Hot!
Eight feared dead as Chinese Fishing Vessel sinks along Saltpong Marine Waters
A Chinese fishing vessel, MV Comforter 2 has sunk in the wee hours of last Friday, May 6, 2022, along the Elmina – Takoradi marine waters.
Its last known position was said to be 46 nautical miles South of Saltpond.
Information gathered by Empire News indicates that 25 crew members were on board including 19 Ghanaians and six Chinese.
Other sources also told Empire News that a total number of 16 persons have been rescued. It includes 12 Ghanaians, four Chinese with 1 deceased.
Seven Ghanaians and one Chinese are, however, still missing and unaccounted for.
According to some of the survivors, the MV COMFORTER 2 was fishing at South of Saltpond.
The fishing vessel had caught a lot of fish in its net and was having challenges in hauling the net. The weight of the fishes in the net had caused the vessel to tilt, reports say.
Some sailors tried to prompt the Captain of the situation but he insisted the hauling should continue causing the vessel to tilt further and eventually capsized.
Some Chinese vessels, MENG XIN 6, GUO JIN 606 and JIN HAI 600 were reportedly involved in the rescue of the survivors but MENG XIN 6 was the one that happened to be in the general vicinity of the incident per Empire News’ sources.
Source: Ghana/Empire News/Kwame Malcolm
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
More more more
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
