The report that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has trimmed down the number of ministries in his second administration from 36 to 29 and that the number of ministers, deputy ministers and regional ministers to be appointed will not exceed 85 dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has trimmed down the number of ministries in his second administration from 36 to 29.
Consequently, the number of ministers, deputy ministers and regional ministers to be appointed will not exceed 85.
The list of qualified Ghanaians who will serve as ministers and deputy ministers in President Akufo-Addo’s second term will be released this week as soon as Parliament constitutes its Appointments Committee.
The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr. Eugene Arhin, told Graphic Online in Accra Tuesday that the list, which would be printed on green sheets in the form of a statement, would contain a mixture of both old and new ministers, but the number would certainly not go beyond 85, as against the 126 in the first term.
Mr. Arhin indicated that the list would exclude former Members of Parliament (MPs) who were appointed ministers or deputy ministers but who could not secure re-election in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
He said that since President Akufo-Addo was sworn in for a second term, he had taken a number of significant decisions with regard to appointments.
The newspaper says that US President-elect Joe Biden is to undo one of Donald Trump’s last actions in office by blocking his decree lifting Covid travel bans on visitors from much of Europe and Brazil.
Mr Biden’s spokeswoman said now was not the time to be easing travel measures.
Joe Biden will take office at 12:00 (17:00 GMT) on Wednesday. However, much of the spotlight is on Mr Trump’s final moves, including presidential pardons.
Security is intense in Washington DC ahead of the inauguration ceremony.
Thousands of National Guard reserve soldiers have been deployed in the wake of the storming of the Capitol building by a pro-Trump mob on 6 January that left five people dead.
The FBI had earlier warned of possible protests across the nation by right-wing extremists emboldened by the invasion
The US imposed travel restrictions on Europe last March and the Brazilian entry ban was put in place in May, but the White House decreed on Monday that the entry ban would end on 26 January, six days after Mr Biden takes office.
Just minutes later, Mr Biden’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said on Twitter: “On the advice of our medical team, the administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19.”
The Times says that by unanimous decision, the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an application by former President John Mahama, seeking the Electoral Commission (EC) to answer certain questions of fact in the 2020 election petition.
The petitioner couched the questions in the nature of interrogatories which by law is a procedure that helps set out, narrow down or determine the issues for trial of a case.
In moving the motion for leave of the court to elicit answers from the EC, lead counsel for President Mahama, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, noted that the questions were relevant and very much at the heart of the petition.
Some of the questions the petitioner sought answers for relates to the practice in previous presidential elections involving collated figures, whether the practice are followed in terms of transmission of figures from regional to the EC headquarters, when the EC got to know there were errors with the declared figures, how the Chairperson of the EC got to know the errors, and whether the National Communications Authority (NCA) facilitated the transmission of results to the EC headquarters.
But the seven-member panel presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah held that although the basis for the application was to assist the court to narrow the issues for trial, they must be relevant to the case.
The newspaper reports that 97 people, including 37 females, were yesterday arrested by the police for failing to wear nose masks in the Accra metropolis.
This follows directive by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the police to enforce the mandatory wearing of nose masks to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The exercise was conducted at CMB, Farisco and Railway Station, and other parts of the metropolis.
The Accra Regional Police Command Public Relations Officer (PRO) Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, who disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times, in Accra, yesterday, said possibly warning letters would be issued to suspects.
In a related development, the Kaneshie Divisional Police Commander Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Edward Faakye-Kumi, led police in ensuring that traders and people at Kaneshie market area wore nose masks.
He said the police ensured that all travelers wore nose masks before they continued their journey, as personnel undertook snap checks in vehicles, at the market and shopping centres and transport stations.
GIK/APA