The nomination of seven justices of the Supreme Court by the the Chief Justice to adjudicate the presidential election petition to determine whether or not President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the validly elected President of Ghana is the leading story in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that the Chief Justice of Ghana has empaneled seven justices of the Supreme Court to adjudicate the presidential election petition to determine whether or not President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the validly elected President of Ghana.
The presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. John Dramani Mahama, is challenging the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
It is the second presidential election petition in the history of Ghana, after the first one in 2012.
The Chief Justice himself, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, has elected to be a member of the panel and therefore presiding over the panel.
Other members of the panel are Justice Yaw Apau, Samuel Kofi Marful-Sau, Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey, Nene A. O. Amegatcher, Gertrude Torkonoo and Mariama Owusu.
The newspaper says that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to remain united and maintain their morale.
He advised them not to waste their energy on pointing fingers at one another and apportioning blame because that would not inure to the party’s vision of leading the country into prosperity and progress.
The President made the call when he met with the Greater Accra regional and constituency executives of the NPP at the Jubilee House yesterday.
Just after the 2020 polls, some members of the NPP started apportioning blame. Some of them blamed regional and national executives for causing the party’s loss of some parliamentary seats due to the manner in which parliamentary primaries were organised.
President Akufo-Addo encouraged members and sympathisers of the NPP to be content with the results of the 2020 general election, particularly the presidential election, in which he secured 51.3 percent of the votes cast.
He told them to feel proud of the confidence majority of Ghanaians had reposed in the NPP administration.
The Graphic also reports that the price of eggs in the Bono Region, considered to be one of the hubs for the production of the commodity, has risen by about 50 percent within the last two months, causing concerns among poultry industry players.
The price of a crate of egg, which was between GH¢13 and GH¢18 in November last year, depending on the size of the eggs, is now between GH¢20 and GH¢25.
Wholesalers in the region have expressed concern about the situation, especially the decision by customers in Accra and Tamale not to allow them to deliver their weekly consignments due to the high price of the product, which includes transportation, handling and other associated costs.
Apart from the wholesalers, boiled and fried egg vendors on the streets, markets and lorry stations are also complaining about low patronage.
Madam Grace Osei Tutu, a wholesaler at the Sunyani Market, told the Daily Graphic that “many of us are not able to sell to our customers in the other regions as it used to be”.
She explained that the price was increased due to the high cost of maize, soybeans and other ingredients used in the production of poultry feed.
The Times says that Ghana’s inflation rate increased to 10.4 percent in December last year from 9.8 percent in November.
This represents a month-on-month change rate of 0.9 percent and a year-on-year change rate of 2.5 percent.
The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, who announced this at news conference in Accra yesterday, attributed the rise in the December rate to the increase in food inflation, which rose from 5.3 percent in November to 59.1 percent in December.
He explained that vegetable and the fish and other seafood sub-classes drove the hike in food inflation rate, with 24.2 and 22.9 percent increase respectively.
“The increased rate of food inflation is the predominant reason for increased overall inflation, as without this increase, year-on-year inflation would have been lower than last month,” he said.
According to the Government Statistician, the hike in food inflation was the highest since April 2020 when the Coronavirus (COVID-19) started to affect the country.
Prof .Annim indicated that non-food inflation decreased from 8.3 percent in November to 7.7 percent in December with an average increase of 8.5 percent in 2020.
GIK/APA