John Adoku Abaah has filed his nomination to contest the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Youth Organiser position in the Nabdam Constituency, promising to focus on creating opportunities for young people rather than providing short-term handouts.
Speaking after filing his nomination, Mr Abaah said youth organisation within the constituency should extend beyond election periods and focus on skills development, mentorship, business connections and access to opportunities.
“A handout may solve a problem for a day. An opportunity, a skill, a business connection or meaningful mentorship can change a person’s life,” he said.
Mr Abaah, who described himself as a young business person, said his experience had exposed him to some of the difficulties young people face in finding opportunities and starting businesses with limited resources.
He said the constituency’s youth structure should therefore identify and connect young entrepreneurs, farmers, artisans, students and professionals to opportunities.
“We must move from a culture where young people are remembered only when elections are approaching to a culture where young people are continuously organised, supported, mentored and empowered,” he said.
Mr Abaah said his plan would involve working with youth organisers across Nabdam’s 55 polling stations to make them active centres for mobilisation, information sharing and youth development.
“The question before us is, How do we organise these young people? How do we connect their talents to opportunities? How do we make the constituency’s youth structure vibrant throughout the political calendar, rather than only during elections?” he said.
He argued that concerns raised by young people at polling station level should be able to reach the constituency leadership and receive attention.
“My experience in business has taught me one important lesson: you cannot build anything sustainable without organisation. The same principle applies to politics,” he said.
Mr Abaah said his approach would prioritise communication, mobilisation and mentorship while creating avenues for young people to develop their skills and take on greater responsibilities within the party.
“Let us make youth leadership about what we can build, not merely what we can distribute. Let us make it about empowerment, not dependency; organisation, not confusion; opportunity, not empty promises; and service, not personal ambition,” he said.
He appealed to delegates and youth organisers across the constituency to support his candidature.
“I am offering myself not as a person who has all the answers, but as a young person prepared to listen, learn and work with you,” Mr Abaah said.
An old student of St George’s Primary School in Bolgatanga has donated building materials and learning supplies to the school, saying he wanted to give back to the institution where his education began.
Issah Bukari Ayamdo, Chief Executive Officer of Ringo Apsonic Motors Company in Bolgatanga, presented 100 bags of cement, 10 packs of roofing sheets, 350 exercise books, 100 school bags, 500 pens and four footballs to the school.
Mr Ayamdo said the donation, made with support from his partners at Apsonic Motors Ghana in Tamale, was inspired by memories of his time at the school and his desire to support its current pupils.
“The teachers who taught me how to write, how to read, where I first met my friends, it all started here, St. George’s Primary,” he said.
“But every time I pass here and see these little children, I wonder, I was also one of them? Was I like this? And what would I do to help these children?”
Mr Ayamdo said he had long hoped to return to support the school when he was in a position to do so.
“One day, when I have the power, I will know what to do. And this thing has come to reality. So today we are here to handover these items to the school to support their efforts,” he said.
He described the donation as his way of showing appreciation to the school for the role it played in his upbringing.
“This donation is my give back to society and my alma mater for the development of the school because this is the school that made me who I am today and I am grateful,” he added.
Bolgatanga Municipal Education Supervision Officer Timothy Allou, who received the items on behalf of the school, thanked Mr Ayamdo for the support.
He encouraged other old students, individuals and organisations to support schools in the municipality, saying improving education requires contributions beyond government funding.
Assembly Member for the Gowrie Electoral Area, James Akuribila Nyaaba, has filed his nomination to contest the Deputy Secretary position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Bongo Constituency.
Mr Nyaaba, a former NDC Branch Chairman at the Gowrie Primary School Branch, said he is seeking the position to help strengthen the constituency secretariat and improve coordination with the party’s branches.
Following the filing of his nomination, he said his priorities would include strengthening the party’s administrative structures, promoting unity among branches and supporting grassroots organisation ahead of the 2028 general election.
Mr Nyaaba is campaigning on the message, “A Strong Secretariat, United Branches, and Victory for NDC in Bongo 2028.”
He has also adopted the slogan, “The Servant Secretary: Loyal, Humble, Accessible.”
Mr Nyaaba thanked delegates, branch executives, party elders and supporters who have backed his political activities and appealed to delegates for support in the upcoming constituency election.
“The real work starts now,” he said.
Mr Nyaaba is one of two aspirants seeking the Deputy Secretary position. Iddrisu Asiim-Yamga Adongo has also filed to contest the position.
A1 Radio | 101.1MHz | Moses Anaba Azubire | Bolgatanga
Sylvester Akolgenunsi Apunzoe has filed his nomination to contest for Executive Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Bolga Central Constituency, four years after an unsuccessful attempt at the position.
Mr Apunzoe, who contested the position in 2022, said he remained active in the party after his defeat and was encouraged by the support he received from delegates to make another attempt.
Speaking to journalists after filing his nomination, he said strengthening the NDC’s grassroots structures would be his main priority if elected.
“I will work with them. My main mission is to mobilise the grassroots at every branch across the constituency and beyond. That is the mission I have for my delegates,” he said.
Mr Apunzoe said he would also work with other constituency executives to promote unity and increase the participation of party members in activities at the branch and constituency levels.
His candidature has received endorsements from some party members, including the Assembly Member for the Yorogo West Electoral Area, Bawa Atule Mohammadu.
Mr Mohammadu said the campaign had started engaging delegates earlier than it did during Mr Apunzoe’s previous attempt and appealed to delegates to support his candidature.
He said his support for Mr Apunzoe went beyond their relationship as brothers, citing his continued involvement in party activities after losing the previous election.
Mr Mohammadu urged delegates to consider candidates who could strengthen the party’s grassroots structures ahead of the 2028 general election.
Ibrahim Ayingura Adugdoo, the NDC Organiser at the Madina Polling Station, has also backed Mr Apunzoe’s bid.
“He is someone who does not separate or choose people. His doors are always open to everybody,” Mr Adugdoo said.
Alfred Nyaaba Akuresoh, popularly known as Akuureyaaba, who is contesting for the NDC Youth Organiser position in the Bongo Constituency, also endorsed Mr Apunzoe.
Mr Akuresoh said he had previously worked with Mr Apunzoe and appealed to delegates in Bolga Central to support his candidature.
Delegates are expected to elect constituency executives on October 24.
an Indian or Asian person laying on floor dead during COVID-19 or corona virus outbreak with selective focus or shallow depth of field
Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found by a roadside in Sumbrungu in the Anaten Kulbia Electoral Area.
The deceased has been identified as Azoya Anoryira, a farmer from the community. Assembly Member for the area, Richard Akanpie Akumdaare, estimated that he was between 20 and 30 years old.
Mr Akumdaare said he was informed at about 06:20 on Tuesday that a body had been found lying by the roadside between some stores in the area.
He said he went to the scene to verify the information before contacting the Ghana Police Service.
“I went to the scene to confirm whether it was true or not, but when I got there, it was true. So I quickly called the Ghana Police Service to report the incident. The police came to the scene and picked the body to the mortuary,” he said.
Mr Akumdaare said the body was found near a drinking spot, but it was not clear whether the man died at the location or whether his body had been brought there.
The cause and circumstances of his death have not yet been established.
Mr Akumdaare described the incident as unusual, saying it was the first of its kind he could recall in the electoral area.
He said the deceased’s family and community leaders were engaging the police over arrangements for the release of the body for burial.
The Assembly Member expressed his condolences to the family and urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious or unfamiliar activity to community leaders or the appropriate authorities.
He also advised residents to be mindful of their safety, particularly at night.
Police investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death are continuing.
On Yin Bugmah’s farm in Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, some of the most important things being added to the soil are not coming from a shop.
Dry grass covers parts of the field, protecting the soil from heat, while compost made from materials available around the farm is worked into the earth.
Maize and soybeans grow within the same farming system as practices that once seemed unfamiliar gradually become part of how Bugmah produces food.
For the farmer in her early 50s, the change has not happened overnight.
Four years ago, she was introduced to composting and later learned how to use mulch. What began as training has become a practical response to rising production costs, difficulty securing labour and weather conditions that farmers increasingly struggle to predict.
“It has been four years since I was first taught this farming method,” she said.
Bugmah says the practices have reduced her dependence on chemical fertiliser while allowing her to produce different crops on the same piece of land.
She now plans to expand the farm to produce more food for her household. “I plan to expand my farm next year,” she said.
Her experience reflects a wider effort by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO) to help smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate without continually increasing their dependence on costly external inputs.
Through its SCRAS project, NABOCADO is promoting composting, mulching, zero tillage, crop rotation and intercropping among 5,217 farmers in 16 communities across Builsa South, Nabdam, West Mamprusi and Kassena-Nankana West.
But on the farms, climate resilience has a much more immediate meaning: whether a farmer can keep producing when fertiliser, chemicals and labour become harder to afford.
In Kata in the West Mamprusi Municipality, Abdul-Rauf Mahamadu has experienced that pressure first-hand. Before his training, he relied on ploughing, chemical fertiliser, herbicides and other conventional inputs.
He says cultivating an acre required two bags of NPK costing about GH¢1,000, one bag of ammonia at around GH¢300, plus expenditure on chemicals and ploughing.
By his calculation, those costs reached about GH¢1,525 before seed and some other expenses were added. Yet, he says, an acre could produce only five or six bags.
The problem, therefore, was not simply how much the farm produced, but how much of the harvest remained after production costs had been paid.
Mahamadu now uses compost prepared from locally available materials, practises zero tillage and rotates maize with soybean.
On his demonstration farm, he says the approach has reduced his dependence on purchased inputs while improving production.
“With the compost, we haven’t spent anything except the compost. We haven’t bought anything. Just compost, and we get more than those who do inorganic fertiliser,” he said.
He also says Striga, a parasitic weed that previously troubled his maize, has reduced since he changed his practices.
Research in northern Ghana has similarly found that soybean rotation can reduce Striga infestation compared with continuous maize cultivation.
For Mahamadu, however, the calculation remains simple. “After deductions of the cost made, ploughing, labour, fertilisers and others, you might not even break even,” he said.
In Nabdam, Assibi Tii is approaching the same problem from another direction. Before planting, he covers his field with grass and creates small pits where compost is placed and covered with soil.
After the rains, he plants maize and later introduces cowpeas between the maize plants, while diluted poultry manure is applied around the crops.
The mulch helps protect the soil and retain moisture, but Tii says one of its most immediate benefits is the labour it saves.
“I don’t need hired labour to help me on the field because I don’t have a lot of weeds on the farm,” he explained.
Naya Talata, another farmer in the community, says the cost of fertiliser has become so high that some farmers struggle to recover their expenditure after harvest.
“People who are able to buy the fertilizers even end up with end product that can’t even cover the cost they made during the farming process,” she said.
Research by the University of Ghana has documented farmers’ experiences of erratic rainfall and rising temperatures in northern Ghana, with many linking these changes to declining agricultural output. That evidence reinforces what farmers such as Bugmah are experiencing: adapting to climate change is increasingly tied to the economics of staying on the land.
Mahamadu’s demonstration farm offers another challenge to conventional thinking.
He says farmers often assume larger farms automatically produce larger harvests, but his experience has made him question that.
“Before, you could farm up to two acres and not get up to 10 bags. But with the new practice, on this small land which is not up to half an acre, we got up to five bags,” he said.
The claim is based on his own experience on a demonstration plot, rather than evidence that every farmer will achieve the same result.
But it raises a larger question about whether improving existing land can sometimes be more useful than simply expanding the area under cultivation.
For NABOCADO, the answer lies in rebuilding the farming system from within.
Dominic Avea Aniah, Director of the organisation’s Livelihood and Agriculture Programme, says farmers are being encouraged to turn crop residues and livestock droppings into compost, combine cereals with legumes and rotate crops to improve soil health and reduce dependence on purchased inputs.
The organisation says its wider intervention has reached about 7,200 farmers and that 51.1 percent have comprehensively adopted the promoted practices.
It also reports a 13 percent increase in yields of targeted crops. These are NABOCADO’s monitoring figures, rather than an independent evaluation.
The harder test is whether farmers can sustain the practices beyond demonstration plots. Compost still requires labour and organic material; mulching requires suitable materials; and crop rotation demands planning, land access and a willingness to change familiar practices.
For Bugmah, Tii and Mahamadu, however, the experiment is already underway. Dry grass becomes mulch, crop residues become compost, poultry manure becomes nutrients and soybean becomes part of a rotation that can help manage Striga.
The change is about more than using fewer chemical inputs. It is about changing the relationship between the farmer and the land.
For years, a difficult farming season could mean buying more fertiliser, hiring more labour or cultivating more land. These farmers are testing another possibility: that a farm can remain productive when some of what it needs is generated within the farming system itself.
For Bugmah, the next step is expansion. She wants to cultivate more land and produce more food for her family.
The climate has not become easier, and farming has certainly not become cheaper. But after four years of learning to work differently with the soil, she believes the land may have more to give.
A Sandema food vendor who experienced a shortage of bed sheets while receiving care at the Builsa North Municipal Hospital has returned to the facility with her husband to donate bedding and food to patients at the maternity ward.
Elizabeth Awobsa, popularly known as Madam Lizy, and her husband donated bed sheets, pillows, pillowcases and cooked food to mothers and other patients at the facility on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
Madam Lizy said the gesture was inspired by her own experience as a patient at the maternity ward, where she noticed that there were not enough bed sheets for patients.
After leaving the hospital, she decided to return with some of the items she believed could help improve the comfort of other patients receiving care at the facility.
Madam Lizy, who operates a food business at the Sandema Main Lorry Station and is known for her dawadawa jollof and TZ, said she hoped the donation would help mothers and other patients during their stay at the hospital.
Municipal Medical Superintendent Dr Edwin Saanwie, who received the items on behalf of the facility, thanked Madam Lizy and her husband for the support.
He said the items would help support patients at the maternity ward and commended the couple for returning to assist the facility.
Madam Lizy also encouraged individuals, organisations and philanthropists to support health facilities in their communities, saying contributions from members of the public could help improve conditions for patients and health workers.
Sylvester Akolgenunsi Apunzoe has declared his intention to contest for Executive Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Bolga Central Constituency, four years after he unsuccessfully contested the same position.
Mr Apunzoe said he contested the position in 2022 alongside eight other aspirants but lost by 15 votes.
He is returning to the contest with a campaign focused on grassroots mobilisation, party unity, teamwork and greater participation of members in constituency activities.
Mr Apunzoe said his involvement with the NDC dates back to 2016 when, as a student at Kusanaba Senior High School, he participated in activities to mobilise students ahead of that year’s general election.
In 2020, he said he donated campaign banners to his branch, participated in campaign activities and served as a polling station agent.
He later served as Finance Officer of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the NDC at Sunyani Technical University during the 2021/2022 academic year.
Mr Apunzoe said he remained active in the party after his unsuccessful 2022 contest and served on his ward campaign team and as a polling agent during the 2024 general election.
He has also held positions within BONABOTO, including President of the association at Sunyani Technical University and National Students Wing President from December 2023 to March 2026.
Mr Apunzoe said these experiences have strengthened his ability to work with people and organise at the grassroots.
“Being in different leadership positions and working with different kinds of people, I have a lot of experience. I believe if given the mandate, I will collaborate with my fellow executives to make the party at every branch united and peaceful,” he said.
If elected, he said he would work with other constituency executives to strengthen mobilisation across branches and address divisions among party members.
Mr Apunzoe is campaigning under the message, “Leadership with Integrity and Purpose: Your Voice, My Action.”
Alfred Nyaaba Akuresoh, popularly known as Akuureyaaba, has filed his nomination to contest the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Youth Organiser position in the Bongo Constituency, pledging to focus on youth employment, party unity and grassroots mobilisation.
Mr Akuresoh, a former Chairman of the Ayopia Primary School A Branch, was accompanied by party supporters, youth groups, friends and some party executives as he submitted his nomination forms.
Speaking to journalists after the filing, Mr Akuresoh said his experience as a branch chairman exposed him to challenges confronting party executives and young people at the grassroots and influenced his decision to contest the position.
“I have successfully filed my nomination to contest for the position of Constituency Youth Organiser. During my time as branch chairman, I witnessed many difficulties, and I do not want my colleagues to continue facing the same challenges,” he said.
He identified youth unemployment as one of the challenges he intends to prioritise, alongside skills development and efforts to connect young people to employment opportunities.
Mr Akuresoh also said he would focus on addressing divisions that sometimes emerge within the party after internal elections.
“Unity is the key to success. Whenever we are united, we achieve more. After every internal election, misunderstandings arise, but we fail to bring everyone together. Those divisions continue to grow and eventually affect the party’s performance,” he said.
He pledged to prioritise reconciliation, inclusiveness and grassroots mobilisation if elected.
“I am not seeking to lead above the youth; I am ready to lead with the youth. Together, we will build a stronger, more vibrant and battle-ready youth front capable of delivering victory,” he said.
Meanwhile, Assembly Member for Ayopia, Joseph Atisiba Atule, has backed Mr Akuresoh’s candidature, citing his interest in addressing challenges facing young people in the constituency.
Mr Atule, who is also Mr Akuresoh’s brother, said the aspirant had previously served as a branch chairman before deciding to seek the constituency Youth Organiser position.
“He has a mission for the youth. Many of the youth are jobless and do not have much to do. He is somebody who works and travels up and down, trying to see how best he can help,” he said.
According to Mr Atule, Mr Akuresoh intends to engage institutions, tertiary campuses and other stakeholders in search of employment and other opportunities for young people.
A group known as the Alfred Nyaaba Akuresoh Ladies has also declared support for his candidature, citing his campaign focus on employment, youth development and party unity.
The group said its members would support his campaign ahead of the constituency elections.
The Executive Director of the Forum for Natural Regeneration (FONAR), Sumaila S. Saaka, has described Striga, commonly known as witchweed, as a “silent driver of hunger” in Northern Ghana and called for increased national investment to tackle the parasitic weed.
Speaking at a Striga sensitisation forum for journalists in the Upper East Region, Mr Saaka said the weed threatens staple cereal production and should be treated as a food security issue rather than a problem for individual farmers.
For farmers cultivating maize, millet and sorghum, he said, Striga attacks crops from beneath the soil, taking water and nutrients from their roots before the weed becomes visible.
“It is a weed that attaches itself to the roots of our staple cereals, drawing away water and nutrients long before it ever shows its face above the soil. By the time its purple flowers appear, the damage to that season’s harvest is often already done,” he said.
Mr Saaka said the prevalence of Striga also points to a deeper problem of declining soil health, particularly in areas experiencing loss of tree cover and organic matter.
“Where soil fertility declines, where tree cover is lost, where organic matter is stripped from the land season after season, Striga finds exactly the conditions it needs to thrive. And so our response, through approaches like Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, has always been to treat the land itself as the patient,” he said.
He therefore called on the government to combine measures to control Striga with investments in restoring degraded agricultural land.
“Government must fund community-level biocontrol and awareness programmes, not just top-down directives. Restore degraded soils alongside pest control, and make Northern Ghana cereal security a budget line, not an afterthought,” he said.
The forum was organised by FONAR in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to improve journalists’ understanding and reporting of Striga and its effects on farmers.
Mr Saaka said the media could play an important role in providing farmers with information about the weed and available interventions.
“We have brought you here today because we believe deeply in the power of accurate, well-informed journalism to change the trajectory of a problem like this one. A single well-researched broadcast can reach many farming households that no extension officer or field visit ever will,” he said.
Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Zakaria Fuseini, said reports from agricultural extension officers across the region repeatedly identify Striga as a challenge.
“As the Regional Director of Agriculture, I review district reports every season, and one problem appears again and again from our extension officers across this region: Striga,” he said.
He said MoFA has been supporting farmers with improved seed varieties and agronomic advice but needs stronger collaboration with the media to improve public understanding of the problem and available interventions.
Upper East Regional Chairman of the GJA, Albert Sore, said threats such as Striga can receive less media attention than more visible agricultural challenges such as floods and droughts.
“Sometimes, as journalists, we are more familiar with the issues that make the headlines. But there are also problems that do not necessarily make the headlines every day. They develop quietly, over several years, but their impact on farming households can be very serious. Striga is one of those problems,” he said.
He encouraged journalists to engage farmers and agricultural experts to improve public understanding of the weed and its impact on farming communities.
