Digital January 22, 2020

DIGITAL NO. 100822 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
• ACP Benjamin Agordzo
speaking to media after
the court granted him bail
• Flashback: Some electorates
exercising their franchise
• Scenes at the ‘Yénpene’ demo
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02
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CONTENT
ANNIVERSARIES
Independence Day — Fri, 6 Mar 2020
Good Friday — Fri, 10 Apr 2020
Easter Monday — Mon, 13 Apr 2020
Labour Day — Fri, 1 May 2020
DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
Published by: EIB
Network / Heritage
Communications Ltd.
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William Asiedu:
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VOL 7
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Voters’ register:
The will of the
people will prevail
BY PRINCE ESSIEN
THE NATIONAL
Communications
Officer of the opposition
National
Democratic Congress
(NDC), Sammy Gyamfi,
has said ‘the will of the people
will prevail’ in the controversy
surrounding the voters register
for the December presidential
and parliamentary polls.
“The voice of the people is
the voice of God and that is
what will prevail regardless of
what Bossman Asare and Jean
Mensah do; the will of the people
will prevail relative to the
issue of the compilation of a
new voters register,” he told Starr
News at a demonstration held in
Kumasi today.
He also said: “Gradually people
are beginning to appreciate
the issue and we are satisfied with
the attendance of today’s demonstration”.
The main opposition NDC
and other parties against the
compilation of new voters register
by the Electoral Commission
ahead of the December Presidential
and parliamentary elections
held a demonstration in
Kumasi in the Ashanti Region
yesterday.
The first protest to challenge
plans of the new register was
held at Tamale in the Northern
Region.
The group insists a new register
is a waste of taxpayer’s money
and could also create tension
— NDC to EC
since the election is close.
The Electoral Commission,
however, insists they will go
ahead and create the register despite
the disagreement by the parties
and civil society
organisations.
Last week, a coalition of
major Civil Society Organizations
(CSOs) and key individuals under
the Ghana Anti-Corruption
Coalition (GACC), in a statement,
collectively rejected the decision
of the Electoral
Commission (EC) to compile a
new voters’ register ahead of this
year’s general elections.
The coalition, numbering
about 18 CSOs, are the latest to
join several groups to criticize the
EC’s plan to introduce a new
voter management system for the
upcoming elections.
The members of the coalition
include the Ghana Anti-Corruption
Coalition (GACC), IMANI
Africa, SEND Ghana, Africa
Centre for International Law and
“The voice of
the people is
the voice of God
and that is what
will prevail
regardless of
what Bossman
Asare and Jean
Mensah do; ...
Accountability (ACILA), Financial
Accountability and Transparency,
Africa (FAT-Africa),
Media Foundation for West
Africa (MFWA) and Youth
Bridge Foundation.
The others are the West Africa
Civil Society Institute, Citizens
Movement Against Corruption,
Human Rights Advocacy Centre,
Ghana Integrity Initiative, Commonwealth
Human Rights Initiative
(CHRI), Women in Law and
Development in Africa, Institute
for Democratic Governance, Parliamentary
Network Africa, Community
Focus Foundation Ghana,
PACKS-Africa and the Integrated
Social Development Centre.
• Scenes at the ‘Yénpene’ demo

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DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
03
ACP Agordzo gets
GH¢500k bail
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com.gh
THE CRIMINAL Division
of the Accra
High Court, presided
over by Justice
Charles Ekow
Baiden, has granted bail to Assistant
Commissioner of Police
(ACP) Dr Benjamin Agordzo,
who has been accused of aiding
some alleged coup plotters.
The senior police officer is one
of 10 persons charged with an attempted
coup aimed at destabilizing
the state of the economy.
The court, after assessing the
evidence before it, admitted Dr
Agordzo to a self-recognizance
bail in the sum of GH¢500,000
and also he is to report to the Inspector
General of Police (IGP)
twice a week for three months.
The court said after the three
months, he must also report once
a week to the IGP or his representative
authorized in writing for
that purpose. The High Court
further ordered that he must report
to the Director of the Bureau
of National Investigations
(BNI) once a week for three
months and thereafter once in
two weeks.
Bail conditions
As part of the bail conditions, ACP
Agordzo must also submit his passport
to the court registrar, who shall issue a
receipt to that effect and same must be
pl;aced on the court’s docket. The court
gave the orders after it upheld a bail application
by Dr Agordzo’s lawyer, Mr
Martin Kpebu.
“It is my view that no court of law
may deny an individual his or her
fundamental right to liberty on broad
or vague allegations, the judge held.
• ACP Benjamin Agordzo
It was the ruling of the court that the
state failed to prove that ACP Agordzo
would not avail himself to stand trial, one
of the grounds of resisting the bail application.
The court further ordered the Registrar
of the court to personally serve the
IGP and the Director of the BNI with
certified copies of the orders of the
court.
The court held that the State could
not demonstrate how the applicant
would interfere with investigations or was
likely to commit a crime when granted
bail.
Justice Baiden held that the State
could not prove either its contention that
the senior police officer would interfere
with witnesses and that the mere allegation
by the State that the high ranking
police officer would interfere with witnesses
would not be accepted
by the court.
“It is my view that no court
of law may deny an individual
his or her fundamental right to
liberty on broad or vague allegations,
the judge held.
Arguments
The senior police officer,
who has been in police custody
after the Kaneshie District
Court handed him over to the
Inspector General of Police,
had earlier had a bail applications
denied him in November
2019 by the Accra High Court.
He is on the charge of abetment
to commit treason felony
together with nine others.
While moving the application
for bail, lawyers of ACP
Agordzo, led by Martin Kpebu,
argued that they have filed indentures
of proposed sureties,
including photocopies of their
identification cards, as would be
required by the court.
He also argued that the senior
police officer is not a flight
risk and he is eager to see the
commencement of trial to clear
his name of all charges levelled against
him.
Lawyer Kpebu argued that the applicant
is a law-abiding citizens and the
State has coercive power and all the resources
to monitor him, so the applicant
should be considered for bail.
Opposition
But the State prosecutors, represented
by Senior State Attorney, Hilda Craig,
while opposing to the bail application, argued
that ACP Agordzo could use his
position to interfere with investigations if
he is granted bail.
The Senior State Attorney argued further
that the witnesses from the Bureau
• CONTINUE FROM PAGE 6

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DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL WEDNESDAY , JANUARY 22, 2020
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Ghana, UK pledge to
strengthen ties of co-operation
GHANA AND
the United Kingdom
have resolved
to deepen
the bilateral relations
that exist
between the two countries, as well
as explore areas of interest which
will inure to the mutual benefit of
the two countries and their respective
populations.
This was disclosed on Monday,
January 20, when President Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo held
bilateral talks with British Prime
Minister, Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson,
MP, on the sidelines of the ongoing
UK-Africa Investment Summit.
The President expressed his
appreciation to the British Government
for its willingness to
work with Ghana on the basis of
trade and investment co-operation,
and move away from the traditional
aid-based relationship.
He told his British counterpart
that over the course of the last
three years, his Government has
worked hard to put Ghana’s economy
back on track, and has succeeded
in creating a
business-friendly environment
that has led to Ghana becoming
the largest source of foreign-direct
investment in West Africa.
“It is an exciting time to be in
Ghana and to do business in the
country. The prospects for
Ghana’s, and, indeed, Africa’s development
in the 21st century are
immense. British participation in
that development would be very
welcome,” he added.
For his part, the Rt. Hon. Boris
Johnson praised the excellent relations
existing between Ghana and
the United Kingdom, and praised
his Ghanaian counterpart for the
work done in growing Ghana’s
economy, and for making it one of
the fastest-growing economies in
the world.
The British Prime Minister
touted the United Kingdom as the
“ultimate one-stop shop” for
trade, education and tech”, adding
that “look around the world today
and you will swiftly see that the
UK is not only the obvious partner
of choice, we’re also very
much the partner of today, of tomorrow
and decades to come.”
Africa’s wealth undisputed
Contributing to a panel discussion
at the UK-Africa Investment
Summit, President Akufo-Addo
stated that despite the fact that
Africa’s wealth is undisputed, “we
have gotten ourselves into a situation
where now the infrastructure
is also undeveloped.”
With 1 in 4 people said to be
African by 2050, the President
stated that “there is an urgent
need for us to think outside the
box. We need to find a way to
think outside the box in trying to
find a way to address the infrastructure
deficit that there is, and
finding novel instruments for financing
Africa’s infrastructure.”
He continued, “Nobody is
looking for gifts or charity, but we
are saying that if there is equity in
the way most people look at it, the
means for being able to address
the deficits and the difficulties
exist, and I think that the London
stock exchange can play a really
significant and important role in
this new thinking. That, in my
view, is absolutely important for
the future of the continent and
for our relations with countries
like Britain”.
&Env.
Ghana’s GMO court case continues on January 30
BY PHILIP ANTOH
THE CASE involving
the commercial release
of the first
batch of geneticallymodified
organisms
(GMOs) in three
crops in Ghana is scheduled for
hearing at the Accra Human
Rights Court on Thursday, January
30, 2020.
Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG)
and three others have sued the
government of Ghana, represented
by the Ministry of Environment,
Science, Technology and
Innovation, the Ministry of Food
and Agriculture, the National
Biosafety Authority and the Attorney-General’s
Department.
It would be recalled that attempts
to throw out this case in
which one of the defendants
sought to challenge a High Court
ruling on the court’s jurisdiction to
hear a petition brought before it
were rejected by the Supreme
Court in a ruling which upheld the
fact that the Human Rights High
Court did have proper jurisdiction
that it applied in ruling on the case
brought before it by the four
plaintiffs.
The hearing is expected to be
one of case management and ensuring
that all due processes have
been properly filed for the substantive
case to proceed. Among
the witnesses representing FSG are
two independent internationally
recognised experts.
A release signed
by the Communications
Director of
(FSG), Mr Edwin
Kweku Andoh Baffour,
said this came at
a time when a false
narrative is being created
in the minds of
the Ghanaian public and the international
community to create the
impression that the government
has abandoned the implementation
of its policy to impose GMOs
on Ghanaians.
Mr Andoh said the continuation
of the case, in which the representatives
of the government
continue to defend the commercial
release of Bt cowpeas, GM rice,
and Bt cotton, clearly showed that
the recent utterances of the Minister
of Food and Agriculture were
nothing but a lot of hot air, possibly
occasioned by the Harmattan
season, or a deliberate attempt at
deceiving Ghanaians for 2020 election.
He said whatever the motivations
may be, it had the effect of
fooling the people of Ghana into
thinking that all is well, when the
reality is far different. Even though
these GMO crops look exactly like
their non-GMO counterparts, the
scientists behind these experiments
do not want them labelled.
“Apart from the fact that they
fear people may not buy them if
they are labelled, they also fear
traceability and legal liability for
any of the possible untoward consequences
for consumers should
anything happen to them after
consumption of the GMO versions
of these foods,” he stated.
Mr Andoh said the FSG had
long submitted its position paper
on the labelling of food and feed
containing GMO to the Food and
Drugs Authority (FDA) and have
Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG) and three others have sued
the government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Environment,
Science, Technology and Innovation, the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture, the National Biosafety Authority and
the Attorney-General’s Department.
maintained the position that
Ghana should have a mandatory
labelling regime and not a voluntary
one as it seems regulators are
considering.
“A former Principal Investigator
at SARI and a consultant to the
Bt cowpea project was reported to
have told the journalists, who also
visited the site for the confined Bt
cowpea trials at Nyankpala, that
the Bt cowpea would not look different
from the conventional
‘Songotra’ that farmers know already
and are planting currently”.
He said as at the time of going
to court in 2015, the Bt cowpea
had not been commercialised anywhere
in the world. This was the
first time that human beings were
being expected to consume them.
And Ghanaians had been chosen
to be guinea pigs for this product
without any known epidemiological
studies on its effects on human
health.
In Ghana, cowpeas are key ingredients
in staple foods like
waakye, gari and beans, ripe plantain
and beans (also known as ‘red
red’,) etc.
Therefore, the impact on the
health of the population, as a result
of the introduction of unlabelled
“Bt cowpeas in our food
chain, could be devastating if care
is not taken.”

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WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
News
THE VOLTA Regional Branch of the
opposition National Democratic Congress
(NDC) has added its voice to the
numerous appeals to the Nana Akufo-
Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP)
government to speed up investigations
to arrest the perpetrators of the gruesome
murder of investigative journalist
Ahmed Husein Suale of Tiger PI.
The NDC said a year on, no single
arrest has been made and that it seemed
the government was taking back the
country into the dark days and wanted
to curtail freedom of speech.
At a press conference organised by
the party at Ho, in the Volta Region,
over the weekend and addressed by Mr
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, chairman of
the Regional Communication Committee,
the NDC said it was also worried
about the government shutting down of
some media houses which are pro-NDC
such as the Radio Gold and Radio XYZ
and therefore condemned the act.
"We condemn in no uncertain terms
the government’s actions and we demand
that these radio stations and others
be reopened. We also demanded that
the culture of intimidation and violence
on the media end, journalists must be
given the freedom to work,” Mr
Ablakwa said.
The press conference was to bridge
the gap between the NDC and the
media in the region and beyond.
Assessing NPP
Assessing the three years of President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,
the NDC said all the promises the NPP
made to the region had never been honoured
and in some cases a hoax.
The NDC said the NPP government
was known for its deception, nepotism
and friends who cannot manage the
economy.
The NDC said it was yet to see the
1D1F established in the region, saying
the only attempt by the NPP government
to come close to the 1D1F was a
pathetic effort to provide some three
factories stimulus packages.
“We expect that by now 18 factories
would have sprung up in the region but
records show no factory exists,” the
NDC stated.
According to the NDC, the ‘1million
dollars per constituency’ was just a rhetoric,
which is not feasible.
Sea defence project
The party said the sea defence project
and a port at Keta were yet to see
the light of the day and that the nearest
to these project was a sign post indicating
the site for Keta Port but ironically
the government had appointed a Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) for the project
which never existed and drawing a
fat salary.
"We consider this as an insult to the
integrity of Voltarians and a financial
loss to the state,” the NDC said.
The party therefore called on the
President to redeem his promises to the
region and save the taxpayers’ money by
terminating appointment of Dr Alexander
Adusei, the CEO.
Abandoned projects
The NDC said it was outraged about
the number of abandoned projects, including
the five district water projects at
DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL WEDNESDAY , JANUARY 22, 2020
NDC lashes Govt’s lackadaisical approach to Suale's murder case
FROM PATRICE SYLVESTER
SELORMEY, HO
pselormey2015@gmail.com
•Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Sogakope, the abattoire at Sokode, the
Ho by-pass, the Volivo bridge project
whose funding had been secured .
"We call on government to resume
work on these projects immediately," the
party demanded.
Voters register
The Volta NDC said they were opposed
to the compilation of a new
Voter's register.
The party said if there was the need
for the collection of fresh data on citizens,
"the more, appropriate, most lawful
and financially responsible and justifiable
approach should be to let the National
Identification Authority (NIA)
collect and process the information"
They, therefore, urged the Electoral
Commission (EC) “to avoid the wasteful
duplication of efforts at great expense"
They, however, asked the EC to
open up the electoral register for voters
to verify their names, remove names of
persons suspected to be dead and who
did not verify their names; and update
the existing software in ways to make it
efficient.
National Identification
The party stated emphatically that it
was not pleased with the national identification
exercise in the region and therefore
asked the National Identification
Authority to return to the region to mop
up their activities by using the system
put in place in the Ashanti Region.
40 member Cedi-rescue
committee
The NDC has sent a caution to the
government that it will not serve on the
committee, saying its sole member, Benjamin
Kpodo, was not shown the courtesy
of seeking his opinion before
including him on the committee.
In his remarks the Regional Chairman
of the party, Mr. Henry Ametepe,
challenged journalists not to throw
searchlight on politicians only, saying
"he who owns the paper controls the
news.”
Review National Medicines’ Policy
every 5yrs – Past Rector
BY ERICA ARTHUR
A SENIOR Pharmacist and immediate
past rector of the Ghana
College of Pharmacists, Mr Benjamin
Kwame Botwe has appealed
to government to review the policy
for the pharmaceutical industry
every five years.
This, according to him, will
allow the policy to be updated
with current trends.
The time span between the
second review in 2004 and third
review in 2017 was13 years which he says
was too long.
Pharmacist Botwe made this proposition
at a maiden valedictory lecture held in his
honour as the outgoing rector of the college,
on Wednesday.
Speaking on the policy, laws and governance
of the sector, he said: “the pharmaceutical
sector in Ghana is governed by the
National Health Policy and this sets out the
broad policy objectives for selection, strategic
purchasing, quality assurance, use of
medicine, global trade in pharmaceuticals,
governance and implementation among others.”
“Indeed there have been 3 editions, two
of which I was party to, in 1999 and 2004.
The 2017 one was only 2 years ago and I
don’t have wasn’t into that.”
He went on “but I saw the people who
contributed and I read it from afar. It is excellent
and it has become a document that
other African countries are using as source
documents to review their own national
medicines policies.”
Pharm. Botwe proposed “my perspective
is that the review should not take that long
again. Between 2004 and 2017 was too long.
13 years, so much has passed under the
bridge and therefore propose that at most
within every five years, we need to review
our national medicines policy to reflect current
trends.”
On medicine legislation, he said, “having
had the opportunity to be part of the development
of the African Union Model Law
for medicines regulation and having supported
and continue to support a number of
•Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
countries to amend existing legislation or develop
and enact new ones, I wish to propose
that s new law on medicines, health technologies
and related products be enacted,
guided by the AU Model Law to stand on its
own and be visible.”
“After operationalization of a combined
Food and Drugs regulation for over 20 years,
the time has come for evaluation of challenges,
effectiveness and efficiency of both
and to begin thinking of the setting up of a
separate Food safety Agency and a Medicines
and Related Products Control Authority.
This among other advantages facilitate
the harmonization of medicines control systems
in the ECOWAS region and also the
continental harmonization. Countries like
Tanzania that followed our example in this
area have recently reversed and created separate
agencies that all being very impactful.
That has greatly accelerated the medicines
regulatory harmonization process in the East
African Community,” he noted.
He further advised “the time is now for
a conclusion to be brought to the establishment
of the Narcotics Commission. I am
aware that the draft bill has been in the offing
for far too long and Parliament may need
to consider its enactment to modernize our
Drug Law Enforcement System to meet current
international standards.
Touching on human resource and training
in the sector, he insisted that “the current
Pharm D program are overtly clinical in
nature and would wish that clearer career opportunities
are given for other options. I
know this process has begun but needs to be
accelerated.
CEO in court for forging ex-husband’s
signature to secure $150k loan
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com.gh
THE 48-YEAR-OLD
Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of Travel Bureau
Limited, Eunice Adu,
has been charged by the
Medina District Court
with allegedly ‘stealing and forging’
signatures of her former husband to
secure a loan sum of$150, 000.
Patrick Koduah, a former Relationship
Manager of Stanbic Bank Ghana
Limited, has been charged with abetment
of stealing, and so he and
Madam Adu have both been granted
bail in the sum of GHc10, 000 with a
surety each.
This was after they both pleaded
not guilty to their respective charges
levelled against them before the Madina
District Court presided over by
His Worship Mr Richard Delali Anku.
Prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector
Gulliver Kwabena Tenkorang, giving
brief facts of the case to the
court, said the complainant, Martin
Achesamping Danquah, 50, is a businessman
and lives in his own house at
East Legon, Accra.
According to him, Madam Adu,
first accused person (A1), is the CEO
of Travel Bureau while Koduah,45,
(A2) is a banker and works with Stanbic
Bank Ghana Limited and former
Relationship Manager of the bank.
Love birds
Chief Inspector Tenkorang told
the court that the complainant and
Madam Adu were once married couples
and have two children, and that
on December 28, 2016 their marriage
was customarily dissolved by their respective
families.
He told the court that in 2010, the
complaint discovered to his utmost
surprise that the Land Title Certificate
bearing his name had been stolen
from his bedroom.
According to him, he asked the
then wife (A1) and she denied ever
seeing the document but after a long
search for the document, complainant
opted to get a replacement from the
Land Title Registration Department of
the Lands Commission.
The prosecutor told the court that
whilst going through the processes, it
was detected that the Land Title Certificate
‘NO GA12181’ which was
stolen from his room had been used
as Deed of mortgage by himself and
Travel Bureau Limited in favour of
Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited.
He told the court that the complainant,
who had no idea of the
transaction, reported the case to the
police on August 29, 2018 for investigations.
Order of disclosure
The police, according to Chief Inspector
Tenkorang, started an investigation
into the matter and as such
served the Managing Director of
Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited with a
court order of disclosure of information
to provide the police with all the
documents that were used in the loan
application by Madam Adu to assist
police investigation.
He told the court that the bank
obliged and furnished the police with
photocopies of consent letters, 2016,
and 2017 facility letters, Land Title
Certificate, deeds of mortgage, memorandum,
stationary, declaration,
board resolution letter and financial
statement for the year ended December
31, 2019.
Collaterals
He said the police went through
the documents and it came to light
that it was the missing Land Title Certificate
of the complainant which was
used by A1 as collateral to secure a
loan of $150,000 in 2017, and that A1
forged complainant’s signature on
page 13 of the deed of mortgage.
He said it was also found that on
July 30, 2007, A1 again forged the signature
of complainant on the consent
letter to the bank.
Koduah, the then the relationship
manager of the bank, whose duty he
said was to deal with customers, refused
to verify the Land Title documents
presented to him by A1 which
were in the name of Martin Acheampong
Danquah but rather aided and
abetted Madam Adu to obtain the
loan facility.
The two were subsequently arrested
and after close of investigations
they were charged with the offence to
stand trial.
The case has been adjourned to
January 21.

WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
06
DAILY HERITAGE DIGITAL WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
Editorial
Let’s stop food contamination
IN OUR edition today, there is an
article ‘Killing the customer with bare
hands’, written
by Caesar Abagali. Abagali points
out important questions concerning
ready-to-eat foods handled by bare
hands by those preparing or serving it
such as bread and fufu.
He points out that some of the
diseases we contract come about as a
result of how unhygienically we
handle food. He points out that there
must be a total overhaul of some
food preparation and serving
practices.
Here are a few of the the views to
ponder over:
“In this era of globalisation and
civilisation one would have expected
a high level of careful and hygienic
food handling practice to improve the
living conditions of people.
Unfortunately, certain category of
food, especially vended and
traditionally prepared ones, are still
handled the way they were centuries
ago and probably killing customers
silently.
One major area of concern is food
handling with bare hands and serving
the customer, an area of human life
that directly affects the health of
millions of people, largely due to
poverty and ignorance and sometimes
the combination of both.
Bare hands contact, means
touching ready-to-eat foods with bare
hands. Facts and figures According to
the Food and Drugs Authority
(FDA), bare hand contact can transfer
dangerous pathogens from hands to
food, spreading food borne illness.
Although hand washing is critical
for food safety, recent studies indicate
that hand washing alone is not
enough to prevent foodborne
illnesses.
The main reason for not touching
ready-to-eat foods with bare hands is
to prevent viruses and bacteria, which
are present in the body, from
contaminating the food. Viruses and
bacteria are not visible to the naked
eye, but may be present on the hands,
if not thoroughly washed, particularly
after using the bathroom.
The Colorado Retail Food
Establishment Rules and Regulations
in the United States prohibits bare
hand contact with ready-to-eat foods
and requires good hand washing by
food service workers.
Eating fufu in Ghana has been so
addictive that no one takes a critical
look at its preparation, serving and
consumption. Ridiculously, people
use clean water to wash their hands
before eating fufu without
questioning the bare hand and the
water used for its preparation.
The World Health Organisation
(WHO) sources say, "Food can
become contaminated at any point
during slaughtering or harvesting,
processing, storage, distribution,
transportation and preparation. Lack
of adequate food hygiene can lead to
foodborne diseases and death of the
consumer."
THE DAILY HERITAGE
thinks that the authorities such as the
public health officials should do all
they can to stop those who prepare
food to sell to abide by all the
regulations there are to stop
consumers from contracting diseases
from the food they eat at public
places.
New voters’ register
compilation starts in April
BY KWAME ACHEAMPONG
THE ELEC-
TORAL
Commission
says it will
begin compiling
the new voters register
for the December
2020 elections in April.
The Commission
added it hoped to end the
exercise by the end of
May.
This was disclosed by
the Director of Electoral
Services, Dr Serebour
Quaicoe, on Starr FM.
“We want to start by
mid-April and by the end
of May we would have
finished,” he told Regina
Borle Bortey on ‘Shaping
The Nation show’ on
Monday.
On the claim by the
National Identification
Authority that it is willing
to hand over its data to
the EC, he reacted: “We
• Says EC
• Flashback: Some electorates exercising their franchise
have a challenge with their data,
we are targeting over 10million
people but they have about 7 million
so we don’t know when
they will be ready. And besides,
we have to attach a polling station
to all those numbers”.
Meanwhile, the main opposition
NDC and other parties
against the compilation of new
voters register by the Electoral
Commission ahead of the December
Presidential and parliamentary
elections have
demonstrated in Tamale and
Kumasi and promised to sustain
their protestations.
“We want to start by
mid-April and by the
end of May we
would have
finished,” he told
Regina Borle Bortey
ACP Agordzo
gets GH¢500k
bail
• READ FROM PAGE 2
of National Investigations,
National Security and the
Police Service who would be
testifying against him could
be compromised, once the
senior police officer was released
on bail.
The court presided over
by Justice Baiden wanted a
practical demonstration of
how the senior police officer
could interfere with supposed
witnesses and investigation
rather than mere
rhetoric.
Prior to adjourning the
case for the ruling, Justice
Baiden said even though the
court ruling was ready "few
words would change" after
hearing submissions from
lawyer Kpebu and Hilda
Craig, a Senior State Attorney
in the matter.

Digital January 22, 2020.qxp_Layout 1 21/01/2020 6:30 PM Page 5
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Politics
DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY , JANUARY 22, 2020
Use taxpayer’s money wisely
• PPP tells EC
THE PROGRES-
SIVE People’s Party
(PPP) has cautioned
the Electoral Commission
to use taxpayer’s
money wisely
concerning its decision to compile
new voters register.
According to the PPP, the taxpayer
must not be made to suffer
unnecessarily when leaders fail to
pluck low hanging fruits and the
economy takes a backward step
every time that happens.
A statement issued signed by
the National Chairman of the
party, Mr Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond,
said, “We have the opportunity
to avoid potential fraudulent
electoral outcome which could
spark violence in our country. Let
us all remain wide awake in saving
this land of rich resources and
mighty talents from wasteful and
unpatriotic regimes”.
Background
On January 8, 2020, the PPP
expressed grave concern at the
news that the Parliament of Ghana
approved the budget for the Electoral
Commission (EC) to compile
a new voters’ register for the 2020
elections. The party clarified that
the compilation of any new voters
register without the utilization of
the National Identification System
infrastructure was needless and a
waste of our scarce resources.
It would be recalled that a day
after the PPP press release statement,
the Electoral Commission
rejected our call for it to depend
on the Database of the National
Identification Authority (NIA) in
the compilation of the new voters’
register, with the excuse that “the
NIA has no timelines in its data
compilation exercise, making it impossible
for the EC to resort to
their system since they have timelines
to their work”.
•Mr Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond National Chairman of the progressive
people’s party (PPP)
“It is heart-warming that the
Executive Secretary of the National
Identification Authority
(NIA), Prof Ken Attafuah, is reported
on several platforms to
have said that, “the Authority has
all the biometric data the Electoral
Commission (EC) will need for the
creation of a new voters’ register.
“The only thing the EC needs,
which the NIA does not take, is
polling station number or name
but that is as easy as ABC to get
with technology; it is not a problem
at all”, he said.
The PPP commended the NIA
boss for vindicating their longstanding
position on the use of the
National Identification database
for the compilation of the voter
register; and same position, recently
corroborated by 18 Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs), who
indicated through their release that
“if there is a need for collecting
fresh data on citizens, the more appropriate,
most lawful and financially
responsible and justified
approach will be to let the NIA
(the legally mandated Authority for
collecting national identification
data) collect and process the information
and send the EC the subset
of the information it needs for the
purposes of election. The EC can
then use that information to update
its systems”.
The PPP has been an advocate
for a single national identification
database to be shared by all state,
quasi-state and private institutions.
h
I belong to music – Tecknikal
BY ERICA ARTHUR
EARL OWUSU
ANSAH, known in the
music scene as Tecknikal,
a young Ohiobased
Ghanaian artiste,
says he feels the music
industry is where he belongs, not
school.
Tecknikal was born in Kumasi
on September 16, 1997. He was
raised together with his two brothers
by their grandparents at Famesua
in the Ashanti Region, after his
parents, Freda Osei Bonsu and
Kwame Owusu Ansah, divorced.
Tecknikal and his brothers were
with their grandparents for 15
years until 2013 when he travelled
with his brothers to live with their
mother in the USA.
He attended kindergarten at the
Schooling Stars Academy, completed
preparatory school at M. A.
Bediako Adventist Preparatory
School and JHS at Adventist Junior
High School at Amakom, all in
the Ashanti Region.
Tecknikal had his second cycle
education at the Kumasi Anglican
Senior High School from SHS 1 to
the second term of SHS 2 and left
the shores of Ghanan to continue
his high school education at the
Westerville South High School,
Columbus, Ohio, and graduated in
2016.
He went to Columbus State
College for a semester, and according
to him, “this time I was also
working on my music so eventually
I took a break from college to
focus on music full time.”
Technikal technically started his
music journey in 2016, when he
dropped the ‘Styla season’ album,
the ‘Guapanese’ mixtape, an EP
dubbed ‘Dedication’ and some
good amount of singles, “which
are all available on most streaming
platforms under my stage name
Tecknikal. It’s safe to say I have
over 30 songs out online. I have
worked with numerous producers
but noticeably Oge Beats and
DCQ beats.”
The artist, who doubles as a
song writer, fell for music at an
early age, when he got an ipod and
started downloading most of the
songs. He started writing poems at
•Tecknikal, artiste
the back of his notes in class until
it eventually turned into writing
raps. At Kumasi Anglican senior
High School, he discovered his
writing talent. He started doing rap
battles on campus, freestyles with
his dorm mates and performing
sometimes at the entertainment
night events on Saturdays.
Eventually he moved to
America, where with the help
of a few friends he had access
to a studio set up in the basement
of a friend’s house,
where he recorded most of his
songs. He also participated in
his school’s Black History
Month Show from his second
year of high school to senior
year where he used to perform.
Tecknikal emphasized that
music has a major role in his
decision taking. “I can say
music had a major role to play
in the decision I made about
taking a break for school. I was
always a sharp kid who would
get a grade good enough to
keep me out of trouble. I liked
going to school but for the
wrong reasons. I liked school
because I had friends I could see
and hang out with. But I was never
as passionate as I am with music
like I am with school.”
“I feel like the music industry is
where I belong not school. That’s
why I made the discussion to take
a break from it but I do plan to go
back in a year or two depending on
my situation at that current moment.
And it’s mainly because I
would like to have more than one
skill set. I don’t want to fully rely
on music, knowing this game
grants you an opportunity to be
successful but doesn’t promise it.”
Tecknikal belongs to a group
that supports 100% authentic
music, especially to the class that
are not limited by music genres.
He can be called a multi- genre
artiste because he likes to experiment
a lot and is always ready to
showcase his versatility on different
sounds.
The young artiste aspires to be
the one to change the phase of
Afrobeat worldwide. He takes inspiration
from legends such as
Sarkodie, R2bees, Shatta Wale,
Stonebwoy and more.
“I would want to continue their
good work and put a magnifying
glass on the map of Ghana for the
whole world to see how exceptional
and influential we are to
modern music, especially Afro
beats.

DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
Emiliano Sala:
A year on from plane crash
ON A typical Saturday afternoon
in Progreso, the
streets seem completely
deserted. As the summer
sun blazes outside, most
of its 2,000 inhabitants are sheltering indoors.
The only human presence is at San
Martin football club, where a family is celebrating
a baptism. It is the same place
where the town mourned its most illustrious
son, Emiliano Sala.
Located in Argentina's agricultural
heart, six hours' drive from Buenos Aires,
Progreso sadly became better known in
the tragic story of Cardiff's record signing,
who died in a plane crash in January 2019.
When his casket arrived back home, those
empty streets held more people than they
had ever seen before.
A year later, the pain is still palpable.
BBC Sport visited between Christmas Day
and New Year's Eve, a time of reflection
for most of the town. Here, Sala was not
only a football star. He was El Emi, the
kid everybody knew. He was a friend, a
neighbour, a former pupil, a former teammate.
For his mother, Mercedes, and his 24-
year-old brother, Dario, it is not easy to
speak about what happened.
When Dario opens the door of their
home, Mercedes is sitting in the dining
room. "Thanks for coming, it means a lot
to pay homage to my son," she says as she
instantly offers a glass of water.
A smiling picture of Emiliano, Dario
and sister Romina lights up the room.
Sala's father Horacio also died last year.
He suffered a heart attack at the age of 58
in April, three months after his son's
death. He and Mercedes did not live together.
"When Emi was 15, he sat in the
kitchen at our old house and told me:
'Mummy, I want to be a football player'.
He wanted that so much, and to pursue
that dream he had to move to San Francisco,
in Cordoba province," says Mercedes.
"He was just a boy, and it was so difficult
to see him leave, but he was so resolute,
so convinced that he would make it.
It was his dream, and he did make it. He
loved football. And now he was so excited
to play in the Premier League."
Sala, who was 28 when he died, was on
his way to join Cardiff City, following a
£15m transfer from French side Nantes,
when the plane he was travelling in
crashed. He had signed for the Welsh club
two days before. Cardiff and Nantes have
since been in dispute over transfer payments.
Sala's body was recovered from the
wreckage in the English Channel, but pilot
David Ibbotson has still not been found.
The Nantes supporters loved Sala, who
moved there in 2015. Some have come to
• His family speaks of 'pain
that will never go away'
"Playing for
Argentina was the
natural desire. We
would imagine him
scoring after getting
a pass from Messi,
for instance. Who
wouldn't?"
visit Progreso since his death. Even his
hairdresser travelled across the Atlantic
Ocean to see where he lived and meet his
family.
Mercedes' living room is now home to
many of the gifts her son received during
his three and a half seasons at Nantes.
Collecting and sorting his belongings was
another of the very painful experiences
the family had to endure last year.
"Every year I'd go to France in October
for his birthday, and I'd stay with him
for a month," says Mercedes. "The first
week was always a celebration of the food
he loved. In my luggage, I would pack the
ready-made pastry circles to make empanadas,
and also breadcrumbs for Milanesas,
because the ones in France were
different.
"'Mummy, please make all the dishes I
love,' he would tell me. I'd also make
homemade pasta. But after this one week
•Its been a year since the fatal plane crash
he'd quickly switch back to his football
diet, with lots of fish, because he was so
focused on being fit. He was a hard
worker. On top of training for the club, he
also had a personal trainer and set up a
gym in his house."
After home matches, supporters would
gather, waiting for his car to go past on
the way out of the stadium.
"He was shy, but he would always
stop, open the windows
and start signing autographs
and taking selfies," Mercedes
says.
"All those fans, today,
are the ones that I want
to thank, because they
are still sending me
pictures I had
never seen before.
"I receive so
much stuff
from France,
from England,
from the rest
of Argentina."
Dario says:
"It was beautiful
to see how
much the people
loved him. I remember
when
heSala was looking
forward to his
move to the Premier
League and he
dreamed of getting a
call-up to represent
Argentina.
In November 2017,
he was Argentina's
• The late
Emiliano Sala
most prolific striker behind Lionel Messi.
His brother Dario, and many people from
Progreso, still cherish the image captured
from TV: Messi had scored a goal every 95
minutes; Sala every 98.
A photo depicting France and Paris St-
Germain striker Kylian Mbappe, the man
who ended Argentina's chances at World
Cup 2018, going to hug him is still treasured.
Sala was so shy he would hardly ask
for a jersey swap.
"We'd talk a lot about the national
team, as two fans do," says Dario. "He
knew it was very difficult to be part of the
squad, with the calibre of the strikers that
we have. But I'm sure he never lost hope,
not my brother. He wanted to be a footballer
and he'd achieved it. He wanted to
play in the top flight and he made it. He
wanted to go to the Premier League and
he'd just achieved it.
"Playing for Argentina was the natural
desire. We would imagine him scoring
after getting a pass from Messi, for instance.
Who wouldn't?"
Growing up, Sala admired Gabriel
Batistuta and Carlos Tevez. He was a fan
of Independiente, because of his friend
Colito's influence.
Dario says: "I'm five years younger than
him, so growing up I would always end up
going in goal and he'd get all the shots.
"We didn't have many of the things
that other kids might have had,
but thanks to my mum we
never had a meal missing
from our table. That's
where we come from.
From sacrifice. And we
are all very alike. Emi
was the oldest of the
three and he was shy."
Mercedes says:
"It's still so fresh. I
can still see them
playing outside. I
would have to call
them in to have
dinner or take a
shower. There
were no toys for
them, just football.
"He didn't
see himself
as famous
or anything,
that's why
when he
came back to
the town. He
was just an ordinary
citizen…
and what a son
he was."