ACCRA-BASED SIRIGU CITIZENS DONATE TO ORPHANAGE (PAGE 22, JAN 4, 2011)

NATIVES of Sirigu in the Kassena-Nankana West District in the Upper East Region who are resident in Accra and Tema have presented assorted items to the Mother of Mercy Babies Home.
The orphanage caters for children who lost either or both parents at birth or children of insane mothers.
The home received 12 bags of rice, two gallons of cooking oil, 10 packets of biscuits, two cartons of drinks and GH¢500.
The leader of the group, Mr Emmanuel Aberinga, who led the delegation to the home to present the items, said the gesture was part of their annual programme to support the orphanage.
He stated that the group would make the donation twice a year, one during the Easter and the other at Christmas.
Mr Aberinga said the group would link up with citizens of the town domiciled in other parts of the country to offer the necessary assistance to needy institutions at home.
The caretaker of the home, Rev. Sister Innocentia, said the Mother of Mercy Babies Home, established in 1984 by the German Medical Sisters, depended largely on the diocese for assistance but that alone was not enough to carry out activities in the home.
She mentioned the lack of constant running water and a strong vehicle as some of the challenges the home faced, and appealed to other philanthropists to come to the aid of the home.

Hail 2011: Year Of Breakthroughs(D/G, Monday January 3, 2011)

..........................................The Chairman of the Upper Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church, Rev Esmond Wasau Nagba, asked Christians to lead Godly lives if Ghana is to progress and take its place among the developed nations, Benjamin Xornam Glover reports from Bolgatanga.“As we enter the new year, our responsibility as Christians should be to make an impact wherever we find ourselves as parents, husbands, workers, security persons, children, wives, politicians, among others. This is your responsibility and privilege as members of God’s church,” he said. Rev Nagba said this in a sermon on New Year’s Eve at the Peniel Congregation of the Presbyterian Church.“Our relationship with Jesus Christ should go beyond the walls of the church. We are to bring God’s presence in the places we find ourselves,” he said.He called on all Christians to eschew corruption, cheating and all other vices that went against the accelerated development of the country and rather reposition themselves to impact the land positively through their responsibilities to God.Some residents of Bolgatanga who spoke to the Daily Graphic were optimistic that things would be right in the new year.

PEACE BRINGD DEV TO BAWKU (BACK PAGE, JAN 1, 2011)

The Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region is witnessing rapid development due to the relative peace prevailing in the area after months of violent conflict.
Speaking at this year’s Samanpiid festival of the chiefs and people of Bawku last Thursday, the municipal chief executive of the area, Mr Musa Abdulai, said over the last two years, the assembly had awarded more than 30 projects in the municipality in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation, electricity and agriculture.
Mr Abdulai attributed the fast pace of development to the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the municipality and the preparedness of the people to co-exist peacefully.
Samanpiid festival, which is celebrated annually, is a traditional post-harvest thanksgiving event meant to thank God and the ancestral spirits for a successful farming season. It is also an occasion to discuss other social and developmental issues affecting the people.
This year’s celebration, like in the past two celebrations, was held under heavy security to avert any nasty incident.
The MCE said for the year 2010 alone, seven six-unit classroom blocks with ancillary facilities had been awarded under the GETFund facility. Again, 15 boreholes and two clinics and some roads were being constructed under the Community Based Rural Development Programme.
In the agriculture sector, Mr Abdulai said the government, through the fertiliser subsidy, lessened the burden of farmers and this had led to an increase in agricultural output in the municipality.
He appealed to the chiefs and people not to draw back efforts aimed at restoring permanent peace in the municipality, emphasising that “greater things would by all means be done if we all eschew violence and embrace each other as a people with a common destiny”.
He also commended the security agencies and all other stakeholders for sacrificing their lives and time towards attaining peace in the area and pledged the commitment towards measures put in place to return the municipality to permanent peace.
The Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr Alexander Asum-Ahesah, who represented the President at the festival, reminded the people of the area that what they needed was absolute peace for the massive socio-economic development and not incessant violence.
He disclosed that the government had contracted a loan of $75 million from the International Development Association (IDA) to improve and upgrade the water sector in six regions including the Upper East Region. Also, about 20,000 boreholes would be provided throughout the country starting from the 2011 fiscal year.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, appealed to the people of Bawku to use the festival as a vehicle for reconciliation and forgiveness.
“Let us see ourselves as brothers and sisters, with the same sense of purpose of rebuilding this once growing and prosperous municipality,” he said.
The Paramount Chief of Bawku, Zug-Raan Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, said he looked forward to a day that all the people in Bawku could fully reintegrate as brothers and sisters, mingling freely everywhere without fear or suspicion of one another.

KOMBIAN'S ACCOMPLICE ARRESTED IN BAWKU (PAGE 3, DEC 28, 2010)

THE police in Bawku have arrested a 31-year-old man suspected to be an accomplice of the jailed fugitive, Johnson Kombian.
Mamudu Ndekugre was apprehended at Zabugu, a suburb of Bawku, at the weekend. At the time of his arrest, the police found on him an AK47 rifle with about 100 rounds of AK47 rifle ammunition, as well as pistol ammunition.
Police sources in Bawku told the Daily Graphic that the suspect had been on the police wanted list as the main partner of the hardened criminal, Kombian, who was arrested in Togo and jailed for breaking jail.
Kombian is also alleged to have murdered two policemen.
Ndekugre, popularly known in Bawku and its environs as “Kpankpe” (dried Guinea fowl), has also been on the wanted list for a very long time for his alleged roles in some high-profile robberies and motorbike snatching.
According to a police source, the suspect was the one who shielded and accommodated Kombian at Bugri anytime Kombian was wanted by the police for various offences, including the alleged killing of policemen at Nakpanduri and other communities in the Northern and Upper East regions.
He is also said to have operated with Kombian and other members of a robbery gang that terrorised and robbed passengers on buses that plied the Bawku-Cinquansi route and other roads in the area and deprived them of valuable items and huge sums of money.

SCHOOLS URGED TO SUSTAIN HIGH LEVEL OF DISCIPLINE (PAGE 11, DEC 13, 2010)

VICE- President, John Mahama, has urged management, staff and students of schools in the Upper East Region not to relent in their efforts to promote and sustain high standards of discipline since it forms the key foundation to achieve academic excellence.
The Vice-President made this remark in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, at the 50th anniversary celebration of Notre Dame Seminary/Senior High School at Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
The advice comes at the heels of some serious indiscipline demonstrated in some schools in the region in the course of the year which saw students in not less than five senior high and technical schools embarking on demonstration resulting in temporary closure of these schools.
“I have a firm belief that the upsurge of immoral activities and some of the problems we are faced with today could be minimised or eliminated, should students in this country resolve to be honest and hardworking and grow up with these attributes before they mature into adult life or enter into a world of work,” the Vice-President noted.
He, however, commended staff and students of Notre Dame for their achievements in the past and their continuous dedication to contribute their quota to the provision of affordable access to quality education to the youth and urged them to sustain it.
The Vice-President reassured all that the government was committed to provide an educational system which liberates the minds of future leaders and equip them with creative and innovative skills.
He added that government had taken note of the challenges facing the school and would do whatever possible within limited budgetary provisions to assist the school to improve upon its facilities to make teaching and learning more meaningful.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, an alumnus of the school, said the government was aware of the enormous challenges posed by the four year SHS and had, therefore, embarked on the provision of massive infrastructure in all senior high schools in the country.
He added that in the Upper East Region, nine 6-unit classroom blocks and eight dormitory blocks and Kitchen /Dining halls costing GH¢ 11,310,430.63 were under construction.
Mr Woyongo said equally worth noting was the fact that the government would continue to provide subsidy to all students in the senior high schools, as well as scholarship to all students of northern extraction, adding that the government was working assiduously to make sure that salaries of teachers were competitive with other professionals.
The acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Lawrence Satuh, an alumnus who delivered the keynote address, said Notre Dame from the onset had made a conscious effort to go for quality and not quantity, stressing that there was no wonder the status quo in terms of academic excellence had prevailed in the school with consistent enviable records.
“Notre Dame has sustained and thrived all these years based on the quest for excellence, hard work, sheer determination to succeed”, he said and tasked the current student body to emulate the proud achievement of the past students.
The Rector and Headmaster of the school, Rev. Fr. Francis Kudelogo, commended the founding fathers of the school for laying a strong foundation that had made the school what it is today.
For her part, the acting Regional Director of Education, Mrs Agnes Atagabe, urged parents to embrace the government's scholarship package for science and mathematics students in each district.
As part of the golden jubilee celebration, 10 institutions and individuals were honoured for their dedication and continuous contributions towards the growth of the school. They were Navro-Pio Kwara Kadatua, Missionaries of Africa, Presentation Brothers, The IHM Sisters and Rev. Fr. Francis Maddens.
The rest were Mr Mark Woyongo, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, Mr Kenneth Anewenah, Mr Dominic Soree and Mr Robert Atiiga.

THREE DIE IN MOTOR ACCIDENT (MIRROR, PAGE 35, DEC 11, 2010)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga

Three people, including a three-month-old baby, died when a vehicle they were travelling in had an accident on the Bawku-Bolgatanga road last Monday.

According to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kweku Bempah, who is in charge of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service in the Upper East Region, the accident occurred in a town called Tilli at about 12:30 p.m..

DSP Bempah, who withheld the names of the victims, said the accident could be as a result of a tyre burst. 

He said the victims were travelling to Accra when the incident occurred.

He identified the victims as a National Security Personnel, a female who is a prison officer and the baby girl.

According to the police, the vehicle, a Ford Everest, with registration number GW 2800 X, was being driven by a military man and it is believed they were returning from a family gathering in Bawku.

The driver is said to have sustained an injury in the hand while two others whose condition are said to be critical have been dispatched to Accra for further treatment.

The National Security operative who died on the spot was buried last Tuesday at Pusiga in line with Islamic beliefs.

AVIATION TEAM INSPECTS PAGA AIRSTRIP (BACK PAGE, DEC 10, 2010)

A team of technical experts from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the Ghana Air Force (GAF) has conducted a preliminary assessment of the Paga airstrip with the view to reactivating flight services at the facility.

The team, led by the Manager of Aerodrome Safety and Standards at the GCAA, Mrs Anita Adjei-Nmashie, and Wing Commander Frank Hanson of the GAF, was in the region at the invitation of the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, to examine the suitability or otherwise of the airstrip for commercial flights.

The minister, who accompanied the team, said the reopening of the airstrip would not only open up the region for tourism but also boost trade.

He said as part of the plans, a cold storage facility would be provided close to the airstrip to expedite the easy transportation of fresh vegetables, which occasionally went to waste at the farm gates.

Mr Woyongo appealed to the traditional authorities in the area to co-operate and provide the needed assistance for the airport project.

Although the Paga airstrip has a good landscape, it cannot be used for commercial purposes because it is too near Burkina Faso, a situation that forces aircraft flying in to veer into the airspace of that country before returning to the facility to land.