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Help restock depleting blood banks – Fist Lady

The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, yesterday appealed to the public to help restock the depleting blood banks and save lives, as the country joined the rest of the world to mark World Blood Donor Day.

She said the need to donate blood to the country’s blood banks had become more critical than ever since many of the locations that used to host blood drives, had closed their doors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Every day in Ghana, hundreds of blood donations make the difference between life and death. But with the COVID-19 outbreak…It is now even more difficult to maintain sufficient blood supply for people in critical conditions”, she said.

Mrs Akufo-Addo, who is also the executive director of the Rebecca Foundation, made the appeal in a statement she issued in Accra yesterday in commemoration of World Blood Donor Day.

The World Health Assembly in 2005 designated June 14 each year to thank blood donors and encourage more people to give blood freely.

This year’s theme is ”Safe blood saves lives” with the tagline ”Give blood and make the world a healthier place”.

The theme was to call to action governments, national health authorities and national blood transfusion services to provide adequate resources and put in place systems and infrastructures to increase the collection of blood from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors.

According to Mrs Akufo-Addo, saving lives through blood donation required concerted efforts thus appealed to all healthy Ghanaians to lend a hand in the worthy course.

“It is in these times of crisis, that we must come together to save lives. So today I am supporting the call for all healthy Ghanaian citizens, to be Champions of Change, Please give blood and save lives”, she said.

Her appeal comes weeks after the National Blood Service (NBS) said it was in dire need of blood to save the lives of patients on emergency care because members of the public were hesitant to donate blood due to fear of contracting COVID-19.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NBS, Dr Justina Kordai Ansah, in a new report, said the blood banks across the country had had their stocks exhausted because of the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on us in terms of maintaining blood supplies. More than 50 per cent of our blood donors are from the educational institutions which have been closed down because of COVID-19.

“Religious organisations and corporate bodies who are also principal donors are currently not available because of the restrictions on movement and this has resulted in acute shortage on containment of blood and blood components in the country,” she said.

BY TIMES REPORTER

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Committee probing petitions against Chief Justice to begin hearings tomorrow

The Committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to inquire into three petitions filec against the Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, will commence hearings tomorrow, Thursday May 15, 2025.

The five-member Committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang of the Supreme Court, was set up by the President in accordance with Article 146(6) of the 1992 constitution and in consultation with the Council of State, following a determination of a prima facie case against the Chief Justice.

The committee will sit three times a week and present their recommendations to the President upon completion of their work.

It would be recalled that President John Dramani Mahama recently suspended Chief Justice following the establishment of a prima facie case in response to three separate petitions seeking her removal from office.

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38-year-old man gets life imprisonment for killing Assemblies of God pastor in 2018

After close to seven years of trial, a seven-member jury on Wednesday, May 14, returned a guilty verdict in the murder case involving the killing of the Senior Pastor of the Central Assemblies of God church at Tema in 2018.

The convict, Francis Nabegmado, a relative of the deceased, inflicted a fatal knife wound on Rev. Dr. David Nabegmado on December 30, 2018, after alleging that the senior pastor was a false preacher who engaged in idol worship and human sacrifices.

After an hour of summing up by the judge, Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh, the jury retired briefly and returned with a unanimous guilty verdict.

Based on the unanimous verdict of the jurors who had previously studied the statements of the five witnesses called by the prosecution, and listened to the summing up process, the judge sentenced the 38-year-old to life imprisonment.

When he was offered an opportunity to comment on the verdict, the convict told the judge that he wanted to go home to meet his family.

“My Lady, I want to see my family, and I want to be taken to Yendi”.

When the judge told him she couldn’t make such an order for him to go and see his family in Yendi, the convict forcefully said, “I insist”.

Francis, who will now spend the rest of his life at the Nsawam medium security prison, had told the court throughout the trial that the decision to attack his uncle, Rev. Nebegmado, was driven by insanity, but that did not save him from receiving a life sentence.

Speaking briefly after the sentencing, Senior Pastor of the Assemblies of God church at Tema Community 4, Rev. Emmanuel Kwesi Ofori, said the church has been waiting for this closure for the past seven years and will soon issue an official statement.

Source: Myjoyonline.com