Some giant billboards sited along some of the busiest highways within the Kumasi metropolis were uprooted by a heavy storm that accompanied hours of torrential rain in the Ashanti Regional capital on Thursday night, dikoder.com has gathered.

Many have been displaced after the downpour as roofs of some homes were ripped off; others were forced to evacuate as flood waters invaded their rooms last night.
At Afful Nkwanta, it took a spirited effort by some fire officers to rescue some passengers on board a Toyota Corolla salon car, who had been trapped under a billboard that fell on the vehicle alongside others.

The victims were rushed to a nearby clinic for medical attention, as they all sustained some injuries.
Station Officer at the Regional Fire Office, Augustine Adugba led the rescue team to the scene.
Some onlookers who were present at the accident scene called on city authorities to remove all dangerous billboards from the road side to curb a future incident that may be fatal.
Many houses, in poorly planned and heavily populated areas were submerged by flood waters at Aboabo, Oforikrom, Sawaba and other areas in the city.

Household appliances and other personal effects were seen afloat in the rushing streams of rain water, while stranded individuals sheltered themselves at petrol stations and other obscure places just to avoid either becoming wet or being washed away by the flood.
Parts of the city were thrown into total darkness as electricity was immediately taken off due to the lightening and thunder that came with the rain.
Lightening struck at the studio of Ahotor, 92.5 FM; host of Spot Kick, Philip Appiah, popularly known as “Philipp Inzaghi”, who escaped the lightening by a hair’s breadth, in a post on Facebook said, “I returned to work today after being on a sick bed for a week…and God is soo great to save my life whiles on air for the evening sports show. I would’ve been dead 20minutes ago at the studio sake of Lighting….. Hmmmm, father the entire sports crew thank you for our lives this evening…”.

“I’ m just imagining how my lifeless body would be carried from the studio to the mortuary and the reaction from my family and fans”, he said in another post.

As at the time of filing this story, no loss of life had been reported.

Source:MyNewsGh.com

It was all drama and laughter on Wednesday morning at the Ejusu District Court in the Ashanti Region, as 4 suspect gentlemen who appeared before court for allegedly stealing 7 fat goats from their neighbor pleaded not guilty with the claims that, their actions was just a prank (April fool).
The judge presiding over the case could not hold it in but broke into loud laughter… When the accused was further asked why they killed the said goats, they answered “My Lord, please it was all about April fool.. we wanted to prank our neighbor but he got it all wrong”.

Well, this time around, the whole court was in chronic laughter as the judge had no choice but to adjourn case to 24th April.

Meanwhile, the suspects have been detained to help the police carry out further investigations on the matter.

The issue of the actual killers of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale is still been discussed on major media platforms especially after it was revealed that the killers have been arrested by the police.

Hon. Kennedy Agyapong who is the Member of Parliament for Assin Central and the first person accused of carrying out that act by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and some section of Ghanaians vowed to clear his name by getting the people who committed the act to be brought to book.

Well, the loudmouth politician stood by his words and helped the police to arrest the killers of Ahmed Suale.

According to Kennedy Agyapong, himself with the help of the brothers of Ahmed Suale sort the services of some special land guards who offered them information that led to the arrest of the suspects.

He revealed that they had information that some neighbours in Ahmed’s vicinity had seen the murderers and could identify them so they hired someone to go undercover with support from some special land guards.

He said after a couple of weeks, they managed to track down two of the people who were handed over the police while one of them who is suspected to be the trigger has been remanded at BNI.

The politician who was unhappy with the Press Conference of the Police CID asked that they could at least give him credit for the work done because the work he and the people he paid to do was supposed to be done by the police.

“I am very disappointed in Ghana Police because every work I did with my boys,it was the job of the police to do that. Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Maame Yaa Tiwah are both aware of what is going on.” he said.

“It is a shame for Tiwaah to even hold that press conference or make that statement. The Police have made up their mind to tarnish my image and God will punish them. I hired someone at Madina to go undercover after Ahmed’s death and we received information that some neighbours saw the killers.” he explained.

“I later hired the services of landguards to bring the pictures of the two guys to me and we started monitoring them. I am working hand in hand with Ahmed’s brothers and that is how we caught the two guys” he added.

“The police did not do anything. Ghana police will not do anything for you, everybody has to defend themselves at any given time so don’t rely on Ghana Police. They do not know anything”, Kennedy Agyapong revealed.

A police officer had the shock of his life when he was ambushed by armed robbers in broad daylight.

The incident occurred on the N1 highway, in Accra, Wednesday. The robbers took away GH¢80,000.00. Narrating his ordeal toAdom News, the police officer said the two masked men fired warning shots before bolting with the bag containing the money.

The shocker, he noted, was when one of the armed robbers returned and demanded the key to his motorbike which he readily gave out.

Source:adomfmonline

Three Nigerians have been arrested by the police for allegedly posting nude pictures of females on Facebook, a social media platform.The suspects whose names were not disclosed were in the custody of the police assisting in investigations.Chief Superintendent of Police (C/Supt) Dr Gustav Yankson, the Director of the Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday.He said the leader of the gang, known as Chairman or ‘Oga’, who recruited the suspects from Nigerian to Ghana for the scam, was being sought for by the police.(C/Supt) Dr Yankson said members of the gang, who started operating in December last year, created a profile account on Facebook for prominent politicians, pastors and military officers, among others, between the ages of 18 and 44, to lure them, especially those looking for partners.

He also said the victims included students, married women and divorcees, adding that the suspects were apprehended in a house at Gbawe in Accra on Monday.Chief Supt. Dr Yankson said the suspects sent messages to the victims on Facebook requesting their nude pictures, which the suspects used to blackmail their victims to pay money or they would be downloaded on the internet.He said some victims paid GH¢1,000 to the victims, adding that there were 30 victims the suspects were engaging.
C/Supt Dr Yankson said the suspects would soon been arraigned, and urged the public to be wary of such scam on Facebook, and information they put on the internet.“Most of the Facebook accounts do not have real identities and the public must be mindful of what they post there, criminals use such information to commit crimes,” he advised.

Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has shrugged off opposition criticisms over the management of the economy insisting the difference, is as wide as “night and day.”
Picking the management of the exchange rate to explain this difference the Vice-President, aided by graphs, showed the best performance of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government between 2012 and 2016 was 9.6% recorded in 2016.
But three years under the NPP, the worst has been a 2018 figure of 8.4%.
“Our worst performance is your best performance between 2012 and 2016”, he said at an economic lecture that pulled no punches.

In a 2014 comment that went viral, Dr. Bawumia in criticising the NDC government’s management of the exchange rate quipped “if the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you.”

It was a comment that was rescued from the archives for another round of viral sharing as the cedi suffered another hurtful depreciation in 2019 under the watch of the Vice-President, who is head of the government’s economic management team.

The calls for the Vice-President to deliver his signature economic lectures while in opposition, have been growing.

He has responded, still standing by his comment that “if the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you.”

But coming with a caveat, he explained, there are other possible factors that can affect the exchange rate.

“Even with strong economic fundamentals, speculations, expectations and investor sentiments can exert pressure on the exchange rate,” he said.

Dabbling in logic, the Vice-President explained that to insist that a depreciation in the currency means the fundamentals are weak is “warped logic”.

Perhaps finding the explanation too intellectual, the Vice-President praised for his penchant for simplification, used the analogy of a broken leg.

“If I come to you and say if your leg is broken, you are going to be unable to walk” and if it is heard that someone is unable to walk, “can I just conclude that your leg must be broken,” he said before the rapture of applause drowned his signature derisive laughter.

The Vice-President said, “NDC logic will insist on the face of contrary evidence that if you cannot walk, your leg must be broken.”

He showed figures of the country’s economic fundamentals as supervised by the NDC government under John Mahama.

Dr. Bawumia pointed out the fiscal deficit was 10.1% of GDP, public debt was 70.2% of GDP, inflation was 17% while GDP growth slumped from 7.3% to 4%.

These “significantly weak” fundamentals were behind the cedi losing 31.3% of its value in 2014.

But a look at the economic fundamentals under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) he said, showed stronger stability with inflation hovering at 9.4%, interest rate dropping.

He concluded that with these figures, an investigation of a 5.9% depreciation of the cedi as experienced in 2019 must look into other factors ruling out the fundamentals as the cause.

“Let me tell you what happened,” he began telling a story of how the cedi depreciated because the IMF had set a condition to the Bank of Ghana to increase its net international reserves – that reserve denominated in dollars meant the central bank needed to add $800m to its vault.

It meant that the BoG could not release dollars into the economy at a time when demand was high, he explained.

Vice-President Dr. Bawumia said when the economic fundamentals were weak in 2014, it compelled the Mahama government to go for an IMF bail-out.

If Ghana is existing the IMF Extended Credit Facility in April 2019 after three years, it could only be that the fundamentals are strong, he said.

Dr. Bawumia who has shown no sign of losing interest in jabbing former President John Mahama, picked up on his comment that the NDC was ready to match the NPP government “boot-for-boot”.

That comment was made in a purely political contest. But Bawumia picked it up for an economic reply.

“Then you say ‘boot-for-boot, this one is more like ‘boot for Chalewote’,” suggesting that on matters of the economy there is a no contest between the NPP and NDC.

His analogy once again provoking laughter in an auditorium dominated by NPP government functionaries and supporters.

Analysts have said Ghana’s constant need for dollars in order to bolster the cedi shows deeper structural problems not only in Ghana but in Africa.

Source : myjoyonline.com

Member of Parliament for Krachi West in the Oti Region, Helen Adjoa Ntoso has sent a word of caution to the Head Pastor of the Glorious Word and Power Ministry, Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah to stop painting Former President black or he should be prepared to face her in the spiritual realm.“This is a direct warning to him. If he dares, I mean the next time I hear such insults on John Mahama, I will not insult him back. But I will face him [Rev. Owusu Bempah] in the realm of the spirit because I am also a pastor,” Mrs Ntoso said on Inside Politics on Radio XYZ.According to the legislator for Krachi West, Owusu Bempah should practice what the Bible says and stop peddling false prophecies and lies to put him in the good light of his pay masters.“I have been anointed, I have been ordained and I will face him head on. It shall be on Reverend to Reverend basis. I say this to the glory of God. He must end it and now or he will regret it. People will hear from me if he dares,” the former minister stated.“He prophesied that John Mahama will win 60% in the NDC primaries. So what happened? It looks like Rev. Bempah is now frustrated and intends to provoke the former first family. When they plan evil things, they rush to radio platforms to gamble and if their predictions come close, they take credit. But that will continue to fail”.

She noted that the ruling New Patriotic Party should not be to happy they won the 2016 elections by a wide margin as every election year has it own pressure stressing that God Reigns and is always out there to ensure his anointed ones are not destroyed by the enemy.“For God has said, touch not the anointed one and do my Prophet or Prophetess no harm. I have gotten to a level where I don’t fight battles physically. I leave all to the Lord. I will challenge Almight that those who move along with armed machomen terrorizing people and presenters from one radio station to the other because his or her government is in power and nothing happens, will crumble”The MP noted she felt sorry for the controversial man of God when he (Owusu Bempah) falsely alleged that John Mahama has imported four demons into the country, and that is why the country is under serious economic challenge.“I was really shocked and never believed till I heard the tape myself. Four demons. As a Minister of the Gospel? The so-called man of God elevating demons. Promoting the Kingdom of darkness at a time Churches and the entire nation is praying for peace, God’s protection and direction, Rev Owusu Bempah is talking about evil things, he and his prayer warriors could not stop?

Protesting against the recent dismissal of some senior staff of the school by the Vice Chancellor despite the intervention by Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah urging them to return to their classrooms on Wednesday.

Some of the students have boycotted lectures on Wednesday intensifying protests in the university campus.

Imoro Rafiu,a student told Accra-based Okay FM that until Dr. Emmanuel Osei Sarpong, and others are recalled the demonstrations will still continue.

Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah on Tuesday asked the Governing Council for University of Education, Winneba (UEW) to ensure that calm is restored on campus as soon as possible.

The directive comes on the back of protests by students over the dismissal of some senior staff of the school.

Professor Kwesi Yankah after meeting with the University authorities for several hours, asked the governing Council to ensure that normalcy returns to the school.

Highlighting on the details of the said meeting with the university, the Minister said “ the issue that emerged between us in the interaction was for the Council to take whatever steps that are necessary to ensure that peace and harmony returns to campus within the shortest possible term to ensure that normal academic work resumes and that the students go back to school and the lecturers continue teaching if they have boycotted classes.”

Dr. Sarpong’s sacking

According to the Disciplinary Board findings in the letter terminating his appointment, Dr. Sarpong admitted walking out of a meeting with the chairman of the UEW governing council which “the Board considered as insubordination and thus misconduct.”

He is also said to have “cunningly orchestrated the posting of” letters inviting him “to appear before the Disciplinary Board to be circulated on social media, particularly on UEW Alumni WhatsApp page just to cause disaffection for the UEW Management.”

The disciplinary board said these actions, among others “amounted to grave misconduct.”

Dr Duku claims innocence

Dr. Frimpong Kakyire Duku, the President of the UEW branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) who was also dismissed maintained that he did no wrong to warrant his dismissal from the university.

Dr. Duku was dismissed by the university together with Professor Ephraim Avea Nsoh, the Principal of the College of Languages Education.

Source : dikoder.com

Gospel Musician and Reverend Minister, Cecilia Marfo replies colleague gospel musicians, Gifty Adorye and Brother Sammy using Amakye Dede’s hit song dubbed “Su fre wo nyame”.

This is in relation to the allegations levelled against her by Gifty Adorye and Brother Sammy.

Gifty Adorye also known as Empress One revealed in an interview that Cecilia Marfo wrote her name on a GHC50 note and buried it with the intention of killing her.

According to Gifty, so many gospel musicians are involved in black magic also known as ‘Juju’ in the gospel music industry.

However, Cecilia Marfo decided to reply to her accusers with a song by veteran highlife musician, Amakye Dede titled ‘Su fre wo Nyame’.

“If you have been called by God, preach the gospel with the calling. Don’t use the word of God to create confusion.

I love every creation of God. Respect and love everyone you come into contact with. I am still strong in God”, 

.

Recently, Cecilia Marfo was accused by her associate Pastor known as Gideon of being a hypocrite and a cheat.

According to Gideon, before Cecilia Marfo went for her prayer conference in Kumasi she cheated on her husband with his driver.

He also stated that Cecilia  Marfo doesn’t practice what she teaches and uses God’s name in vain.

Source:dikoder.com

The United Progressive Party (UPP) has sacked its 2016 flag bearer Akwasi Addai Odike.

The party, prior to the 2016 general elections, suspended Mr Odike for breaching its constitution and naming his son as the acting General Secretary.

The National Executive Council (NEC) on Tuesday, 12 March 2019 voted unanimously to kick Mr Odike out of the party.

Addressing the press shortly after the decision was made, Mr Bukari Kuoru, the acting General Secretary of the party called on eligible Ghanaians interested in the flag bearer slot to pick nomination forms from the party’s office.

He said: “Upon several deliberations, NEC has resolved to weed out a thorn in the flesh of the UPP. In accordance with Article 29 and Article 16 (3) of the party’s constitution, Mr Kwesi Addai Odike has been dismissed indefinitely by a unanimous decision by NEC acting on the advice of the national council until further notice.

“Voting has been done and in compliance with Article 28 of the party’s constitution, Mr Kwesi Addai Odike, henceforth, ceases to be a member of the party and as such cannot carry out any executive duties, parade himself in the name of the party or on behalf of the party in any instance whatsoever.

“Now that he is out of the way, the UPP shall go on and any eligible Ghanaian interested in occupying any position in the party can come forward to the party’s office and take or pick a form”.

According to Mr Kuoru, the party has also opened its office for persons interested to contest as parliamentary candidates. He further noted that the national interim executives will stir the affairs of the party until it goes to Congress on a yet-to-be-announced

Source : classfmonline

There has been a shake-up in the leadership of some of the Select Committees of Ghana’s parliament.

The Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, Mr Mahama Ayariga and the Ranking Member of the Health Committee, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, have lost their leadership positions as a result of the shake-up.

According to Class91.3FM’s parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan the changes were made to ensure the Minority discharges its oversight responsibilities well.

With Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga already serving in the ECOWAS Parliament, his absence from the country negatively impacts his output, thereby necessitating his replacement with a former Deputy Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine, a source told Ekow Annan.

Also Wa West MP, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, who is a member of the Pan-African Parliament, has been replaced with Juaboso MP, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh as the Ranking Member of the Health Committee.

From the majority side, Manhyia North MP, Collins Owusu Amankwah replaces Yaw Frimpong Addo as the Chairman of the Government Assurances Committee.

Source: classfmonline

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ningo-Pampram and a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Sam George, clashed with the Director-General of the Ghana Health Services yesterday over the cost of the construction of the Bekwai Government Hospital and the state’s huge NHIS indebtedness to the hospital when the committee started its public hearing on the 2016 Auditor-General’s report.

The Ningo-Pampram MP had questioned why a loan facility of GH¢18 million contracted in 2010 by the previous government for the construction of the Tarkwa Government Hospital in the Western Region and Bekwai Government Hospital in the Ashanti Region could finish the Tarkwa Hospital completely and 80% of the Bekwai Hospital but now the present government has gone for another loan of 22 million Euros in December, last year for the completion of the Bekwai Hospital which is already 80% complete.

In responding to the issue raised by the Ningo-Pampram MP, the Director-General of GHS, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said the amount of GH¢18 million quoted in the Auditor-General’s report could be wrong because GH¢18 million is too meagre to construct two hospitals and that he thought the right figure might be $18 million.

The Director-General further explained that the 22 million Euros for the completion of the Bekwai Hospital is not meant for the completion of the physical structures of the facility alone but for equipping the facility as well stressing that equipping a hospital to an average standard could be more expensive than the physical structure.

The Ningo-Prampram MP still maintained that the extra cost for the completion of the Bekwai Hospital is too huge and the committee ought to assess the project’s value for money.

The ranking member of the committee, Mr Kofi Okyere Agyekum, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa South said that the Ningo-Prampram MP might not be right if he made that general conclusion without considering other factors that could eventually affect the cost of the project.

According to him, the delay in completion could affect the cost of the project while the unfortunate depreciation of the cedi over the period that the project was left uncompleted could also affect the cost so the Ningo-Prampram MP should consider these factors before coming to that general conclusion.

The Ningo-Prampram MP also wanted to find out when the indebtedness of the government with regards to NHIS which amounted to over GH¢1.2 million in the last two years was paid to the hospital.

The Director-General said government paid the amount in 10 installments from 2017 to 2018 and that all the hospital’s arrears have been cleared.

Source : dailyguidenetwork.

The former National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress has passed on to glory.

The politician who was the chairman when the NDC won power in 2008 had been battling with a protracted sickness.

He died three days after marking his 76 birthday on March 9, 2019.

Dr. Adjei graduated with a PhD (Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology) from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K in 1973.

He ventured into politics in 1978, getting elected as a Council Mmember of the Jasikan District Council in the Volta region.

More to follow soon

Source . Dikoder.com

Empress Gifty Adorye has made a startling revelation about Cecilia Marfo to the effect the Prophetess tried ending her life over what she is yet to find out till date, MyNewsGh.com reports.

According to her, Cecilia Marfo has always seen her as competition and therefore was doing everything within her means to get her out of the way.

She made this known when she hosted a show on Accra-based Happy FM.

She said Cecilia Marfo who claims to be a prophetess wrote her name (Gifty Adorye) on a GHC 50 and buried it.

“A colleague gospel musician wrote my name on a GHS50 note and buried it. Do you know who that person is? Cecilia Marfo”.

“Cecilia was asked what her problems were during a church service and she mentioned me as her problem. I was shocked when her assistant Pastor made this statement in his audio,” she added

Amos Kweku Nkasah as affectionately called narrated the concept behind this song as one derived from Becca’s “Hwe Die )d) Ayeme”. `As young and talented gospel artiste emerging from the Central Reggion , we immediately got the idea that we can easily change the content from worldly concept to a good news song and reach Christians with the believe that the power of God will strongly back the idea .Indeed, the song has gone far and out of our expectations. God is doing a lot with this particular song.”HWE DIE YESU AYEME”. Being the Gospel version of Becca’s “Hwe Die odo ayeme ” is a complete testimony to my life,looking at where I am coming from, considering the financial hardship in my family,and suddenly Jehovah turned that tedious life around,there came the song “See How God Has Made Me”which translate in Akan language ” Hwe Die Yesu Ayeme”.

Kweku Nkansah the leader of the group narrated his story when speaking to dikoder.com . The song is now making waves and trending as its enjoy air play in most radio stations in the capital and beyond. The song was produced by Barack Osei and recorded at Fortunate Farmer Records . Located in Lapaz , Race Course.