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Tag: Essikado-Ketan

  • Politics has destroyed MP for Essikado-Ketan – Paul Adom-Otchere

    Politics has destroyed MP for Essikado-Ketan – Paul Adom-Otchere

    Host of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Paul Adom-Otchere, has criticized the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Essikado-Ketan constituency, Prof. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, for her recent controversial remarks on social media.

    The criticism stems from a post made by Prof. Ayensu-Danquah, where she took a jab at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Adenta constituency, Akosua Manu Kozie.

    Prof. Ayensu-Danquah’s post read “when your only talent in life is marrying Mark Manu’s son you will continue to arrogantly struggle to remain relevant”.

    In response to Prof. Ayensu-Danquah’s remarks, Adom-Otchere expressed disappointment in her conduct, considering her stature and background.

    While acknowledging her admirable qualities of sensibility and eloquence, he lamented her resorting to negative discourse, especially as a woman in politics who should be mentoring younger women.

    Mr Adom-Otchere also criticized Prof. Ayensu-Danquah’s posture during a studio appearance, highlighting his discomfort with her demeanor.

    “This is somebody that you will easily admire when you see her. She is so sensible, she talks so well. In fact when you see her, she is a very decent woman. And she is a woman and look at what she is writing about another woman, a younger woman that she should be mentoring. Even her posture in the studio I didn’t like but that is okay. Look at what she put out,” he added.

    He questioned how someone of her caliber could engage in such behavior, suggesting that politics had tarnished her otherwise decent reputation.

    “How can a politician of Grace Ayensu standard, nice and decent woman like that? Look at what she is writing because she wants power, she is just throwing away all the ethics. I mean she is a very decent woman from all angles, her training, her background and her  relationship with people but look at what politics has done to her. She is no w writing this very crass thing on social media. I feel ashamed.

    Adom-Otchere underscored the importance of politicians maintaining ethical standards and decency, especially in their public discourse, with a sense of disbelief.

     He described Prof. Ayensu-Danquah’s social media post as “very crass” and expressed his disappointment and shame at witnessing her descent into such behavior.

    Watch video below:

  • Charles Bissue picks nomination forms to contest Essikado-Ketan constituency seat

    Charles Bissue picks nomination forms to contest Essikado-Ketan constituency seat

    Charles Bissue, an aspiring Parliamentary Candidate for the Essikado-Ketan Constituency, has formally submitted his nomination forms to declare his interest in contesting for the parliamentary seat on behalf of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

    Accompanied by market women, polling station executives, market queens, and delegates, Bissue presented his nomination forms amidst brass band music over the weekend.

    As a former Western Regional Secretary of the NPP and the former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Bissue pledged to conduct a clean campaign free from insults.

    “I am very aware of the fact that insults and name-calling can never win an election, it is about truth, facts and what the people want, and I am confident that I am the right person.”

    “I acknowledge the stiff political landscape, referring to the previous general elections where the National Democratic Congress (NDCs) came close and called for all party faithful’s involvement for the expected victory in Essikado-Ketan.”

    “I am not the big man, everyone has his/her own politics; the NDC closed the gap in the last elections, and they feel they can win the seat this time. The Essikado-Ketan seat cannot be joked with -so we need someone with experience,” he added.

    He narrated how he worked for the party to maintain majority seats for the NPP in the region adding, “We need to continue where Joe Ghartey left off, solidify the base of Essikado-Ketan in parliament, and that’s what I’m seeking to do.”

    Charles Bissue brings an impressive political background to his candidacy, having served as the Regional Secretary for eight years, a national council member for eight years, Northampton chair, and a presidential staffer, among other responsibilities within the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

  • Joe Ghartey denies ordering payment of $2m to fund Accra Sky Train Project

    Joe Ghartey denies ordering payment of $2m to fund Accra Sky Train Project

    A former Minister of Railways Development and a presidential aspirant for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Joe Ghartey, has affirmed that he did not make any payments to AI Sky or give authorization for the transfer of $2 million to finance the Accra Sky Train Project.

    Clarifying the issues in an interview on Citi FM, Joe Ghartey stated that he had made it clear from the beginning to the promoters of the Accra Sky Train Project that his ministry did not have the budget for the proposed project.

    He, however, said he welcomed the project as a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) Project.

    According to Ghartey, who is also the Member of Parliament for Essikado-Ketan, the Ministry of Railways Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding in February 2018 and signed another agreement with the promoters in November 2018.

    He added that in 2019, the ministry signed a concession agreement with the promoters which included several conditions precedent.

    “It is the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund that paid the money and the Fund is mandated to make such payments and so if the Minority wants anyone to refund the money, they should tell the Auditor General to ask the Fund to refund the money,” he said.

    Joe Ghartey also indicated that the plan was for the South African company expected to execute the project to return to Ghana, but this became impossible because of the outbreak of the COVID-19.

    He stressed that with that, the ongoing engagement with the company ended.

    “I went to South Africa in 2018 to make the presentation because the quality of life is affected by heavy traffic and then the South Africans came. The company went back and said they wanted a concession agreement of thirty years and I said it was not possible. The company went away and was supposed to come in 2020 and then there was COVID-19.

    “And so as far as my Ministry is concerned, we did not give them any money. I didn’t have any money and I didn’t have the power to pay any money and I did not pay any money. I don’t have the power to write for payment to the company in Mauritius. GIIF [Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund] is the statutory corporation that has the power to make such payments and so you can ask them,” he explained.

    The Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund was established to mobilize, manage, coordinate and provide financial resources for investment in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure projects in Ghana.

    It has invested over US$300m in various infrastructure projects although the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund is not an agency or statutory body.

  • Funding constraints prevented us from executing sky train project – Joe Ghartey

    Funding constraints prevented us from executing sky train project – Joe Ghartey

    Former Railways Development Minister, Joe Ghartey has blamed the New Patriotic Party government’s inability to redeem its promise of building sky trains in Accra on external forces with an emphasis on budget constraints.

    The Essikado-Ketan lawmaker said the project which was expected to reduce traffic congestion in Accra stalled when the terms of the contract and the total contract sum were laid bare.

    Speaking about the project on Eyewitness News, Mr. Ghartey said the Railway Ministry’s budget limits for the 2018 fiscal year were a little below what the contract was projected to cost.

    “We were approached by South Africans who said they could build the sky trains on a BOT [Build, Operate, Transfer] basis, and the amount of money that they were talking about per kilometer, we did not have it in the budget. What I had been given was a limit of $2 billion and that was supposed to be used for the Tema-Mpakadan railway line and the Western railway line.”

    He further elaborated that the number of years the South African contractor and investors wanted to operate the trains before transferring the project to the state was a major disincentive for the continuation of discussions.

    “So these people came in 2018 and said they would build the sky trains on the build, operate and transfer basis, and so we signed an MoU with them, and they came back after doing some initial studies and said they are in a position to raise money for the project, and so we should sign a concessional agreement for the trains to be transferred to us after 30 years and that was something we had to look into.”

    He also explained that the state needed to run all the necessary feasibility studies to ascertain the viability of the project which was hindered by the outbreak of Covid-19, making it impossible for the South African firm to come down to conduct the studies.

    “In 2019 and 2020, the world including South Africa was under lockdown, so these people could not come to do the feasibility studies and that is why I decided to focus on the railway and kept the sky trains on hold.”

    The government of Ghana signed the agreement with the South African group, Africa Investment (Ai) SkyTrain Consortium, for the construction of the Accra Sky Train Project in November 2018.

    Africa Investment (Ai) SkyTrain Consortium was expected to conduct extensive feasibility studies in nine months and commission the construction by 2020 but none of that is yet to happen five years on.

    Ghana bought $2m shares in Sky Train company established in Mauritius – Auditor General

    It later turned out that an amount of US$2 million Ghana paid in 2019 as premium to acquire ordinary shares for the development of the Accra Sky Train Project became a net liability.

    This was contained in a report by the Auditor General on the Public Accounts of Ghana’s Public Boards, Corporations and other Statutory Institutions for the period ended December 31, 2021.

    In the report, it emerged that Africa Investor Holdings Limited incorporated a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in Mauritius for the purposes of establishing Ghana Sky Train Limited, to develop the Accra Sky Train Project through a concession on Design, Build, Finance and Operate arrangement.

    According to the Auditor General’s report, the Government of Ghana through the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund paid US$2 million to Africa Investor Holdings Limited as full consideration for 10 ordinary shares at US$1.00 per share in Ai Sky Train Consortium Holdings (the SPV).

    Thus, the premium paid for each share was US$199,999.

    The SPV reported a net liability on 31 December 2020.

    The Auditor General noted that the investment in the SPV could not be recovered if the Accra Sky Train Project is unable to secure the licencing, and the Executive and Parliamentary approvals.

    “We urged Management to continue to monitor the feasibility and the recoverability of the investment in the SPV and make the necessary provisions based on the outcome of the feasibility studies. Management noted the recommendation for compliance”, the audit report recommended.

  • ‘It’s been frustrating’ – NDC’s Grace Ayensu-Danquah explains why she abandoned election petition

    The Essikado-Ketan Parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 polls, Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, has pulled out of her case against the New Patriotic Party’s Joe Ghartey, MP for the same constituency, who, she insists, was fraudulently declared the winner by the Electoral Commission.

    Dr Ayensu-Danquah’s decision, according to her, is because of disappointment and frustration, especially as the case, which has dragged on for close to two years, with no end in sight, continues to drain her time and commitment towards rejuvenating the party at the constituency level.

    Dr Ayensu-Danquah, who is an American-trained Burn Reconstructive Surgeon, has also debunked syndicated media reports suggesting she was fined for chickening out of the case.

    According to her, Counsel for the plaintiffs demanded GHC500,000 but the Judge, Justice Richmond Osei Hwere, declined the request and instead handed them (the 1st and 2nd respondents, i.e. the Electoral Commission and Joe Ghartey) the initial GHC20,000 deposited to settle administrative fees.

    The 2020 Essikado-Ketan NDC candidate in her petition to the Sekondi High Court, cited several infractions during the coalition of votes which changed the figures in favour of the incumbent MP, Joe Ghartey.

    She avers that illegality resulted in the EC declaring results based on the second respondent, Joe Ghartey’s own pink sheets, which gave him — 26,701 valid votes compared to the NDC candidate — 24,527, while Ghana Union Movement’s (GUM), Frank Cobbinah Parliamentary candidate polled just 629.

    The petitioner however insisted that her “own collated results from the figures declared after counting at polling stations were that the first respondent obtained 26,299 valid votes while the petitioner had 26,336 valid votes, making the petitioner the obvious winner, but the second respondent declared otherwise.”

    But Dr Grace Ayensu, in her termination plea before Court raised a number of concerns.

    That to date she and her lawyer, Daniel Ametepe, have complied fully with all orders of the High Court and have pursued the matter with the utmost zeal and diligence but the 1st Respondent has not yet complied with pre-trail orders of the Court by the failure to file his witness statement and pre-trial checklist.

    That 20 months after she first filed the action, a lot of water has gone under the bridge and upon serious reflection and consultation, “I have decided to let go and rather help my party focus on the future reorganisation as Election 2024 is not too far away,” she explained.

    She has since described twists on the development and the Court’s decision to fine her as mischievous and lacks appreciation of how the case travelled and her reason to move on.

    “It is left with just about two years to the next elections but because of this case, not much in terms of development is happening in Essikado-Ketan, but just confusion,” her lawyer, Mr Daniel Ametepe, explained to journalists, after the hearing.

    “We filed a witness statement for three witnesses to come before the court to narrate what happened on the 7th and 8th of December 2020 because we had a case,” he continued: “Joe Ghartey’s lawyer filed a motion for the case to be dismissed but he lost that case and still went ahead to file an appeal to that ruling.”

    “Even the appeal that Joe Ghartey made his lawyer file, he is not pursuing it,” Mr Ametepe noted, indicating: “This is all to create uncertainty in the High Court.”

    “So, the processes that we have taken to terminate the case [are] part of the rules of the court. That is why the judge granted our case of discontinuation,” he concluded.