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An Accra High Court has ordered the court registrar to provide defence counsel for Safina Mohammed Adizatu, who is on trial for allegedly murdering her Canadian boyfriend, with the jury list in the case.

According to the court, the provision of the list should be done before the next adjourned date, February 27, 2024, and the defence counsel was ordered to follow up on that.

The court gave the order after the defense counsel for Safina Mohammed Adizatu requested for the list of the jurors.

According to Mr Samuel Alesu-Dordzi, defence counsel, the basis for his request was Act 30, which requires that an accused person mount a challenge to certain jurors for a cause.

‘The Act sets out persons who qualify and those who do not qualify to act as jurors. It is our contention that the accused person is unable to exercise these challenges which is available to her under the law without prior disclosure of the list of the potential jurors before empaneling takes place.’

At the next sitting, the court is expected
to empanel a seven-member jury for trial to commence. Safina is expected to plead to the charge of murder preferred against her by the state.

Safina Mohammed Adizatu is before the High Court for her alleged involvement in the murder of her Canadian boyfriend at Ashaley Botwe in July 2022.

In August 2023, an Adentan District Court committed her to stand trial at the High Court for the murder of Frank Kofi Osei, her boyfriend and a Ghanaian resident in Canada.

Frank was gruesomely murdered when he visited Safina at her residence at Ashalley Botwe School Junction in Accra.

Safina aka Safina Diamond has been granted GHC 500,000 bail

She has been ordered by the court to be reporting to the Ghana Police Service (Homicide Unit).

Meanwhile Safina during the committal proceedings at the lower court declared her innocence.

The state is expected to call nine witnesses including Michael Fiifi Ampofo Arku who was arrested as an accomplice but later released on the recommendation of the Attorney General.

The case o
f the prosecution is that on Sunday July 24, 2022, Frank Osei who was on vacation in Ghana, visited Safina, at Ashalley Botwe School Junction and decided to spend the night with her.

The prosecution said that at night, Safina, Arku and other accomplices yet to be arrested, allegedly stabbed Osei with a knife and strangled him.

It said Safina and her accomplices allegedly cleaned Osei’s Blood from the floor while the body was in the room for 24 hours.

The prosecution said Osei’s body was carried from the first floor of the Storey building down the staircase and dumped at the gate of the house where the deceased had parked his Toyota Tundra truck.

Safina allegedly called the police and claimed that her boyfriend who visited her had died in her room.

When the police got there, they found Osei’s body at the gate of Safina’s house and had her arrested.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ms Gloria Agyemang, a 23-year-old taxi driver at Tema Community 25, says she finds fulfilment in working as a taxi driver rather than being unemployed and waiting for non-existent jobs.

Dressed in a t-shirt over a pair of jeans and a scarf on her braids, the young-lady cabbie, meets her passengers with a beautiful smile on her face, ready to chauffeur them from the Tema Community 25 Mall Taxi Station to their destinations as she strives to make a living.

Speaking with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, she urged the youth not to sit down in wait for jobs, but rather look for other decent avenues to make a living for themselves.

‘There are no jobs available for us now, and those that are available are strictly based on whom you know and have links with; without them, you won’t get any job of your choice,’ she said.

She indicated that after searching for jobs for a while without any satisfactory results, she decided to use her driving skills to make money by applying to join the taxi station.

‘E
ven though I initially faced some resistance from my male colleagues, the president of the taxi drivers’ association ensured that I was given the nod to operate from here,’ Ms Agyemang said.

She indicated that since she commenced, it had been rewarding, saying she was able to make enough money to fulfil her weekly sales of GHS450 to her former car owner and was now operating a ‘work and pay’ car.

Ms Agyemang, who is yet to be married or have children, said that, as the only woman among several male drivers, she sometimes faced intimidation from some passengers who wanted to pay less for her services.

She explained that some of the passengers also treated her rudely, but because of her resolve to work, she ignored them.

‘I concentrate on my driving, and that makes more passengers opt for my services whenever I’m at the station,’ she said.

She said prior to venturing into taxi driving, she worked at KFC, the Tema Harbour, and as a project supervisor and cashier at a construction site.

‘I’ve also been trai
ned in dump truck operating,’ she said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

More than a dozen of container shops have been burnt down when fire gutted Datus near Kasoa new market in the Awutu Senya East Municipality of the Central Region.

The shops were mainly for traders who were into bakery, fashion, provisions, electricals, decoration as well as salons and a carpentry shop.

Eyewitnesses told journalists that the Kasoa fire station was called in after the smoke was detected from one of the shops, minutes after it caught fire but were told there was no water.

They alleged that neighbours around tried to mobilise water to quench it but could not stop the ravaging fire thereby, spreading to other shops.

Another eyewitness said they drove to the Kasoa fire station and was told the fire tender was not in good condition and that a call had been placed to the Buduburam fire station for support.

‘If there was a functioning fire tender, I’m not sure it would have spread to so many shops as it has. We plead with the government to provide the fire officers with equipment to be able to w
ork effectively because Kasoa is big.’

Some of the victims appealed to the Government to come to their aid because they had lost huge sums of investments.

In an interview with ADO1 Charles Nyamekye, in charge of Operations at the Buduburam fire station, he said, ‘we received the call at around 1306hours, under 1minute we left the station, and we got here around 1315hours.’

According to him, the call came in late because the flame was very high upon arrival and the best alternative was to protect it from spreading to other containers and an additional fire tender was called in for support.

He said the cause was yet to be established and that investigation would be conducted to ascertain the true cause of the fire.

Source: Ghana News Agency

By Ngombet Claudia

This is an altered image with the information digitally manipulated and out of context, alleging that President Paul Biya has ordered Zambo Anguissa and Song to style their hair properly.

Altered decree

This image circulating on social media in Cameroon, precisely on WhatsApp in the early hours of Sunday 21 January 2024, with title ‘DECRET N° 2024/ 014 DU 18 JAN 2024 portant nomination de deux membres du Coneil Constitutionel’ in its Article 1 claims that the President of the Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya has ordered Zambo Anguisa of the Cameroon National Football team, and Coach Rigobert Song Bahanag to style their hair properly, ‘Article 1er – Sont, à compter de la date de signature du présent décret, imposé à se coiffer convenablement les membres de l’équipe nationale dont les noms suivent:

ZAMBO ANGUISSA

RIGOBERT SONG BAHANAG ‘

The title of the Decree and the main Article 1 do not match. They are saying two different things. While the title talks of the appointment of two member
s of the Constitutional Council, Article 1 rather imposes an order on Zambo Anguissa and Rigobert Song Bahanag to style or cut hair properly.

This is an altered text from the Presidential Decree N° 2024/014 of 18 Jan 2024 appointing two members of the Constitutional Council, as shared on the X account of President Paul Biya, on 18 January 2024.

Original decree

We used Google Lens to conduct a reverse image search of the image under review and discovered similar images. However, upon consulting the content of these images, we came across this particular image (https://twitter.com/PR_Paul_BIYA/status/1748043265625006177?t=mOetF59WCoz3T6EVvdPSKgands=19) on the official X (former Twitter) account of President Paul Biya, which is quite similar to the one under verification.

Comparing the two images, we noticed a discrepancy at the level of Article 1 of both images.

Article 1 of the original image shared on the official X account of President Paul Biya reads ‘Article 1er – Sont, à compter de la date de signatu
re du présent décret, nommés membres du Conseil Constitutionnel, pour un mandat de six (06) ans éventuellement renouvelable :

M. MINKO SHE Adolphe.

M. LOGMO MBELEK Aaron.’

This information is different in line two of the first image. There is inconsistency in the font type, size, ink, and spacing of the information in this section of the Decree. Also, the title of the Decree and its Article 1 do not coin.

After further review, we noticed that other than the differences in Article 1 of the fact-checked image, every other information looks the same as in the authentic image posted by President Paul Biya.

This fake information circulated immediately after the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon were beaten by Senegal 3-1 on day two of the 2023 African Cup of Nations. Our findings suggest that those who have been fed up with the performances of the two as player ( Anguissa) and Coach ( Song) did the editing to either make fun of or ridicule them.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

The Ghana NCD Alliance (GhNCDA) has urged the government to come out with a regulation relating to the implementation of front-of-pack labelling of salt content in food products to help reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

It said a voluntary global goal to reduce salt consumption by 30 per cent by 2025 has been set, and the World Health Organisation has selected this as the ‘best buy’ method to lower the long-term risk of stroke, coronary artery disease, and early mortality from NCDs.

‘International best practice policies, recommendations, and treatments have been designed with this goal in mind, but Ghana has not yet implemented such salt reduction policies. There is no regulation or policy relating to the implementation of front-of-pack labelling of salt content,’ it noted.

This was contained in a report on the National NCD Response and Landscape in Ghana developed by GhNCDA together with other civil society actors as part of their partnership with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.

I
t stated: ‘One in ten fatalities from cardiovascular disease is linked to excessive salt intake, which is a well-known primary risk factor for elevated blood pressure, and it also leads to cardiovascular-related disability and early death worldwide.’

The report called on the Ghana Education Service to bring back physical education into the educational system to reduce childhood obesity to save the lives of children in the country.

It noted that physical education was one of the curricula which in the past has helped in minimising the effect of obesity and NCDs among children.

It urged the government to make available adequate facilities to implement a whole-of-school programmes which would include quality physical activities.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana midfielder Mohammed Kudus has attributed the two all draw with Mozambique in the final group game on Monday to lack of concentration on the part of the team.

Ghana needed a win to make progress to the next stage of the competition, especially when Cape Verde and Egypt shared honours in the other group game which ended two all.

According to Kudus, he was disappointed with the outcome of the game against Mozambique, and felt the team lost concentration especially in the later stages of the game.

The visibly dejected Kudu told the media that ‘I’m very disappointed, we really wanted this victory, but it wasn’t to be.

‘It’s a big disappointment for us,’ he added.

The West Ham sensation felt Ghana’s failure to hold onto their two-goal lead was down to a lack of concentration.

‘We lost the game by losing concentration in the last minutes, like against Egypt too,’ he lamented.

Kudus, who was named man of the match for the second time, believes Ghana demonstrated their undeniable quality at the tournamen
t in Cote d’Ivoire.

‘We showed lots of qualities here but losing focus at the end cost us,’ he said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with EKI Energy Services Limited to develop projects to attract a billion dollar from the carbon market trading in carbon credits.

The carbon credit, the tradable commodity, will be generated from JGC’s methane reduction initiatives under its waste management operations in the country.

Companies or individuals can use carbon markets to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by purchasing carbon credits from entities that remove or reduce GHG.

One tradable carbon credit equals one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas reduced, sequestered or avoided.

The JGC, EKI Energy Service partnership is expected to create over 1000 job opportunities by 2030 across Ghana and West Africa.

Under the terms of the agreement, EKI Energy Service will provide JGC with essential technical assistance for the successful implementation of the project.

Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, Chairman of JG
C, who signed on behalf of his Company at a ceremony in Accra, was upbeat that the goal of the pact would be achieved giving EKI Energy’s expertise and leadership in climate change.

‘With EKI Energy experience, they can hand-hold us and propel strong development in the sector,’ Dr. Agyepong stated.

Mr. Manish Dabkara, the Chief Executive Officer of EKI Energy Services Limited, who signed the MoU, assured of his Company’s commitment towards providing strong technical support to attract carbon investments for JGC.

With a track record of supplying over 200 million offsets, he assured of his Company’s technical knowledge and experience to deliver on the mandate.

Dr Henry Kokofu, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), hailed the collaboration as a significant milestone that would position Ghana prominently on the global map.

‘This is one of the legacies of President Akufo-Addo, who has championed private sector participation in the climate change arena,’ Dr. Kokofu said.

Already JGC
under the Ghana and Switzerland cooperation bilateral agreement is implementing an Integrated Waste Recycling and Composting for Methane Reduction project which would slash methane from five landfills by producing organic fertilizer for crop production.

As part of the initiative, Jospong, a waste management company, is building an integrated waste plant to sort, process and recycle Municipal solid waste in Ho, Dambai, Goaso and Sunyani municipalities.

Over 1.5 million tonnes are expected to be reduced by the year 2030, producing 13,000 metric tons of compost annually and fostering the creation of approximately 1,000 jobs.

The initiative is the first in Africa and second globally, a project under Article six of the Paris Agreement.

The two strategies, he stated, were under Article 6.3 of the Paris Agreement and Article 5.1 of the Cooperation

The agreement between the Ghana and the Swiss Confederation, signed on 23rd November 2020, aimed at authorising the International Transfer and use of Mitigation Outco
mes (ITMOs).

Degradable organic materials make up the bulk of Ghana’s discarded Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), a study on the composition of MSW conducted by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, has revealed.

About 65 per cent of the waste stream consists of organics while other materials arising from the practice of hand-sweeping sand constituted about 17.1 per cent of the waste stream.

Together, organics and inert material accounted for about 82 per cent of the waste.

The trend is no different from most urban centres of the country.

‘This high percentage of organic material has often led to the suggestion that composting can be an appropriate and viable disposal MSW technique for the country,’ the report said.

EKI Energy Services Ltd. (EKI) is a leading Carbon Credit Developer and Supplier globally listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

With over 15 years of experience, EKI is a market leader in climate change, carbon offset solutions, and carbon asset management, operating in 16 countries with over
3500 clients worldwide.

The Jospong Group of Companies on the other hand is a diversified holdings company in Ghana, operating across 14 sectors of the economy, with a significant presence in Waste Management, ICT, Banking, as well as Automobile and Equipment.

The Company’s operations extend to other African countries and Asia.

Source: Ghana News Agency