The body of a man believed to be in his late twenties was found hanging from a rope on a tree in the early hours of Wednesday in Tindonsobligo, a suburb of Bolgatanga here in the Upper East Region.

The man identified as Alolga Nyaba Abua, a mason by profession is suspected to have committed suicide by hanging himself with the rope. He was found hanging on an ebony tree at his family cemetery which is about 200 meters away from his house.

The reasons for which he might have committed suicide are unknown. Family members of the deceased and other passers-by had gathered at the scene, watching his lifeless body hanging on the tree when our reporter arrived.

Some residents who spoke to A1 News at the scene expressed shock at the incident, wondering why a young man that age would commit suicide. Police officials who arrived at the scene close to 10am said investigations would be conducted to confirm the cause of his death. Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been deposited at the Bolgatanga hospital morgue where an autopsy will be conducted.

By: James Amoh Jnr. | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

Bolgatanga Municipal Secretary of the  Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Abdul-Latif Alhassan has revealed that teachers who are part of GNAT will benefit  from a free cancer treatment. He explained that GNAT is partnering with  a Swedish  Foundation to which it contributes One Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis each year for that purpose.

The facility is located in Accra at Asalebotwe and GNAT members only need to present a pay slip and an ID card to prove their membership before they get access to it. Mr. Alhassan therefore called on all GNAT members to always go through their pay slips to ensure that their membership dues are deducted so they can benefit from free treatment of cancers on any part of the body.

He was speaking at a meeting organized on Wednesday for school representatives here in Bolgatanga. The GNAT municipal secretary also called on teachers to take advantage of the Credit Mall to purchase their household items and the loan facilities available to them because its interest rates are far lower than any other loan facility.

Mr. Alhassan also called on teachers who were transferred from 2010-2013 but have still not received their T and T and transfer grants to make available to the secretariat, photocopies of their transfer letters and other relevant information so that effective demands can be made of government   to pay the monies.

By: Mercy Yamtot Adongo | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

The Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP), a five year sustainable land development project sponsored by the Canadian Government has trained and supported women groups in the Upper East Region, to be engaged in the production of sheabutter soap and moringa processing.

This was made known at a round table meeting of the Ghana Environment Managemental Project (GEMP) and the Ghana Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (GSLWMP) here in Bolgatanga.

Upper East Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Asher Nkegbe said the project which is currently being implemented in the three northern regions of Ghana aims to reduce land degradation and enhance the maintenance of biodiversity in selected micro-watersheds in the northern savanna regions of the country.

Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru urged stakeholders in the project to use the project to address issues of  poverty and its contributing factors and also ensure that the project makes a significant progress towards achieving environmental sustainability for social advancement and economic prosperity.

Senior Environmental Specialist and World Bank Representative, Martin Fodor said since Ghana is ranked the 12^th most agriculture dependent country in the world, there is the need for individuals to practice sustainable land management.

By: Joshua Asaah | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

President John Mahama on Thursday paid a working visit to the Upper East Region.

As part of the visit, the president went to the Bolgatanga Girls’ Senior High School where he presented 2, 200 computers for onward distribution to all Senior High Schools in the region. He also went to Navrongo and inaugurated the newly-constructed Our Lady of Lourdes Senior High School and later inspected the site for the construction of an Airstrip at Sumbrungu and then went to have a look at the condition of the Bolgatanga-Bawku road which has been a main source of worry to the people of the upper east region.

However, even before the president arrived at the Bolgatanga Jubilee Park to address the chiefs and people of the Upper East Region, some former workers of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) who worked under the SADA afforestation project, had massed up at the venue, waiting with placards to draw the attention of the President to their unpaid allowances.

The workers said they had been laid off without pay and they suspect the president was not aware of it. Though they refused to show the placards for fear that police would drive them way from the venue, their leader, Ibrahim Abazeele Salifu who spoke to A1 News said they intended to raise the placards to draw the president’s attention to their plight.
True to their word, the workers raised their placards when the president was delivering his address but only for while, apparently because they had disrupted the attention of the crowd around the section where they stood.

President Mahama later addressed people of the region and gave them some reassurances. He told the people of the Upper East Region that the revamping of the defunct tomato factory in Pwalugu and the rehabilitation of the Bolgatanga-Bawku road which is now almost unmotorable are key priorities for his government.

By: Albert Sore | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

A Complementary Basic Education (CBE) program has been launched at Pelungu in the Nabdam district of the Upper East Region, to prepare over one thousand out-of-school children in the district to get into regular schools.

The Ghana Complementary Basic Education (CBE) program is a functional literacy program by the Government of Ghana and its development partners (DFID) for children between the ages of 8  and 14 years who are not in school to  gain access to formal  school through  literacy classes in their own communities.

The intervention is in line with the Ghana Government’s effort to meet the MDG 2; which demands of countries to make it possible for children of school going age to have universal primary education. It is implemented by civil society actors in partnership with communities with oversight responsibility by the District Education Offices, District Education Oversight Committees (DEOC) and District Assemblies.

In Nabdam district, volunteer teachers for the CBE program took a special preparation course in readiness for their role and were awarded certificates at the launch.

Nabdam district chief executive, Vivian Anafo said the introduction of the CBE program in the Nabdam district has come at the right time. She was also optimistic that program will be successful.

In the Upper East Region, Afrikids Ghana, a child rights centered NGO is government’s partner in the CBE program. Nicholas Kumah, Country Director of Afrikids Ghana said Afrikids saw the CBE program as an advantage to help vulnerable children as they have been doing over the years.

By: Albert Sore | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

The paramount chief of the Bongo traditional Area, Naba Baba Salifu Alemyaarum has bemoaned the high increase in teenage pregnancies in the Bongo District. At this year’s Azambeene or fire festival, he appealed to stakeholders especially parents to take drastic measures to help check the canker of the teenage pregnancies in the district.

The Bongo District is said to have the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the Upper East Region.

Naba Salifu Alemyaarum while commending traditional leaders for their efforts in supporting brilliant but needy students in education, encouraged the traditional leaders to continue with those efforts. He also congratulated Joyful African Mission, an international organization working in the district for its tremendous contribution to education in the district.

Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru said he was not happy about the spate of teenage pregnancies in the Bongo district and called on stakeholders to redirect their efforts to tackling  teenage pregnancy in the district.

Alhaji Muniru also urged parents to take advantage of government social intervention projects such as the capitation grant, the school feeding programme and the free school uniform package to enroll their wards in school.

According to the regional minister, the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is studying the Bongo rocks to ascertain whether they can be used for the production of tiles and roofing sheets.

By: Joshua Asaah | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

President of the North Ghana Mission of the Seventh Day Adventist  (SDA) Church Pastor Frederick Agyei Baah has called for collective efforts to help tackle corruption in Ghana. Pastor Agyei made the call during the celebration of the church’s 125 years of Adventism in Ghana. Pastor Agyei also called for a stop to the ‘pull him down’ syndrome to help reduce corruption in the country.

In a speech he read on behalf of the regional minister Bolgatanga MCE, Edward Ayiriba Ayagle commended the church for the numerous projects it has executed in the country. He also entreated the church to intensify discipline among the youth in society.

The SDA Church, with 700,000 members nationwide currently has 600 basic schools, 14 senior high schools, three tertiary institutions, one school of pharmacy and two health assistant training schools in various parts of the country.

Source: A1 Radio News

A 25 year old man here in Bolgatanga met his untimely death on Monday morning after he got electrocuted by electrical wires he was working on near the Bolgatanga Library junction.

Sources told A1 News that the young man worked with a sub-electrical contractor who had been contracted by the Volta River Authority (VRA) to do some work on those wires. After electrical power had been switched off for work to begin, the young man climbed the pole and started work. However after a few minutes, the power was switched back on without his prior notice and he was shocked by electrical current till he died, hanging on the pole.

VRA has refused to comment on the matter for now but police have confirmed the death. Upper East Regional Public Relations Officer of Police, ASP Thomas Yaw Agbanyo told A1 News that the incident is still under investigation.

CAUTION!!!! VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

SEE PICTURES OF VICTIM HERE.

MORE PICTURES

 By: Albert Sore / Joshua Asaah | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

WaterAid Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation at the weekend launched a Water Resource Management and Citizen Engagement (WRM/CE) learning group at the close of a week’s workshop in Bolgatanga.

The focus of the Learning Group (LeG) is to encourage the sharing of knowledge and experiences generated by various organisations and members and to further share common challenges related to citizen engagement, accountability and participation in water resource management. It also seeks to equip members of LeG with current tools, methods, technics and framework for citizen engagement while strengthening their capacity to facilitate dialogues for better Water, and Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services delivery.

Alhaji SulemanaIssah-Bello, Programme Manager of WaterAid in charge of the Northern Sector addressing participants drown from the three regions of the north said the West African region was characterized by factors comprising the increased dwindling, weak mobilization, low citizenship participation, accountability and unequal distribution of existing water resources.

He said sustainable access to safe water required synergies in managing information through regular experience sharing. Professor David Millar, Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee of WaterAid and the Immediate Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies launching the learning group called on members to see the group as pressure groups to actively influence decisions in water resource management. He bemoaned the recent incidences of illegal mining in parts of the north that affected water bodies, adding that polluted water as a result of mining activities was not healthy for humans and animal consumption.

Prof Millar who is also the Proprietor of the Millar Open University, a private university in Bolgatanga called for a strategic integration of rain water harvesting and its treatment in the national development plan to curtail the shortage of water and beef up the water supply system in most parts of the country.

By: James Amoh Jnr. | A1radioonline.com | Ghana

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is warning the general public to desist from patronizing a drink by the name, BARA JII which is being distributed and sold here in the Upper East Region.

According to the FDA, the said BARA JII is supposedly an energy drink and is being purchased as such but the product is not registered by the Food and Drugs Authority and therefore the authority cannot guarantee its safety and quality.

This was communicated in a press release signed and copied to A1 News on Tuesday by the Upper East Regional Officer of the FDA, Eugene Addo.

The general public is advised to take note that the said BARA JII energy drink is in a transparent plastic sachet and labeled only in French. The drink according to the FDA, is illegally being brought into the Upper East Region and for that matter, Ghana from Burkina Faso.

Retailers are therefore advised not sell or distribute it. The general public is also urged not to hesitate to bring to the attention of FDA, any person or group of persons involved in the importation, distribution or sale of BARA JII drink.

By: Joshua Asaah | A1radioonline.com | Ghana