Category: General

Mr Bright Nyatsikor, the Volta and Oti Public Relations Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, has been declared winner of the Adaklu Constituency New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Primary in the Volta Region. He pulled 116 votes, followed closely by Madam Juliana Kpedekpo, Adaklu District Chief Executive, who polled 114 votes, while Mawunyo Aklamanu, had 19 votes. There were 253 names in the register out of which 250 voted, with three absentees and one rejected ballot. The election was orderly and peaceful, and supervised by the Adaklu District Office of the Electoral Commission. Source: Ghana News Agency

The Central Tongu District has adjudged Mr. Moses Kofi Dzotorwoworm as its overall district best farmer, the 39th National Farmers Day celebrations. Others were Mr. Bright Hormeku Adjei, the best agricultural worker, Mr. Bismark Nyikplorkpo, the best crop farmer, Mr. Julius Fieve, the best livestock farmer, Miss Smart Nego, the best youth farmer and Miss Mary Zokah, the best physically challenged farmer. Mr. Thomas Moore Zonyrah, the District Chief Executive (DCE), addressing the gathering said that Central Tongu was one of the hubs of agriculture in the region and for several years past, had produced best farmers, who contributed to the success of the country's agricultural agenda. He stated that about 50 per cent of the residents were farmers of which 34 per cent were women. Mr. Zonyrah also noted that the Assembly has put up enough measures to support the agricultural sector in the district. He lauded the farmers and assured them of the government's commitment to offer more support to their undertaki ngs in 2024. Mr Emmanuel Gokah, the District Director for Agriculture said that it was important to celebrate farmers who were striving to improve agricultural development. He said the government has initiated phase two of planting for food and jobs to support farmers in the country and to also scale down the importation of food items. He lauded the DCE for playing vital roles to ensure that there was no issue of food shortage in the district this year. Mr Gokah encouraged the farmers to continue to work harder for food security. Togbe Tumfor II, Chief of Mafi Gborkope indicated that though the farmers were faced with challenges but continue to feed the nation and entreated major actors to evolve stringent policies backed by financial support to keep food on the nation's tables. He lamented that the road networks were not motorable for the farmers to send the produce to the market and appealed to the DCE and the Member of Parliament to support them. He urged the youth to see agriculture as a momentous change and venture into it and ensure that Central Tongu District becomes the main hub for agriculture. Mr Dzotorwoworm assured that he would endeavour to work harder to emerge the regional and national best farmer in a few years to come. He was awarded a certificate, a tricycle and other agricultural equipment. Others were given certificates, tabletop refrigerators, television, and cutlasses. Source: Ghana News Agency

The National Peace Council in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Danish Embassy, has held a community sensitisation workshop on hate speech and negative counter narratives for at-risk youth in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality. The two-day workshop, which brought together selected youth groups from the municipality aimed at equipping them with knowledge and effective responses to hate speech to become campaigners against hate speech in their communities. It also focused on equipping them to contribute to early warning detection and prevention of hate speech and negative counter narratives in both social media and traditional media to contribute to preventing violent extremism. The workshop formed part of an 18-month UNDP Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) project, dubbed, 'PVE Atlantic Corridor Regional project 2023 to 2025', with support from the Government of Denmark under its Peace and Stabilisation Fund (PSF), being implemented in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Cote d`Ivo ire. The project seeks to prevent and address the immediate localised drivers of radicalisation leading to violent extremism in target communities in these countries while providing support to strengthen the `infrastructure of peace`, namely mechanisms for early warnings and initial response at local levels. Alhaji Sumaila Issaka, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the National Peace Council, noted that the emergence of new and diverse threats of violence has resulted in significant adverse effects on the social and economic progress of several nations. He observed, therefore made it important to promote and disseminate alternative and counter-narrative messages, including hate speech promoting violence extremism in targeted locations to maintain peace and harmony to enhance development. 'It is important for us as a people to live together in harmony and not look down on others and demean them just for the mere fact that we see them differently in terms of their cultural background and l urge all of you to from now on, make attempts to foster unity,' he added. Mr Ali Anankpieng, the Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, speaking on 'Understanding and Responding to Conflict', highlighted that when conflicts were not handled properly, they could escalate to become violence which had the tendency of causing instability. He therefore urged the participants to be accommodating and find an amicable way of solving the differences in their respective communities even if it means compromising. Madam Alice Bokuma, Early Warning and Gender Officer, West Africa Network for Peacebuiding (WANEP), Ghana, reiterated that the peace infrastructure was not limited to only the security services but the whole community, particularly the youth who were targets of the extremist to be sensitised to identify early warning signs and guard against radicalisation. 'WANEP Ghana is committed to building relations for peace and aside the fact that we have trained monitors at the community, district and regional l evel, we are still committed to partnering with other organisations to build peace in our communities,' she added. In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Joseph Adongo, the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Chief Executive, expressed gratitude to the National Peace Council and all the stakeholders involved for spearheading the project aimed at fostering peace and countering violent extremism and added that the effort would go a long to contribute to maintaining peace in the area. Ms Sheila Anao, a participant said, 'the workshop has exposed us to a lot of things that we didn't know and going forward it would help us prevent conflict and make appropriate reports when we see something.' Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has stated that testing to know one's HIV status, adherence to Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and awareness creation, are critical to reducing the disease prevalence across the country. Mr Ebenezer Abrokwa, the Eastern Regional Technical Coordinator of the Commission, said HIV and AIDS remained a health threat, and people must keep to the preventive protocols. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on the HIV situation in the Eastern Region, he said there had been an increasing trend in the disease prevalence in the area over the last four years. It was estimated that presently, 46,339 people were living with HIV in the Eastern Region and this comprised 12,806 males, 30,180 females and 3,353 children. Out of the figure, over 30,000 were on the ARTs at various health facilities and designated centres across the region, while the remaining could not be traced or defaulted along the way. The Technical Coordinator disclosed that this year about 362 new infe ctions in children from zero to 14 years had been recorded, raising concerns about mothers' patronage of antenatal care services, where there were mother-to-child transmission prevention protocols, to ensure babies born to infected mothers were negative. He said as part of the World AIDS Day activities, the Region in collaboration with other stakeholders would embark on vigorous testing and education drive 'so people get to know their status and put on the ART for viral suppression which reduces infection.' Mr Abrokwa advised the public that the absence of massive HIV and AIDS awareness activities did not mean that the disease was gone, as it remained a threat to public health. Source: Ghana News Agency

Thirty-two candidates in Bardo - Tunis 2 constituency - are vying for local council seats in next December 24 elections.

They are eight women and twenty-four men; this includes two by sortition.

Campaigning started Saturday timidly, TAP reporter said. Candidates in the fourteen delegations of the constituency seek to change the state of affairs in Bardo and listen to the concerns of locals.

The constituency covers an area of 6,6 km2, that is 2.3% of the overall area of the governorate of Tunis. The number of residents stands at 71,226.

The fourteen delegations are mainly Bardo, Northern Bardo, Southern Bardo, Bouchoucha, khaznadar and Ksar Said.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse