A rainstorm has hit Gwollu, the capital of the Sissala West district of the Upper West region, displacing a total of 250 persons in the town.

The incident which happened last Wednesday destroyed properties worth hundreds of thousand Ghana Cedis in over 100 households.

Roofs of most the houses in the town were ripped off whiles some homes were completely washed by the storm. Two schools were also destroyed by the storm.

The victims, who are mostly farmers are living with friends and relatives for support whereas others have returned to their ravaged homes.

The Sissala West District Chief Executive, Mohammed Bakor, led a team of personnel from the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to access the extent of damage caused by the storm.

Presenting some relief items to some of the affected persons, the DCE said the assembly is outraged by the extent of damage and is working feverishly to get more support for all affected persons in the area.

He lamented “this is too much for us to contain. We never could imagine that such a heavy calamity will befall us. We are hoping that at least we will be able to meet everybody halfway so that we can have a decent living”.

Mr. Bakor, however, admonished residents in the Sissala West district to adhere to safety precautions and also desist from building on waterways.

He said, ” we cannot continue to watch helplessly while people break the law with impunity by building on waterways.”

He thanked the Member of Parliament(MP) for the area Patrick Adama Alhassan and the NADMO for responding promptly to assist the victims with the relieve items.

One of the displaced persons, Mr. Yahaya Fuseini, on behalf his colleagues thanked the MP and the Sissala West district assembly for the gesture and appealed to benevolent individuals and organizations to come to their aid.

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By: Mahama Latif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Over 200 displaced in Sissala West after rainstorm appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The court, presided over by Justice Kwesi Boakye, took the decision after counsel for the seven, Ubaidu Sadique, appealed for their release initially at a Wa Circuit court.

[contextly_sidebar id=”00QoDWWnQtEKZ4dXUT88c3vrlCsw6Hk1″]The large number of people gathered up at the Circuit Court, prompted the transfer of the case to the High Court, possibly for security reasons.

Despite the bail, the accused persons are to report weekly to the Sissala West District Police Commander, starting next Monday, November 6.

In an interview with Citi News, Lawyer Ubaidu Sadique said he felt justice has been served “because there was no basis for the seven to have been remanded because all the ingredients for them to have been granted bail were available.”

The substantive case is yet to be determined at the Wa Magistrate Court, which will continue hearing the matter on Wednesday, November 8.

The seven have been charged with rioting and are suspected to have instigated the youth, who stormed the DCE’s office and locked it up.

The agitating youth also complained that they were being neglected in favour of people aligned to the DCE, Mohammed Bako.

The Sissala West Constituency Chairman of the NPP was one of the suspects remanded on Wednesday November 1, 2017.

The other six were identified as Alidu Mumuni, Mahamudu Forkah, Walika Iddrisu, Adamu Sumani, Zaato, Sulley  Mohammed and Gbene Lukeman.

Upper West NPP Chairmen threaten protests

All 10 constituency chairmen of the NPP in the Upper West Region threatened massive demonstrations in protest of the decision by the Wa Magistrate Court to remand the seven if they were not granted bail.

One of the Chairmen, who spoke to Citi News on condition of anonymity, said their decision was communicated to the regional security council and the leadership of the NPP in the region on Thursday night.

The Upper West Regional Constituency chairmen of the NPP believe the seven persons remanded were wrongly arrested.

The governing NPP is already under scrutiny following the increase in the instances of political vigilantism that has seen similar attacks on District Assemblies and other state institutions.

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By: Latif Mahama/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The seven remanded included the Sissala West NPP Constituency Chairman, Bukari Dramani.

[contextly_sidebar id=”kmLaRymbH8NZ4ECWcaXLus1oZONZdMB7″]The Constituency Chairman, two other executives, and four supporters of the NPP, were remanded last Wednesday for locking out the DCE for Sissala West, Mohammed Bakor.

But the regional constituency chairmen of the NPP believe the seven persons remanded were wrongly arrested.

One of the Chairmen, who spoke to Citi News on condition of anonymity, said their decision was communicated to the regional security council and the leadership of the NPP in the region on Thursday night.

He said they have given the security up to the end of today [Friday], to release the seven accused persons or “they should be ready for anything.”

He added that “it is important to let the world know we are not happy about what happened to our colleagues last Wednesday and in fact, we must register our revulsion about the increasing acts of violence that has plagued our party.”

Citi News checks at the Wa Magistrate Court revealed that the case will be called later on Friday.

Over 100 on the run – Police

The seven, according to the police, are among over 100 persons who are currently on the run and have been charged with rioting.

Chief Inspector Daniel Yeboah of the Upper West regional police CID, prosecuting the case, said the seven suspects led a team of demonstrators with offensive weapons to attack the offices of the Sissala West district Assembly on the 26 of October.

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By: Mahama Latif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post U/West NPP Chairmen threaten chaos over Sissala West arrests appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Alhassan, who did not emphatically condemn the action of the youth, described it as a “small hitch between some party youth and the District Chief Executive for Sisala West that led to the youth locking up the office.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”p86pc0jSHkvYANKb1Zka1Vq8jYj11wRR”]Defending his stance on the matter, the Minister said that “even though [the youth’s storming the office] was not legal, they didn’t cause any damage to any property. They didn’t cause any harm to anybody” he insisted.

According to him, “the only problem was that they locked the [DCE’s] office illegally. This is something I can say was a mob action.”

The Police have said that an arrest on the spur of the moment could have escalated the situation.

The Minister recounted that, when he got to the scene, he had “to ask the district police to intensify their investigations and see if some of them could be identified and if possible arrested.”

He, however, said talk of prosecuting the culprits was too early because no arrests had been made yet, despite a spokesperson of the group speaking on Eyewitness News.

The agitating youth complained that they are being neglected in favour of people aligned to the DCE, Mohammed Bako.

NPP youth storm police station in Karaga; set suspects free

A similar incident at Karaga in the Northern Region, the NPP Chairman for the Karaga Constituency and four others have been arrested to assist police in their investigations.

The irate youth in Karaga, believed to be sympathizers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), early on, invaded a police station, and freed some NPP members who were in police custody.

A Citi News source who was close to the scene, said the youth acted in that manner because the District Chief Executive of Karaga, Alhassan Yabdoo, allegedly caused the arrest of some NPP communicators.

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

The post Attack on Sissala West DCE ‘nothing serious’ – Minister appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

That’s the explanation from the District Police Chief for the area, Guy Raymond, who spoke on Eyewitness News.

[contextly_sidebar id=”FDMUqDKKPKNB2A7Q9CGpJaVVJKbZ5pMg”]He has however assured that the culprits will definitely be brought to book soon.

Explaining why the suspects were not arrested on the spot, Mr. Raymond said: “In situations of this nature, you do not rush in making arrests. You may end up escalating the issue, so it will take time for us to know what to do. Looking at the situation at the time, we had to use our discretion and the best option was to invite the leadership and see the way forward.”

“It is not a lawful conduct. That is why we are pursuing the matter. We are still investigating, and the perpetrators will be brought to book,” Mr. Raymond added.

Some rampaging youth believed to be sympathizers of the NPP stormed the precincts of the Assembly and locked up the District Chief Executive, Mohammed Bakor in his office.

They have accused the DCE of engaging in “divide and rule” tactics, and failing to address their concerns.

It took the intervention of the police to free the DCE.

An eyewitness, who spoke to Citi News, said the youth came around 11:30am on Thursday, “chanting that they don’t want him again, and that there is smuggling in the district and all those things.”

Police in Karaga in the Northern Region also failed to arrest suspects who invaded a police station, and freed some NPP members who were in police custody.

The Public Relations Officer of the Northern Regional Police Command, ASP Yusif Tanko, explained that the “volatile” nature of the incident did not allow for immediate arrests.

“The situation was very volatile and the number of rampaging youth was high, so if it happens like that you have to decide whether you will bring the situation under control and arrest or bring the situation under control and later make the arrest, but in our situation we thought bringing the situation under control first was the best.”

“We have not made any arrests yet, but Karaga is very calm and we are assuring you that we will take decisive action at Karaga,” he added.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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He said it was not surprising that the District was also the poorest among the 11 districts in the Upper West Region as there was a direct relationship between education and poverty.

Mr. Bakor expressed this concern during the “Let Girls Learn; End Child Marriage Campaign” launched in Gwollu, by Community Development Alliance (CDA-Ghana) with funding from STAR Ghana, under the Gender and Social Inclusion programme window.

The DCE noted that before the situation could be changed, there was the need for parents to prioritize their children’s education over any other thing and also make sacrifices to ensure that all their children especially girls went to school and stay until completion.

He said for him, educating the girl child was more beneficial because successful girls arguably took better care of their parents than the boys, because of the herculean task the boy child have in building his own family.

Mr. Bakor lamented over issues of child marriage in the District and appealed to community leaders to enact laws to punish perpetrators to serve as a deterrent to others in order to help end child marriage in the District.

Mr. Salifu Issifu Kanton, the Executive Director of CDA, said the high illiteracy rate in the Region, with women constituting the larger number, was the major reason why the Region had been tagged as the poorest in the country.

He said the provision of educational infrastructure would be useless, if girls would not be allowed to go to school and stay to complete successfully, against child marriage.

Madam Cecelia Kakariba, the Sissala West District Director of Health, disclosed that the district had no good record in the area of adolescent (14 – 19 years) pregnancies.

She said usually when they go for community sensitization on adolescent pregnancies; men often put the blame on the women for not bringing up the girls well, adding that until men accepted that they had a responsibility towards the upbringing of their children, adolescent pregnancies would continue to persist.

Madam Kakariba noted that adolescent pregnancies were contributing significantly to maternal mortality in the District and the Region at large, as some girls often had their uterus ruptured during delivery because they are not matured enough to carry pregnancy.

The overall goal of the project was to end the practice of child marriage while enabling girls to pursue their educational and vocational aspirations.

It will directly benefit 10 communities in the district namely Wasai, Duwie, Kuntulo, Du-West, Nyentie, Bullu, Kankaduali, Tiiwi, Desima and Timmie.

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Source: GNA

The post Over 80% adults in Sissala West are illiterates appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He was particularly excited at the manner in which teams who had to bear the tag of underdogs matched their elite counterparts.

Countries like Costa Rica exceeded  expectations after they were unbeaten on their way to topping their group which included European giants England and Italy, and 2010 semi-finalists Uruguay.

This, according to him, made the tournament unpredictable from the moment it commenced.

“You could see that from day one of the tournament, many teams pulled surprises, you could see that it isn’t an easy tournament at all.

“You cant predict because every team came to win the trophy.

“Before games you could easily make predictions based on teams reputations and say that they would be victorious against the supposed weaker teams but after games the results turned out very different,” he told reporters after the game.

The 29 year old Orlando Pirates goalkeeper made two appearances for the Black Stars in their campaign that ended in disappointment after they finished bottom of Group G which also had the United States of America,Portugal and eventual winners Germany.

Disagreements over appearance fees, amidst reports of player indiscipline, meant the attention of the players focused on everything thing else but playing soccer which was the main objective.

A three man committee of enquiry has since been set up on the orders of President John Dramani Mahama to look into issues that led to the country’s abysmal performance and make appropriate recommendations to aid develop the nation’s football.

By: Benjamin Nketsia/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Smaller nations are bridging the gap in world football – Dauda appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.