The parties represented by their Chairpersons and General Secretaries, were drawn from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Progressive Peoples’ Party (PPP), Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC), and the National Democratic Party (NDP).

The rest were Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), United Peoples Party (UPP), All Peoples Congress (APC), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), United Front Party (UFP), and the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DPP).

The meeting lasted well over three hours, and was held in a good atmosphere, one of frank exchanges and mutual respect.

Issues discussed included the commemoration of the Silver Jubilee of the 4th Republic, on Sunday 7th January, 2018; the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives; and the creation of new regions amongst others.

It is the intention of President Akufo-Addo to have more of such meetings in the future, with the leaders of the political parties, who described the initiative as a laudable one.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Nana Addo holds talks with political party leaders appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Chairman of the National Inland Canoe Fishermen Council, Jacob Tetteh Ageke, it is unfair for the inland fishermen to be singled out for blame, when in most cases, they don’t even receive the fuel allocated to them.

“I don’t agree totally [that the diversion is only happening inland]. The diversion is happening across the country. The pre-mix is for fishermen, and they are supposed to handle it, but the diversion is happening in Ashaiman. Ghanaians are at risk because when they go to the fuel station, they don’t know what they are buying. There’s diversion inland and along the marine as well,” he said on Eyewitness News on Monday.

“For the inlands, where I represent, to be singled out is unfortunate. We the inland fishermen didn’t create the problem, the pre-mix is for us and we have to handle it.”

Citi News gathered from the NPA’s series of letters that, between January 2017 to October for instance, about 200 premix fuel consignments loaded from the Tema Oil Refinery, were not delivered to the intended destinations indicated on the invoices and Returns of the Oil Marketing Companies, OMCs.

Joseph Ageke claimed that local executives of whichever political party is in power or persons who claimed to have contributed to that party’s ascension to government, take possession of the fuel meant for the fisher-folk and sell it at exorbitant prices.

“We [fishermen] have been thrown out, the moment government changes, the pre-mix fuel is taken and given to party chairmen and businessmen. One person could come and say that they supported President Akufo-Addo to come into power so they are going to take over the pre-mix fuel and they indeed do so. There are communities that have no outboard motors which are taking pre-mix fuel. The fishermen are not diverting the pre-mix fuel. It’s the fuel dealers in Ashaiman and other places, party chairmen and foot-soldiers who are not fishing and have taken over the pre-mix fuel. It happened in NDC’s regime and it’s happening more in NPP’s regime,” he claimed.

“The fishermen have turned to NPP because Nana Akufo-Addo said that when he becomes President, he would give the pre-mix fuel to fishermen to handle, but that hasn’t happened. The party chairmen take it and sell it wherever they’ll make more money. The pre-mix business is one of the booming businesses in this country. A gallon of pre-mix fuel is sold from Gh¢7.20 up to Gh¢7.50.”



Shortage of fuel worries fishermen

Fisher-folk in the Western Region told Citi News that the supply of the product has not been regular since the beginning of January 2017.

They say the Nana Addo government started supplying the product on a good note in January, but the situation took a nosedive when various scheduled date were violated.

The Western Region since January 2017 has had 189,000 gallons of premix fuel diverted 14 times, mainly to Tema. These diversions were done on a small scale in the first half of the year, but took a dramatic turn in July up until October.

‘Over 200 cases’

The National Petroleum Authority’s BRV Tracking System, recorded over 200 instances of diverted premix fuel between January and October 2017, but the regulator has failed to sanction the perpetrators.

It has instead been writing letters repeatedly to the National Premix Committee, which says it has no power to prosecute or entirely check the distribution of the product.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Premix fuel sector gold mine for party executives – Inland Fisherman appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

A memo intercepted by the citifmonline.com indicated the Ghana Police Service is collaborating  with the Electoral Commission (EC) to add the more names of Police officers and recruits to the special voters’ list.

[contextly_sidebar id=”1ihKmz3acJLE0dCEsn5WJ3kpLXaSNTll”]The exercise for the creation of the special voters’ list ended on October 28; 42 days ahead of the December election as stipulated by law.

The memo directed Commanders in the Service to liaise with EC officials to add more names to the list.

But some political parties who have described the move as illegal and have called for an emergency Inter-party advisory committee meeting to discuss the issue.

The General Secretary of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Attik Mohammed in an interview on the Eyewitness News said, “we find it an extremely unacceptable” that the EC would give the impression to the Police service that more names could be added to the list even though window for such additions has been closed.

He added that the development was a “recipe for crisis” for the country’s upcoming polls.

“Once you allow one person to add, it means that the others can also make a case that, we want to be added so they should be added. This offends the very regulation we are using to conduct this year’s elections.”

Attik Mohammed expressed doubt Police recruits needed to be added to the list of special voters because according to him, they played no special roles during the elections.

He called on the Electoral Commission to ignore any such dealing with the Police Service to ensure a smooth electoral process.

He further called for an emergency multi-stakeholder meeting with the EC to address the issue.

Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) expressed disappointment the EC was engaging the Police service in such an action without consulting the various political parties.

The party’s campaign chairman, Peter Mac-Manu said that the additions, if carried out will cause disturbances at the various polling stations.

He stated that the NPP had directed its agents to challenge anyone whose name was not on the party’ copy of the voters’ register list.

He noted that the party was expecting an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting later this week to express its concerns.

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

The post Parties protest ‘secret additions’ to EC’s special voting list appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“I want to use this platform to make a terse statement from the European Union about the recent clashes which we saw in Accra and we condemn these.We think that there is no place for violence in this election process”

[contextly_sidebar id=”UBVuIIbpOhDIti6IuAk7QQwtArMYLIYB”]Some supporters of both the NDC and the NPP clashed during a health walk organized by the former last Sunday.

Though the Police are investigating the matter, both parties have blamed each other for the incident.

Aside this incident there have been a number of clashes between both parties in other regions.

Speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of a media monitoring report, Mr. Hanna called on all political leaders to renew their call to ensure a peaceful election.

“We are calling on the political leaders to dissociate themselves from these events. We are also calling on the leaders to renew their calls for peaceful election.”

He also cautioned the media to be circumspect in their reportage since they play a critical role in our democracy and poor regulation could present key challenges to the society.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post EU condemns NDC, NPP clashes appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.