The dismissal by former President John Dramani Mahama of involvement in a coup plot as claimed by the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, alias Abronye, is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that former President John Dramani Mahama has rubbished claims by the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, alias Abronye, that he (Mahama) was involved in a coup plot.
The former President in a statement issued by his Special Aide, Mrs Joyce Bawah Mogtari, on Tuesday rebuffed the claims by Abronye, saying that he “has not met with any group of people, let alone a terrorist group to plot to stage a coup d’etat.”
Abronye was arrested on Tuesday after making those allegations on radio.
He has been charged with two counts of publication of false news and offensive conduct conducive to breach of the peace.
He has, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been granted bail in the sum of GH₵100,000.
Mr Mahama in his statement added that he is a democrat and a strong believer in strengthening democracy not only in Ghana but also across the continent of Africa.
“Therefore, any attempt to align or associate him with anti-democratic activities, acts of destabilization, and abuse of human and other rights, cannot be true,” the statement said.
He further described the allegations against him as “despicable and reprehensible.”
The newspaper says that a grant scheme meant to provide a comprehensive demand-based support package to 60 small businesses in the manufacturing sector has been launched.
The SME Grant Scheme for Job Creation is a project supported by Invest for Jobs, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).
An amount of €350,000 has been earmarked to pilot the project.
Consequently, SMEs under the project will benefit from technical training as well as financial assistance for the procurement of critical machinery, tools, and equipment needed for the core operations of their businesses.
It seeks to enhance the productivity, efficiency, competitiveness, innovation and job creation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The project was officially inaugurated during the opening session of a three-day training workshop under the scheme in Accra on February 8.
The SMEs were trained in areas such as supply chain management and financial management. It also served as an opportunity for peer learning among the SMEs.
The Team Leader of Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation (Invest for Jobs), Mr John Duti, explained that the project sought to support SMEs through a combination of technical training (supply chain management and financial management training), business coaching as well as financial assistance for the procurement of critical machinery, tools, and equipment needed for the core operations of their businesses.
The Graphic also reports that Mensin Gold Bibiani Limited, owned by Canadian-based Asante Gold Corporation, is to resettle more than 70,000 residents in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipality in the Western North region of Ghana as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concludes its public hearing to grant a permit to the firm to begin surface mining.
Chiefly to be affected are the Old town and Zongo community at Bibiani and indeed, the roads that connect the town and Goaso following a likely “pit cut back” (expansion).
Also, a committee is to be put in place to handle all compensation issues especially of those whose farms are to be affected while a special bypass is to be created for those who may have to access the mines before getting to their farms.
At the public hearing at Bibiani on Monday to get the buy-in of residents in the 16 communities, the people led by the president of the National House of Chiefs who also doubles as the head of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyabi, agreed in principle to the draft concept but called for the modification of the diversion of some of the roads and the need to employ more locals in the firm.
The chief for instance urged the EPA to issue out the permit with dispatch but insisted on skills training for the youth within the next four years to enable them to gain employment.
Subsequently, he has donated a site for the construction of a branch of the University of Mines and Technology (UmaT), Tarkwa, to that effect.
The Ghanaian Times says that Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal are partnering with German biotechnology company, BioNTech SE, to fill, finish, and package BioNTech mRNA vaccines in Africa, as a first step in the chain of domestic vaccine production which will to improve vaccine supply in Africa.
This was announced at a high-level meeting in Marburg, Germany, yesterday where President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, together with Presidents Macky Sall and Paul Kagame of the Republics of Senegal and Rwanda respectively, witnessed the presentation of a BioNtech modular production facility solution for the production of mRNA vaccines in Africa.
The event was also attended by President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation.
Together with BioNTech’s CEO and Co-Founders Prof. Ugur Sahin and CMO, Prof. Özlem Türeci, and COO Dr Sierk Poetting, they jointly discussed the infrastructural, regulatory and technological requirements to establish an end-to-end manufacturing network for mRNA-based vaccines in Africa.
BioNTech SE has introduced this approach to establish scalable vaccine production by delivering turnkey mRNA manufacturing facilities based on a container solution. At a high-level meeting at BioNTech’s manufacturing facility in Marburg, and at the invitation of kENUP Foundation, the company presented the container solution named “BioNTainer” to key partners of its efforts in Africa.
Describing the modular production facility as a “BioNTainer,” it will consist of one drug substance and one drug product module, each built of six ISO sized containers. They are clean rooms which BioNTech equips with state-of-the-art semi-automated manufacturing solutions.
Each module requires 800 sqm of space and offers an estimated capacity of several hundred of million doses of mRNA-based vaccines depending on the specific vaccine.
The newspaper reports that former President John Agyekum Kufuor has postulated that the experiences of military takeovers cannot be recommended for any generation to embrace.
“I will advise against any attempt to stage a coup d’état in the country or the sub-region so coup d’états are not an experience I will recommend for any generation and I will not advise anybody to hail a coup d’état.
“It comes from faceless people you do not know, who have not given anything to keep for you or to manage for you, and they may not even be competent enough to do anything and if they takeover, they use it as an opportunity and come to impose themselves on you and destroy your life and is this what anybody should want?,” former President Kufuor quizzed.
According to him, coup d’états thrived when some governments tend to lapse and there was bad governance one way or the other and when governments do not take care of their security arrangements or they do not show appreciation of the geo-politics of the neighbourhood then coup d’états might happen and sanctions by the sub-regional blocs do not bite.
“Sanctions of regional bodies like Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and African Union (AU) on coup-makers does not bite and are not deterrent enough so coups makers think their sanctions will not bite them economically or politically or socially, they just carry on in spite of the declaration of these regional groupings.
“These associations or groupings or blocs must begin to think very seriously on how to give the constitutional provisions the bite so when they say do not stage coup d’états and you stage it they must sanction the coup plotter severely and they know perhaps it is not profitable to try it,” former President Kufuor pointed out.
The former president urged African Heads of State to try to live by their oath to the people because it was the underpinning of good governance, rule of law, democratic dispensation and use constitutional means to convince the citizenry to amend the constitution or reform the constitution to lengthen tenure a bit to avoid being smarter than them.
GIK/APA