Heads of State at the 31st African Union Summit have committed themselves to chart a new path aimed at permanently eradicating corruption on the African continent.

Speaking to the media after the closing session of the summit held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, under the theme “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation,” the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said, “African leaders have concluded that corruption on the continent is pure thievery on the part of all who engage in it. To that end, a comprehensive policy to arrest the phenomenon is the only way forward.”

According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, President Akufo Addo, when he took his turn to speak during the plenary session, reiterated the measures that his government is taking in Ghana to deal with the issue such as the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor to prosecute government officials, both past and present, who engage in corrupt practices.

Corruption is one of the most formidable challenges to good governance, development and poverty reduction in Africa as has been captured in the 2008 Transparency International Report.

The Report further states that, ‘corruption in Africa is like an advanced cancer or tumour that cannot be treated. Like cancer, corruption has tragically devastated African societies and made millions of people very poor.

From South Africa to Egypt, the tentacles of corruption reaches everywhere. Corruption has no boundaries.

From the offices of presidents and prime ministers to the smallest administration unit of government corruption is everywhere.

According to the Africa Union (AU) around $148 billion are stolen from the continent by its leaders and civil servants every year. The recent Forbes’ list of most corrupt nations had 9 out of the first 16 countries coming from Africa’.

Source: starrfmonline.com

Private Legal Practitioner, John Ndebugri, has denied making his views known publicly on the dismissal of the former Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Charlotte Osei by President Akufo Addo.

There have been reports in the media that the former Member of Parliament for Zebilla, has revealed that he wept uncontrollably when news got to him that Charlotte Osei had been dismissed as the chairperson of the Electoral Commission.

According to the reports Lawyer Ndebugri argues that none of the six allegations that were made against Charlotte Osei were proven by her accusers.

“I spent the whole night reading the excellent address put together by her lawyer, Thaddeus Sory. I had to pause and cry. The committee rested its report contrary to the evidence on record. Mrs Charlotte Osei must apply for judicial review in the nature of a certiorari to quash this unreasonable decision. It’s sad for Ghana.

“If this is the way we have to go, then all of us are not safe, not only Mrs Charlotte Osei. There’s no article of the constitution of Ghana which provides that breach of any statute [Act 663] should be a ground for removal from office of the EC Chairperson,” he stated.

Mr Ndebugri reportedly said the outcome of the committee’s report was travesty of justice, adding that, “Charlotte has been given a raw deal. A judicial review in the nature certiorari to quash the decision of the committee will be the appropriate remedy but not an appeal.

“The new person could be injuncted from holding the office until the final determination of judicial review proceedings”.

Mrs. Osei and two of her deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwa, were on Thursday, June 28 removed from office as Commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) by Nana Akufo-Addo on grounds of “stated misbehaviour and incompetence”.

Their removal follows recommendations from a committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the trio on allegations leveled against them by some staff of the Commission in July 2017.

But speaking to sit-in-host Akwasi Nsiah on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa FM Monday, Lawyer Ndebugri insisted that he’s not authored any such statement relating the dismissal of the former EC senior officials.

“Since this EC matters arose I’ve not spoken publicly about it and I’ve not written anything on it. So the person who did that must have a very fertile mind which he can use for more useful things rather than trying to hang things on innocent people.

“This is not the first time this has been done to me, when Koku Anyidoho was arrested someone went and concocted a story and put my name there. I don’t know why they go about using my name in that manner and it’s always social media, you can’t put your finger on the person doing that. If I should ever lay my hand on that person, I’ll enter into the same bottle with him or her because they’re tarnishing my image unnecessarily.”

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the appointment of a Special Prosecutor in Ghana, will deny persons who will be investigated and prosecuted for engaging in acts of corruption, the often-cited refrain of witch-hunting.

According to him, “we have a particular problem in Ghana which is that every time a prosecution is mounted against a high ranking official, you hear the cry witch-hunting. It has become a way of protest for senior political figures.”

As a result, the President explained that “we have now had to devise particular responses and mechanisms (to the cry of witch-hunting). We have established an Office of Special Prosecutor. The Special Prosecutor is a permanent official who is independent of the Executive, who will hold all officials, past and present, accountable for their stewardship.”

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Sunday, 1st July 2018, when he made an intervention at the plenary session of the 31st African Union Summit, which is being held on the theme “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable path to Africa’s Transformation,” in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Reiterating the commitment of his government to ensuring that “equality before the law means exactly just that, equality before the law,” President Akufo-Addo was unequivocal that regardless of one’s status in society, “when we get into problems of wrongdoing, we should face the consequences”.

Describing the Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, Mr. Martin Amidu, as having “a high reputation on his stance on corruption and (being) a figure of integrity”, the President noted that Mr Amidu was a former Attorney General in the government of the 3rd President of the 4th Republic, the late John Evans Atta-Mills.

“If he (Martin Amidu) then puts you in his gaze for an act of wrongdoing, that charge of witch-hunting will no longer be available. We believe that that is a very important step, which will make sure that the principle of equality before the law is made meaningful. “

Source: citinewsroom.com

There was no ambulance to ferry ex-Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur to the 37 Military Hospital after he collapsed at the Airforce Gym on Friday, 29 June 2018 during one of his usual workout sessions, Okyehene Amoatia Ofori Panin II, paramount chief of the Akuem Abuakwa Traditional Council, who was also working out in the same gym as the two “friends” had done over the past 14 years, has recounted.

“As it’s been for 14 years, any time I go there [gym], I meet my friend and we’ll talk, shake hands … and then go to our different machines…”, he told an audience.

According to him, as the two of them worked out separately, “… I heard ‘bang’! Three women in the gym were screaming, I left my machine and went and there lay my friend trying to find some air to breathe.

“We gathered around him and pumped his heart as hard as we could, yelled out his name; his wife was calling out: ‘Jesus, save him!’ I just said: ‘Call the ambulance, let’s take him to the hospital’.

“There were about seven, eight of us, and something dawned on me: When we took him out, there was no ambulance, there was no car, we threw the former vice-president in the back of a pick-up and drove off to 37.

“At this moment, I went back to the gym and everybody had departed. The place was empty. I just went and got my towel and my phone, called my driver to take me home.

“I was waiting so anxiously on the phone to hear if somebody will call and say that he’s alright. The call came, and Boakye, the trainer in the gym said Osagyefo, he didn’t make it. The vice-president is dead”, the revered chief narrated.

Source: classfmonline.com

An Indian woman and her four daughters have confessed to hiring contract killers to have their husband/father murdered because he refused to let them wear jeans.

The lifeless body of Meharbaan Ali, a police sub-inspector, was found in a sewage canal in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, just 250 meters from his home, on Sunday.

An investigation began and it didn’t take long for local police to figure out that the man’s family may have been involved in his murder.

Circuit cameras installed in the area and a thorough verification of each family member’s call history helped inspectors crack the case and ultimately get a confession out of the wife and her four daughters.

“Ever since the body of Ali was found, we suspected the involvement of family members, because the body was found just 250 metres from their house,” Daya Chand Sharma, Inspector at Sadar Bazaar police station, said. “We took out the call detail records of all the family members and found that Ali’s wife, Zahida, was regularly calling a number.”

Upon checking the CCTV footage from the cameras installed in the area around Ali’s home, police officers established that the murdered man had arrived home at around 10.45 am, after leaving the polices station at 10.

Hired killers named only as Tahseen and Ehsaan can be seen entering the house soon after. That same evening, the five women helped the two killers load Ali’s body onto a motorcycle so it could be disposed of in a nearby canal.

With clear evidence of their involvement, Zahida and her four daughters had no choice but to admit to plotting his murder. The five women reportedly offered Tahseen and Ehsaan $1,450 to have Ali killed, paying them half up front with the other half to be paid after the task was completed.

Inspector Daya Chand Sharma told reporters that during their confession, the wife and daughters said that they were upset with Ali because of the strict restrictions they imposed on them, including preventing them from wearing jeans. However they stood to get more than freedom after he was gone. As a widow, Zahida would have also received half his salary as a pension, as well as extra funds that dependents of policemen usually get after their demise. One of Ali’s daughters also hoped that she would take over his job at the police station.

Zahida Begum, 52, and her daughters Saba, 26, Zeenat, 22, Iram, 19, and Alia, 18 were arrested and the two hired killers are on the run.

Source: odditycentral