General Nunoo Mensah’s Comment Is Unfortunate

The Communication Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Brong Ahafo Region, Collins Mahama, has described the comments made by the National Security Advisor, Brigadier General Nunoo Mensah calling on Ghanaians who can’t sacrifice for the country to take their passport and move out of the country as unfortunate.

According to him, the General’s advice to Ghanaians to be discipline was in a right direction, but telling Ghanaians to move out of the country if they can’t make sacrifices is unfortunate and worrying.

Speaking on Ark Fm, a local radio in Sunyani, Mr. Mahama said if government workers go on strike which is not against the law, then they should be paid.
He however said if they do it contrary to the law, he will support calls for the government to withdraw their salaries.

It will be recalled that the National Security adviser took a swipe at workers in the country whom, he says, consistently use strikes to get their concerns addressed.  
He mentioned that the many strikes on the labour front is a sign of high level indiscipline in the country.

The security adviser was speaking at the commissioning of a nine-classroom block he built for O’reilly Senior High School in Accra, and called for the suspension of salaries of such striking employees.

Many commentators including members of the ruling NDC have described the security adviser’s comments as unfortunate, while some have even called on him to retract his statements.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Communication Director of the NPP, Kofi Ofosu Boateng, in his subsmission also called on government staffers to stop making such comments that irritates Ghananians.
He said if the government feels it difficult to rule the country they should leave it for Ghananians to choose competent people to rule the country.

“If they can’t manage the country, the Brigadier and his government should also back off and allow competent people to rule”, he added.

 

From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Minister Stoned For Over Dead Boy

INFORMATION REACHING DAILY GUIDE indicates that some angry youth of Odumase near Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo regional capital, on Thursday afternoon pelted the Deputy Regional Minister, Justice Samuel Agyei with stones and sachet water.
The youth who were angry over the shooting and killing of a member of the community by the police, vented their spleen on the Brong Ahafo Deputy Regional Minister and his team, throwing all sorts of offensive weapons at them.
Mr Agyei was leading a delegation of police chiefs to visit the family of the 24-yearold bike repairer, Osei Kwabena Aberega, who was allegedly shot dead by the police on Monday evening.
The angry youth had vowed to deal with any policeman that comes to the area because they believed the police were no longer protecting the citizenry but rather killing innocent people.
Kwabena Aberega was said to have been gunned down by the police for allegedly smoking wee in the company of a friend.
An eyewitness said the incident happened in front of her around 9:15pm on Monday evening when she was packing stuff in her store, and getting ready to go home.
She said she saw the police arresting a man who was in custody now, claiming he was smoking Indian hemp with the deceased.
According to her, the man in custody, who was by then handcuffed, was crying and pleading with the police to let him go because he was not smoking marijuana as he was from the Odumase Secondary School campus where he worked as a pantry man.
The eyewitness said when Kwabena Aberega saw the maltreatment being meted out to his friend by the police, he took to his heels and one of the policemen went after him, only for his dead body to be discovered later.
It was based on this brutality that the youth chased away the Minister and his police team, as they came visiting the bereaved family.
According to the senior sister of the deceased, Comfort Aberega, on Thursday morning, the Deputy Minister sent the family a message that he and his entourage would be coming to visit and console them.
She said in the afternoon, they heard shouts in the streets and when they inquired about it, an eyewitness told them that it was the youth in the town who were hooting at the police that had come to the chief’s palace with the Minister.
Madam Comfort said the Minister was not able to come to their house because the eyewitness told the family the youth in the town prevented the police by throwing stones and water at them in front of the Odumase chief’s palace.
She said due to the situation, the Minister later sent someone to tell them he would come back on Friday to visit them.
She noted that the family did not know the youth who were demonstrating against the police over the death of her brother.
She said her late brother was a good man who was known by everybody in the community because of the nature of his job.
She further told the paper that the family would not rest until justice was done because they believed their son was killed unjustly.
Comfort was of the opinion that the police wanted to cover up for the policeman who killed her brother, but they would pursue the matter until the right thing was done.
FROM Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Cop Kills Bike Repairer

Police in Sunyani on Monday evening shot and killed a 24-year-old motor bike repairer, Osei Kwabena Aberega, at Odumase in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region.

The unfortunate incident, which happened on the Odumase -Adantia road, has created tension at the community making residents to become very worried.
The community protested on Tuesday against the conduct of the police.
An eyewitness, who did not want to be named, said the incident happened in her presence around 9:15pm on Monday evening, when she was packing her wares from her store to go home.
She said she saw the police arresting one man, who is in custody now, claiming he was smoking weed (marijuana) with his friend Kwabina Osei Aberega, now deceased.
According to her, the man in custody, who was by then handcuffed, was crying and pleaded with the police to let him go because he was not smoking marijuana since he was from the Odumase Secondary School campus, where he worked as a pantry man.
The eye-witness said when  Kwabena Osei Aberega saw the maltreatment being meted out to his friend by the police, he took to his heels and one of the policemen went after him.
She further mentioned that she saw the police returning from the direction where he had followed Kwabina Osei but didn’t see Kwabina again until late in the night that she heard that he had been shot dead.
When DAILY GUIDE visited the deceased house on Wednesday morning, the family expressed worry over the way the police were handling the issue and claimed their son was not a weed smoker.
The sister of the deceased, Comfort Aberega, who went to the mortuary to see the body of his younger brother, expressed deep sorrow over the incident.
She said the police had refused to release the body to them because they claimed they were waiting for post mortem to be done on the body to ascertain whether it was truly the gun that killed him.
The father of the deceased, Anaaba Aberega, who was in tears when DAILY GUIDE visited the house, called on the authorities to investigate his son’s death and bring the offender to book since he claimed his son was not a weed smoker.
Meanwhile the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Christopher Tawiah, said the police had begun investigations into the matter.
According to him, the police personnel were on patrol on Monday when the deceased and his accomplice, Alidu Ibrahim (now in custody), were found smoking weed.
They were ordered to stop but the deceased took to his heels, he said.
The police PRO narrated that one of the police officers gave him a hot chase and arrested him, but in the process of being handcuffed, the deceased struggled with the police officer who was armed.
He said in the process, the policeman’s riffle went off hitting the victim on the side of his waist.
ASP Tawiah alleged the victim ran for about 200 metres and fell down dead. He said the body had since been deposited at the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital morgue.
ASP Christopher Tawiah stated that the policeman, who was involved in the shooting incident, had been arrested to assist in investigations.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Support Your Priests – Bishop

THE ANGLICAN Bishop of Sunyani Diocese, Right Rev Dr Festus Yeboah-Asuamah, has called on Christians to always support their church Ministers with prayers to be able to help the church and the word of God grow.

According to him, being a priest is a task that calls for more prayers to help priests grow more spiritually.
The Bishop was speaking at the ordination of five deacons to priesthood and two brothers to deacons at the St Anselm’s Anglican Church in Sunyani.
Rev Yeboah-Asuamah told the new ministers that their call into priesthood is a noble one, which would indeed come with a lot of challenges.
He entreated them to remain prayerful in all their endeavours and focus on helping the church grow spiritually and physically.
The Bishop urged them to be ambassadors of God’s word so as to expand the Kingdom of God.
Rev Yeboah-Asuamah called on the church to give their full support to the newly- ordained priest and deacons to help the Anglican Church grow, to enable them to accomplish their call and win more souls for God.
The Diocesan Chancellor of the Anglican Church in Sunyani who is the Supervising High Court Judge, Justice David Ofosu-Quartey took the newly- ordained priests through the administration oaths.
The newly-ordained Ministers were; Rev Frank Kusi, Rev Collins Opoku, Rev Thomas Adjei Baffoe, Reverend John Agyemang Prempeh and Rev Richard Obeng.
Brothers Nathaniel Barimah and Gabriel Afrifa Kodom were also inducted to the diocesan Diaconate.
From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

BA Minister Visits Daily Guide

As part of measures to establish rapport with the media, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, on Thursday toured some media houses in the regional capital, Sunyani to interact with staff of the various media houses.

In an interaction with staff of Western Publications Limited, publishers of DAILY GUIDE, News One, Business Guide and Guide Young Blazers, the Minister assured the workers that his outfit would welcome every media house in the region.
“Regional Coordinating Council programmes are not limited to any media house,” he added.
The Minister disclosed that he would visit the media houses regularly to interact with staff to encourage them to give off their best for the country.
Mr. Aidoo, who was accompanied on the tour by his Deputy, Justice Samuel Adjei, PRO, Augusta Offeibea Tettey and other officials of the RCC, said he would forward the demands of the paper for adverts to the Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MDAs) in the region.
The Minister spoke highly of the late Mark Sam Essien, former Western Regional Editor of DAILY GUIDE, stating that he would really miss him.
He encouraged the staff to work with government to develop the country.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Bureau Chief of DAILY GUIDE, Fred Tettey Amoako, congratulated the Minister for interacting with the media in the region.
He mentioned that though the paper was doing well in the country, it faces challenges such as the lack of adverts from government agencies.
According to him, adverts help the paper to grow and pleaded with the Minister to encourage district assemblies in the region to channel some of their adverts to the paper and not only the state-owned newspapers.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Sunyani Businesses Bemoan Tariff Increases

Some business people in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, have expressed worry over the recent increases in tariffs by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC).

They noted that businesses have recorded some losses lately, stressing that the increment would worsen their plight.
CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE gathered that some companies in the municipality are planning to lay-off some workers following the tariff hikes on Wednesday.
Hairdressers, barbers, fashion designers and others who use electricity and water daily, announced plans to increase their fees in order to effectively pay their bills.
They complained bitterly when CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE visited their establishments to find out how they would cope under the current circumstances.
The new tariffs take effect from Tuesday, October 1.
At Sista’s Place, a prominent beauty saloon, the Manager, Salina Enyan said she would sack some of the workers in order to break even.
She indicated that “I know the chemical shops where we buy our products will increase their fees so the only option is for me to increase mine,” she added.
The Manager of Furniture Works, Joshua Afedi Annor, also said due to their energy consumption, they would also increase their fees.
He also pleaded with government to have mercy on the poor Ghanaian and reduce the tariffs.
A worker at Likers Supermarket in Sunyani said his outfit would take the necessary measures to make profits.
The General Manager of Storm Fm, a radio station in Sunyani, Francis Owusu Ansah, said his outfit would not increase their advert rates because they can’t team up with government to burden the ordinary Ghanaian.
He said the company would have to adjust in order not to register losses.
 From Vivianna Mensah, Sunyani

Robbers Attack DAILY GUIDE Reporter

Residents of Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region are currently living in fear as result of several robbery attacks in the area.

Over the weekend two separate robbery attacks were recorded on the Ayanfuri-Dunkwa Road.
Commuters were robbed of their monies and belongings at gunpoint.
In one of the robbery incidents, which occurred at Adwinpanaye and Kwamiprakrom on the Ayanfuri-Dunkwa road around 7pm on Saturday, the robbers, numbering about five and said to be of Fulani extraction, subjected passengers to severe beatings after taking their possessions.
A reporter of DAILY GUIDE in the Brong Ahafo Region, Vivianna Mensah, who was on board one of the vehicles during the attack, escaped with bruises on most part of her body after she and other passengers were subjected to beatings by the robbers.
Narrating her ordeal to the paper, Ms. Mensah said she travelled to the area to attend her grandmother’s funeral and was returning from Ayanfuri to Dunkwa around 7pm on Saturday in a taxi cab.
Upon reaching a sharp curve, they saw a parked taxi cab and realized that the road had been blocked with logs.
According to her, within seconds, the robbers, who wielded guns, came from the bush and ordered the passengers to surrender their monies, mobile phones among others, which they obliged.
She said the robbers then dragged them from the taxi to the floor hitting them while pointing guns at them.
She said they warned them not to raise their heads.
In the course of the attack, which lasted for about an hour, two vehicles emerged and the passengers were also robbed of their belongings.
She said the police later came to the scene shooting after the robbers had already fled into the bush.
She lost her Galaxy tap, GH¢1,200, wallet containing her ID cards and ATM card, among others.
Meanwhile, the military personnel at a base at Ayanfuri have managed to arrest two of the suspects. The suspects were arrested the following day at the scene of the incident.
FROM Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Sunyani