According her, the activities of the groups in the country leaves dire national security implications on the country thus, must not be tolerated.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Hmt9e1dpZfRqUAzto5jC6beYkVhnbFSU”]Nana Oye-Lithur, also a Human Rights Lawyer and Campaigner, in her letter bemoaned the various incidents of violence and clashes undertaken by some of the vigilante groups loyal of the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) government including a recent report of one of the groups, Delta Force, violently attacking and forcing the Ashanti Regional security coordinator, George Adjei out of his office on Friday, March 24, 2017.

She said the peace the country had enjoyed over the years must not be allowed to be eroded by such unfortunate activities.

According to her, the issue must be made a major priority by the government and the various security agencies must be fully involved to arrest the situation.

Read her letter below:

Mr. President, Minister of Interior, National Security Advisor, please address with urgency, the operation of vigilante groups and the unlawful extra judicial unorthodox methods being used by the Invincible Forces, Delta Force and other vigilante groups to seek justice or address issues in Ghana.

We have read news reports this evening, 24th March, 2017, that the Delta Force, a vigilante group of the NPP, has forced the Ashanti Regional National Security Director out of his office.

The forceful removal of a lawfully appointed public official was violent and blood was shed, with Government property being destroyed.

This adds on to the list of forceful seizure and management of state property, that is, the Kintampo Falls tourist facility, seizure of toll booths, seizure of vehicles etc. These unlawful acts have dire national security implications.

For four months and since elections were held in Ghana on 7th December, 2016, there have been numerous reports of extra judicial and unlawful violent acts by these groups.

Ghanaians are peace loving and law abiding. We have been sustained as a nation by respect for the rule of law. We do not want this violence to escalate, neither do we want this situation to degenerate.

I strongly urge our national security agencies to get a grip of this national security issue and solve this security problem.

This should be a top priority for Government. Protect our right to security, our right to human dignity and preserve the rule of law in Ghana. Freedom and Justice.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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The GH₵1.3 million World Bank-funded edifice, has an open office to seat about 50 staff, two other offices, kitchenette, archival office, and two washrooms on the ground floor.

The top floor also has a 30-seater conference room, an office each for the Coordinator, Deputy Coordinator and the IT Manager, a server room, and an ante-room for preliminary discussions before conference.

Nana Oye Lithur, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, who inaugurated the office, said LEAP was launched in 2008 as Ghana’s flagship programme for the National Social Protection Strategy.

She said the LEAP was mandated to target 2.2 million extremely poor Ghanaians, who on the basis of two months, would have to be given financial support.

She said the programme had so far taken care of one million beneficiaries from 213,000 households and it would be increased by an additional 50,000 households in due course.

The Minister said over the past four years, LEAP had delivered beneficial support for the poor and had worked together to ensure that the less privileged had a stipend to improve their livelihoods.

She commended the her Deputy, Mrs Dela Sowah, the Chief Director, the staff of the secretariat and the World Bank for their support and encouragement.

Nana Oye Lithur said it was her hope that anybody who would work in the secretariat would do nothing else than work hard for the people of Ghana.

Mr Dzigbordi Agbegbornu, the National Manager, LEAP, said the new office block would enhance productivity because it would address some of the challenges hindering the efficient execution of the programme.

Hitherto, most of the staff were in different locations and this made it difficult for them to work.

He announced that the Secretariat had migrated from a manual payment system to biometric, and it had also shifted to electronic data collection, which had made the exercise very robust, leading to more than 9000 beneficiaries being registered in 2016.

He said the next frontier was linkages for complementary services and children in the School Feeding programme.

–

Source: GNA

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Nana Oye Lithur said tradition and culture had been identified as one of the major drivers of child marriage because of some beliefs and practices that condoned child marriage.

She expressed worry that most incidents of child marriage resulted in the termination or delay of education especially for girls, verbal and physical abuse, health complications, and poverty.

The Minister said this in Accra at an meeting with Ga Priests and Priestesses on ending child marriage in the country.

The engagement provided opportunity to discuss and assess customs and traditions which condoned child marriage and how to eliminate them.

“As custodians of the highest power of the Ga land, you have the opportunity to protect the welfare of all your people, especially girls who are the major victims to child marriage,” she added.

She said the engagement was critical because the priests and priestesses play an important roles in the communities and were great influence in ending child marriage.

Nana Oye Lithur said it was estimated that one third of girls in developing countries were married before the age of 18 and some before 15 years.

The national prevalence of child marriage in the country has not declined since 2011, remaining stable at 21 per cent as at 2014. For girls living in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions this percentage had increased to 34 per cent.

The Minister explained that child marriage increased illiteracy especially among girls who fell victim to poverty, limited human resource, and health risks resulting in serious implications for the growth and development of the country.

“To address the issue of child marriage in Ghana, the Ministry of Gender,  Children and Social Protection under our Domestic Violence Secretariat set up the Ending Child Marriage Coordinating Unit in 2014”.

She said with support from UNICEF the Ministry had developed a national strategic framework on ending child marriage in the country, conducted a number of sensitisation and awareness programmes to bring on board stakeholders to join the campaign to end child marriage.

Nana Oye-Lithur observed that, some traditions and religions promoted child marriage under the disguise of safeguarding the child against immoral behaviour and avoiding disgrace from teenage pregnancy.

She said another cause of child marriage which was high among traditional households was teenage pregnancy where research showed that Accra recorded more than 10,000 teenage pregnancies.

The fetish priests and priestesses pledged their resolute commitment to speak out against child marriage in the communities to protect their human rights.

–

Source: GNA

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This is being done by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).

The Minister, Nana Oye Lithur, said it tied in with the drive to make things better for the aged, the poor and the vulnerable.

Her ministry was determined to work hard to promote the health and the welfare of these people. In excess of 300 had been registered, five hours after the start of the exercise in the gold mining town of Obuasi on Tuesday.

Mr Ben Kusi, the NHIA’s Director of Membership and Regional Operations, said over the past three years, a total of 18,000 aged persons and 11,000 prison inmates, had been freely registered for the insurance scheme.

He advised all health insurance cardholders to make sure that they safely kept the cards to enable them to continue to enjoy free care at the point of service delivery.

Mr. Richard Ofori Agyeman Boadi, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), urged the nation to respect and recognize the senior citizens for their sacrifices and contribution to the nation’s development.

–

Source: GNA

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