The report by the Ghana Health Service of a total of 851 cases of COVID-19 in 20 days and the reaction of former President John Mahama to several calls to vacate his petitioning the Supreme Court over the outcome of the December 7, 2020 presidential polls are some of the trending stories in Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has reported a total of 851 cases of COVID-19 in 20 days between December 8, 2020, and December 27, 2020.
There has also been eight deaths and 1,919 recoveries/discharges within the same period.
The GHS resumed reporting figures on December 8 after a 15-day lull which started on November 22, 2020, when the country had 775 active cases and 323 deaths from the disease.
The report said that the Director-General of Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, had disclosed that his outfit was expecting a spike in cases over the Christmas holidays due to commercial and social activities, as well as travels.
“For the Christmas there is going to be increase in commercial activities that will obviously increase the risk of spread. Especially when we have majority of the cases in Accra, people and commercially people are coming into Accra to buy and going to sell in another town that creates another area we have to be careful about so these are some of the reason why we have to up the game so as at the protocols are concerned,” Dr Kuma-Aboagye said at a press briefing on December 10, 2020.
“There will be increase in travelling within the country around the Christmas time people are going to criss-cross the country. There is also going to be increase in social gathering activities. People are going for parties these are all spots that we have to look at to ensure we don’t have a spread,” he added.
The newspaper says that former President John Dramani Mahama has said that many persons were impressing upon him to vacate his petitioning the Supreme Court over the outcome of the December 7, 2020 presidential polls.
He said those people continually ask him what it is he is seeking to gain from the exercise.
And according to the former president and candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the election, his answer to that question is that he is seeking the same thing President Akufo-Addo, then candidate of the New Patriotic Party in the election, sought when he petitioned the apex court in 2012.
Mahama caused his lawyers to file the petition on Wednesday afternoon, and explained why he chose to go to court, during a late night broadcast.
“Let me tell you: I want, perhaps, the very same thing that my opponent wanted when in 2012 he challenged the results of that election; I want the removal of doubt. I want for all of us to know that our elections should be free, fair, and safe—and that we do not have to settle for a process that leaves us confused, and with more questions than answers.
“I want a Ghana where institutions of state can be held to account. Where we can stand on principle and demand transparency without the risk of losing our lives”, he said.
The Graphic reports that the international media are reporting the arrest in Italy of a Ghanaian – Adams Suleimani – for allegedly murdering her employer, Agitu Gudeta, the Ethiopian refugee hailed as a symbol of integration in Italy.
Daily Mail reports that the suspect, 32, who worked on Gudeta’s goats farm has confessed to the crime, following a dispute over outstanding wage.
The reports also claim Gudeta was raped while she lay dying after being hit with a blunt object.
Until her death, Agitu Ideo Gudeta, who would have turned 43 on New Year’s Day, was famous for her established cheese business with which she had started with a handful of Alpine goats she tended on her farm in the northern region of Italian Trentino.
“She fled Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, in 2010 after her participation in protests against “land-grabbing” angered local authorities” reports the BBC, which also said she made Italy her home and made goat’s cheese and beauty products on her farm on previously abandoned land in Trentino.
Said Aljazeera: “Gudeta had made her home in the mountains of Trentino’s Valle dei Mocheni, making goat’s cheese and beauty products in her farm La Capra Felice (The Happy Goat), which was built on previously abandoned land.
GIK/APA