us.
At that moment, watching as these men threw their weight about, I knew that this wasn’t about who was right or wrong, it wasn’t about the law it was all about POWER.
Today’s incident got me to reflect on two things; the never ending abuse women face and the abuse of power in this country.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis and club officials remain in Germany in hope of securing a deal for Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang.
Gazidis is in talks with Borussia Dortmund over a January move for the Gabon international.
Dortmund had revealed last week that an enquiry for the player had been made by the Gunners, but did not confirm that an official bid had been lodged.
Sky sources understand the situation remains the same and a deal is yet to be reached between the two clubs.
Aubameyang has made clear his desire to leave Dortmund in recent weeks, and was recently dropped by the Bundesliga side for a match against Hertha Berlin due to a lack of focus.
Commenting on the situation via the club's official Twitter account, sporting director Michael Zorc said: "We have the impression at the moment that he [Aubameyang] has his head on other things and is not fully focused."
Reports in Germany over the weekend suggested Arsenal had made an offer in the region of €50m (£44m) for the striker, though this is believed to be unacceptable for Dortmund.
The two clubs remain in discussions despite Zorc branding Gunners boss Arsene Wenger's comments "disrespectful" for speaking about Aubameyang when recently asked in a press conference.
Aubameyang was the Bundesliga's leading goalscorer last season, finishing the campaign with 31 goals and has hit 13 in 15 games this term.
Should any deal go through it looks set to eclipse Arsenal's current record transfer signing of Alexandre Lacazette, who arrived last summer in a deal which is set to reach £52m.
Government has maintained that, it has cleared more than half of arrears owed GETFUND contractors.
This follows assertions by the contractors that, they had not been paid contrary to claims by President Akufo- Addo during last week’s media encounter.
“I’m being urged to pay contractors, I’m paying them. In 2017, nearly one billion cedis of which the government of Ghana provided three hundred odd million and the Road Fund provided some 660 million of the 1.6 billion owed road contractors was cleared. In January this year, we have dispersed 125 million out of the remainder of 600 million to the contractors,” the president said.
“Additionally, we have paid 826 million of the 1.2 billion loan contracted by the previous administration for which the Road Fund was used as collateral. It is important to note that all these debts were accrued under the previous administration. I will also point out that much of the statutory arrears that we met have been cleared,” he added.
Addressing, the media Monday, Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, reaffirmed the president’s assertion, saying GHC470 million of that amount has been to the paid to them.
“Government has taken note of a public statement by some GETFUND contractors that majority of them have not been paid. While we do not wish to engage them on a banter on semantics, we wish to reiterate that everything that the president said at his press encounter last Wednesday was a true reflection of the state of the state of government indebtedness to contractors generally. Out of the 1.6 billion cedis that the government owed to contractors,838 million was what was owed to the GETFUND contractors.470 million of that amount has been to the paid to them. There is an outstanding bill of 367 million to be cleared. So surely, the bulk of what was owed to GETFUND contractors has been paid,” he said.
In a move that could revolutionise the way we buy groceries, Amazon opens its first supermarket without checkouts – human or self-service – to shoppers on Monday.
Amazon Go, in Seattle, has been tested by staff for the past year.
It uses an array of ceiling-mounted cameras to identify each customer and track what items they select, eliminating the need for billing.
Purchases are billed to customers' credit cards when they leave the store.
Before entering, shoppers must scan the Amazon Go smartphone app. Sensors on the shelves add items to the bill as customers pick them up – and deletes any they put back.
The store opened to employees of the online retail giant in December 2016 and had been expected to allow the public in more quickly.
But there were some teething problems with correctly identifying shoppers of similar body types – and children moving items to the wrong places on shelves, according to an Amazon insider.
Gianna Puerini, head of Amazon Go, said the store had operated well during the test phase: "This technology didn't exist – it was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning."
Amazon has not said if it will be opening more Go stores, which are separate from the Whole Foods chain that it bought last year for $13.7bn (£10.7bn).
As yet the company has no plans to introduce the technology to the hundreds of Whole Foods stores.
However, retailers know that the faster customers can make their purchases, the more likely they are to return.
Making the dreaded supermarket queue a thing of the past will give any retailer a huge advantage over its competitors.
The Seattle store is not Amazon's first foray into bricks and mortar retailing, however. In 2015 the firm opened its first physical bookshop, also in Seattle where the company is based. There are now 13 in the US – as well as dozens of temporary pop-up outlets.
In its third quarter results in October, Amazon for the first time put a figure on the revenues generated by its physical stores: $1.28bn. Yet almost all of that was generated by Whole Foods.
While its stores may not yet be moneyspinners, analysts have said Amazon is using them to raise brand awareness and promote its Prime membership scheme. Prime members pay online prices at its bookstores, for example, while non-members are charged the cover price.
Brian Olsavsky, Amazon chief financial officer, recently hinted that rivals should expect more Amazon shops in the months and years ahead.
"You will see more expansion from us – it's still early, so those plans will develop over time," he said in October.
Some activists believed to be members of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) on Sunday attacked the residence of the Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Issahaku Tahiru Moomin.
Even though the MCE was not in the house when the attack was carried out, the thugs succeeded in destroying some properties.
The thugs smashed everything in sight including windows, chairs, electronic gadgets during the attack.
The motive for the attack is unclear, but some residents have linked it to the ongoing NPP polling station elections.
Mr Moomin has been accused of manipulating the elections , a charge he vehemently denies .
The Wa Police have launched investigation into the incident .
Retired diplomat, Kweku Baprui Asante, also known as KB Asante has passed on.
His death was confirmed by a family member on Accra-based radio station, Citi FM.
Details of his death are however sketchy.
Mr Asante, born on March 6, 1924, attended O’Reilly Educational Institute, Tudu, Government Junior Boys’ School, Adabraka, and Government Senior Boys’ School, Kinbu, from 1927 to 1937.
Read also: K.B. Asante turns 90
He also attended Achimota College Upper Primary and Secondary School from 1938-1942 and obtained a degree in Mathematics at the University College, Durham University.
Career
Mr Asante was a senior Mathematics tutor at the Achimota College from 1954-1955.
He became Ghana’s Ambassador to Switzerland and the United Nations Offices in Geneva and the UN establishment in Vienna, with concurrent accreditation as Ambassador to Australia from 1967-72.
He also served as the Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Economic Community from 1976-1978.
Mr Asante retired from the Civil Service in 1978 to form the Social Democratic Front to contest the 1979 elections.
The party won three parliamentary seats in those elections.
He was the Secretary for Trade and Tourism in the PNDC administration in 1982 and later Secretary for Education and Culture from 1986-1990.
The police have released photos of seven alleged hardened criminals who escaped from the Kwabenya Police cells in the early hours of Sunday .
The seven suspects were aided by their colleagues who stormed the police station. The dawn raid resulted in the death of a senior police officer on duty.
Below is the full police statement on the incident:
