News
2 institutions donate to Accra Psychiatric Hospital
The Accra Gye Nyame Lions and Leo Club together with IDonate Ghana on last Saturday donated assorted items to the Children’s ward of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
Some of the items included bags of rice, gallons of oil, detergents, disinfectants, buckets of powdered soap, liquid soap, packs of diapers, toilet rolls, scrubbing brushes and other cleaning materials.
Presenting the items, The President of the club, Lion Jennifer Dzikunu, said the donation was part of the national volunteer day which the club observes on September 21 every year alongside IDonate GH.
She said the club was poised to help people and communities in need tacking nine thematic areas including, “childhood cancer, hunger, youth, disaster relief, environment, humanitarian, vision and diabetes.’’
The club focuses on serving humanity and communities that are in need and is the largest humanitarian service organization in the world with 1.4m members in 49,000 local clubs servicing in 200 countries globally.
Receiving the items, the Senior Nursing Officer at the hospital, Bridget Ayatey, thanked the donors and stated that it would go a long way to help them in the discharge of their work.
She also acknowledged that there were 14 patients currently at the children’s ward and had to change diapers of each of the 12 inmates, at least three times a day which made the diapers an important donation.
The Lead Volunteer of IDonate Ghana, Naa Amarley Tagoe, in an interview with The Spectator, stated that the organisation had supported the Accra Psychiatric Hospital Children’s Ward since 2016.
IDonate, is an online-based charity founded in 2014 that supports less fortunate children and those with special needs in public and private institutionalised care.
Naa Amarley said, “we redirected our fundraising efforts to support the hospital,” adding that, “the annual clean-up exercise, meal service, and supply donations have continued for eight years with inspiration from a December 2015 TV3 report highlighting patient neglect during festivities.”
As part of the donation, activities like feeding of inmates and clean up exercises were held as a way of interacting with the inmates and showing support.
By Nii Ayitey Brown
News
Afenyo Markin criticises Police over handling of Abronye’s case
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo Markin has raised concerns about the handling of the arrest and detention of Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, also known as Abronye.
According to him, the police invited Abronye on Monday, September 8, and he honoured the invitation with his lawyers.
He said Abronye submitted himself to interrogation but, within an hour, was taken into the custody of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).
The Minority Leader questioned why the police, who were investigating the case and had their own holding cells, decided to send someone being investigated for a misdemeanor to the NIB.
He intimated that checks confirmed that the NIB was not investigating or interrogating Abronye, but had only kept him because the police requested it.
He wondered whether the move was meant to punish Abronye, stressing that the police detained him the whole of Monday night and Tuesday morning, before presenting him to court on 9th September.
The Minority Leader added that in court, the police asked for Abronye to be remanded to allow further investigations, and the judge granted the request.
He however described it as unfortunate that the police handcuffed Abronye when he was leaving the court.
By: Jacob Aggrey
News
Power Is like an ice block, it melts from day one – Afenyo-Markin warns
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has urged political leaders to learn from past mistakes and handle power with caution.
Speaking at the Accra Circuit Court for Abronye DC proceedings, Afenyo-Markin admitted that governments in the past, including his own side, had made mistakes and were not perfect.
He warned that if such mistakes were repeated, the country could be heading in the wrong direction.
He pointed to the removal of a former Chief Justice as an example, saying a report was prepared even before a committee hearing was completed.
According to him, such actions make it difficult to control extremists and hardliners in Ghana’s politics.
The Minority Leader stressed that power is temporary and must be exercised responsibly.
“Power is like an ice block, When it’s given to you, it starts to melt from the very day,” he noted.
By: Jacob Aggrey
