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The Historians., Asawasi R 132. kumasi, Biriwa (2026)

26/07/2019

UEW saga: Fmr VC, dismissed staff chased out by Police

By Starrfmonline -
July 23, 2019

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A combined team of National Security operatives and Police personnel Tuesday afternoon chased out some dismissed staff of the University of Education, Winneba.

The dismissed staff who stormed the Council Chamber Tuesday, July 23, included the former Vice Chancellor Professor Mawutor Avoke, the former Finance Officer Arkorlie, and Dr. Ofori Bekoe who had his review for reinstatement thrown out by the Cape Coast High Court on Monday and the Member of the Parliament for the Effutu constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin.

This occurred after Afenyo-Markin in the company of the five dismissed officials broke into the Council Chamber of the university in to reinstate the dismissed officials.

This action comes seven days ahead of the Cape Coast High Court ruling on a case filed by Afenyo-Markin challenging the legitimacy of the current Vice Chancellor Rev. Afful-Broni.

The dismissed Vice Chancellor Mawutor Avoke and the five dismissed others are currently holding a press conference in the Council Chamber, according to Starr News’ Central regional correspondent, Kwaku Baah Acheamfour.

This comes few days after the University suspended its planned and publicised congregation for 2018/19 graduands indefinitely due to government’s failure to constitute a new governing council to supervise the ceremony following the expiration of the tenure of the existing one last month.

On Monday a Senior Staff of UEW also sued the university and its Vice-Chancellor, Anthony Afful-Broni.

Kingsley Amoakwah, an accountant by profession and Chairman of the Senior Staff Association Union is seeking an order restraining Afful-Broni from “holding himself out as the Vice-Chancellor or performing any such functions in that capacity at UEW.”

He is also seeking an order “restraining Afful-Broni from continuously interfering in the administration of Professor Mawutor Avoke, the legitimate Vice-Chancellor of UEW.”

Background

The Winneba High Court in 2017 ordered Prof Avoke, to step aside until a case brought against him and the University’s Governing Council was determined.

The Governing Council subsequently dismissed Avoke and replaced him with Prof. Afful-Broni.

Lawyers for Prof. Avoke, in November 2018, wrote a letter to the school’s Governing Council directing it to prepare the office of their client to enable him to resume following his supposed exoneration by the Supreme Court.

The governing council, however, threw its support behind Prof. Afful-Broni despite accusations of victimization, injustice and other actions said to have brought the image of the university into disrepute.

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM

10/07/2019

The case opened by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum against Princess Haya bint al-Hussein will be heard in London, at the Family Division of the High Court.
Dubai’s billionaire ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has opened a legal case against one of his wives, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, CNN has learned.

British media reports claim Princess Haya, who is the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, has left her husband and traveled from Dubai to London. But at the moment, CNN is unable to verify either her whereabouts or those reports.

The princess is a well-known international figure, being close friends with the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

The case is being heard in London, at the Family Division of the High Court, and the next hearings will be on July 30 and July 31.

When contacted by CNN, the Royal Courts of Justice confirmed the court dates, but not the identity of the two parties.

“The case was last heard on the 22 May 2019 before Mr Justice Moor and the case is next listed before the President on the 30th July 2019,” reads the statement from the court.

CNN has separately confirmed both the dates and the parties involved in the legal case.

Sheikh Al Maktoum will be represented by Lady Helen Ward of Stewarts, a high-profile law firm in London, CNN has also learned.

Princess Haya is the half-sister of the King of Jordan and received a British education, completing a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford. She is a keen equestrian, representing Jordan at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

According to her website, she has two children with Sheikh Al Maktoum, “one daughter, HH Sheikha Al Jalila, who was born on December 2, 2007, and one son, HH Sheikh Zayed, who was born on January 7, 2012.”

Last year, another daughter of Sheikh Al Maktoum, Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, attempted to escape Dubai, claiming she had been tortured and detained for three years — sometimes in solitary confinement — following her failed attempt to leave the UAE in 2002 as a teenager.

She was last photographed with UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson. Three low-resolution photos, which were released by the UAE foreign ministry last December, showed Sheikha Latifa dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt and gray jeans while she either looked away from the camera or towards Robinson, who is also the former president of Ireland.

Robinson made the visit at the request of the ruling family, according to a communique the UAE mission in Geneva sent to the Office of Special Procedures at the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the United Nations.

“The documents respond to and rebut false allegations that have been made about Her Highness, providing evidence that she is alive and living with her family in Dubai,” the statement said.

Source: CNN

09/07/2019

Assault on journalists rising under Akufo-Addo gov't – Ablakwa worries

Source: Ghana |Myjoyonline.com | Akyena Brantuo | [email protected]
Date: 06-07-2019 Time: 03:07:18:pm
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Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is the MP for North Tongu
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Member of Parliament for North Tongu has said there is an intolerance for freedom of the press under the government of president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“A certain pattern is emerging,” Okudzeto Ablakwa pointed out on Newsfile.

“Under Akufo-Addo, media houses are being closed down, assaults on journalists is rising and Ghana has dropped in its press freedom rankings. It is as though some culture of impunity is emerging,” he added.

The MP, who is also a former Deputy Minister of Education, was speaking on the back of conflicting reports of torture meted out against two journalists with modernghana.com by officers of National Security.

Emmanuel Britwum and Emmanuel Ajafor Abugri were arrested on allegations of working to steal trade secrets from competing brands electronically.

Mr. Ablakwa has dismissed that allegation claiming it is only a smokescreen to disguise government’s real agenda of hounding media houses which are critical of it.

The charges preferred against the two never came up during the interrogation which included suffocating the two, merciless beatings, being denied access to lawyers and having their computers and passwords taken against their will, Mr Ablakwa said.

Instead, he revealed that Modernghana.com workers were interrogated on stories they had done against the government, including a call on National Security Minister to resign.

“Investigations had nothing to do with cybercrime. Why did the statement against the two from national security not mention cybercrime?” he quizzed.

There is growing impunity-Kpebu

On his part, private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has labeled the arrest and alleged torture as impunity.

“The impunity is not going away,” Kpebu lamented on Newsfile.

According to him, attacks on journalist under this government is an irony because this government has been touted as a friend of media.

Kpebu wants the president to accept responsibility for what is happening. Many people voted for this president because of his human right credential, he recounted.

He has therefore called on right-thinking members of society to rise up against the “impunity” because it has the potential to affect everyone.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” Kpebu quoted Martin Niemöller to buttress his point.

09/07/2019

ZIPLINE DRONE RESCUES 113 STUDENTS FROM ACUTE DIARRHOEA

The timely delivery of medical supplies by Zipline’s Medical drone has helped saved the lives of 113 students of the Mangoase Senior High School in the Eastern Region.

According to the Headmaster of the Mangoase Senior High School, Seth Tawiah Agbesi, the students had suffered acute diarrhoea on Sunday, June 23, 2019.

He revealed that the diarrhoea outbreak occurred after the students ate groundnut soup with rice as their supper on Saturday evening.

The Headmaster indicated that probably the food was not well-cooked, resulting in the diarrhoea outbreak.

He lamented over the lack of a school bus to convey the students if Zipline facility hadn’t been readily available.

According to him, the Health Centre was contacted and subsequently, it was advised that Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) be administered immediately to the students.

But there was no ORS in the school and the health facility at the time, so an order was placed immediately to Zipline Centre at Omenako.

Within 20 minutes, Zipline sent a drone with five boxes of ORS. Each box contained five packs of ORS, giving a total of 125.

Mr Tawiah Agbesi was full of praise to Zipline, saying: “I was very very happy. Really, we have benefited. Initially, I thought it was for big hospitals; I didn’t know it was for those of us in rural areas.”

A teacher at the school, Justice Siaw, who assisted the nurses to receive the medication, disclosed that some of the students visited the toilet about six times and had become pale making it very critical.

He said the situation became severe but the timely intervention of Zipline gave them a sigh of relief.

Very Responsive

A Community Health Officer at the Mangoase Health Centre, Bernice Acheampong, revealed that Zipline has been very responsive to their medical needs.

She said, “when we are short of drugs and we order, at once, we get it.”

She explained that “before if it’s emergency and there is no drug, we have no option than to refer the patients to other hospitals, either in Koforidua or Mampong. With the coming of Zipline, our referrals have drastically reduced”.

Until now, she said, referrals were made to hospitals in Mampong and Koforidua on a regular basis.

In most cases, she lamented, motorbikes were used for referrals which takes between 50 and 1 hour travel time.

Roads in the area are in a very deplorable state, making transportation a difficult task.

About Zipline Ghana

It would be recalled that Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in April 2019, launched Ghana’s largest medical drone delivery service at Omenako, Eastern Region, to improve medical delivery service in the country.

The service, which is a collaboration between Ghana’s Ministry of Health and Zipline Technologies, would use drones to make national-scale, on-demand emergency deliveries of 148 different vaccines, blood products, and life-saving medications.

The service would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from four distribution centres — each equipped with 30 drones – and deliver to 2,000 health facilities serving 12 million people across the country.

All four distribution centres will make up to 600 on-demand delivery flights a day. Each distribution centre will have the capacity to make up to 500 flights per day.

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM

09/07/2019

Majority leader apologises to MPs over new chamber ‘blackout’
By Mohammed Awal - July 4, 2019
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mENSAH BONSU
Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu on Thursday rendered unqualified apology to Members of Parliament for failing to engage them on the controversial 450-seater capacity Parliament chamber before going public.

The project estimated to cost not more than $200 million has been out rightly rejected by the public and civil society groups. They are demanding abortion of the project.

Addressing the media on the matter on Thursday, 04 July 2019 Mensah Bonsu who’s also the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs: “Honestly, I was not aware of certain arrangements and I thought that would be limited to the board members because we needed further briefing on where we were with the project.

“Unfortunately I think that process itself boomeranged because it is most inappropriate, the facility if we get to construct it is going to be for Members of Parliament, so they should get to know of the process that the board was engaging in rather than to learn of it from the press and that was not the best.”

“I want to use this opportunity to apologise to our Members of Parliament because it is most inappropriate for members of parliament to hear about this for the first time in the press as happened after the events of last week Thursday,” Mensah Bonsu said.

President Akufo-Addo has endorsed the construction of the proposed 450-seater new chamber despite massive public outcry and opposition.

The President, according to Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike “in principle has actually agreed to come and cut the sod the moment we are ready. So, you could see that there’s a lot of goodwill for this project.”

The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) described the planned construction of the 450-seat chamber as a “misplaced priority.”

The center said in a statement Thursday that it “does not believe that construction of a new and expanded chamber at an estimated cost of $200m is reasonable or justifiable at the present time. In the face of the numerous basic needs facing communities across the country, including a lack of safe and decent physical structures, facilities, and fixtures for many basic schools, a chronic shortage of beds in public hospitals, the deplorable condition of many of the country’s roads, and sundry other basic infrastructural and material deprivations facing various populations of citizens, construction of a new edifice for Parliament is a clear case of misplaced priorities.”

A pressure group, OccupyGhana, called on Parliament to abort the plan, describing it as “inconsiderate” looking at the level of hardship in the country.

“The very fact that in light of all the problems Ghana faces, our parliamentarians think a new chamber is of utmost importance shows a significant disconnection from the lot of the people they are supposed to represent.

“We cannot believe that Parliament and its leadership would even contemplate something so inconsiderate at a time when so many Ghanaians still struggle in these difficult and trying times. Even sadder is the fact that it eats away at the confidence people have in the democratic process,” the group said.

Former second deputy Speaker of Parliament Ken Dzirasah said the move is unnecessary, arguing that the nation has pressing issues to address than building a new legislative chamber.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, Mr. Dzirasah said the current chamber is good and fit for purpose.

“The conditions and facilities in Parliament are enough for the MPs to work. There are other pressing issues we need to attend to as a nation. This matter on new chamber shouldn’t have come up at all because there is no need for it. It is an exercise that bears no relevance to our realities of today.”

But in a rare appearance on morning TV on Wednesday, 03 July 2019 Mensah Bonsu defended the need for the new chamber. According to him, the argument that the new chamber is not of priority is baseless.

Speaking on GHOne TV’s GH Today, he said: “As a country, we are not out of the woods yet in spite of the quality…quantity of various shades of improvement that we are adding to the lives and living standards of our people.

“We are not there yet. We are not out of the woods, but tell me, we do know that the basic needs of a human being to start with is food, clothing and shelter. Whenever have we been able to achieve this before we started building our stadia or our national theatre?

“So, let’s not really say that not until we satisfied the basic human needs others things are luxurious. Let nobody tell me that not until maybe we are able to provide clothing for everybody, not until we are able to provide adequate housing to everybody these other things are luxuries.”

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM

09/07/2019

Parliament has dropped plans to construct a new 450-seater parliamentary chamber after overwhelming rejection by the Public.

The decision to shelve the project was made after a meeting of the Parliamentary Service Board considering the massive social media campaign and public uproar against the decision that was expected to cost in excess of 200 million dollars.

“Before projects are completed, feasibility studies are done but you would realise that this new chamber is not something that is workable for now,” the acting Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Mrs Kate Addo, told Accra-based Neat FM.

The huge public outcry culminated in a social media campaign dubbed: .

A number of Civil Society Organisations including the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and pressure group OccupyGhana also condemned the idea, describing it as a “misplaced priority.”

The Parliamentary Service Board had already received the architectural model for the new chamber from renowned Ghanaian architect David Frank Adjaye, the same designer of the National Cathedral.

The 450-seater chamber will come with a chapel, mosque, restaurant, and a museum. The current chamber houses 275 seats for MPs.

However, CDD-Ghana said Parliament as it stands now is “relatively well resourced.”

On Friday, three members of the Economic Fighters League were arrested for protesting against the new 450-seat chamber.

The leader of the group and his accomplices were granted GHC2,000 bail with one surety.

The League led by its leader Ernesto Yeboah was protesting in the public gallery during proceedings.

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM

16/08/2017

The Management of the Students Loan Trust
Fund (SLTF) on Tuesday affirmed that Teacher
Trainee Allowances is NOT a loan, and trainees
will not be required to pay back as has been
erroneously reported.
The Trust Fund management in a statement
copied to the CDA Consult in Accra and signed
by Mr George Ferguson Laing, Senior
Communications Manager denied media reports
which seem to suggest that the teacher trainee
allowance has been converted into a loan
facility by the Government.
“It is NOT a loan, and trainees will not be
required to pay back as has been erroneously
reported.
“For the avoidance of doubt we would like to
state that, in line with Government policy to
restore the allowance effective 2017/2018
academic year, the Ministry of Education has
mandated the Students Loan Trust Fund to
disburse the allowances,” the statement stated.
According to the statement the SLTF has been
mandated by the Government to facilitate the
payment of the allowance to trainees because it
has the required systems and structures to do
so.
It said in a recent meeting with the Principals of
the Colleges of Education (PRINCOF), the Trust
Fund emphasised the need for the Principals to
furnish it with lists of eligible students and other
essential information in order for the allowances
to be speedily disbursed.
The statement said, the disbursement of the
allowances is an added service the Trust Fund
is providing for the education sector in Ghana,
and does not in any way detract from its core
mandate which is to provide subsidised loans
for Ghanaian tertiary students studying in
accredited institutions nationwide.
“The Student Loan Trust Fund will approach this
new task with the same diligence it has applied
in providing equal access to tertiary financing
since 2006/07 academic year,” the statement
said.
According to the Trust Fund, the disbursement
process will lead to reduction of human
influence over the procedure, due to the
automation of the process, validation of
students’ information to avoid payments to
individuals that are not eligible, greater
transparency and accountability.
The students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) was
established in December 2005 under the Trustee
Incorporation Act 1962, Act 106.
As part of reforms to make accredited tertiary
education more accessible to the majority of
qualified Ghanaian students, the Government of
Ghana passed the Student Loan Trust Fund Act,
Act 820 (2011) for the efficient and effective
disbursement of loans to tertiary students.
The Trust Fund has the responsibility to recover
loans from students after the completion of
their tertiary education.
The principal objectives of the Trust Fund are
to provide financial resources for the sound
management of the Trust for the benefit of
students and to help promote and facilitate the
national ideals enshrined in Article 25 and 38 of
the 1992 Constitution.
Communication for Development and Advocacy
Consult (CDA Consult) provides tailor made
development communication tools necessary for
operational transformation and translating
dreams into achievable goals and equips clients
with mechanism for public education on specific
issues.
It also provides effective back-up or frontline
monitoring and evaluation tools to ensure value
for money delivery of projects, whilst providing
clients with skills to deliver timely and accurate
information on their activities, work,
programmes and projects.
CDA Consult is also aimed at building a
responsive working culture for corporate growth
through a social process at institutional levels
based on dialogue using a broad range of tools
and methods.
It also assists client to use continuous and
adaptive process of gathering, organising and
formulating information and data into argument
and to communicate to policy-makers through
various interpersonal and mass media
communication channels.

15/08/2017

MINORITY CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION ON UT,
CAPITAL BANK:

The Minority in Parliament has called for a bi-
partisan investigation into circumstances that led
to the collapse of UT and Capital banks.
Members said the Minister of Finance and the
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, should be
invited by Parliament to brief the House about
the development and give the assurance that
the depositors would suffer no loss.
Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minority
Spokesperson on Finance, made the call when he
addressed a press conference on issues relating
to the collapse of UT and Capital banks.
The Bank of Ghana announced the revocation of
the licenses of the two banks due to severe
impairment of their capital and, as a result,
approved a Purchase and Assumption
transaction with GCB Bank Limited that transfers
all deposits and selected assets to it.
Mr Forson also urged the Bank of Ghana to
conduct an investigation as to what occasioned
the development.
He said the BOG’s approved “Purchase and
Assumption” transaction between UT Bank,
Capital Bank and GCB Bank Ltd could be viewed
as a relatively smooth takeover rather than the
earlier speculation of a simple and forced
liquidation, which would have had a devastating
effect on the economy.
He urged all depositors and customers of UT and
Capital banks to exercise restraint while they
patiently monitored the activities of the acquiring
bank (GCB), BOG, and the receivers;
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Mr Forson called on the BOG, GCB, PwC, and the
Ministry of Finance to ensure strict adherence to
the distinct benefit of the Purchase and
Assumption transaction, so that no single
depositor losses his or her investment.
“Needless to say, should this happen, it will
result in an unforeseen burden on taxpayers
instead of the original owners of UT and Capital
banks,” he added.
He urged the BOG to ensure that the acquiring
bank; GCB Bank, which is the largest indigenous
bank with both public and private shareholders,
was not overburdened unnecessarily with non-
performing loans and impaired assets.
Mr Forson further called on the BOG to, as a
matter of urgency, start implementing the
Specialised Deposit Taking Institutions Act, 2016
(Act 930) without delay.
He said the Act sought to facilitate the
development of the financial sector and provide
an appropriate and robust legal framework to
deal with emerging risks and vulnerabilities in
the banking system.
He said the Act addressed supervisory and
regulatory gaps to enable the Bank of Ghana
superintend over financial service providers in
the micro-finance industry.
The Act also ensures financial consumer
protection, promotion of innovation and financial
inclusion.

15/08/2017

HOW NDC COLLAPSED BUSINESS – NANA ADDO DANKWAH AKUFFO ADDO
TELLS IT ALL:

President Akufo-Addo in a handshake with Alan
Kyerematen (right) Minister of Trade and
Industry
President Akufo-Addo yesterday gave a vivid
account of how the erstwhile Mahama-led
National Democratic Congress (NDC)
administration literally collapsed a host of
companies in the country.
Speaking at the second edition of the National
Policy Summit (NPS) under the aegis of the
Trade and Industry Ministry under the theme,
‘The Industrial Transformation of Ghana,’ in
Accra yesterday, he noted that during the period,
“a significant number of small, medium and large
scale operators were all brought to their knees
as a result of four years of ‘dumsor’ (intermittent
power supply), induced by the mismanagement
of the energy sector.”
Evidence
He quoted a report by the Institute for Social,
Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER)
which indicated that ‘dumsor’ cost the country
$680 million in economic activity in 2014 alone,
the equivalent of 2% of GDP.
He noted, “The four years of ‘dumsor’
cumulatively led to a loss of more than $3 billion
in economic activity, and, in the process,
thousands and thousands of Ghanaians lost their
jobs.
“The poor performance of industry and the
business sector in general, could
also be attributed to other challenges they faced,
including, but not limited to, lack of access to
finance, high interest rates, an unstable
exchange rate, high import duties on raw
materials and machinery, poor facilitation of
import and export trade, particularly at our ports,
inadequate and poor quality of raw materials for
industrial processing, a poorly developed
domestic trade infrastructure, lack of effective
collaboration between research institutions and
industry, limited access to serviced land for
industrial production activities and poor
standards of regulation and certification.”
Also, he indicated that “The industrial sector has
suffered one of the most significant setbacks in
our history over the past few years.”
That, the president said, was evident in the fact
that “in 2014, for example, industry, which in
2008 – the last year of the government of the
great Ghanaian statesman, His Excellency John
Agyekum Kufuor, former President of the
Republic – had grown to 15.1%, slumped to
0.8%, in 2015 to 0.3%, and further down to -1.4%
in 2016. In 2015, manufacturing recorded a
negative growth of -2%, while mining recorded a
negative growth of -3.8%.”
Whiles recognising the fact that macroeconomic
stability is necessary in the development of the
nation, he noted, “but not sufficient condition for
economic transformation.”
Plan
It is for this reason that he has said, “The NPP’s
agenda for economic growth and job creation is
underpinned by a programme of rapid and
aggressive industrialisation and value addition,
especially in agro-processing and light
manufacturing.
“Our strategy is to address these challenges
comprehensively in ways that will enable industry
to thrive and become a major source of jobs,
economic growth and prosperity.”
President Akufo-Addo set out his government’s
agenda for industrial transformation, which is
anchored on building the competitiveness of
existing local industries by facilitating access to
medium and long term financing at low interest
rates; implementing the ‘One District, One
Factory’ (1D1F) initiative – designed to bring
industrialisation to the doorsteps of the people –
introducing strategic anchor industrial initiatives
which will create new growth poles for the
Ghanaian economy and establishing industrial
parks and special economic zones – at least one
in each of the ten regions – ‘One Region, One
Park.’
It also includes promoting small and medium
scale enterprise development; establishing an
industrial sub-contracting exchange that will link
SMEs to the supply chain of large scale
enterprises; promoting export diversification with
particular emphasis on non-traditional exports;
improving domestic retail trade and promoting
domestically manufactured goods (‘Made in
Ghana’) goods, among other measures.

14/08/2017

GALAMSEY LINKED TO KIDNEY FAILURES; 65 CASES REPORTED IN Tarkwa, Ghana

Authorities believe many are suffering from the
condition because of the chemicals they are
exposed
Authorities of the Central Regional Hospital have
disclosed, they are recording increasing cases of
kidney infection from persons linked to illegal
mining.
Hospital authorities believe many are suffering
from the condition because of the chemicals
they are exposed to, such as mercury.
Chief Executive of the Hospital Dr Daniel Asare
says many are rushed from Tarkwa and other
mining towns to the Hospital for kidney dialysis.
"It is pathetic…65 of them are on dialysis," he
said during a visit by Health Minister to the
region Monday.
Mercury is commonly used in mining for gold
attraction, especially among small and artisanal
mining industry. But if not properly handled, the
chemical can cause permanent kidney damage.
A large amount in the bloodstream may cause
massive blood and fluid loss from diarrhoea and
kidney failure, leading to death.
But the Minerals Commission's weak regulatory
framework means it is easily procured by
unlicensed miners.
The silvery-white substance was found on sale in
at least 10 shops in Tarkwa, a report by
ghanabusinessnews has revealed.
A report by Human Rights Watch testified to the
unregulated use of the substance in mining
areas in Ghana.
"I watched miners mix liquid mercury in pans
filled with ore in order to attract the gold
particles. They then held this gold-mercury
amalgam over an open fire to burn off the
mercury and retrieve the raw gold. Even children
were working with mercury," the report said.
"One of them, 12-year-old “Kwame,” told me: “I
burn it on my own, where I get fire, at my
mother’s house or any place.” Kwame carried a
small bottle of mercury with him at all times. He
and his fellow miners had never been told about
its dangers".
Chief Executive of the Hospital Dr Daniel Asare
explained the financial problems associated with
treating kidney infections and said the patients
pay 190cedis per week for dialysis treatment.
"Any of us here would be poor if you are put on
dialysis for the rest of your life. In the absence
of kidney transplant, we have to sell everything
you have."
Ghana ratified the Minamata Convention on
Mercury in March 2017 which obliges
governments to reduce mercury use in artisanal
and small-scale gold mining but that is only
observed in breach.

The Historians.

26/07/2019

10/07/2019

09/07/2019

09/07/2019

09/07/2019

09/07/2019

16/08/2017

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14/08/2017

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