233Prime

The queen mother of Amanfo-Nungua, Naa Adjokor Mobonalor III, has appealed to all well-meaning Ghanaians to demonstrate love, care and affection towards widows and the aged in the society by helping donate copiously in cash and in kind to support them during this yuletide season.

According to her, this will help reduce their plight, put a big smile on their faces as well as make them feel a part of the society.

She made the call at a brief ceremony whilst presenting assorted items to 132 widows and the aged at the Nungua Traditional Authority Hall in Accra.

The items donated included 20 mini bags of rice, 10 crates of soft drinks, 10 boxes filled with 2 litres of bottled cooking oil.

According to Naa Adjokor Mobonalor III, the donation was aimed at putting smiles on the faces of the aged and the widows during this yuletide season.

“It’s just a token from us meant to brighten the faces of these unfortunate ones during this Christmas season,” she said.

“I felt they have been neglected for far too long by the society and thought it’s about time we put a little smile on their faces again before the New Year comes,” she added.

Describing them as vulnerable who had no hope in the society, she added, “it behoves on all of us to put smiles on their faces at all times especially during this yuletide season”.

This is the third time Naa Adjokor Mobonalor III has demonstrated goodwill, care and support towards relieving the plight of the aged and the widows in the society during the yuletide season. The first time was in the year 2013.

The queenmother said she will be grateful to sustain the gesture henceforth every year during the yuletide season but asked for support from well-wishers to make her dream a reality.

Naa Adjokor Mobonalor III congratulated Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, King Odai Fio Welentsey III, Paramount Chief of Nungua, Nii Ashai Odamtey Nobatse II, Mayor of Tema Metropolitan Assembly, the Nungua Pentecost Church, Mr. Eric Afotey Odai, Alhaji Aliu Adams and all others for their support in helping her fulfill her desire by reaching out to the widows and the aged this season.

She also called on benevolent organizations, public-spirited individuals and churches to emulate the gesture by donating to support the widows and the aged in society.

By Joseph Kobla Wemakor|Nungua, Accra|Ghana

About 7,000 nurses and midwives who have not been paid their full salaries and other benefits in the last three years have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike if government fails to settle all arrears by January 31, 2016.

The nurses and midwives who form the Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives, say efforts to get the government to pay them all their outstanding salaries and benefits have not yielded any results

A statement issued Wednesday by the group said they have remained calm and rendered their services all these years due to discussions, promises and reassurances from the government, but was surprised to hear a claim from the government that all their arrears have been paid.

The group described the said claim as “a hoax which makes us doubt if the current system is not endorsing double standards with respect to justice administration”.

The Coalition said its members who have been paid are “not more than thirty percent” and that “most of them were not paid fully”.

“We are convinced enough that the government has not addressed our salaries and arrears issues with the necessary attention,” they stated.

The coalition said it has been left with no better alternative than to strike “if every single dime is not paid to our bank accounts by January 31st 2016”.

By tv3network.com

The Ho Polytechnic Tuesday added a School of Graduate Studies and a Faculty of Applied Social Sciences to its repertoire of academic disciplines.

The Polytechnic now has five Faculties; Engineering, Applied Science and Technology, Business and Management Studies, Art and Design and Liberal Arts giving effect to Schedule C of its current Statutes which spelt out the structure of Faculties it must establish.

“This decision is not new it has been on the drawing Board for five years as part of our five year strategic plan,” Professor Emmanuel Kodzo Sakyi, Rector, said at the inaugural event and swearing in of an interim boards of the two entities.

The action gave effect to Section 18 of the Polytechnic’s establishment Act and Statute 41 (a) which among others provides that “There shall be established a School of Research and Graduate Studies which shall be headed by a Dean, to be assisted by a Vice Dean”, Dr Christopher K. Amehoe, Registrar of the Polytechnic explained.

The acting Dean of the School of Graduate studies is Dr Peter Agbodza, with Mr Simon Amegashie-Viglo as the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences.

In a statement, Dr Ben Hoenyenugah, Vice-Rector, Academic Issues, said the Graduate School is expected to host all Post Bachelor programmes and the African Journal of Technical Education Management.

“This places enormous responsibility on Deans and Heads of Departments to develop innovative and national development oriented Master degree programmes in the shortest possible time.”

On the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, Dr Hoenyenuga said, “This Faculty which has the mandate to humanise the Polytechnic also falls in line with existing faculties in Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and Germany where the arts and social sciences find a place among engineering and science faculties.”

In line with the norms of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences will begin with the Departments of Multidisciplinary Studies and the Department of Applied Modern Languages and Communication.

The Polytechnic’s Chinese Intercultural Centre, Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology Transfer, HIV and Reproductive Health Centre, Centre for African Traditional Leadership and Governance and Centre, Conflict Transformation and Management all come under the this Faculty, Dr Hoenyenugah said.

“This makes Ho Polytechnic Internationally compliant,” he said.

Source GNA

A group calling itself Taxpayers League Ghana is pressing upon the country’s security agencies to pick up persons complicit in the GH¢3.6 million rebranding of 116 metro mass transit buses.

The public outcry over the deal has resulted in the resignation of the Minister of Transport, Dzifa Aku Attivor.

Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, who directed a review into the deal, has also charged the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, to recover GH¢1.9 million from Messrs Smartty’s Management Limited as “excess payment made for the services rendered”.

But Taxpayers League Ghana in a statement issued on Thursday, December 24 said: “Since government has accepted that there was a wrong doing, the Minister must face the music and cough the taxpayers’ money back.”

It is, therefore, demanding an immediate arrest of not only Mrs Attivor but also the Chief Executive Officer of Smartty’s Management Limited, Selassie Ibrahim.

“We need the full amount back into the consolidated fund,” the statement said, mentioning the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigations and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) as the agencies to lead the arrest operation.

By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|tv3network.com|Ghana

Twitter: @kwame_amoh