News
KTU hostel operators urged to observe COVID-19 safety protocols
Private Hostel Operators hosting students of Koforidua Technical University (KTU) and food vendors operating around the University have been urged to observe all safety protocols slated to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or face closure of their facilities for failure to do so.
According to the Pro Vice Chancellor of the KTU, Professor John Owusu, final year students have returned to continue their programme hence it would be necessary that hostel operators and food vendors ensured that they observed all safety protocols to avoid students who patronize their services from getting infected with the coronavirus.
“We have made them aware that if they do not adhere to the safety protocols to ensure the containment of the coronavirus and any student gets infected then their facilities would be closed down,” he added.
Professor Owusu made these statements during a training programme organised by the University’s COVID-19 Response team for private hostel operators and food vendors to train them on the safety protocols to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Pro Vice Chancellor reiterated the need to organise the programme to enable the University’s COVID-19 response team to interact with them to remind them of the safety protocols and impress upon them to adhere to them.
“We hope that this interaction would yield positive results and cause them to adhere to safety protocols like regular and proper handwashing, observe social distancing in their various rooms by reducing the number of students who sleep in the rooms and also practise all other protocols so that no student get infected.”
“We also urged the hostel operators to get thermometer guns to check temperatures of students regularly, he added.
“The hostels are a source of income to these operators and we hope they would adhere to the safety protocols to avoid closure so that they do not lose their daily source of income. Same goes to the food vendors,” he pointed out.
For food vendors, he warned that anyone found not to observe the safety protocols would be barred from selling to the students.
Professor Owusu revealed that the COVID-19 Response team would inspect the hostels and food vendors from time-to-time to ensure that they adhere to the protocols.
For his part, the Manager of Elite Hostels, Daniel Amoako, one of the hostel and beneficiary of the programme was glad stating that the training was in the right direction.
He stated the need to ensure safety first to prevent the spread of COVID-19 assuring that he would do his best to adhere to complement what government was doing.
A food vendor, was also grateful to KTU COVID-19 Team and urged them to inspect activities of the food vendors to ensure that they constantly adhere to the safety protocols slated by government.
From Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, Koforidua
The Speaker of the Algerian Parliament, Mr. Azouz Nasri, has arrived in Accra to take part in the Next Steps High-Level Consultative Conference on the implementation of the landmark United Nations Resolution on the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans.
He was received at the Jubilee Lounge, Kotoka International Airport, by Ghana’s First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Bernard Ahiafor.
The 3-day conference runs from June 17–19, 2026 in Accra. It will bring together parliamentary leaders, diplomats, civil society, and other key stakeholders to reflect on the implications of the UN Resolution for Africans and people of African descent worldwide.
Organisers say the meeting is aimed at advancing a coordinated global framework to strengthen advocacy around the Resolution and provide practical guidance for its implementation across member states.
The Resolution is described as a historic step toward acknowledging the transatlantic slave trade and addressing its lasting impact, with this conference marking one of the first high-level efforts to move it from declaration to action.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Aspiring National Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Awentami Paul Afoko, has stated that the party has a unique opportunity to annex power in the 2028 elections.
According to him, the one person who has been on Ghana’s ballot paper for several elections will not be on the ballot paper in the 2028 elections, paving the way for the NPP to properly market its flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who is already a formidable force to reckon with and will go ahead to win the polls.
He argued that voters already know him, he’s battle-tested and ready to win.
He reiterated that the NPP will have a well-marketed candidate in the 2028 election and just as the party did in 2016 when it annexed power from a sitting government, the same can be done.
The Former NPP National Chairman, however, noted that this can be possible if the NPP unites as a unit and approach the elections with all the seriousness it deserves to ensure that its quest for victory does not become a mirage.
Mr Awentami Paul Afoko made this known when he met with Regional Executives, Patrons and Elders of the party in the Volta, Oti and Eastern Regions yesterday.
“For the first time we have a unique opportunity. At the time I put the New Plan for Power in place, we knew that the sitting president could go again and if he won another term, we would sit in opposition for twelve years.
We had to put a plan in place to make sure we come to power and we came to power. This time around, he will not be on the ballot paper and this offers us a unique opportunity, but without unity we will not get there,” he stated.
“As for unity, it is not negotiable. You can’t sit here and look at the lady sitting next to you and say I don’t like her so we can’t work together. We are working together for power, and if we let emotions get in the way, we lose” he said.
“Those of you who are old enough to remember Muhammad Ali the boxer, he is in the ring with you, he’s talking and calling you names then you get emotional and he takes advantage. Emotions won’t give us power. I didn’t get anything so I won’t support; no, let that go because it is in the past,” he noted.
Afoko, who is pushing his 3R Agenda of Reunite, Rebuild, and Recapture power, said the party must adopt a clear message to win back the confidence of Ghanaians and believes, with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, whom he described as the right candidate will guarantee the NPP victory in the 2028 polls.
“For years I chose to work quietly behind the scenes, supporting the NPP in private,” Afoko said.
“But recent developments have compelled me to step forward. We need to get our party back into winning ways, and that starts with unity of purpose,” Afoko reiterated.
He framed the upcoming period as a test of whether NPP politics would mature or remain stuck in cycles of blame, but was optimistic that everyone who loves the party would come on board to realize the goal of making Dr Mahamudu Bawumia the next President of Ghana.
By: Jacob Aggrey
