Category: General

Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, President, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), says only members who have paid their dues in full by January 19,2024, can participate in the GJA 2023 Awards. 'Some members waited until the opening of entries before paying their dues in order to participate in the awards. This time, members who come at that late hour may find the door shut. We are currently compiling the list of members in good standing for 2023. Members have up to the 19th of this month (January) to pay their dues in full for 2023. Mr Dwumfour, who gave the advice at a news conference in Accra on Monday, said one major eligibility criterion for the awards was membership in good standing. 'The General Secretary has issued a memo to that effect. We expect all members to act within the opened window for payment of dues so that the door may not be shut on their entries for awards,' he cautioned. The GJA President said last year's GJA Awards was very successful per feedback received from members and the public. T he 28th Media Awards, he said, would be more memorable if it was held as part of the 75th Anniversary activities of the Association. In view of that, he said the leadership of the Association had taken proactive steps to ensure high standards in the organisation of the awards. 'First, we have scheduled a date in September for the awards; second, we will open entries in April and close same in June; third, we will give the awards vetting committee ample time to select the winners, and fourth, we will upgrade the online platform used for entries last year. 'You may notice that the proposed timelines I have outlined are earlier and more flexible than those of last year. That is so because we want to get things right,' he noted. Speaking on the third GJA Annual Dinner Night, Mr Dwumfour said this year's would be modified to mark the 75th Anniversary by incorporating the festival of nine lessons and carols since the ceremony would be ahead of Christmas. The nine lessons and carols would feature heads of media houses, and Choral Festival, featuring singing groups from media houses. 'We hope that the 3rd GJA Dinner Night in December 2024 would be better than the previous ones. Considering the busy schedule for the year, the Annual Dinner Night is needed more than ever before for members to kill the stress we may encounter in the course of the year,' he added. Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is carrying out emergency maintenance works on its 42-inch and 21-inch transmission pipelines from Kpong Water Treatment Plant. Announcing the maintenance works, the management of GWCL, Tema Region, indicated that the works would be carried out by GWCL engineers from Wednesday, January 10, to Thursday, January 11. This, it noted, would lead to some interruption in water supply for the two scheduled days the work would be done. Management indicated that the areas that would be affected by the water supply interruption included the whole of Tema Township, Prampram, Dawhenya, Devtraco, Community 25, Ashaiman, Gbetseli, Afienya, and their immediate environs. Residents in these areas were therefore advised by the management to store enough water for the period indicated. It gave the assurance that water supply would be restored to normalcy as soon as the works were completed. Source: Ghana News Agency

The Dunkwa Divisional Police has arrested one Ato Johnson who allegedly murdered his wife on Tuesday and attempted to commit suicide at Dunkwa Mfuom in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality. The Mfuom Community was thrown into a state of shock and mourning after the deceased identified only as Suzzy, was found in a pool of blood with multiple wounds. Some eyewitnesses saw Johnson attempting to commit suicide to end it all and called in the Police who came to his rescue. Deacon Kwabena Acquah, an eyewitness in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the couple had been married for just two months and were believed to be living peacefully before the tragic incident. He stated that their harmonious relationship was recently marred by some misunderstandings and could not ascertain the motive behind the heinous act. However, an anonymous witness, told the GNA that the deceased had filed a divorce and her jealous husband on seeing her with another man, ambushed and stabbed her multiple times leading to her death. The suspect was said to have drunk a poisonous substance after the alleged act, was quickly taken to the Dunkwa Government Hospital where he was currently receiving treatment under police guard. The body of Suzzy has been deposited at the same Hospital's mortuary for autopsy, while the Police have commenced investigations. Source: Ghana News Agency

WINDHOEK: Coach Henk Botha, the trainer of Namibia's 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games silver medallist in the women's 200-metre (m) sprint expressed hope to see Christine Mboma qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. World Athletics banned Namibia's sensational female sprinter Mboma from athletics in April 2023 due to her high testosterone levels. The governing body announced that female athletes with differences in sexual development, resulting in naturally occurring high testosterone levels, would need to reduce their blood testosterone to below 2.5 nanomoles per litre (nmol/l) for a minimum of 24 months to be eligible to compete again. However, in November 2023, World Athletics approved Mboma to compete in the 100m and 200m events, but not in the 400m, 800m, and 1 500m. Since then, Botha and Mboma have been training hard to prepare for the 2024 athletics season. Botha in a recent interview, told Nampa that their first competition for the year would hopefully be in Europe in April, as Mboma would be eligib le to run at that time. 'Despite the hard training we have been going through, Mboma is not yet at her competitive best, but we are hopeful that she will be ready to compete come April,' he said. The coach added that there is pressure on them to qualify for the Olympics as the nation has high expectations, noting that achieving this goal would not be easy. 'We are optimistic about our chances of qualifying when we start with competitive athletics and we would like this to be done earlier so it gives us enough time to prepare for the games,' said Botha. Over 1,800 athletes, both men and women, will be competing for qualification for the 48 medal events (25 in track, five in road - marathon and racewalking, 16 in the field, and two in combined) at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The qualification window for the marathon races started from 01 November 2022 to 30 April 2024; for the 10,000 metres, combined events (heptathlon and decathlon), racewalks, and relays from 31 December 2022 to 30 June 2024; while the remaining athletics events started from 01 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Mboma would need to clock 22.57 seconds in the 200m and 11.07 seconds in the 100m to reach the qualifying standards for this year's Olympic Games. Source: The Namibia Press Agency

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is carrying out emergency maintenance works on its 42-inch and 21-inch transmission pipelines from Kpong Water Treatment Plant. Announcing the maintenance works, the management of GWCL, Tema Region, indicated that the works would be carried out by GWCL engineers from Wednesday, January 10, to Thursday, January 11. This, it noted, would lead to some interruption in water supply for the two scheduled days the work would be done. Management indicated that the areas that would be affected by the water supply interruption included the whole of Tema Township, Prampram, Dawhenya, Devtraco, Community 25, Ashaiman, Gbetseli, Afienya, and their immediate environs. Residents in these areas were therefore advised by the management to store enough water for the period indicated. It gave the assurance that water supply would be restored to normalcy as soon as the works were completed. Source: Ghana News Agency