News
World Environmental Day: …let’s support environmental restoration efforts
As the world marks Environmental Day today, June 5, 2021, we should focus our attention on some human activities that impact negatively on the environment and the need to reverse the trend and support initiatives meant to safeguard the vegetation.
This year’s celebration, themed ‘Ecosystem Restoration,’ would reinforce the essence of tree planting, cleaning up the environment, and preservation of water bodies, among other activities to help conserve the environment.
On Friday, June 11, the Green Ghana Initiative which would see to the planting of five million trees across the country would kick off. Its long term objective is to return the country’s landscape, which had been affected by illegal mining and lumbering and other human activities, to its past glory.
Apart from sanitation challenges the country is tackling, the impact of illegal lumber and indiscriminate felling of trees is rife in the Savannah Region, where there is an alarming rate of logging for charcoal production.
Some governmental and non-governmental organisations, in an attempt to halt the trend, had recommended a ban on commercial production of charcoal and suggested alternative sources of fuel for rural folks.
But it appears the practice would not stop anytime soon as economic trees such as shea and rosewood continue to be logged in large quantities for charcoal.
Trees and forests provide a myriad of ecological services such as water supply, maintaining soil fertility for purposes of agriculture, and serve also as habitat for animals and other living things.
It is for this reason that Mr. Yussif Abdul-Mumin, Chief Executive Officer of United Force for Development, a non-governmental organisation based in the Northern Region, has urged the citizens to “take deliberate steps to help heal the earth” on the occasion of World Environmental Day and beyond.
He agrees that the citizen’s effort towards environmental conservation through tree planting, especially in urban areas would, to a large extent, contribute to dealing with issues of climate change.
Pictures captured here by our photographer, Mr. Geoffrey Buta, stress the importance for all citizens to join global, regional and local environmental restoration efforts, to help prevent the loss of plant and animal species, enhance food and water supply, and help improve livelihoods.
By Geoffrey Buta
Minister for Government Communications, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, has dismissed claims that staff salaries at the Presidency have increased under the current administration, describing the allegation as a “flat lie”.
In a response to a post on Facebook, Ofosu Kwakye said the current staff at the Presidency inherited the same salaries and conditions approved for their predecessors.
He argued that once arrears owed to former Article 71 office holders are paid, the total wage bill for the current administration will actually be lower due to a reduction in staff numbers.
“It is in fact a mathematical certainty that the total amount paid in salaries to the current staff will be smaller compared to yours once your arrears are paid because of the reduction in numbers,” he stated.
The Minister noted that delays in paying arrears to past Article 71 office holders are not new.
“Arrears owed to past Article 71 office holders is nothing new or unheard of. Many others before you have suffered same,” he said.
Ofosu Kwakye also stressed that the salaries and conditions in question were approved by Parliament on 6th January 2025, under the previous government.
He pointed out that the Constitution bars any changes to those salaries until a new committee is set up to determine emoluments for Article 71 office holders under the new administration.
“No such committee has been set up by President Mahama and no alteration has been made,” he clarified.
“So on what basis, apart from pure lies and mischief, can a claim of ballooning be made?” he concluded.
The response follows public debate over the size and cost of the presidential staff, with critics alleging a spike in the wage bill.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi and the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, has initiated plea negotiations with the Attorney General’s office in the GH₵30 million Exim Bank fraud case.
Information available to ghanaiantimes.com.gh indicates that lawyers for Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka Chairman Wontumi & 2 other accused have formally written to the Attorney General to enter into plea negotiations on the charges of defrauding by false pretenses, money laundering, and intentionally causing financial loss to a public body.
A plea bargain, under Section 162C of the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) (Amendment) Act, 2022 (Act 1079), allows an accused person to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for a reduced sentence.
The agreement must be approved by the court after the Attorney General assesses factors such as the strength of evidence, recovery of state funds, and public interest.
Wontumi is facing four counts after his arrest by the Economic and Organised Crime Office in May 2025.
Prosecutors allege he used forged documents to secure a GH₵30 million facility from the Ghana Export-Import Bank to finance equipment for his mining company, Akonta Mining Ltd.
The state further charges him with money laundering and causing financial loss to the state.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and was granted GH₵50 million bail with two sureties. The case is currently before the Accra High Court.
The Attorney General’s office is yet to confirm whether negotiations will proceed.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
