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St. Don Bosco Special School needs urgent help …as sick pupils are transported to hospital on motor bikes
● The school has 135 pupils with special need
Lack of transport at the St. Don Bosco Special School at Loho in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region is making the work of teachers and school mothers difficult as they have to transport sick children to the hospital on motor bikes.
According to the Headmistress of the school, Ms Veronica Dong, some of the children always fell sick due to their disabilities and left the teachers with no option but to convey them on motorbikes and in severe cases, on commercial tricycles popularly called Mahama (can do) to the hospital for treatment.
Ms Dong who was speaking to journalists at the school’s premises on the challenges of the institution described the situation as worrying, given that some of the children were epileptic and had seizures often.
“You cannot imagine transporting an epileptic child on a motor bike to the health centre when the school could be provided with a means of transport to facilitate our movement”, she said.
The St Don Bosco Special School was opened in 2016 for children with special needs who were hitherto accommodated at the campus of the Wa School for the Deaf.
The school currently has 135 pupils with some of them living with epilepsy whilst others had Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorders.
Ms Dong said although the school had a clinic with a nurse, most of the conditions needed attention from a general hospital and would be grateful if means of transport was provided for the school to support them.
The headmistress stated that among the numerous challenges the school faced included inadequate number of mothers to help take care of the children coupled with staff accommodation at the campus.
“The mothers are people who have been employed to assist the children at school with bathing, washing, feeding, among others so you can imagine the stress four women go through with 135 children, most of whom need support”, she said.
She explained that the situation was compounded by the lack of staff accommodation on campus for teachers to support the mothers and said when the teachers left for their respective homes after school hours, burden was placed on the four school mothers.
She believed monitoring of the children and helping with their daily needs would be easier on the mothers if their number was increased or accommodation was provided for the teachers on campus and called on government to support the school in that regard.
She further made an appeal to benevolent bodies and organisations to support the school with food items as well as training facilities to help train the children in handiwork.
She pleaded with philanthropist to donate wheel chairs to the school to enable them admit children with movement challenges stating that a child was not admitted because she could not move at all.
“We need wheel chairs to be able to admit children with special needs who are unable to move about; in fact, our problems are really numerous so we are ready for whatever support we will find”, she added.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa
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Prof Alidu Seidu files nomination for Tamale Central seat
The newly elected parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Tamale Central, Prof Alidu Seidu, has submitted his nomination forms to the Electoral Commission.
As of 10:00 a.m. today, he was the only person who had filed to contest the seat.
Nomination of candidates will close at the end of the day.
Associate Professor and Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana Legon, Prof. Alidu Seidu won the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary primaries in the Tamale Central constituency with a landslide victory.
The elections, supervised by the party’s Elections and IT Directorate in the Northern Region, saw Prof. Seidu poll 840 votes out of the total valid ballots cast.
His closest contender, Lawyer Hanan Gundadow Abdul-Rahaman, secured 536 votes.
The other aspirants could not make significant gains, with Dr. Seidu Fiter obtaining 44 votes, Aliu Abdul-Hamid 23 votes, and the rest recording fewer than 10 votes each.
In all, 1,500 ballots were cast, with 6 ballots rejected and 7 spoilt ballots recorded.
The results were signed and declared by Dr. Arnold Mashud Abukari, NDC Northern Regional Director of Elections and IT.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) held parliamentary primaries in Tamale Central to choose a candidate for the upcoming by-election following the death of the sitting Member of Parliament, Dr. Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed. Dr. Mohammed, who also served as Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, tragically died in a military helicopter crash in the Adansi Akrofuom District on August 6, 2025, alongside seven others.
His passing left the Tamale Central seat vacant, as required by Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
The Electoral Commission has scheduled the by-election for September 30, 2025. While the NDC moved quickly to open nominations and vet aspirants, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) announced it would not contest the seat, citing the need to respect the somber circumstances and promote national unity.
By: Jacob Aggrey
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Ghana to locally refine its gold starting October 2025 – Sammy Gyamfi
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi, has announced that plans are far advanced for the establishment of a state-owned gold refinery in the country.
Speaking at the 2025 Minerals and Mining Convention, Mr Gyamfi said the refinery will process locally mined gold into bullion instead of exporting it in its raw state.
According to him, it is unacceptable that Ghana, despite being a leading gold producer in Africa, continues to export raw gold known as dore.
He explained that the Gold Board, working with the Bank of Ghana and local refineries, will from October 2025 begin refining gold locally.
He also disclosed that an ultramodern assay laboratory will be built to ensure international standards in testing gold quality.
Mr Gyamfi noted that the refinery will be wholly state-owned and will help Ghana move away from raw mineral exports to value addition.
This, he said, will boost foreign exchange earnings, create jobs, and position Ghana as a hub for gold refining and jewellery production in Africa.
The CEO stressed that the project forms part of government’s strategy to ensure the country benefits fully from its natural resources and to transform the mining sector into a driver of economic growth.
By: Jacob Aggrey
