MINISTER CUT SOD FOR A 154 KL FEEDER ROAD AT KUKOBILA

MINISTER CUT SOD FOR A 154 KL FEEDER ROAD AT KUKOBILA
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi has cut a sod for the construction of a 154 kilometer feeder road worth 6,886,834 Ghana cedis at Kukobila in the savelugu-Naton district of the northern region.
The 154 kilometer feeder road was out of 600 kilometer feeder roads to be constructed under the Northern Rural Growth Programme.
The construction feeder road from Kukobila to Tamalgu is to open up irrigated production areas to link with the major road to improve market access for the high value fruit and vegetables that are produced in the target areas and also to ensure all year round farming.
The Minister in the sod-cutting ceremony at Kukobila said the government under the leadership of John Evans Attah Mills is committed in developing the agriculture sector in the country.
According Mr. Ahwoi, government has placed the rapid socio-economic development of northern Ghana as a top priority and that necessitated the establishment of the Savana Accelerated development Authority (SADA).
The minister was optimistic that the dry season irrigation farming will help alleviate poverty and hunger which constitute the twin curse of the north.
He stated that the development of the irrigated Agriculture is no longer a choice or luxury but an obligation given the recent erratic rain fall pattern especially in the north due to the effect of climate.
The initiative which is co-financed by the government of Ghana, African Development Bank, and international Fund for Africa Development (IFAD) is also targeted to construct a warehouse in every district that will store up to 75,000 maxi bags of grains.
Mr. Ahwoi also announced that MOFA under its Medium Term Agricultural Sector Development plan for 2011 t0 2015 has targeted to develop 500,000 acres of irrigated land nationwide stating categorically that a large proportion will be in the northern sector.
Roy Ayariga, the National programme coordinator of NRGP in his address said NRGP is tackling the agricultural sector the way government is expected from the primitive module to the advance technological module of farming in the country.
He added that unless Ghana moves away from the traditional to technological approach of agriculture then we can never alleviate poverty and hunger in the country.

NYUPED DESCEND ON VEEP

NYUPED DESCEND ON VEEP
A Non Governmental Organization called the Northern Youth for Peace and
Development (NYUPED) has called on Vice President John Dramani Mahama and all the Ministers of State of northern extraction to resign their positions for not doing enough to make the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) policy to be on tenterhooks towards the development of the three northern regions Ghana.
It observed that the NDC’s promise made to the masses through the SADA policy formed part of the assigned reasons the people in the northern sector voted massively for the party.
The NYUPED mentioned that the NDC during the 2008 elections promised to make two hundred thousand million US Dollars as seed money to address the socio-economic needs of citizens of the northern sector under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority concept which was not fulfilled.
The Executive Director of the Northern Youth for peace and Development, Prince Hardi Adam made the called at a news conference held in Tamale over the weekend.
According to Prince Hardi the people in the three regions in the north have observed with regret and bewilderment that apart from the twenty one thousand million cedis in the Kufour government left for that purpose, the current administration only deposited a blank cheque of twenty thousand Ghana cedis in SADA’s account.
The Northern Youth for Peace and Development therefore threatened to mobilize people in the three Northern Regions to hit the streets if the President John Mills led NDC administration after one week fails to make available the needed resources to the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority to function effectively.
Prince Hardi Adam advised electorate not to allow politicians continued use them for their parochial interest.

BRIBERY SCANDAL ROCKS TAMALE METROPOLIS

BRIBERY SCANDAL ROCKS TAMALE METROPOLIS
Bribery and corruption has gain plunks in the center stage of both private and public services from the former to the latter in the country.
As Politicians engage in baby dippers and pampers, the civil servants are also strict in the little that they extort from people who fall prey in their offices.
It should not be of surprised that the secret visuals of the famous investigative Journalist Anas Aremiyaw Anas revealed the bribery and corruption standards of the Custom Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the cocoa smuggling at the Aflao boarder.
Reputable information gathered by Fiila News alleged that the Metropolitan inspection guards are extorting monies from Hawkers along pedestrian lanes with the pretext of allowing them to transact on the pavement.
Speaking in anonymity, an inspection guard in the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly said their former normally goes round to take monies from the hawkers assuring them their safety and permanent stay on the pedestrian’s lanes.
A situation he says makes their work very intricate when they are embarking on demolishing exercises.
Some hawkers along the Aboaboo-Amal Bank pedestrian lanes confirmed the allegation. According to the hawkers they will only move away from the lanes provided the get a place where they can get access to their customers.
They hawkers however called on the assembly to investigate the issue. But in an exclusive interview with Issah Musah, the public affairs Director of the Metropolitan Assembly, deprecated the allegation saying, the giver of bribe is as guilty as the receiver.
He urged the hawkers to report cases of bribery to the assembly with factual evidence.

HAWKERS DEMAND MAYORS HEAD

HAWKERS DEMAND MAYORS HEAD
It nearly became a tremor when the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly embarked on a demolishing exercise led by the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Alhaji Haruna Abdulai Friday within the premises of the Metropolitan Assembly.
The exercise saw verbal assault and threats on the mayor of Tamale but through the timely intervention of the Military the situation comes to normalcy.
Hawkers around the Metropolitan assembly have mounted unauthorized structures along the Tamale-Bolgatanga trunk-road.
The exercise was to evacuate hawkers within the premise to ensure that all ceremonial roads within the metropolis are devoid of unauthorized structures.
The exercised was brought to a halt when the hawkers alleged that the assembly granted them a verbal permit adding that the assembly did not serve them notice of the demolishing exercise before embarking on the exercise.
According to the hawkers, the first time the assembly asked them to relocate from the place, they pursued the matter to the Acting Chairman of the ruling NDC, Alhaji Sofo Azoka who said he had contacted Friday and he said they should stay.
But in an interview with the Public Affairs Director of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Issah Musah said the allegations of the hawkers are baseless.
He also denied allegations of a bribery scandal with the inspection guards of the assembly.
Mr. Musah reiterated that the assembly has exhausted all diplomacies with the people and they will use all powers under their jurisdiction to evacuate them.
He warned that all unauthorized structures along ceremonial roads in the Metropolis are to be demolished.
The Public Affairs Director therefore called on residents of the metropolis to be law abiding and respect authority.

FILTH ENGULF TAMALE METROPOLIS

FILTH ENGULF TAMALE METROPOLIS
Keeping the city out of rid of filth was one of the core principles of the Mills led NDC administration but the situation has seemed to become a mirage in most part of the country and Tamale Metropolis in particular.
It was of no surprised that the cholera outbreak strikes the country and Tamale was of no exception as most suburb of the Metropolis is engulfed with filth.
Lamakarah, Zogbeli, Nyohini and Lamashegu are of the list where gutters are choked with pungent choking smells which are within the central business town of the Metropolis.
Residents around these areas sit unconcern about the situation waiting for the Metropolitan Assembly’s intervention.
In an interview with some residents around Zogbeli, they claimed the responsibility to distilled gutters and keep refuse dumps clean is place on the Assembly not residents.
Most residents lambasted the Metropolitan Assembly for it inability to keep the metropolis rid of filth.
The Metropolis is likely to lose its pride of being the neatest city in the country if strict interventions are not taken to address the sanitation problem in the Metropolis.
When our newsmen spoke with the Assembly Member of Zogbeli electoral area, Mohammed Polo was regretful about the sanitation problem in his electoral area and promised to address the situation as soon as possible.

NCCE CALL ON POLITICAL PARTIES TO RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW

NCCE CALL ON POLITICAL PARTIES TO RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW
The National commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in the Northern Region has taken its turn in the on-going celebration of the 11th annual constitutional week celebration with a call on political parties in the country respective the rule of law in the country.
The Northern Regional Director of the NCCE, Haruna Husheini Sulemana said in a speech that political parties in the country has taken the law into their own hands who used their political powers to allow the foot-soldiers to foment troubles.
The Director made the called at the launch of the 11th annual constitutional week celebration in the Northern Regional Capital Tamale. This year's celebration which was under the theme: the State of Ghana's Democracy 2011 will be used to examine the country's democratic credentials in view of the incoming general elections.
He however noted with regret that pavilions mounted for the youth in the north by political leaders are avenues to promote laziness, poverty, violence and unemployment in the country.
The NCCE Director assured Ghanaians that the Commission will not relent on its efforts at creating and sustaining awareness of constitutional democracy for the achievement of political, economic and social stability of the country.
An Educationist, Alhaji Adam Y.M.B Ibrahimah who was the Guest Speaker, called on political parties in the country to revolve their manifestoes around the directive principles of state policy, ascribed in the 1992 Constitution.
He advised that successive governments should continue with the uncompleted projects of previous administrations, to ensure an accelerated socio-economic development and to end the many abandoned projects dotted around the country.

NCCE CALL ON POLITICAL PARTIES TO RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW

NCCE CALL ON POLITICAL PARTIES TO RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW
The National commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in the Northern Region has taken its turn in the on-going celebration of the 11th annual constitutional week celebration with a call on political parties in the country respective the rule of law in the country.
The Northern Regional Director of the NCCE, Haruna Husheini Sulemana said in a speech that political parties in the country has taken the law into their own hands who used their political powers to allow the foot-soldiers to foment troubles.
The Director made the called at the launch of the 11th annual constitutional week celebration in the Northern Regional Capital Tamale. This year's celebration which was under the theme: the State of Ghana's Democracy 2011 will be used to examine the country's democratic credentials in view of the incoming general elections.
He however noted with regret that pavilions mounted for the youth in the north by political leaders are avenues to promote laziness, poverty, violence and unemployment in the country.
The NCCE Director assured Ghanaians that the Commission will not relent on its efforts at creating and sustaining awareness of constitutional democracy for the achievement of political, economic and social stability of the country.
An Educationist, Alhaji Adam Y.M.B Ibrahimah who was the Guest Speaker, called on political parties in the country to revolve their manifestoes around the directive principles of state policy, ascribed in the 1992 Constitution.
He advised that successive governments should continue with the uncompleted projects of previous administrations, to ensure an accelerated socio-economic development and to end the many abandoned projects dotted around the country.