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FGM perpetrators devise new methods
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The Director at the Department of Gender in the Upper West Region, Mrs Charity Banye has hinted that perpetrators of the heinous Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) have devised subtle ways of plying their profession on innocent babies without necessarily resorting to physical cut.
She explained that due to increased sensitisation against the practice, these perpetrators had silently introduced a process called “Hot Press” to get rid of the clitorises of new born babies even before they developed into adults.
“With this hot press, the person in charge applies shea butter to a hot object and massages the clitoris with the object regularly until it finally diminishes or disappears with time”, she explained.
Mrs Banye was speaking at Wa on Wednesday on the sidelines of a meeting to consolidate efforts aimed at ending FGM. The meeting which was at the instance of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was part of activities to mark the International Day of Zero Tolerance against FGM on the theme “Accelerating Investment to end Female Genital Mutilation”.
Mrs Banye explained that FGM was the partial or total removal of the clitoris from the genitals of a female mostly for cultural reasons aimed at purportedly making the girl chaste.
She said that due to increased education on the legal consequences of the act, perpetrators had shifted away from cutting the organ to using hot substances and said it behoved on stakeholders to also devise more strategic ways of dealing with the menace.
“The figures are looking gloomy globally because it has been estimated that about four million girls could suffer FGM annually and so it leaves much to be desired especially when we consider the quantum of effort we have devoted to fighting the menace in time past”, she lamented.
She explained that although the idea behind the practice was to make women chaste, it was interesting to note also that the same practice was making more men morally unsound as most men married to victims of FGM with low sexual libido, cheated on their wives.
The Regional Commander at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit, DVVSU, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ASP) Adoingo Apiiya, also called for collaboration between the Ghana Health Service and the police to identify and arrest perpetrators of FGM.
“When a girl-child is brought to the health centre, the medical staff can help check whether the child had undergone FGM or not so that the parents of such child can immediately be picked up for questioning”, he said.
He believed such stringent measures would help end the menace which was considered constitutionally and globally a human rights violation.
The Programme Specialist/Head with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) decentralised office at Tamale in the Northern Region, Alhaji Mammah Tenii appealed to the stakeholders to join hands and help end FGM in Ghana.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa
Deputy Director of Operations at the Presidency, Mustapha Gbande, has alleged that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) appears more concerned and emotionally invested in the imprisonment of its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, than the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking on Joy Prime on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Accra, Mr. Gbande argued that the NPP played a major role in the legal process that led to Wontumi’s conviction.
According to him, the law under which Wontumi was convicted originally carried a maximum prison sentence of three years but was later amended by the NPP administration to increase the maximum punishment to 15 years.
“The law that jailed Wontumi was three years. The NPP enhanced it to 15 years,” he stated.
Mr. Gbande further claimed that the evidence used to prosecute Wontumi was gathered during the previous NPP administration.
He maintained that the case against the NPP chairman did not begin under the current government but was built by officials who served in the former administration.
“The docket that jailed Wontumi was built by the NPP. The evidence that convicted him was built by the NPP,” he asserted.
To support his argument, Mr. Gbande referred to actions taken by the former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in July 2022, when the minister declared activities linked to Wontumi in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve illegal.
He stressed that once an activity has been declared illegal, it remains a breach of the law regardless of who is involved.
By: Jacob Aggrey
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has warned that traders, transport operators, businesses and individuals who refuse to accept Ghana cedi coins as payment for goods and services could face arrest, prosecution, fines or imprisonment.
In a public notice issued on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, the central bank expressed concern over the widespread refusal to accept 1 pesewa, 5 pesewa, 10 pesewa, 20 pesewa and 50 pesewa coins, as well as the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins.
It explained that all coins issued by the Bank of Ghana remain legal tender and must be accepted for transactions across the country.
According to the BoG, none of the coins has been withdrawn from circulation or demonetised, and no trader, transport operator, business or individual has the right to reject them because they consider them inconvenient or of low value.
The bank cited the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612), as amended, and the Currency Act, 1964 (Act 242), as the laws governing the use of the country’s currency.
It noted that under the Currency Act, refusing to sell goods or provide services simply because a customer is paying with legal tender coins or banknotes is a criminal offence, unless the currency has been withdrawn from circulation.
The BoG stated that anyone convicted of the offence could face up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
It added that people who encourage or instruct others to reject coins, including business owners who direct their employees to do so, are equally liable under the law.
The bank further indicated that a person caught committing the offence may be arrested without a warrant.
To ensure compliance, the BoG said it would work with the Ghana Police Service and other law enforcement agencies to enforce the law against offenders.
It encouraged members of the public to report cases of coin rejection to the nearest Bank of Ghana office, the Ghana Police Service or through the bank’s official communication channels.
The central bank called on individuals, businesses and institutions to accept and handle Ghana’s currency responsibly in all its denominations, saying this would help uphold confidence in the country’s legal tender.
By: Jacob Aggrey
