The overlord of the Manya Krobo Traditional Council made this statement while addressing President Nana Akufo-Addo at the 2017 Manya Krobo Ngmayem Festival.

[contextly_sidebar id=”u7HlKxXeDCchqXz7tSda1LwJCcCZNQ8u”]”Our population has increased over time, new businesses have come in and there is pressure on existing amenities and my people are asking that a new district is created for us,” he said to the President.

“We believe we have earned it and it should be given to us because the creation of the new district will help us manage resources appropriately and judiciously,” the Kronor Of Manya Krobo stated.

More involvement in decision making for chiefs

Nene Sakite II, speaking on the lack of Traditional Rulers involvement in government, also pleaded with the President to consider giving chiefs and integral role in top government decision making and policies.

“When issues come up in the community the politically elected leaders are not there to provide solutions to, when electricity bills are skyrocketing the politicians are left out and chiefs are blamed.”

“Unity cannot be sold or bought and no country can develop in the midst of unrest and misunderstandings. Chiefs play a major role in ensuring a peaceful coexistence in the country. I, therefore, call on you Mr. President to use your office to provide Chiefs with resources to function in various capacities.”

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By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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In a statement exclusively presented to Citi Showbiz, the group says, they have lined up actions to be taken against Sarkodie for describing ‘Jennifer Lomotey’ the character in the song as a Krobo lady who has been cursed by Okomfo Anokye with ‘promiscuity.’

Read the statement below:

KROBO CITIZENS CONDEMN LATEST SONG FEATURING SARKODIE WHICH DENIGRATES THEM

They Say It Is a Deliberate Attempt By Sarkodie to Make mockery of Them.

Friday June 9, 2017

Citizens of the Krobo area are fuming over what they call “A deliberate attempt” by music rapper, Michael Owusu Addo (a.k.a Sarkodie) to denigrate the image of Krobo and Krobo women over the latest song in which he featured in.

The song, which is titled ‘Jennifer Lomotey’ was sung by one Kurl Songx and featured Sarkodie. In the song, Sarkodie made mention of one Jennifer Lomotey whom Sarkodie said is a Krobo.

Sarkodie said this Krobo lady was able to ride him well in bed because Okomfo Anokye has cursed her with ‘Adwaman’ (promiscuity).

Citizens of the Krobo area said the words chosen by the rapper is a ”deliberate” and ”calculated” attempt to denigrate and assassinate the public image of the Krobo woman and to make mockery of them.

They also said they are at a loss how Sarkodie could stoop so low to commercialize a sensitive and a fabricate lie, a stereotype and a myth to make financial gains and profit at the expense of a whole tribe.

The Women Organizer of Kloma Hengme, The Krobo advocacy and Heritage Association, Esther Maseyo Azu, said ”We expect an artiste of such international stature like Sarkodie to know better and not to play games with such sensitive issues.

Esther Azu, an educationist and a professional counsellor, further said, ” Every tribe may have a myth, but his attempt to commercialize the so-called myth at our expense to make financial gains and profit for himself is where we have the problem. This is deliberate. This is calculated. This is unacceptable in this 21st century”.

She further added: “We want Sarkodie and his team to know that they will regret for making mockery of us. We have lined up a number of actions to deal ruthlessly with them. We are adopting a number of measures to seek redress.”

By: Eric Tamatey-Sikatse (Secretary General, Kloma Hengme : 0243335423, +4915218119997, 0243804684, )

Background to the issue

About a week ago, Kurl Songx, winner of MTN Hit maker 2016 released a single titled ‘Jennifer Lomotey.’ The song which featured Sarkodie has been under criticism by a section of the public who believe a portion of Sarkodie’s rap is demeaning to Krobos.

In the song, Sarkodie raps: “Krɔbɔ nii baa papa a ahweneɛ da ne sisi. Ɔkɔmfo Anɔkye de adwaman no abɔ ne dua.” This literally translates as “A good Krobo lady with beads around her waist. Okomfo Anokye has cursed her with promiscuity.”

Okomfo Anokye is great priest of the Ashanti Kingdom who is believed to have cursed Krobo women with promiscuity.

‘History’ has it that some Krobo girls got cursed by Okomfo Anokye with promiscuity because they had seen his nakedness when he was bathing by the riverside.

Will Sarkodie apologise?

Some have asked Sarkodie to apologise and have also asked the owner of the song Kurl Songx, to edit that part of the song out. Will Sarkodie apologise? Will the song be edited out? Is this much ado about nothing?

Citi Showbiz follows the development keenly and brings all the angles to bear as and when they unfold.

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By: Kwame Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He also assured to fulfil all promises he made to Ghanaians prior to his election to the highest office of the land.

“Let me assure you that the pledges I made, particularly the one district, one factory pledge in the course of my campaign are going to be fulfilled to the latter. I am very grateful for the confidence that Tetteh Agblezie III has reposed in me. I am grateful to you sir and I will not let you down,” he said at Manya Krobo as part of his ‘Thank you Tour’ of the Eastern Region.

The president-elect also rejected claims that he would make life uncomfortable for Krobos who reside on Akyem lands and promised to live in peace and harmony with everyone.

“I want to tell you before the entire Krobo people that they should all feel secured. No danger is going to come to them in Akyem because of me.”

Akufo-Addo also mentioned that some Krobos will receive appointments in his new government.

“Nene Tetteh Agblezie was talking about placing the people of the area in the new Government. That is a pledge that is simple for me to make. Totti Boakye Agyarko and others are all going to find their place in the Nana Akufo-Addo government that is coming,” he added.

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By: Michael Tsatsu Axolu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post I won’t let you down – Nana Addo to Krobos appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Mr. Atta-Akyea is reported to made some derogatory remarks on government’s plans to build the Eastern Region University in the area.

This led to the scores of residents marching in protest to demand an apology from the Abuakwa South MP today [Tuesday] in the Lower Manya Krobo district.

According to the protesters, Mr. Atta-Akyea on the floor of Parliament kicked against the establishment of the university and called on Nana Akufo-Addo, who is visiting the area to call him to order.

A spokesperson of the demonstrators, Evans Tetteh, recalled Mr. Atta-Akyea’s comments saying, “Krobo land does not deserve a university and if a university is supposed to be built, it is supposed to build in Akyem land. This statement did not go down well with us as a group.”

“This demonstration is a peaceful march trying to prompt the tradition council of the said statement made by Atta-Akyea and we are calling on the traditional council that when Nana Akufo-Addo pays a courtesy call on our paramount, they should draw his attention to the statement made by honorable Atta-Akyea and the need for him to apologise to this group and Krobo and in general.”

“So if Atta-Akyea fails to apologise, if Nana Akufo-Addo fails to do the right thing, we will meet as a group and we will decide the way forward,” Mr. Tetteh stated.

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

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A link to a pornographic website disguised as a video of the Malaysia Airlines crash was posted on a Facebook page dedicated to one victim.

Many tweets have been posted that appeared to report the disaster, but actually included spam links.

One expert said the firms should take more responsibility for removing them.

Online security specialist Richard Cox said that it was common for spammers to exploit anything being discussed by a lot of people online.

“It is a fairly rapid and predictable response by the individuals behind it. They are all to make money. There is no compassion involved,” he said.

Mr Cox, who is also chief information officer for anti-spam body Spamhaus, added that the perpetrators might be using software that could detect what was being posted regularly and repost using the same hashtags.

A Facebook community page dedicated to Liam Sweeney, one of the 298 people victims, uses his name and picture.

Its sole post is a link entitled: “Video Camera Caught the moment plane MH17 Crash over Ukraine”.

However, the link takes users to a pornographic website. Moreover, anyone who clicks on it is then asked to call a phone number in order to verify that they are aged 18 or older.

“Whoever it is now has your caller ID and you could get a lot of nuisance calls,” said Mr Cox.

“This is all based on a somewhat tasteless video that probably doesn’t exist and is presented in a completely tasteless way.”

He added that Facebook should have deleted the site.

Facebook subsequently did so after it was brought to its attention by the BBC. A spokesman said: “We are disabling these profiles as soon as we are made aware of them.

“We encourage people to block those responsible and report suspicious behaviour to our team of experts via our reporting buttons so that we can quickly take the appropriate action.”

Twitter abuse

On Friday 18 July, security firm TrendMicro reported that it had detected tweets pretending to be about MH17, but which also bore spam links.

Rik Ferguson, the firm’s vice president of security research, said that its research suggested that the pages were most likely being used to gather clicks to generate advertising revenue.

He said the tactic could also be used to force pages higher up search engine rankings.

“It looks like a lot of people are retweeting what they are doing,” he said.

Twitter’s rules state: “User abuse and technical abuse are not tolerated on Twitter.com, and may result in permanent suspension.

“Any accounts engaging in the activities specified below may be subject to permanent suspension: If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #, trending or popular topic, or promoted trend.”

TrendMicro said that many previous disasters had been exploited in a similar way and that it expected to see further exploitation of the MH17 crash.

Source: BBC

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Emergency workers said earlier that 196 bodies had been recovered from the area in rebel-controlled territory where the Malaysia Airlines jet came down.

International monitors were informed that 169 had been moved to the train in the nearby town of Torez.

All 298 people on MH17 died when a missile reportedly hit it on Thursday.

Western countries have criticised the pro-Russian rebels in the area for restricting access to the crash site.

At the scene: Fergal Keane, BBC News

The indiscipline and chaos of the last two days have been replaced by the robust presence of former riot policemen who now form a cordon around the central area of the crash site. The local militia who obstructed the OSCE on previous visits have apparently been removed.

The OSCE has moved to carry out inspections while journalists are being kept behind a cordon. It is important to stress that the OSCE team is composed of observers – they are not crash investigators. There is still no sign of the fully fledged independent investigation which is being demanded by the international community. With every passing hour the search for truth and justice for the victims of MH17 is postponed.

During the morning local volunteers have been searching the fields. We have been told that their job is to pinpoint belongings and remains to the emergency services. But this could easily have the effect of disturbing evidence important to an inquiry.

As for the strong words from British Prime Minister David Cameron attacking Russia they are likely to have little impact on the rebels here. They are contemptuous of the West and are much more concerned with the local military balance than with any warnings from London.

Ukraine’s government and the rebels have accused each other of shooting down the Boeing 777, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The US state department said there had been multiple reports of bodies and aircraft parts being removed, and potential evidence tampered with.

Fighting is reportedly continuing in eastern Ukraine between the separatist rebels and government forces in a conflict which erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Tagged body bags

The freight train with its five sealed wagons has been standing at Torez railway station, 15km (nine miles) from the crash site.

Most of the recovered bodies are thought to have been put in refrigerated rail wagons

The UN Security Council has called for a full and independent international investigation into the crash

OSCE monitors say pro-Russian gunmen allowed them to visit more of the area on Saturday

The carriages, with heavy closed doors, look like refrigeration units and there is the occasional smell normally associated with dead bodies, the BBC’s Richard Galpin reports from Torez.

Michael Bociurkiw, spokesperson for the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) mission in the region, said the monitors had been told that 169 bodies had been taken to the rail wagons in Torez.

An OSCE team was allowed to see three of the wagons, he added. “All of the body bags we saw were tagged,” he said.

It’s not clear where the train would take the bodies.

An official in Torez told Reuters the wagons were due to be transported east “in the direction of Ilovaysk” 35km to the east , but a senior rebel official, Sergei Kavtaradze, said they would not move until the issue of what to do with them had been resolved.

The same rebel official reportedly said the black boxes belonging to the airliner had already been brought to Donetsk, the biggest rebel-held city in the east. The report could not be verified independently.

Memorials

The passenger list released by Malaysia Airlines shows the plane was carrying 193 Dutch nationals (including one with dual US nationality), 43 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 10 Britons (including one with dual South African nationality), four Germans, four Belgians, three from the Philippines, and one each from Canada and New Zealand.

Memorial services have been held in Australia, with more planned in other countries later on Sunday.

Memorial services are being held for the Australian victims of the crash

Mourners in Melbourne remembered locals who died, and those travelling to the city for an Aids conference

In Malaysia, a monk performs a prayer during a special vigil

Bishop Peter Comensoli, who led the mass at Sydney’s St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, said the downing of MH17 was not “an innocent accident” but “the outcome of a trail of human evil”.

In Melbourne, a special mass was held for the HIV experts and campaigners on the flight who had been making their way to the city for an international Aids conference.

In a mark of respect to the dead, Malaysia Airline says it is retiring the MH17 flight number. The airline did the same for MH370, which disappeared in March with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Pressure on Russia

Russia denies any involvement in the downing of the Malaysian plane, and has rejected Western allegations that it is stoking the Ukraine conflict.

But there is growing international criticism of Moscow, with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond accusing the Russians of “obfuscation and obstruction”.

Ahead of an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Tuesday, Mr Hammond told the BBC: “We will… seek to get our European partners to agree to go further in terms of sanctions if Russia hasn’t radically changed it’s position by then.”

Ukraine’s Security Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the pro-Russian rebels were “not telling” where they were taking them.

“This is a big problem,” he said, adding that the rebels “are doing all they can to hide evidence that a Russian missile was involved.”

Meanwhile, fighting is continuing in eastern Ukraine, with Reuters news agency reporting that Ukrainian positions were fired on twice from across border with Russia.

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