Hot!
Roads Minister fumes, forces miners to wash mud off Akrofufu-Twapease road
- /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
https://spectator.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Min.png&description=Roads Minister fumes, forces miners to wash mud off Akrofufu-Twapease road', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
- Share
- Tweet /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
https://spectator.com.gh/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Min.png&description=Roads Minister fumes, forces miners to wash mud off Akrofufu-Twapease road', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
Two illegal miners were ordered to remove mud from sections of the tarred Akrofufu to Twapease road in the Atiwa West District of the Eastern Region.
These miners were in the process of transporting materials via a truck vehicle from their mining site near the roadside, which resulted in the scattering of mud onto the tarred road.
The incident occurred when the Minister, also serving as the Member of Parliament for the region, was accompanied by several constituency executives of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) on their way back from a funeral in Twapease over the weekend.
Mr Amoako Atta, observing the damage inflicted on the road by the illegal miners and the destruction caused to the road’s shoulders, expressed his frustration and instructed his police guard to arrest the
Two individuals were apprehended, although others managed to escape.
They were then compelled to clean off the mud from approximately one kilometer of the road, as a consequence of their actions.
“My party executives and I were from a funeral, and we came to meet this low bed trailer with a galamsey excavator. Look at this distance, more than a kilometer of road have been destroyed -so muddy,” the Minister said.
“The entire stretch of the tarred road has been muddied so no car could cross. All the vehicles have parked at both. They have destroyed the shoulders of the road so I stopped and ordered my bodyguard to arrest them,” he mentioned.
He added that the illegal miners arrested have been handed over to the police.
“Their galamsey activities are destroying the road constructed with a huge amount of the taxpayer’s monies. Look at the destruction. I have handed them over to the police for the law to take its cause. The police in their own wisdom will carry their own investigation”, he added.
Mr Amoako Atta declared what he calls ‘negative tolerance’ to illegal mining in the area warning that henceforth, illegal miners will be subdued in the district.
“I am the Member of Parliament for this constituency, and I am going to work with my District Chief Executive who is the head of DISEC to support the position of government. The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, has put the presidency on the line to fight galamsey to protect the environment for posterity. We have to protect our water bodies and our land,” he added.
Credit: Myjoyonline.com
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.
The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.
The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.
It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.
“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.
The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.
It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.
The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.
It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.
The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.
The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.
It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.
By: Jacob Aggrey
General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong, has filed his nomination to contest the position of General Secretary again as the party begins its rebuilding efforts ahead of the 2028 general elections.
He was accompanied by party stalwarts and supporters who were in high spirits, expressing confidence that he is the right person to hold the position.
Speaking after filing his nomination, Mr Kodua Frimpong assured the rank and file of the party that he would not disappoint them.
“I can assure you that the faith the rank and file of the party have had in me, I will never disappoint them,” he said.
He also pledged to run a clean campaign devoid of personal attacks.
“I can assure you that our internal campaign will be devoid of personal attacks,” he told his fellow contestants and the rank and file of the party as he seeks to retain his position.
His tenure has seen the party through the 2024 general elections, where the NPP lost power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after eight years in government.
The party is currently in a rebuilding phase, with internal elections scheduled to elect new national executives to lead its reorganization towards the 2028 polls.
The General Secretary position is considered one of the most influential in the party’s administrative structure, responsible for the day-to-day running of the party secretariat and implementation of party decisions.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
