Kwame Mensah pleaded not guilty, but was however found guilty on the charge of defilement by the court presided over Mrs. Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku.

Mensah was arrested by members of the Achimota Forestry Rapid Response Task Force, who chanced upon him, as he was dressing up just after having sexual intercourse with the ten-year-old victim.

Mrs. Jane Harriet Akweley Quaye, who read Mrs Adjin-Doku’s judgment, asked Mensah if he had anything to say before the sentence was passed.

Mensah prayed the court to tamper justice with mercy and forgive him. According to Mensah, his mother was old and he was the one taking care of her.

“I have a son who is currently staying with my mother and I am the one taking care of him. Please forgive me,” Mensah added.

The facts, as presented by the Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Agnes Boafo, are that, the victim is a class three pupil residing with her grandmother at Maamobi. The convict resides at Adjiringanor.

The complainant, Mrs Edith Ansah is the Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission.

On January 17, this year, at about 10:00 hours, Mensah spotted the victim at her school at Kotobabi and convinced her to follow him in order to collect some books and pens for her teacher.

The prosecutor said Mensah lured the victim to board a car and took her to the Achimota Forest Reserve, where he asked her to lie on the floor.

“The girl refused and started crying. Mensah slapped her and pulled out a knife, threatening to kill her if she does not comply. He then had sexual intercourse with her,” ASP Boafo said.

The prosecutor explained that luck, however, eluded Mensah when he was spotted by the Achimota Forestry Rapid Response Task Force just as he started dressing after the sexual act.

After a hot chase, ASP Boafo said Mensah was arrested and sent to Mrs Ansah, who lodged a complaint with the Domestic Violence and Victim’s Support Unit at Tesano whilst the victim was given a medical form to seek treatment.

Mensah, however, denied the offence, saying that, the Task Force did not arrest him at the Forest as alleged.

According to Mensah he was arrested in front of the victim’s school and was subjected to severe beatings, however, investigations extended to the school showed that Mensah lied to the Police.

–

Source: GNA

The post Unemployed man jailed for defiling minor in Achimota Forest appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The facility is expected to have eco-lodges, fencing, veterinary, camping sites, watering points, viewing platforms, a restaurant, suspended walkways, among others.

The Mahama government, which cut the sod for the redevelopment of the forest reserve in 2016, said the establishment of the eco-tourism park, the Accra Eco Park, would create about 4000 jobs during the construction and more than 2,000 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs during the operational phase.

The government also projected that, over about a 10-year period, government will receive revenue amounting to about $186 million as corporate tax and about $18 million in social security payment.

But Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng believes the Achimota Forrest should remain as it is with eco-tourism efforts directed elsewhere.

“My personal opinion is that it should remain a forest. I will go further to say that there are all sorts of encroachment from religious organisations. A lot of churches have been built and temporary structures are there. I think they should all come down.”

“Whoever wants to eco-tourism can go to the Atiwa Forrest or the Kakum Park… if you have the Achimota forest, that is fine. The Achimota forest should be reserved as a forest,” the Minister stated.

The 495-hectare Achimota Forest Reserve was created by the Gold Coast colonial government for recreational and environmental conservation purposes.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Professor Frimpong-Boateng not in favour of Accra Eco Park appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

‘’ NCA, since the outage has been in constant communication with Vodafone. As has always been the case, we have requested the network to submit a comprehensive report on the situation detailing the causes, services affected, number of consumers affected and plans to avert further occurrences amongst others,’’ the NCA said in a statement.

The NCA furthered noted that it will also engage Vodafone to take measures to ensure that the incidence does not re-occur.

Subscribers of Vodafone could not make or receive calls, as well as use data services of the network from Monday night to Tuesday noon.

Vodafone Ghana however, restored service on Tuesday afternoon.

Below is the NCA’s statement on Vodafone’s service outage

The National Communications Authority noticed with concern that from 10:00pm on 2nd June, 2014 into the morning of 3rd June, 2014, there was an outage on the Vodafone network which affected almost all its services to consumers.

However service was restored on the network by 12:00 noon on 3rd June, 2014.

NCA, since the outage has been in constant communication with Vodafone. As has always been the case, we have requested the network to submit a comprehensive report on the situation detailing the causes, services affected, number of consumers affected and plans to avert further occurrences amongst others.

In addition, the Authority will engage with Vodafone to review the report and ensure that Vodafone takes steps to implement solutions to prevent such an incidence from re‐occurring.

Concluding, the NCA will continue to work in the interest of the consumer and all stakeholders constantly.

Issued by the National Communications Authority,

1st Rangoon Close, Switchback Road, Cantonments, Accra.

Date – Wednesday, 4^th June, 2014

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NCA orders Vodafone to respond to service outage appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“First of all we [IMANI-Ghana] have undertaken a nationwide research before. We have done research in relation to the pharmaceuticals and I can tell you that we spent about GHC 30,000 just last year. I am putting it to the NCA to publish every detail of this arrangement,” Mr. Cudjoe said.

The survey sought to determine the perception of mobile phone users with regards to the services they receive from telecommunication service providers.

According to the NCA, the survey was commissioned in September 2012 and the survey report was finalized in September 2013 after data collation, analysis and verification.

The Authority used approximately GHC 3,553,192.16 million in producing the survey report but IMANI Ghana is insisting the amount was over bloated.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Cudjoe said: “Credibility of the exercise itself is questionable,” adding that, the whole survey represents a cooking up of a scheme

“This is just not right, we are suffering as a country right now and we can’t just sit for people to cook up schemes,” he stated.

In a rebuttal, the Head of Consumer and Cooperate Affairs, Nana Defie Badu maintained the amount used represented the entire process of the survey.

Giving the details on why such a huge amount of money was used to carry out the survey, she explained that it was a “nationwide consumer satisfaction survey that covered all the 10 regions of Ghana including all the district areas of Ghana. The sample size was over 13,000 and this had to do with the fact that we wanted to have a fair representation of mobile phone subscribers so we wanted to ensure that we get consumer perception from the rural areas and the urban areas.”

“Obviously, if we wanted to use just a small section of consumers, we would have done a smaller survey but because this is a baseline survey and to determine what the national consumer perception,snapshot or view is, we had to do a survey of this nature,” she added

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NCA’s GHC 3.5m survey is a cooked up scheme – IMANI appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This is despite earlier media reports that it used $3 million in undertaking the survey.

Policy think tank IMANI Ghana has accused the NCA of bloating the budget used for the preparation of the survey.

The GHC 3 .5 million survey sort to determine the perception of mobile phone users with regards to the services they receive from their telecom service providers.

According to the NCA, the survey was commissioned in September 2012 and the survey report finalized in September 2013 after data collation, analysis and verification.

Speaking to Citi Business News, the President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe said the purported survey could have been conducted with a budget less than $30,000.

An April 6, 2014 Facebook post on his page said: “The National Communications Authority (NCA) is reported to have spent US $3m on a Cellular Mobile Consumer Satisfaction Survey it claims it conducted between 2012 and September 2013. HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND ON YOUR DISSERTATION? I put it to the NCAA that IMANI and first degree holders could have spent $30,000 to undertake the exercise.”

He explained saying, “that is the figure reported from my sources within the telecoms’ industry it’s a very interesting scenario we haven’t heard the full facts of the NCA but I will use 10,000 dollars using their methods …Please the country is in turmoil and the last thing we need is for scams to be cooked.”

Citi Business News checks on the internet about the background of the company contracted by the NCA to conduct the research, Policy Focus was fruitless, as there was no information about the presence of the company, at least in Ghana.

According to the Citi Business News sources, a board member of the national communications authority was given the contract and supervised the preparation of the report.

IMANI Ghana is demanding full disclosure from the NCA to clear all doubts.

By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NCA survey cost GHC 3.5m; IMANI raises red flags appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.