AM News || Passport Office: Foreign Affairs Minister sacks overstayed officers
AM News with Samuel Kojo Brace on JoyNews (15-8-23)
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Good morning and let's do AM News now. Minister for Foreign Affairs and
00:05 Regional Integration Shelley Ayoko Botre has sacked officers on
00:09 secondment from nine agencies for overstaying their duty at the Accra
00:14 passport office. The officers include Ghana Police Service, Immigration, NIB
00:20 amongst others. Madam Ayoko Botre who was enraged about the reported cases of
00:25 extortion of passport applicants by some officers indicated that such activities
00:30 cannot continue because she's sanitizing the system. The Foreign Affairs Minister
00:35 has however revealed that investigations are underway to deal with officers
00:40 engaged in shady deals with girl boys.
00:44 This cannot continue. I always say that there's too much happening that really
00:53 shouldn't be happening within the passport acquisition system. If we talk
01:00 about Goro people, these Goro people are outsiders. They do not work on their own
01:07 because if the Goro person collects somebody's money they need to work with
01:13 somebody from inside to change their dates. They work with people from inside.
01:20 I'm not saying all of you but there are some of you who are engaged in it and this
01:26 should stop. The blame is always on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile is
01:35 the agencies and I'm sure even some of our staff are involved. Public servants are
01:41 supposed to be giving public service to Ghanaians. The vice president has led the
01:49 digitalization efforts with my support and all of my officers to put in
02:00 place an online system. Now the online system is being manipulated so that
02:07 people can make money off it. There's an investigation going on and some names
02:15 have been mentioned and there are people from outside a cartel who are working
02:22 with people from inside. Anybody who has been here for more than a year from
02:30 Monday please do not come back because you've been changed. We want to bring
02:38 some sanity. Every time politicians are corrupt, politicians are corrupt.
02:43 Meanwhile it's some public civil servants who will do things that
02:49 shouldn't be done and then they put it on politicians. We come, we do the right
02:53 thing. I'm trying to bring sanity into the passport system but no. Now with
02:59 immediate effect the Greater Accra Regional Minister has placed an outright
03:03 ban of the use or display of party paraphernalia at festivals in the
03:09 regional capital. The Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council at a meeting with
03:13 MMDCEs, the regional minister of Greater Accra, Henry Korte, was criticizing
03:19 multiple chief executives from various metropolitan municipal
03:24 and district assemblies within the capital. He also announced an outright
03:29 ban on the use of these party paraphernalia to reduce tension.
03:34 Celebration of festivals is mainly to portray our traditional and cultural
03:41 values and to display how rich they are in our respective regions and so we
03:47 think that the use of party paraphernalia usually creates a lot of
03:53 political tensions within the, I can speak for Greater Accra, and taking
03:58 cognizance of what is done in other regions, you hardly find party
04:04 paraphernalia when festivals are being celebrated. So together today the
04:10 MMDCEs, president and presiding members, have taken a decision and that is to say
04:16 that going forward all festivals in Greater Accra will be celebrated. In fact
04:22 the party paraphernalia are banned from all festivals in Greater Accra. Strictly
04:30 banned. To our news stories now and commercial drivers at Bung Barrier and
04:37 its environs have vowed to continue their sit-down strike in the coming days
04:41 until the deplorable road in the Saki Bediakwu Bung Barrier enclave is fixed.
04:47 Residents on Monday were left stranded at lorry stations due to the action by
04:53 commercial drivers. Many commuters had to walk over two kilometers long to the
04:57 nearest place to find a vehicle, a report by Carlos Kaloni.
05:03 [Speaking in Bung Barrier]
05:09 As you have seen me here, I've walked from Barrier to this very place.
05:15 I'm a student and then I have to move from here to Accra. So all cars are not working.
05:20 Because of that I can't go to school today. Someone take your time. We rise against you people.
05:26 The drivers who refused to ply the route also prevented other commercial vehicles
05:31 from using the road. They intend to carry out this action daily until they see
05:36 contractors working on the road. Today is just a small thing that we are
05:40 doing. It's the beginning. So tomorrow we are continue. And as we earlier said,
05:45 if we don't see anything, tomorrow we are continue again. Massively.
05:51 Tomorrow if we don't see anything, two weeks time, we have given them two weeks.
05:54 And if we don't see anything in two weeks, we are going to do a demonstration.
05:58 Whether the police will give us a permit or not permit, we will do it. Whatever they want to do,
06:02 they will come and carry us. Because we are fed up. We are fed up. Enough is enough.
06:07 Why? Are we not part of Ghana? But what did the road minister tell Parliament about this road?
06:14 The Bumbaria to Saki Bediakun road is 3.8 kilometers long and in poor surface condition.
06:25 It is located in the Bumb Katamansu municipality of the greater Accra region.
06:32 The road starts from Kalisto junction to Mishel Camp gate.
06:38 Mr. Speaker, currently there is no program on the Bumbaria to Saki Bediakun road.
06:48 Future program is that engineering studies will be undertaken on the road by the end of the third quarter of 2023
06:59 to determine the appropriate intervention to be carried out on the road.
07:04 Work will be considered under the 2024 budget subject to availability of funds.
07:10 Member of Parliament, Yusef Akwe Tete, has however, backed the driver's action
07:15 and is demanding the release of funds to the contractor for construction work to commence.
07:21 It's also saying that they can only consider this road in 2024 budget.
07:29 And as you can see, this road needs urgent attention. So the minister cannot push us to 2024 budget.
07:36 My word to the minister is that they should come and do something to this road.
07:41 We know that the road has been awarded according to the documents that we have.
07:45 And so they should release the needed funds to the contractor so that the contractor can move to site.
07:50 Municipal chief executive of the Kunkatemansu Municipal Assembly, Samuel Okowamankwa, said he finds the minister's statement contradictory.
07:58 When the minister appeared in the house and he was asked about the plans, what he said is not what we know.
08:09 Because we have a document.
08:11 What did he say? What did he say in Parliament?
08:14 That there's no plans for Kalipstu to Mishe Camp Road. They don't have any plans for it.
08:23 But we have a document which was signed by the chief director of the ministry.
08:29 And then it went to the regional urban rules, which they have also signed, dated 23rd March.
08:38 And then it reads, "Upgrading of selected roads in Zenu and Kungu area roads, phase one, 5.23 kilometres, which has to do with Kalipstu to Mishe Camp and Bediaku roads."
08:56 And this is going, this road is supposed to be done with a drainage system.
09:01 That is where the drains along the road.
09:05 So what the minister said and what is before us, they are two different things.
09:12 And that baffles some of us.
09:15 Assembly member of the Militsa Kweletrol area, Isaac Newton-Tethe, would not have any of that.
09:21 He insists the municipal assembly must take appropriate action to get the road fixed now.
09:27 The stretch of road that we are talking about is just 3.5, 3.8 kilometres of road. And it's a trunk road that connects the N1 and N2.
09:35 We want asphalt road. We want asphalt road. But as I speak now, government has told us that they have no plans for it.
09:42 So if they have no plans, then it means the assembly must quickly reshape the road to make it more travelable for the drivers.
09:49 Bediaku Janssen is mounting here at Bediaku among drivers as well as residents over the deplorable state of this road and many other roads within this area.
10:00 They are thus calling on the authorities to immediately come to their aid.
10:04 They have actually threatened to continue with a sit-down strike come tomorrow.
10:09 Reporting from Bediaku Janssen here in the Kuk Katamansu municipality, my name is Carlos Keloni for JOY News.
10:17 Now, the case of 35-year-old popular mass ceremony for Islamic wardens in the Upper West Region will be heard in camera beginning tomorrow at the Wah Circuit Court.
10:28 Rashid Ahmed Anatar is facing 18 counts of sexual assault on 12 minors in the last two years.
10:36 JOY News Upper West Regional correspondent Rafik Salam was in court to report the large crowd who stormed the court to witness the proceedings defied an early downpour.
10:46 For the second time, they were back in court and in droves.
10:52 The spectators were here two clear hours before the proceedings started, even defying an early heavy downpour.
11:01 The colonial antique building of the Wah Circuit Court was filled to the rafts and no blade of space to walk through.
11:10 35-year-old Rashid Ahmed Anatar is loved and despised in equal measure and he faces 18 counts of sexual assault on 12 minors.
11:21 Better known by adoram fans as Anatar came into the court dressed in the blue-black Egyptian traditional garment over pink sports sandals, winking smiles.
11:33 Unlike the first day, where all 11 counts were lumped together by the police prosecution, the Attorney General's Office, upon taking over, separated all the counts and increased it to 18.
11:47 Two assistant state attorneys at the Attorney General's Department, lawyer Kwame Buateng Mensah and Frances Akwe, read the facts of all 18 counts to his hearing.
11:58 He pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
12:01 Principal state attorney, lawyer Shahid Abdul Shakur, threw more light while they have increased the number of counts from 11 to 18.
12:10 These are two different set of girls, so you can't lump them together because it's not from the same act.
12:18 That is why we have the fifth docket and then the fourth docket.
12:24 The first docket, there are three girls he took to his matrimonial home.
12:29 11, 12 and then 13, he took to his matrimonial home and had sex with them in turns. It was a threesome.
12:40 And then the second docket is another threesome of three different set of girls.
12:45 The third one has one of the girls who, that appeared to be an agent sort of.
12:53 She's 12 years but she has a big body. She's able to bring in the other two girls, different two girls.
13:02 That's the third docket. So you see, these things happen differently and at different places.
13:07 Some in the bush, some in his house, some on a motorbike by the roadside, etc.
13:12 So if you lump them together, it will make evidence a little bit more related.
13:18 Principal said that Tony, where is it? It's at the school. We have to record what we have in camera.
13:24 Proceedings of the court beginning tomorrow.
13:27 We're bringing in, tomorrow we'll start, we'll bring in three of the victims.
13:32 We'll bring them in, we'll do it in camera hand.
13:35 We'll try as much as possible to protect their identities and then we'll start very early tomorrow.
13:41 So when we start, the three of them will testify when they finish their testimony.
13:49 Irrespective of the first docket. If there's still time, they will move to the second.
13:55 Chief Executive Officer of Ba'ath Foundation, Yusuf Ilyasul Baba, who reported the matter to the police on May 25.
14:04 And therefore the complainant in the cases is unwavering in his stance.
14:09 I don't have, I don't fear, I don't have, you know, I'm not perturbed at all.
14:14 So I'm focused on where I'm going, where I'm coming from and where I'm going.
14:18 I want to see the end of this case. That's where I'm going.
14:21 Whatever, whoever is doing anything beside or I don't have a problem with it.
14:25 The person can do whatever he wants, but I'm focusing on where I'm going.
14:28 Also in court was the Apostle General Director of Gender, Women, Children and Social Protection, Teri Tibaturi.
14:36 Those who has their eyes on the court for justice. Beyond that, they are providing counseling services for the 12 binaurs.
14:44 So for me, it's not just about getting what the court to say, but also focusing on the girls, giving them the right services that they need.
14:52 And I think talking about services, thanks to UNFPA, we have what we call the essential service package for these cases,
14:59 cases of sexual and gender based violence, which we have a lot of coordinators and partners coming on board.
15:04 So for instance, now it becomes easier in dealing with cases like this.
15:08 Doxy is on board, social welfare is on board, gender is on board, children is on board.
15:12 Any other key actor that is needed is on board on this essential service package, which is helping us a lot.
15:19 Reporting for JNU News, Rafik Salaam.
15:28 The head of internal medicine at the Tichamon Holy Family Hospital and member of the Ghana Association for the Study of Liver and Digestive Diseases,
15:37 Dr. Felix Aninaje, has said that there is a need for health professionals to check their hepatitis B statuses,
15:48 as well as help in its awareness creation as a means of minimizing its spread.
15:52 He expressed worry about the easy transmission of hepatitis from mother to baby and asked that more attention need to be given to help address this.
16:00 And our Sabit has more in this report.
16:04 Hepatitis B is a global public health threat and the world's most common serious liver infection.
16:11 It is up to 100 times more infectious than the HIV/AIDS virus.
16:16 It is also the primary cause of liver cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the world.
16:22 Here in Ghana, AIDS prevalence is around 12.3%, placing it as a highly endemic country.
16:30 Dr. Felix Aninaje is a member of the Ghana Association for the Study of Liver and Digestive Diseases and a specialist physician at the Tichamon Holy Family Hospital.
16:40 Hepatitis B is very infectious. In fact, again to put a figure to it, it is 100 times more infectious than HIV.
16:49 And it is about 10 times more infectious than hepatitis C.
16:54 So what it means is that if you have some contact with a patient who has hepatitis B and HIV,
17:05 and the mode of transmission is such that you can have both, the chances are that you would have hepatitis B rather than HIV because it is far more infectious, about 100 times.
17:16 So we have that influence and its spread.
17:23 He expressed worry at the fact that hepatitis B can be easily passed from a pregnant woman to a baby at birth
17:30 and asked that enough attention need to be given to help prevent this mother-baby transmission.
17:36 Because a mother can give it to the unborn baby, we also have situations where a lot of mothers would have to be checked for hepatitis B.
17:47 And then if they are positive, we need to institute measures to prevent the transfer to the baby.
17:53 Usually you need to give some immunoglobulins to prevent the baby who has been exposed to hepatitis B infection in your bed to prevent the infection from being transferred.
18:08 Unfortunately, most of the mothers cannot afford because this is pretty expensive.
18:13 And that in itself puts the children at risk, especially for the mothers who are positive for what we call the E-antigen.
18:22 They are even far more infectious. And this is something that I think as a country we should pay attention to.
18:28 The medical specialist who is also the head of internal medicine at the Holy Family Hospital conducted a research on the topic, hepatitis B, the Ghanian perspective.
18:38 He wants health professionals to check their statuses as well as help in awareness creation to help minimize infections across the country.
18:46 Some health people are not aware. And I mean surprisingly as it is, we have to keep talking about it so that everybody at least knows his or her status.
19:00 I mean the second bit to it is that we hope that these health people, after getting to know some fine details, can also go out there and propagate the message.
19:12 So that somehow they would also spread the word so that everybody out there will be aware of what is happening in the hepatitis B space and also try to do their very best to help curb this illness.
19:27 Dr. Felix Eneji admonishes the public to adopt lifestyles that will help protect them from having hepatitis B infections.
19:35 The first step is for you to know your status. You have to test to know or to confirm whether you are positive or negative.
19:43 Now if you are negative, then thankfully we have a vaccine that can to a very large extent prevent you or protect you from getting the infection.
19:53 Again, after taking the vaccine, you have to also avoid all the negative lifestyles that can make you more prone to having the infection.
20:02 He also cautions the public to stay away from self-medications as it has the tendency of complicating one's ailment.
20:10 So the advice is that you should be careful with self-medication. I mean not only for hepatitis B, but generally self-medication is something you want to avoid as much as possible.
20:19 Mind you, the liver also detoxifies almost every drug. So self-medication shouldn't be encouraged both for hepatitis B and indeed for every other condition.
20:32 Reporting for JOY News, Anas Sabit, Tichiman.
20:42 Now with barely two weeks to the super delegate Congress of the governing MPP, flag bearer hopeful Francis Adai Nimo is calling for a free and fair election to prevent post-election divisions.
20:54 He is however hopeful of winning the elections to lead the party. Samuel Mbrava, Political Desk, has more.
21:00 Adai Nimo is number seven on the ballot paper, derving himself the Cristiano Ronaldo of the race. Nimo says he's out to prove a point and not an underdog.
21:11 I have had the opportunity to go to the exercise in 2014 and even 2014 when I was seen to be an unknown person.
21:19 2014 I was seen to be an unknown person and the surprise was that I came in third. So I'm not a new person in the party. I will be seen as an underdog again in this election.
21:32 And that will be the underdog causing an upset or a surprise at the end of the day.
21:37 The former Mampo MP comes into the race with a vision to the forefront, one that stretches beyond party lines. His ultimate goal is to infuse unity into the MPP's core.
21:48 So the fundamental requirement is that we need to bring all members of the party together and that is unity. And where there is unity, then we have the maximum strength.
21:58 However, Mr Nimo believes that the role of the Elections Committee in shaping the party's cohesion to ensure unity is critical by conducting a free and fair election.
22:08 Elections offer an even playing field, characterized by the free nature of it, the fair nature of it and the transparent nature of the process.
22:21 Leveraging his professional prowess as an engineer, Mr Nimo assesses his unique suitability to lead the country. His technocratic expertise, he argues, equips him with the tools needed to steer the nation effectively.
22:35 Having worked as a civil servant also before at the Ministry of Roads and Highways and having been a member of Parliament, I have enough insight into how central government of Brazil or how the entire governance structure of the country is. I have enough insight.
22:51 In two weeks, the fate of five will be decided among ten aspirants at the superdelegates' congress of the MPP. Will the former Mampo MP, who is contesting the race for the second time, make it to the list? Time will decide.
23:07 Samuel Mbura, JOYNE News.
23:15 And that's how we wrap up this morning's edition of AM News. There's more on myjoyneline.com. AM News Review is up next on the show. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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