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Two jailed for flouting AMA sanitation bye-laws
An Accra Magistrate Court has sentenced two persons to a fine of GHC 10,000 or in default spend three months imprisonment with hard labour.
The two – Ebenezer Lamptey and Mawuli Wudaa- who pleaded guilty, were convicted on Monday by the court for flouting provisions in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Bye-laws 2017 and Public Health Act, 2012 (851).
The court has also fined Madam Mercy Sackey GHc 1,200 for preparing food for sale using firewood, producing smoke nuisance to some residents of the Okai-koi Sub-Metropolitan District.
According to the Head of Public Affairs, Gilbert Nii Ankrah, the offenders were dragged to the court on a bench warrant effected by Public Health officers of the AMA led by Florence Kuukyi after they failed to appear before the court when they were summoned.
He disclosed that Mr Lamptey was dragged before the court by the Assembly for operating an unhygienic dilapidated concrete pit latrine on the verge of collapsing and discharging effluent into the drains contrary, to Section 11 of the AMA Sanitation Bye-laws whilst Mawuli Wudaa at the time of inspection had employed the services of seven persons without health certificates at an eatery and stored their food items in a rusted refrigerator likely to cause contamination.
He explained that under the AMA 2017 Sanitation bye-laws, a person commits an offence if that person for instance discharges effluent into the open, drains, the compound of that person or the environment, operates a public or commercial toilet without a valid permit from the Assembly, defecates in the open, drains, or one’s compound, or indiscriminately dumps solid and liquid waste in open spaces, drains, gutters, behind walls, or burns solid waste in one’s compound.
“It is an offence u der the by-law if you fail to keep the premises free from overgrown weeds & hedges, stagnant water, and any unwholesome or otherwise offensive matter as well as drains that abut the premises up to the middle of the street, clean,” he added.
He said the AMA Food and Hygiene bye-laws 2017 also mandates all food handlers to be subjected to screening after which they would be issued with valid health certificate renewable yearly basis adding that Food handlers were required to produce on demand.
He cautioned individuals and entities that produce food for public consumption to ensure that their staff were medically screened and issued medical health certificate cards to ensure food and public safety.
Source: www.adomonline.com
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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