The reaction of the President of the Small Scale miners Association of Ghana, Michael Peprah to President Akufo-Addo’s endorsement of the burning of excavators seized from illegal miners dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that the President of the Small Scale miners Association of Ghana, Michael Peprah, has express disappointment in President Akufo-Addo’s endorsement of the burning of excavators seized from illegal miners.
The president on Wednesday reaffirmed his determination to root out illegal mining and stated that the burning of equipment used for the pollution of water bodies and forest reserves will not cease till the criminal acts are halted.
But speaking on the Accra-based radio station, Starr FM on Thursday, May 27, 2021, Mr. Peprah said that he was shocked at the comments by President Akufo-Addo.
He said they didn’t expect the president to speak in the manner in which he did, adding that, “When we had a stakeholder meeting with them, they didn’t mention anything about the burning of excavators. I don’t think the President is a lawyer because if he were, he wouldn’t have spoken the way he did. And how dare we make the military appear as judges?
“We shouldn’t embolden the military to go about burning excavators. That’s not how rule of law works in a country… we were not expecting our president to speak like this, honestly,” he stressed.
He added that, “I know there are some who believe that the ongoing exercise of ridding our water bodies and forest zones of harmful equipment and machinery is unlawful and in some cases harsh. I strongly disagree and I will advise those who take a contrary view to go to court to vindicate their position if they so wish. That is what the rule of law is all about?”
The newspaper says that the Forestry Commission has nursed more than five million seedlings of different tree species for the tree planting exercise on Friday, June 11, 2021.
The seedlings, including mahogany, acacia and rosewood, will be distributed to various faith-based organisations, traditional authorities, youth groups, state agencies, private entities and individuals to be planted in their various localities.
The commission has consequently started a national sensitisation exercise being championed by the 60-member national planning committee overseeing the implementation of the Green Ghana Project to whip up public interest in the exercise.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban S. K. Bagbin, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, and some prominent chiefs and religious leaders are expected to plant a tree each on June 11.
The Deputy Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Mr Sulemana Nyadia Nelson, disclosed this when he visited Tamale and Savelugu last Tuesday to inspect some tree nurseries and planting sites for the exercise.
He also paid courtesy calls on the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, and the Paramount Chief of Tamale, Gukpe Naa Alhassan Abdulai, to seek their support for the Green Ghana project.
Speaking to the media after the tour, Mr. Nelson expressed satisfaction with preparations for the exercise, and said it would contribute to the preservation of the environment.
“We need to do something dramatic to fight the menace of tree felling; given the extent of damage caused, if we don’t mobilise Ghanaians to help restore the vegetation, in the next 20 years we can’t survive,” Mr. Nelson stated.
He said the exercise was non-political, but a joint responsibility for which more broad-based support was needed to address the degradation of Ghana’s forests and ecosystem.
The Graphic also reports that following the drastic surge of Covid-19 cases in India this May, Ghanaians have in a gesture of brotherliness, provided a donation of medical grade 150 oxygen concentrators to needy hospitals in that country.
This equipment are being shared among 30 health facilities in rural areas across 14 different states.
Additionally, seven units of 10-litre-oxygen concentrators are being presented by the Government of Ghana to the India’s Ministry of External Affairs, through the Ghana High Commission in New Delhi.
This gesture makes Ghana the first African country to have undertaken such an initiative.
An oxygen concentrator is a device that concentrates the oxygen from a gas supply by selectively removing nitrogen to supply an oxygen-enriched gas stream.
Medical oxygen becomes essential for treatment of severe COVID-19 patients.
Mr. Amar Deep S. Hari, the Chief Executive Officer of IPMC, who commissioned the items, on a virtual platform, for distribution from India’s famous mosque Dargah Nizamuddin in New Delhi, India, expressed his gratitude to Ghanaians for this assistance.
“This gesture is mainly to show that Ghanaians from Africa are thinking of our Indian brothers and sisters and keeping their wellbeing in our prayers,” he said.
The Times says that internet adoption has more than doubled globally since 2010, however, the majority of countries with lower rates of internet access are in Africa, according to the World Economic Forum.
In Ghana specifically, DataReportal’s figures in January 2021 reveal that while internet penetration sat at 50 percent, mobile connections stood equivalent to 132,8 per cent of the population.
As such, in a bid to make trading accessible to everyone, INFINOX, a leading global CFD trading broker launched its IX Social mobile app in Ghana.
Referring to PwC’s Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020-2024 report, Dany Mawas, Regional Director at INFINOX, said that smartphone internet access is on the rise and more consumers are accessing the internet on their mobile phones.
“Considering that this is the largest singular contributing device to consumer data usage, our aim is to put the power of trading in peoples hands.”
“IX Social provides clients with the interactive functionality to social trade, see what other traders are doing, and follow and engage with them,” he explained.
“Trading can be lonely, and the method of social trading allows users to connect with successful and profitable traders, and copy their trading strategies. Furthermore, once following a certain trader, users have the ability to be notified each time they trade.”
GIK/APA