Jealous lover stabs Takoradi Poly girlfriend 14 times for cheating

A 27-year-old man, Isaac Kojo Asare is in the grips of the Kwesimintsim Police in Takoradi, for stabbing his girlfriend 14 times over allegations of infidelity.

The victim, a 22-year-old student of the Takoradi Polytechnic, is currently receiving treatment at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital after she was transferred from the Kwesimintsim Polyclinic.

The suspect is the Manager of a Takoradi-based Palm kennel company and is said to have laid ambush in his girlfriend’s neighbourhood at Anaji a suburb of Takoradi, on suspicion that the girlfriend, a Diploma in Business Studies student was cheating on him.

Aside his claims of infidelity, he specifically said he had seen the girl kissing another man, and sought to interrogate the victim. This led to a confrontation during which he pulled out a knife and inflicted multiple wounds on her as she struggled to save herself at about 10:00pm on Wednesday.

The girl was later rescued as she screamed for help in the residential area. She was sent to the Kwesimintsim Polyclinic, whilst the suspect bolted with the knife in his car.

He reported himself a day later to the Kwesimintsim police and has since been remanded in custody.

Kwesimintsim District Police Commander, DSP Yakubu Ayamga told Maxx News the victim, with about 14 knife wounds is responding to treatment at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi.

“The suspect is currently in police custody and is being investigated for a first degree felony offence of causing harm with the use of offensive weapon contrary to section 70 of the Criminal offenses Act 1960, Act 29,” he explained.

The suspect, according to DSP Ayamga, is remorseful for his actions and has explained that he is so much in love with the lady and that he has plans of marrying her.

He claimed to have committed so much to their relationship to the extent that the woman has unlimited access to his bank account and credit card.

DSP Ayamga however said the law will take its course. Friends of the victim have described the suspect as an extremely jealous lover.

SHS GALS DANCE TO SHOW THEIR PRIVATE PARTS

An interesting video that captures female students of a Kumasi-based Senior High School (SHS) exposing their genitals for the cameras is still causing a stir after the video was released last month.

Two of the girls were vividly captured in the video and reports say these two are residents of Madina and Asylum Down in the Greater Accra Region but attend the Kumasi-based SHS.

The school’s uniform is white and green and the students’ track suit is green-coloured with white stripes running from the shoulders, through the sleeves to the wrist.

The video showed the girls dancing on the school compound in front of a dormitory. Some of them were in sexy pants and at a point removed the pants to expose their naked buttocks to the cameras.

One particular student, a light-skinned beautiful teenager was so excited about the video recording that she removed her pants and showed her vagina to the cameras. It was bushy.

While the girls were dancing for the camera, some other students were perching on the corridors of the dormitory from where they cheered the dancing girls and kept calling their names: Richlove, Linda, Muni and Mommie.

It is not immediately clear the reason for which the young girls shot the sexually explicit video but it was recorded with a camera phone by a colleague student who directed the girls on what to do.

The one recording the video made sure her face was not captured.

This is not the first time such a video recording that captures the nakedness of students is reaching the media and it is apparently becoming a trend for Ghanaian youth to capture their nakedness and sometimes sexual intercourse on videos.

Woman with two vaginas rejects $1million offer to make adult film

A woman with two vaginas who has captured the attention of the porn industry has said she would never consider accepting any role in a film.

Hazel Jones appeared on TV earlier this week, where she revealed she was diagnosed with 'uterus didelphys' - a condition which means she has two wombs and two cervixes.

The 27-year-old has since been approached by Vivid Entertainment, a U.S. adult film production company.

But the horrified blonde, from High Wycombe, claims she would turned down any deal.

According to This Morning, she said: 'I have never received any offers of this kind of work nor would I never consider doing it in a million years. 'I just want to be left alone.'

The response comes after founder of Vivid Steven Hirsch wrote a letter to Ms Jones offering her $1m to star in one of his films, TMZ.com revealed. In the letter, Hirsch wrote: 'You are obviously an extraordinary woman and I would like to make you an offer to star in an upcoming Vivid production. 
'We would pay you up to $1 million for your services.'

Hirsch also promised to cover travel and accommodation expenses, as the film would be shot in Los Angeles.

Hirsch wrote: 'We would fly you out to L.A. as soon as you are available and provide you with first class accommodations'

A spokesperson for Vivid confirmed the offer, saying: 'It's true. 'Steven made an offer to Hazel Jones.'

Vivid became the first studio to introduce celebrity sex tapes, showing footage of Pamela Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee and Kim Kardashian. Hazel Jones has yet to respond to the offer.

But she told ITV's This Morning she was comfortable with having the condition - despite the fact she had to effectively lose her virginity twice.

'Once I found out what it was I told everybody,' she told TV hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.

'I thought it was amazing and it's definitely an ice-breaker at parties' She added: 'If women want to have a look, I'm quite happy to show them, it's not something I'm embarrassed by.'

Hazel went to the doctor after her long-term boyfriend told her she was 'different' in the genital area.

Hazel said previously she had found sex very uncomfortable, but now she didn't suffer any adverse effects.

She turned down surgery as it could have left significant scar tissue.




source:The Tabloid

Pastor Chris Fights Pastors Over Masturbation

The Christian community in Ghana is divided and apparently confused on whether to believe Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, leader of the Christ Embassy Church, or Apostle Alfred Kodua, General Secretary of the Church of Pentecost, as the two continue to disagree on whether or not masturbation is a sin.

Pastor Chris has re-affirmed his position that speaking from a biblical perspective, masturbation is not a sin and has absolutely nothing to do with God so persons involved should stop seeing the act as a sin and enjoy themselves if they really want to.

This is the second time Pastor Chris is making this public statement and he has taken a swipe at pastors and persons who criticised him when he first stated publicly that God was not against persons who hid to use their hands to stimulate their genitals for sexual pleasure.

Though Pastor Chris came under massive criticism for his position on masturbation, the man of God has once again uploaded a video on YouTube in which he reaffirms that masturbation should not be confused with lustful thinking and the fact that lustful thinking is a sin of the heart does not mean that masturbation is also a sin.

Pastor Chris cited an example that one cannot say the eating of bread is a sin simply because someone stole and ate bread.

He explained that just as the stealing of bread is not the same as eating of bread so also is lustful imaginations not the same as masturbation so the two should not be confused.

“You can still imagine lustful things in your mind while you eat food or even read the bible so let us get the difference and proper definition of what is sin,” he added.

In the first tape, Pastor Chris was very categorical that masturbation is very okay in the sight of God:

“The reason you want to stop this is because of what you think it is. If you were in the habit of playing football, you probably would not ask us ‘how can I stop playing football?’ 

But because you think there is something wrong with this, that is where your problem is coming from. But no matter how wrong it is in your mind, get this straight: (masturbation) in itself, it is not a sin against God. 

There are many Christians who think it is a sin against God and Satan uses this against them, oppressing their minds and making them feel ineffective and inefficient in the things of God.

“But when you get to understand that it has nothing to do with God and that it is all about you and your own body, then Satan loses his power to use it to accuse you. So if you don’t like it, stop it but God has got nothing to do with it.

It is your own body, masturbation is about you and your body and God is not offended by it.

He is only offended by any habit that takes a hold of your mind and if this takes a hold of your mind and dominates you then, God is offended by the fact that it takes a hold of your mind”.

But Apostle Alfred Kodua insists masturbation is a sin against the body which, according to the Bible, is the ‘Temple of God’.

Apostle Kodua explained further that persons who indulge in masturbation often fantasise about having sex and according to him, any Christian who  thinks lustfully about someone is guilty of the ‘sin of the flesh’; therefore persons who masturbate are having sinful sex in their minds.

Back in Nigeria, scores of pastors have challenged Pastor Chris on his stance on masturbation but in Ghana, Apostle Kodua and the Pentecost Church are the ones taking Pastor Chris on.

click on the right corner to watch a video of Pastor Chris defending his point

source:Ghana Today/NewsOne

JOKE: Breaking News

Breaking News: Chinese couple living in Lagos gave birth to a black baby. In anger, husband asked the wife.... Chu, why baby black? She replied, we live in Nigeria, no electricity.....me hot, u hot, sex hot.....baby burnt!

Bishop Grabs 4 Jets

Bishop Grabs 4 Jets

 

Bishop David Oyedepo cruising in one of his latest jet 

NOT MANY businessmen at age 60 can boast of owning a private jet but 57-year-old Bishop David Oyedepo, Chief Executive of Living Faith Church World Wide, also known as Winners Chapel, is the proud owner of four state-of-the-art private jets.

His latest addition was a Gulfstream V which he personally announced the purchase to his church members and added that his new jet would need to be housed in a $30 million private hanger.

Reports say the new hanger can be compared to the most expensive hangers in Europe and United States and it is currently being built for his jets, near the international wing of Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria.

Before the purchase of the Gulfstream V, Oyedepo already had a Gulfstream 1 which he acquired in 1996, a Gulfstream 4 and a Challenger Aircraft.

The Guinness Book of Records places Bishop Oyedepo’s 50,000-seater church auditorium as the largest church auditorium in the world and his website says they hold four services on Sundays, with each service filled to capacity.

Forbes International recently ranked him as the richest pastor in Nigeria, with an estimated cool $150 million relaxing in his private accounts. He has a publishing company, a private university, an elite private school and homes in London and the United States.

The Nigerian preacher also owns a network of churches in over 300 cities in all states of Nigeria, as well as in over 63 cities in 32 African countries, Dubai, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Though not proved beyond doubt, reports say Oyedepo exploits his congregation and that has been his largest source of income.

GHANA BRANCH
Bishop George Agyeman used to be the Ghanaian branch pastor of Oyedepo’s church. About three years ago, he broke away from Winners Chapel International, the mother church, and formed Winners Chapel Ghana.

The break was reportedly propelled by alleged financial scandals on the part of Oyedepo’s church. There were also reports of how the weekly offertory was changed into huge wads of foreign currency, hidden in car tires and smuggled to Nigeria.

Bishop Agyeman also revealed that before the break, the Ghana branch had been paying $100,000 a month to the mother church in Nigeria, a development which sparked a national debate on whether churches should pay taxes since they could contribute so much for a mother church outside the country.

Bishop Agyeman and fifteen other church elders were subsequently sued by the Winners Chapel International, for occupying the church building after they broke away.

BREAKAWAY IN NIGERIA
A Nigerain based newspaper, Saturday Tribune, reported in 2007 that four bishops and 15 pastors resigned from Oyedepo’s church, following a reorganization he carried out. This resignation, the paper reports, caused ripples in the church, particularly among its leadership.

Among the first set of Bishops that resigned their appointment were Bolu Martins, supervising the Ibadan branch; Thomas Aremu in charge of Kaduna; and one Pastor Olorunda who was posted to Warri but got transferred to Ibadan following the reorganization.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the bishops and pastors who resigned did so following the decision to zone the activities of the church with effect from this year.

Before the decision was taken last year, the church operated on state level, with the state branches being supervised by bishops and pastors.

Though, most of the bishops were reported to have resigned on the grounds that they got the divine call to start their own ministries, sources said it was their own way of protesting the reorganization that would see them carrying out mainly administrative instead of ministering functions.

NAKED AZONTO DANCERS HIT GH NITE CLUBS

NAKED AZONTO DANCERS HIT GH NITE CLUBS

 The "crazy Azonto Phenomenon seems to be like an outbreak airborne disease, it is danced by all and now in every coomunity and is even now popular in neighbouring nigeria with Naija wonder Kid Wizkid releasing a new song titled Azonto. The dance took a crazy turn over the weekend when reasonable normal GH ladies were busy exhibiting their skills in the Azonto dance at a popular nite club in Accra not in clothes but in complete nakedness. It was an eye-saw when most gentle descent looking men stood busily starring and splashing valuable cedis at these ladies whiles their ladies stood embarrassed and disappointed at the site of the goodies of their fellow women.speaking to the owner of this nite club (he/she) said the nite club had a very great turnout that night and made very good money that day so it was going to be a regular thing as their guest will be expecting that the next time it opens. we asked if it was a planned thing and the people knew about it (he/she) replied "yes it was planned and the people got to know about it when they got here. When asked how it could change the turnout (he/she) said "the guys started calling their friends and they got here".although the source peacefmonline could not authenticate the source of the pictures, they further gathered that some men went wild and took off their shirts and enjoyed erotic lap dances from these naked dancers.

The question we ask now is, so is the naked Azonto dance going to be the next phenomenon.well am pretty it wouldn't be a good thing for Ghana,we pray it doesn't last for long.















soource: www.peacefmonline.com

GHANA TODAY SPECIAL

GHANAIANS IN ITALY MAKING OVER $5000 FROM HUNTING TRUFFLE FUNGUS(MUSHROOMS) PER HUNT

Italy and France may have brought fame and fortune to the truffle -- a rare mushroom and culinary delicacy -- but this precious fungus can actually be found all over the world if you know where to look.

White truffle washed and cut
some Ghanaians in the diaspora may be doing
very difficult and tidious work out there in the cold to make good money but hunting for mushrooms to earn as much as $5000 dollars thus a good GHC8500 per hunt may sound unbelievable and simple but hey it is the hottest business for most Ghanaians and Africans in Italy today.Ghana Today spoke to a Ghanaian in Italy Mr.John Ato Kwamena who said he now feels comfortable living in Italy since his Mexican friend introduced him to this business.john further said "most Ghanaians are now doing this and is very good for us,its not only us Ghanaians but some Italian and mexicans do it too,it has a very good market now i sell about $2000 to $2200 of truffle fungus a week its better than what i used to do six months ago".
In a report by BBC's travelwise documentary it described the truffle fungus as the most expensive fungus in the world and is now a very expensive and demanding commodity in the world and could be compared to other commodities like cocoa and coffee some years to come and for this many farmers in the world are now finding ways to grow it for commercial purposes.

The rare European white truffle can be found in Italy’s Piedmont region, growing among the roots of poplar, beech, hazelnut, oak and willow trees. (Oliver Strewe/LPI)

The million dollar question we ask is for those Ghanaians making such good money out there, would they introduce their new found experience home to grow this new money making commodity here where the conditions are favourable for such an ideal product.no one knows but them
Upon further research from the agricultural college of Ghana the truffle fungus can be found in almost every part of Ghana and could be a good business to make money if the government can pay attention to it.

souce:Ghana Today,BBC,Wikkipedia

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International sports

City fans ready to forgive and forget

After the much anticipated return of Carlos Tevez in last night's 2-1 victory over Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium, GMF asked Manchester City fans who their favourite striker is.

Coming off the bench to set up the winning goal for Samir Nasri could well have contributed to 58% of participants selecting the Argentine forward as the man they love most.

His countryman Sergio Aguero was second with 29% followed by the young Italian Mario Balotelli 10%, while Bosnian Edin Dzeko received just 3% of fans' support.
The 6ft 4in striker Dzeko perhaps predictably was least favoured with a somewhat inelegant style of play. But what a forth option he is to have. A record of 66 goals in 111 Bundesliga games is something that any striker would be proud of. It is the reason that he is Wolfsburg's leading league goalscorer.

13 league goals in 25 Premier League appearances this season is a healthy, one goal every other game, return for the 26-year-old frontman, that cost City £27 million in 2011.

Perhaps if a survey was produced to the whole country then the temperamental Balotelli may have had more popularity but he lies third choice amongst the City supporters.

The 21-year-old followed manager Roberto Mancini from Inter Milan to City in August 2010, after adding the Serie A championship and the Champions League to his CV.

He recently squashed many entertaining rumours that followed him - such as dressing up as Santa and handing out money - during a BBC interview with Noel Gallagher, which may have affected his popularity.

Aguero joined City for a reported £38 million from Atletico Madrid and announced his arrival with a brace against Swansea City in his opening game in front of the home fans.

Affectionately known in South America as 'Kun' the short powerful striker became the youngest player to appear in the Argentine Premier League at just 15 years and 13 days old.

But 11 goals in 19 Premier League games has not been enough for him to become the number one Argentine at the club.

That title rests with the man who led the team to their first silverware under the club's new billionaire owners. He was the signal of intent from the club in 2009 when he joined from rivals Manchester United and the City fans are not going to forget the 20 league goals that helped City taste Champions League football for the first time this year.

Carlos Tevez it, seems, has been forgiven for everything that he has gone through in the past six months, and City fans will be hoping that he can help them win the Premier League with a last big push.

SPORTS TODAY

It's Desailly - As FA Headhunts

The Ghana Football Association has started head-hunting for the next coach of the Black Stars, with former France skipper, Marcel Desailly, tipped to succeed the departed Goran ‘Plavi’ Stevanovic.

The procedure, GFA sources have revealed, will enable the GFA to appoint a personality with a background suitable for Ghanaian purposes rather than merely scrutinising a CV and accompanying terms of engagement.

The head-hunt departs from the previously-adopted method of receiving applications from qualified and interested candidates, and the source said matters of adaptability to or familiarity with Ghanaian culture have become critical in the wake of challenges that have dogged the Black Stars lately.

And with the Stars set to begin 2013 Nations Cup and 2014 World Cup qualifiers in June, the source said the GFA would fill the post by the end of April.

The GFA last Monday finally confirmed it had severed ties with Serbian Plavi after just one year and one month of his two-year contract, naming Plavi’s assistant, Kwasi Appiah, as interim head coach.

But the GFA source told Graphic Sports that with virtually no activity within the next one-and-a-half months, the next coach would be appointed in time to prepare the Stars for the games against Zambia and Lesotho in June.

The prime candidate, the source said, remained Desailly, a former World Cup, European championship and UEFA Champions League winner who has acquired the pro license certificate, the highest qualification obtainable in football coaching.

With a clout that stands up to any football personality anywhere in the world, the advantage lies in Desailly’s Ghanaian background, the source said.

Besides, he is said to be uninterested in the official accommodation and vehicle, while the fact that he is resident in Ghana is all the more viewed as solution to the absenteeism that characterised the regimes of expatriates.

Brazilian World Cup winner, Carlos Dunga, was reported to be interested in the Black Stars job, but with Ghana unlikely to match the seven-digit salary he was worth as Brazil coach leading up to their exit from the 2010 World Cup, that possibility is a long shot.

The source said the GFA was yet to contact Desailly who pulled out of the race for the job in 2010 after an aggressive campaign in the media by supposed agents of Plavi forced him to pull out before his interview for the job.

Nana Boroo Hits Back at Okraku Mantey

Nana Boroo Hits Back at Okraku Mantey

For music producer Okraku Mantey Ghana's Artist of the year Sarkodie is to be blamed for the disqualification of the R2Bees hit song "Agyeii" from the 2012 VGMA's.Okraku mantey pointly accused sarkodie for using profane lyrics in his part of the track which he doesn't use in his own music.talking to the graphic showbiz okraku mantey said Sarkodie is not noted for singing profane so he was surprised he came up with those lyrics on Agyei.

“If Daddy Lumba or A.B Crenstil did that, it wouldn’t have come as a surprise but coming from Sarkodie is shocking. He would naturally not use profane lyrics in his own songs.

“Anyway, I wouldn’t put all the blame on Sarkodie. R2bees should have known better than to allow Sarkodie to use such words on their work”, he added.
Nana Boroo who also featured on the track has also hit back at the music producer saying " Okraku should come again,he knows the industry better,is he trying to pick on sarkodie.we have had worst lyrics than sarkodie's Rap,we just wanted a hit music and that's what we had.the track wasn't meant for award it was for hit.thats it" meanwhile R2bees is said to be in london for a tour with agyeii

Blame It On Sarkodie

Blame It On Sarkodie

As if the disqualification of R2Bees hit song Agyei from this year’s Vodafone Music Awards because of its risque lyrics is not enough, music producer, Mark Okraku Mantey is putting the blame partially at the doorstep of Sarkodie who featured on the song.
According to Okraku, Sarkodie, Ghana’s fastest rapper doesn’t use risque lyrics in his own songs so he doesn’t see why he should do that when featuring on someone else’s work.

Talking to Graphic Showbiz, Okraku said Sarkodie is not noted for singing profane so he was surprised he came up with those lyrics on Agyei.

“If Daddy Lumba or A.B Crenstil did that, it wouldn’t have come as a surprise but coming from Sarkodie is shocking. He would naturally not use profane lyrics in his own songs.

“Anyway, I wouldn’t put all the blame on Sarkodie. R2bees should have known better than to allow Sarkodie to use such words on their work”, he added.

However, the manager of R2bees, Ike Otoo Arhin disagrees with Mark. He said R2Bees doesn’t have a problem with Agyei being disqualified from the VGMA.

“ You see, R2bees has been able to make a very big impact with Agyei. The group did the song not necessarily targeting the Ghana Music Awards but rather coming out with something that Ghanaians will love and I think they have been able to achieve that.

“ Also, the fact that R2bees has been nominated in the other categories in the VGMA is enough to say R2bees did very well last year. I hope R2bees who have been nominated in Artiste of the Year, Best Group of the Year and Hiplife/ HipHop Artiste categories win at least two of the awards.

“As we talk now, R2bees is touring some parts of London with Agyei and would return somewhere next week” the manager told Showbiz.

On his part, a representative of Sarkodie has challenged Okraku to come again: “ Why is he picking on only Sarkodie? Nana Borro who also featured on Agyei used what I believe are more suggestive lyrics so he should leave Sarkodie alone”.

Ghanaians To Study Abroad In Petroleum Industry - Under Scholarship Packages

Ghanaians To Study Abroad In Petroleum Industry - Under Scholarship Packages

The government, in collaboration with oil extraction companies in the country, has arranged several scholarship packages for Ghanaians to pursue further studies abroad in various fields of the petroleum industry.

The initiative, according to the Minister of Energy, Dr Oteng Adjei is to build the capacity of Ghanaian nationals to achieve the desired expertise and know-how in the oil and gas industry.

Dr Oteng Adjei made this known in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Petroleum, Ministry of Energy, Dr Paul Frempong, at the 9th quadrennial delegates’ conference of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union (GTPCWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Koforidua.

The event, on the theme “Repositioning Labour as an Equal Partner in the Oil and Gas Industry”, which was attended by representatives of workers of the union countrywide and sister unions in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, was to take stock of its activities with special regard to the oil find and plan for the future.

According to Dr Oteng Adjei, Ghana’s Jubilee Field with an expected reserve of about 800 million barrels of light crude oil and an upside potential of about 1.8 million barrels, as well as significant quantities of associated natural gas, required a local content policy for effective exploitation.

He stated that such a policy called for Ghanaians to have the required qualification and expertise in the oil and gas sector, adding that it was in that respect that the government was collaborating with companies operating in the sector for a scholarship scheme for Ghanaians to study abroad.

Dr Oteng Adjei, who cited a typical example of advance studies and mentorship programmes initiated by the Ghana National Petroleum Company/Tullow Ghana for 14 Ghanaians to study in universities in the United Kingdom, said such a scheme would in the long term provide Ghana with highly skilled workers in the industry.

That, Dr Oteng Adjei stated, would boost the oil and gas sector to generate the necessary revenue for economic growth and national development to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians.

With regard to the negative effects of oil exploration and extraction, Dr Oteng Adjei said the necessary steps were being taken.

The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Moses Asaga, spoke on the importance of the oil and gas industry to the economy and said in line with the government’s “Better Ghana Agenda”, the Mills’ Administration was doing its best to improve the industry for the benefit of Ghanaians.

He congratulated the GTPCWU on its patriotism and maturity of leadership in dealing with the many challenges which confronted workers within the sector that ensured a peaceful atmosphere on the industrial front.

The General Secretary of the GTPCWU, Mr E. A. Mensah, said his outfit was concern about how the local content policy was being implemented.

He stated that although the policy had all that it should take for Ghanaians to participate meaningfully in the sector, its implementation had been botched with difficulties and wondered whether the provision to achieve 90 per cent local content coverage in 10 years would be achieved.

On the passage of the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Law (E&L), Mr Mensah was not happy that it had not been done a year after the first oil was poured in Ghana and called for speedy action on the issue.

Mr Mensah, who dwelt extensively on the union’s activities, said although a lot had been accomplished, a lot more remained to be done because there were still some unfriendly management issues making it difficult for the union to operate. He, however, expressed the hope that a way would be found in the interest of the workers.

The acting General Secretary of the TUC, Dr Yaw Baah, said the TUC had, since oil was discovered in Ghana five years ago, played and would continue to play its role to ensure efficient management of the oil revenue. Apart from that, Dr Yaw Baah said the TUC would also always ensure that workers employed by the oil companies were protected with good conditions of service.

Earlier, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, in a welcome speech expressed concern about the rate at which land was being sold to expatriates in the wake of the oil find.

According to him, the situation is worrying, since the land belonged to both the present and future generations and called on stakeholders to look into it because it had the potential of threatening the security of the country. Mr Terlabi also called for adequate measures to ensure safety in the oil and gas sector.

The Technical Director of the National Petroleum Authority, Mr Isaac Tagoe, also addressed the gathering, while solidarity messages were read by representatives of sister unions in both Ghana and countries such as Nigeria and Uganda.

Crash in the Ivorian system caused country-wide power outage- GRIDCo

Crash in the Ivorian system caused country-wide power outage- GRIDCo

Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has apologized for the loss of electrical power supply which occurred throughout the country on Wednesday, March 21.

It said the cause of the power outage was as a result of loss of a generator in the Ivorian power system which is interconnected to the Ghana system adding that the loss of the generator led to a frequency decay and instability in the Ghana power system leading to the loss of all power generators in the country.

This was contained in a statement signed by Mr Albert Kwesi Quainoo, Head of Public Relations of GRIDCo to Ghana News Agency on Thursday.

The statement said the Ghanaian and Ivorian power system were continuously interconnected to provide for a more robust system and ensure maximum benefit from the voltage support that the interconnecting line provides.

“GRIDCo further wishes to clarify that the fundamental problem with the power supply situation today is that there is not sufficient generation to meet the load on the system”, it said.

It said for reliability purpose, the generation reserve on line to meet unexpected occurrence such as Wednesday’s situation should have been 160 Megawatts (MW).

The statement said at the time of the collapse on Wednesday, the demand on the power system was 1615.7MW with the generation reserve being only 6 MW instead of the acceptable level of 160 MW.

“With the loss of generation in the Ivorian power system and the resultant automatic export of power into their system, the absence of sufficient generation worsened the frequency decay, leading to its collapse”, it said.**

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Female students sleeping in classrooms

Female students sleeping in classrooms
A total of 30 female students of the St Stephens Secondary Technical School at Asiakwa in the East Akyem Municipality, are sleeping in classrooms due to lack of accommodation.

The female students have no other option than to sleep in their classrooms in the night since the girls’ dormitory could not accommodate all the 190 female student boarders.

The students have to move their furniture outside in order to arrange their mattresses on the floor to pass the night and re-arrange them early in the morning for classes.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr Amoo-Tenkorang Pinnock, the assistant headmaster, said the school was founded in 1978 as a day school and was adopted into the boarding system in 2000 to cater for students outside the community.

He said that situation had brought a lot of challenges to the school since there were no dormitories for the students and that the school had rented premises outside the school for the male students.

Mr Tenkorang said the building, which was meant for a technical block was now being used as an administrative block and that the headmaster’s office looks more of a kitchen than an office.

He said the uncompleted dining hall is also being used as a classroom for the form one students comprising of four different classes including Home Economics, Visual Arts, General Arts One and Two.

Mr Tenkorang appealed to the government and other organizations to come to the aid of the school.

In another development, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the school, on Thursday presented a vehicle worth GH¢22,800 to the school to help transport teachers staying in rented premises to the school.

Receiving the vehicle, Mrs Kate Agyeman Badu, the Municipal Director of Education for East Akyem, and acting headmistress for the school, thanked the PTA for the gesture.**

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UTAG calls off strike

UTAG calls off strike
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has called off its strike after an emergency National Executive Committee meeting on Thursday.

The Association withdrew its teaching services and even threatened to withdraw more services because the Government of Ghana had failed to meet the deadline of March 15 to address their concerns of nonpayment of their salary arrears.

In an interview with Citi News, the National President of UTAG, Dr Anthony Simons, said their decision to call off the strike was due to government’s quick responds to their demands.

He said: “We have restored teaching services; students can go back to class. Yesterday [Wednesday], I had a chat with Hon. [Mahama] Ayariga (Deputy Education Minister), he briefed me on what government had done so far.”

“We also made a check on what he had told us from another source and from all indications, the University of Education, Winneba, has already prepared the vouchers and then hopefully tomorrow [Friday] or Monday, lecturers there would get their money,” Dr. Simons noted.

“So we believe once one or two universities are preparing to pay what they’ve received for payment then we feel government has shown some sort of commitment and there is no need holding on to the strike action.”

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Anane’s Lover Pops Up In Woyome Saga

Alexander O’Brien, former mistress of erstwhile Minister of Roads and Transports in the John Kufour administration, Dr. Richard Anane, is said to have worked closely with embattled businessman and National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that Alexandria O’Brien (also called Alexandra Anane at a point) allegedly played a major role in the Woyome financial engineering and financial restructuring for the controversial CAN 2008 projects which have so far spiralled into a murky GH¢51million judgment debt.

In an interview, Benjamin Kwame Tawiah, close aide to Mr Woyome, was unequivocal in the role played by Alexandra O Brien. “She was in the office of Alfred Agbesi Woyome in the USA, she was working there,” he said, adding, “She contributed immensely to the securing of all this money [the €1.2bn said to have been secured to finance all the projects for the CAN 2008 tournament but never got to Ghana]”.

According to Mr Tawiah, Alexander O’Brien worked at Alexander Van Cleef (Austro Invest’s representative in the United States), a company closely associated with Mr. Woyome. “We are looking at her expertise, we are talking about a high level, qualified lady for international business, Alexandra O’Brien of Alexander Van Cleef, that’s the lady we are talking about,” Mr. Tawiah emphasised.

Sources close to Woyome claimed that the abrogation of the financial engineering role of Mr. Woyome, in the stadium rehabilitation project of Waterville BVI in 2006, was because of the detection of the NDC financier’s alleged link with Woyome.

According to Woyome sources, all the information passed through the Enquirer newspaper in 2005 on the relationship between Dr. Anane and Alexandra was through the embattled NDC businessman.

Alexandra was allegedly quite cooperative with the Enquirer and was passing on damning information about the minister after their relationship went sour.

According to David Tamakloe, a former reporter of the Enquirer and now Editor of the Republic, and a close associate of Mr. Woyome, the Kufuor government apparently found out that Mr. Woyome had close links with the Enquirer newspaper and they consequently became suspicious.

Mr Woyome at the time was also linked to the NPP’s arch-rivals, the NDC, while pretending to be an NPP member.

Mr. Tamakloe told DAILY GUIDE that this could have been one of the underlying reasons why the CAN 2008 project involving Alfred Woyome was torpedoed by the Kufuor government in 2006.

People close to the Woyome camp have not dismissed the assertion that the relationship between Mr. Woyome, the Enquirer newspaper and Alexandra could have played a key role in the Kufuor government’s final decision even though Waterville itself conceded that it could not raise the money for the stadia project.

According to Tawiah, there were a lot of underlying currents that came into play at the time. “These are things that we would be using at the law courts, the thing is that she [Alexandra O’Brien] was working there [in Woyome’s Office] and when the time comes, she will be in town to give testimonies to this whole financial engineering thing.”

When contacted, one time Finance Minister in the Kufuor administration, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, dismissed this line of argument.

He told DAILY GUIDE that Kufuor government’s sole reason for cancelling the tender process of the 2006 stadium rehabilitation project by VAMED (which later transferred its right to Waterville BV) was pure budgetary considerations. “It has nothing to do with Woyome. People keep bringing in Woyome; Woyome had nothing to do with it, the company [that the Kufuor government was dealing with] was VAMED,” he told DAILY GUIDE in a telephone interview.

According to Mr. Osafo-Maafo, technically, there was no contract between the government of Ghana and Waterville because at no point did the government ever write an offer letter to VAMED.

Alfred Agbesi Woyome is currently on a GH¢20 million bail after he was indicted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) a few weeks ago for fraudulent misrepresentation.

He is being charged for falsifying documents that earned him the GH¢51.2 million judgment debt from the Mills government.

It is alleged that he knowingly connived with Waterville BVI (who claimed to have contacted some aspects of its financial engineering to Mr. Woyome for the stadium rehabilitation project) to cream off substantial judgment debt from the Mills government.

Certain government officials are said to be complicit in the payout.

Even though Waterville has denied ever benefiting from the claims of Mr. Woyome, there are documents suggesting that the company joined forces with Mr. Woyome to sue the state for damages over alleged abrogation of contract. Waterville and Woyome went into mediation with government, and per a 13th October, 2010 document, an agreed amount of €25 million was to be paid in a five-month instalment of €5 million each. Woyome and Waterville again agreed that the former would be entitled to €940,000 of every €5million paid every month. A group calling itself the Forum for Governance and Justice (FGJ) has asked the relevant authorities to bring Waterville to book. Dr. Clement Apaak, convenor of the group, told DAILY GUIDE that Andrea Orlandi, Managing Director of Waterville, should be arrested immediately.

It is unclear if Mr. Orlandi is still in the country or not.

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NEWS TODAY

Energy Minister orders probe into Nationwide Blackout

The Minister of Energy, Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, has ordered the three electricity providers to set up a technical committee to investigate the circumstances that have led to a string of nation-wide blackouts in recent times.

The providers — the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) — are to submit their report to the ministry within 24 hours.

They are also required to outline strategies to forestall future nation-wide blackouts.

The country has experienced three major blackouts since January this year.

Dr Oteng-Adjei told graphic.com.gh in an interview that Wednesday’s blackout was certainly worrying and, therefore, necessitated an independent enquiry to ascertain the challenge. He said, much as the government acknowledged the constraints in the power sector, total blackouts could be prevented if systems were managed effectively.

“The utility companies must be up and doing because Ghanaians are beginning to lose their patience on such incidents which are preventable,” he said, adding, “Incidents of nation-wide blackouts have security and economic implications and should, therefore, not be taken for granted.”

While using the platform to apologise to the public for the inconvenience the inaction of the three providers might have caused them, the minister signalled that people would have to suffer the consequences if it was found that the recurrence was as a result of human error.

While the VRA attributed the latest occurrence to system overload as a result of overstretched demand during peak periods, officials of GRIDCo took exception to that.

According to the Public Relations Manager of GRIDCo, Mr Albert Quainoo, preliminary investigations revealed that the recurrence was as a result of inadequate generation reserve margin to take care of emergencies in the event of collapse.

According to him, the power producer ought to make available an acceptable daily reserve of 160 megawatts, which is about 10 per cent of system demand.

He also blamed the situation on Cote d’Ivoire losing one of its generators, consequently prompting the automatic load frequency device mechanism on the transmission lines to transfer power into its systems, compelling the system trip off.

“At the time of the collapse yesterday, there were some 1,615.7 megawatts available, with a six megawatts reserve, thereby prompting the automatic supply at the time Cote d’Ivoire lost its generator,” Mr Quainoo said.

He said while last Wednesday’s incident resulted from an explosion of a circuit breaker, adequate reserves in the system would have provided some compensation by holding parts of the country on.

The nation-wide outages in recent times have seen disenchanted members of the public taking to social media platforms to vent their frustrations on all three providers.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) earlier this month received a report from the providers on the erratic power supply after an emergency meeting to deliberate on the power supply situation.

Similar occurrences were recorded on January 28 and February 26 which officials blamed on system failure following a broken cable said to have fallen on a power generator at the Akosombo Switchyard.

They also blamed the erratic supply of gas from the West Africa, Gas Company (WAPCo) for the inconsistency in supply.

The PURC had been worried over providers’ inability to make available necessary information to consumers on their operations and charged them to ensure that consumers became a focal point in their operations.

The VRA, however, last week announced publicly an end to the month-long load-shedding exercise which was prompted by the shortfall in gas supply.

The return to normalcy was, however, shortlived, as consumers and the public had, over the past days been subjected to sleeping in the dark.**