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Flouting COVID-19 protocols: Apaak berates NPP leadership for not sanctioning members
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South in the Upper East Region, Dr Clement Apaak, has berated the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for just scolding its members for flouting COVID-19 protocols during their primaries.
He expressed disappointment in President Nana Akufo-Addo for just scolding members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for flouting COVID-19 protocols during their primaries and described the President’s lack of firm action as very ‘shameful’ in an open letter addressed to the President on June 28, 2020.
Dr Apaak’s abhorrence to the President’s ‘mild rebuke’ stems from the fact that some members of the public having conducted similar offences have been prosecuted and jailed saying “having opportunity to address the nation a day after the NPP primaries on June 21, the President failed to mention the unfortunate show of impunity by members and supporters of his party.
“Indeed, many videos and pictures that were circulated, showed identifiable faces, which should pose no difficulty to law enforcement to identify culprits, if the President wished to apply the law but, as expected, a week on, the President, having grabbed another opportunity to address the issue.
“After a week of open criticism from a cross section of Ghanaians, to the effect of discriminating against some class of Ghanaians, President Akufo-Addo shamefully pardoned his party members for openly offending his own law.
“To close churches and order citizens about in a certain manner without same applying to his party members, smacks of hypocrisy, divisiveness, and is detrimental to national unity, President Akufo-Addo during his acclamation by his party on June 27, 2020, admitted that his party, the NPP, failed to fully comply with some of the COVID-19 preventive measures and hygienic protocols during its parliamentary primaries and admonished them not to let that repeat itself.
“This past weekend, our party came to the end of the processes that we have to go through to prepare for the elections in December to prepare for the primaries in constituencies where we have sitting MPs, unfortunately, in our enthusiasm and sheer unbridled joy, we broke some of the COVID-19 safety protocols and it should not happen again,” President Akufo-Addo cautioned. -ghanaweb.com
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UNODC partners GFA Foundation on Prison advocacy and mentorship programme
The GFA Foundation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have agreed to work together to advocate for anti-discrimination and the elimination of stigmatization for prisoners and prisons.
This partnership was agreed, in principle, during a meeting at the Home of Football (GFA Head Office) between the Director of the GFA Foundation and the UNODC Team led by Mr. Christoph Capelle, an Associate Expert in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Coordinator of the prison and penal reform project in Ghana.
Welcoming the Team to the Home of Football, the Director of the GFA Foundation, Mr. Malcolm Frazier Appeadu briefed the team about the GFA Foundation – Ghana Prisons Project which has covered 6 prisons across the country already.
He indicated that the Foundation is liaising with the Ghana Prisons Service to commence the second and third pillars of the project, which are the coaches and referees training programs as well as the advocacy and mentorship initiatives.
He said that the GFA Foundation will welcome partners for the execution of the second phase of the project which will include Ankaful Maximum Security Prison, Kumasi Central Prison, Sekondi Central Prison and three other prison facilities.
In his response, Mr. Christoph Capelle commended the GFA for the GFA Foundation – Ghana Prisons Project which seeks to use the power of football to promote the wellbeing, reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates of Ghana’s prisons into society.
Mr. Capelle said that UNODC is looking forward to a collaboration with the GFA Foundation on possible programs for both the medium and long term to support football and sports jobs and skills development in Ghana’s prisons.
He extended an invitation to the GFA Foundation to be part of an assessment of overall prison rehabilitation programmes including the use of sports by their international consultant at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison.
There will be a football match and donation of footballs, sports items and equipment to the prison facility.
Present at the meeting were Mr. Kwame Koramoah, an officer at the GFA Foundation and Integrity Office, Helena Adobea Ofori, Associate Programme Officer, UNODC and Caleb Elorm Agodzo, Administrative Officer, UNODC.
It will be recalled that in 2020, The UNODC and FIFA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to tackle corruption and crime in and through sports and pledged to consider ways in which football can be used as a vehicle to strengthen youth resilience to crime and substance use through the provision of life skills training.
The MOU was renewed last year by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
News
Gomoa West: NPP, NDC supporters clash over commissioning of DRIP equipment
Supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Monday morning clashed over the commissioning of machinery for the District Road Infrastructure Project in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region.
According to Citi News sources, the conflict began when NDC supporters questioned the decision to display images of Bismark Basie Nkum, the NPP’s Gomoa West parliamentary candidate on the DRIP machinery.
This disagreement quickly escalated, almost leading to a physical altercation between the two groups.
Baisie Nkum, who doubles as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Gomoa West, further claimed that the Member of Parliament for the area, Richard Gyan Mensah, brandished a pistol and issued threats against the NPP’s local leadership.
A viral video circulating on social media captured the DCE accusing MP Richard Gyan Mensah of pulling out a gun and threatening NPP supporters during the heated incident.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
