The deceased, a 19-year old student, died on Wednesday morning when he was rushed to the hospital after showing symptoms of cerebrospinal meningitis.

[contextly_sidebar id=”9JgLHPr0zHwDpdAlIzEwuMRInippRKnj”]Meanwhile, six others students of the school are currently on admission.

Confirming the incident to Citi News’ Fred Awuni, the Medical Director of Bawku Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Clement Oppong, said “We had a case from the Bawku Technical School involving a 19 year- old boy who came to our facility this morning, and our checks revealed that the person had meningitis. Since then, we have had about six students on admission now with suspected cases of meningitis.”

Confirmed: Damongo SHS student died from meningitis

This follows a similar incident at the Damongo Senior High School in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region, where a student died from what medical practitioners described as non-communicable meningitis.

The school’s head teacher, Kipo Harrison, confirmed this on Damongo-based Pad FM. According to him, it is a recurring phenomenon especially during the harmattan season.

He however dismissed attempts to link the other 12 students on admission at the Damongo district hospital to the same disease. Kipo Harrison said a medical team from the Tamale Teaching Hospital took the deceased’s blood sample for further laboratory test.

The said student died on Tuesday December 12, 2017.

Koforidua SECTECH death

Another school that has had to deal with a health situation in recent days is the Koforidua Technical School, where a second-year science student who passed away over the weekend, was confirmed to have died from Meningitis.

This latest health scare and reports come on the back of the death of four students of Kumasi Academy in the Ashanti Region.

The pandemic strain of influenza type A, H1N1 2009, also known as Swine Flu, was later detected in some samples from KUMACA.

Aside from the four deaths, several students have also been hospitalized.

Respiratory samples sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research also indicated that, there was an outbreak of an acute respiratory infection which the Health Ministry has since attributed as the cause of some of the deaths.

The whole student population had to be administered with antibiotics as part of a prophylaxis after which the school was fumigated

However, no definite cause of the deaths has been declared.

Health officials in both the Ashanti Region and the Eastern Regions, have insisted that they have contained the situation, and have assured the public of their commitment to ensuring the safety of the students.

The Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Charity Sarpong, told Citi News: “I must say that currently, everything is calm in the school because we have given them the necessary support, they know what to look out for, they also have our contact numbers so that when there is something we will be immediately contacted for the necessary support.”

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Bawku SECTECH student dies from meningitis; 6 hospitalized appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The MCE nominee’s confirmation sitting was scheduled for Wednesday, 17th May, 2017.

But in a letter signed by the Presiding Member for the Bawku Municipal Assembly, David Adoliba, he indicated that his outfit received the directive from the Upper East Regional, Minister Rockson Bukari, to suspend the special meeting of assembly members to confirm the President’s nominee.

Mr. Adoliba added that, upon receipt of the directive, he has accordingly informed all members of the assembly to observe the directive until further instructions are given relative to the matter.

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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Of the 49 members of the assembly, 35 voted in favor of the nominee, representing 71.4 percent, while 6 voted against her nomination.

The President’s Municipal chief executive nominee for Nakessana Nankana , Mr. Williams Aduum, in his second confirmation, also got  93.75 percent of total votes cast to become MCE for the area.

Out of 48 assembly members present, 45 voted in his favor, while 3 voted against his nomination.

The endorsement, which was supervised by the District and  Municipal electoral commission officers, was witnessed by the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Rockson Bukari Ayine, and his deputy, Mr. Frank Fuseini Adongo, NPP Regional chairman Ibrahim Mohammed Mutala, MP for Navrongo Central , Kofi Adda and other dignitaries.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari, swore the appointees into office to begin their work.

At the function on Saturday, Mr. Rockso Bukari commended the assembly members for the massive endorsement of the President’s nominees, and urged them to support them to ensure that all good policies of the government are implemented to bring development to the people.

He advised the incoming MDCEs to operate an open-door policy so that the people would be able to contribute their quota towards the development of the area.

The Regional Minister, Mr. Rockson Bukari, cautioned all incoming Municipal and District Chief Executives to avoid any acts of bribery and corruption so that they would be able to protect the public purse and prosecute the agenda of the government without any wastage.

Mr. Rockson Bukari  called on the assembly members to work as a team to ensure that they contribute their quota towards the effective and efficient management of the assembly’s resources.

Until their appointments, Mrs. Victoria Ayamba was the Zebilla constituency women organizer, and a professional teacher, while Mr. Williams Aduum was the Navrongo central constituency chairman and a teacher at Navrongo senior high school. .

The confirmed MDCEs expressed their appreciation to members of their respective assemblies for reposing confidence in them to propel the development of their districts.

They pledged  to work in synergy with assembly members of the respective assemblies to address issues of falling standards of education, unemployment, water and sanitation, poor road infrastructure, food insecurity, alcoholism and teenage pregnancy.

They reiterated their commitment to  operate an open door policy and to welcome proposals and contributions to aid them propel the development of their citizens by spearheading the pro-poor policies of the NPP government.

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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Bawku West, Kassena Nankana MDCEs nominees confirmed appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The CIMG Telecom Operator of the Year, Tigo, in the event dubbed, ‘Blue Light District,’ provided free wi-fi to hundreds of patrons, created a retail goods market, indoor sporting games, and instant digital photo booths.

In partnership with Ghana eSports Association, there was also the video console game for the FIFA 2017 tournament. 64 participants played at the group stage, after which they went through the knock-out stage, quarter-finals, semi-finals and then the finals.

Frank Adotey Kpakpo, also known as ‘Wonderkid’ was the overall champion and walked away with GHS2,500. Yaw Boakye Amponsah, the first runner up, received a sum of GHS1,500 while the third and fourth positions went to Emmanuel Lawson and Kenneth Robinson Larbi, who received GHS700 and GHS300 respectively.

The Strategy Director for Tigo, Efuwa Quansah, was happy with the impressive levels of participation. She explained that the ‘Blue Light District’ was Tigo’s way of engaging both existing and potential customers through an experiential event to get a feel of the greatly improved high-speed internet.

There were thrilling performances by dancehall artistes Epixode and Jupitar.

Partners for the event included the Ghana eSports Association and Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Naba Azoka II lauded President Akufo-Addo for continuing certain projects of the previous government especially the Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom road and the Temmne dam among others.

Nana Azoka II disclosed this when the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari paid a courtesy call on him.

“What gladdens my heart is the government’s plans to support Agriculture, particularly Dam constructions and subsidizing fertilizers for farmers.

I appeal to government to ensure that subsidized fertilizers get to the farmers early enough for them to take advantage of the early rains this year and improve upon their crop yields. We thank government for these laudable ideas.

But most of the roads leading to the markets and farming communities are not accessible enough to assist businesses to thrive and for easy carting of goods and foodstuffs to the urban centres. I, therefore, appeal to government to consider rehabilitating existing roads and open up new roads to ensure easy transportation within my traditional area,” Naba Azoka stated.

He also appealed to government to connect the remaining communities within his traditional area to the national grid to boost businesses.

He impressed on all citizens within his area to eschew all forms of violence and forge for development.

For his part, the Upper East Regional minister Rockson Bukari assured Naba Azoka of the NPP’s government’s commitment to dealing with urgent needs of the people and giving the traditional area a facelift with numerous pro-poor policies.

He said, government will do everything within its power to ensure sustainable peace in Bawku.

Mr. Rockson appealed to Bawku Naba Azoka II to support government end the smuggling of fertilizers across neighbouring countries when the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ begins.

He pledged to work in synergy with all traditional rulers, ‘Tindanas’ and development partners in the region to foster development in the region.

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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We’ll work with gov’t to develop Upper East – Bawku Naba appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Bawku Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Lovelace Tefutor Kaledzi, the Police has collaborated with the military to ensure an incident free celebration.

Festivals in the town in the past have been rocked with violence due to the deep ethnic tensions.

[contextly_sidebar id=”yT5rml7rCMie77XKkcg607mhELpz6jcl”]Speaking to Citi News, Chief Superintendent Kaledzi said there is no tension in the area.

“Normally when this festival is about to be held, there is tension in Bawku, but today there is no tension.”

He said a number of measures were put in place including the formation of a sub-committee which handled any ethnic and traditional issue.

“So they did the underground work and we also handled issues at the security level. As for security, the Police and military are still patrolling the town making sure that the grounds are safe.”

The Police commander further explained that, “fortunately, the Dambai is going to be celebrated indoors not in a grand style like the Samanpid so we are fully in control of issues.”

Curfew on Bawku

Bawku has been under curfew for some time now following sporadic shooting incidents that had been happening in the area.

A ban on motorbike riding which was imposed to among other things, forestall the recurring shooting incidents was lifted in 2015.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Security beefed up in Bawku ahead of Damba festival appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to them, four operators namely; Savanna, Time concept, Kofi Veyor company and one other company are indiscriminately cutting trees which have a dire impact on their livelihood.

The youth wondered why the Forestry Commission will issue permits to the illegal operators to log trees indiscriminately without any afforestation plan.

Speaking at a press conference in Binaba, spokesperson for the youth,  Atindogo Ramson accused the state agencies of failing to protect the forest reserve and the vegetative cover.

“who permitted these people to enter our forest and even plant their equipments there to be working day and night.

Now that the forest have been devastatingly destroyed, what is the remedy? or were these operators permitted only to fell off these trees without any afforestation plans” Mr. Atindogo  quizzed.

The Youth are demanding an immediate halt of all activities of logging.

They  demand of  the regional forestry commission to urgently explain the mystery surrounding the issuance of the permits.

Mr. Atindogo  appealed to the law enforcement agencies to urgently bring the perpetrators to book.

“We are sending a strong message to the forestry commission, the local government authorities, our traditional leaders and all the powers that be to urgently address the issue within two-week ultimatum or we the youth will advise ourselves accordingly to protect and safeguard our forest”

But Upper East Regional Director of the Forestry Commission,  James Ware admitted that, some companies have been issued permits to pick only cut trees adding that their license expires on 31st October, 2016.

He noted that, some of the operators have been arrested and are currently at the Zebilla police station for cutting new trees instead of picking the ones that were already felled off.

Mr. Ware added that, more task force will be deployed to area to avert further logging of trees.

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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Stop illegal logging now else… – Bawku West youth appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.