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Migrants vacate pavements along Kumasi Central Mosque
Residents, especially those close to the Kumasi Central Mosque, have heaved a sigh of relief following the departure of migrants from the pavements along the mosque.
The migrants, mainly females and children from Niger, had occupied the pavements along the mosque and had turned the place into their permanent place of abode.
They were said have started trooping in from 2018 with their numbers increasing in the latter part of 2020.
They washed and hanged their clothes on the fence wall of the mosque much to the chagrin of worshippers, who complained but to avail.
This paper, on November 27, 2020, published the story of a female Nigerien migrant, who attacked a Mallam at the Central Mosque over a sleeping place.
The woman, in the story, threw decency to the wind and pounced on one Mallam Gariba Borga, for denying her space.
Following this and other publications about the inconvenience the migrants posed to residents, the police at about 10:00pm last weekend carried out a monitoring exercise in the area.
But there was drama when the migrants, upon seeing police vans, took to their heels leaving behind their belongings. Some of them including nursing mothers ran helter-skelter to avoid any arrest, although the police were not there necessarily to arrest them.
The mere visibility of the police in the area has, to some extent, brought sanity to the area as a number of the migrants have vacated the pavements.
It was not clear where they had moved to but some children belong to the settlers are still seen along the streets of Amakom begging for alms.
From Kingsley E. Hope, Kumasi
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.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
