Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has expressed his disagreement with the pricing of the Pokuase Affordable Housing units launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on August 1, 2023.
According to Mr. Dafeamekpor, the figures presented by the government indicate that Ghanaians can construct more cost-effective homes.
He emphasized that the prices of these housing units should align with their name, “Affordable Housing,” and should be reasonable.
In a tweet shared on GhanaWeb Business, the South Dayi MP remarked, “As a people, we can build way cheaper than these unit figures quoted by Govt as the prices of the supposed ‘Affordable Houses’.”
The Pokuase project encompasses 14,000 affordable housing units aimed at tackling Ghana’s housing deficit, developed by private developers.
The pricing for the housing units is as follows:
Studio apartment: US$13,800
One-bedroom house: US$20,700
Two-bedroom house: US$34,500
Three-bedroom house: US$42,550
While the prices are denominated in US dollars, buyers have the option to pay the equivalent amount in cedis based on the prevailing Bank of Ghana exchange rate.
As a People, we can build way cheaper than these unit figures quoted by Govt as the prices of the supposed ‘Affordable Houses’.
We need to get real & deliberate about these policies for our People. Affordable must mean just that: affordable. pic.twitter.com/1DmL7EPxa3
— Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, Esq. MP. (@etsedafeamekpor) August 2, 2023
Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has criticised the appointment of party faithfuls into the Electoral Commission.
He described as politically sinful the appointment of politically exposed persons as Commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana.
According to the opposition MP, the appointment of two commissioners who his party, the National Democratic Congress have alleged have strong ties to the ruling New Patriotic Party is devilish to the letter and spirit of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
“It’s politically unholy & Constitutionally Demonic for our EC to be populated by NPP party apparatchiks such as Jean Mensah, Bossman Asare, Dr. Serebuor, Mr. Tetteh, Dr. Atuahene who’re all dye in the wool elephants,” he wrote in a Twitter post sighted by GhanaWeb. There has been uproar against two of three newly sworn-in commissioners of Ghana’s Electoral Commission by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to the opposition National Democratic Congress, Dr Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, have deep roots in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and therefore cannot guarantee the neutrality and impartiality of the country’s electoral management body.
According to the NDC, Dr Appiahene has been a patron of the NPP student wing at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) since 2017, and was a member of the party’s 2020 National Research and Data Analysis Team. The NDC expressed concern that his appointment to the EC would hamper public confidence in the institution and undermine the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections in Ghana.
The NDC also alleges that Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani is an activist of the ruling party, and that her immediate family has deep roots in the NPP. The party contends that her appointment to the Electoral Commission would compromise the neutrality and impartiality required of a member of the institution.
However, pro-government and New Patriotic Party elements have refuted the claims by the NDC.
In their defence, government and officials of the NPP maintain that the two officers have no power to influence election results while others have sought to dissociate the two from the NPP.
Meanwhile, the NDC has petitioned the Council of State to rescind its advice to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the recent appointment of the said commissioners.
Some Members of Parliament (MP) behind the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, otherwise known as Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, have disclosed that LGBTQ+ activists are trying to sabotage them.
They claim these LGBTQ+ allies are assiduously working behind the scenes to ensure that they lose their seats so that the Bill does not materialise into Law.
In an interview, one of the MPs, Rockson Dafeamkpor, noted that: “The people want us out of Parliament, we have evidence, but we are speaking to the fact that these are people who are not sleeping. It is not something we are taking lightly. These people are on a vendetta, they are on an agenda to ensure that this bill doesn’t succeed in Parliament.”
He made the remarks on JoyNews during an interaction on the LGBTQ+ subject on Wednesday, March 30, 2023. He also appealed to his fellow MPs to support the Bill.
Parliament is yet to decide on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill laid before the House. As it stands, the constitutional and legal affairs committee is anticipated to report to parliament on their findings and ask for permission to debate the anti-LGBT bill’s provisions.
The bill has also been modified such that the section it which criminalises advocacy for LGBTQ issues has been scrapped. The penalty has also been reduced from 5 years to 3 years.
Explaining why the committee took this stance, ranking member of the committee, Bernard Ahiafor noted that the changes were made to align the bill with the Constitution and other existing laws.
He made the remarks during an interaction on JoyNews’ UpFront on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
“The criminal and other offences are 3 years …the law as the committee proposes is that the aspect of the rendition in the earlier bill must be taken off,” he said.
Adding his voice to the discourse, the spokesperson of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu, said President Akufo-Addo was not forthright with his recent comments on the matter.
He said the failure of President Akufo-Addo to declare his stance on the subject is very disturbing.
“The President was over-cautious in trying to talk about it as if not wanting to offend a certain force that is coming from somewhere because I have heard the president speak forthrightly with a strong tone about certain things like some of his encounters with Macron,” he said.
However, Country Director of Amnesty International Genevieve Partington contended that the bill in its current form is discriminatory and will promote hate crime when passed.
Justifying her claim, she noted that the passage of the bill will legitimise the attack, harassment, and persecution of LGBT people in the country, adding that people perceived to be gay or lesbian could easily fall victim to mob justice as a result of the anti-gay bill.
“It promotes hate crime. Let me give you an example, if people are perceived to be lesbian or gay, let’s just say me, I’m in a hotel room with another lady and someone decides to call and suspect that I am a lesbian, you know, it can promote hate crime.
“Because what if I am not and just as we catch thieves in Ghana, and we do instant justice and mob action, this can also increase mob action towards this community, so this is one thing I feel is not good,” she explained.
