The resumption of President Akufo Addo at Jubilee House after a two-week self-isolation at home and the kick-off of the WAEC examinations in Ghana are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is resuming work at the Jubilee House today after being in isolation for 14 days since July 4, 2020.
Speaking at a national COVID-19 update briefing in Accra on Sunday, July 19, the Minister of Information, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the President would “attend to business from and out of his office at the Jubilee House from Monday”.
He said that the President had tested negative after the 14-day precautionary self-isolation.
He said the precautionary isolation was on the advice of doctors after at least one person within his close circle tested positive a couple of weeks ago.
The newspaper says that after months of uncertainty and apprehension arising out of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) kicks off for Ghanaian candidates today.
In all, 375,737 candidates from 976 schools will be writing the examination at 796 centres throughout the country.
Out of the figure, about 188,163 are females, while the remaining 187,573 are males.
Commenting on the readiness of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the Head of the National Office of WAEC, Mrs. Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, said with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of examination personnel, including invigilators, had been scaled up due to the social distancing protocol, which had necessitated the use of additional classrooms.
The Times reports that the Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday, started the fourth phase of the voter registration exercise in all the 16 regions, as the country prepares for the December 7, general elections.
The fourth phase, just like the second and third, would see officials of the Commission move from one centre to the other in the same constituencies where the mass compilation of new voters register was ongoing.
This follows a day rest on Saturday, July 18, for the general registration for officers at various centres, although the same day saw the continuation of the exercise at Senior High Schools (SHSs) and prisons.
The report added that during the last update, the Commission said that, it had registered a total of 7,279,237 in 16 days, which represented 48.5 percent of the targeted 15 million applicants for the exercise.
The newspaper says that the Electoral Commission has sacked two officials for alleged illegal registration in a house.
The two officials, Mumuni Abilla Yusuf, 26 and Mohammed YushawKongsoha, 32, were arrested in a private house in the Tamale South Constituency registering potential voters.
The Northern Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Kwabena Acheampong Otuo in an interview said that the two were arrested upon a police intelligence report.
The suspects Yusif, a data entry clerk and Kongsoha, registration officer at Kpanshegu registration cluster in the North East Gonja District in the Savannah region were found at Vittin in the Tamale Metropolis.
He said when a search was conducted in the room; one Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kit was recovered.
Supt Otuo further stated that at the time of the arrest of the two, 12 persons including 10 males and two females had been registered.
GIK/APA