Albert Adomah on his way out of Bristol City

Relegated Bristol City have slashed their asking price for Ghana winger Albert Adomah.

The Robins are looking to raise some money to beef up their squad ahead of their campaign in League One.

Bristol are looking to make a quick return to the English Championship but must first raise some cash to build a formidable to power their bid in the English third tier.

The club this looks to raise part of their revenue from the sale of exciting Ghana winger Adomah.

Their asking price in the recent past has however scared off suitors.

Newly promoted Premier League side Cardiff City were said to be keen on 0n the Ghanaian but Bristol’s £2m tag scared them off.

They are now likely to return for their man with news the Ashton Gate outfit have halved their demands to £1m.

This clears the path to see Adomah make his long awaited entry into the English top flight.

He reported to be on the radar of Swansea last season but a deal did not materialize.

Source Ghana Soccer

Asiedu Nketiah

General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and witness for the 1st and 3rd Respondents in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition in giving his evidence in chief at the Supreme Court, has backed the petitioners case on most of the major irregularities identified by the petitioners.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah made the concessions while being led in evidence by Counsel for the NDC, Tsatsu Tsikata on the 1st day of his appearance in the witness box as the petitioners had indicated that subject to the results of the ongoing KPMG audit, they had closed their case.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, while speaking stated that all the parties and participating candidates before the elections agreed as was also contained in the law that every voter must be verified by the biometric verification device before he or she is allowed to vote.

He acknowledged that indeed it was for this reason that the parties also established that in the event a biometric verification device broke down in the course of the election, the device had to be replaced at the affected polling station and that in the event that that was not possible, voting at the station had to be postponed to the next day.

He noted that there was no circumstance per their agreement and laws which allowed voting to go on without prior biometric verification.

On the issue of presiding officer’s signature, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah again stated that the presiding officer’s signature was very necessary and that the presiding officer had to sign the statement of poll and declaration of results form (pink sheet) before the results are declared.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah indeed admitted that there were a number of polling stations where the presiding officers’ signature was absent on the declaration form but said that once the polling agents had witnessed the form, there was no problem if the presiding officer didn’t sign.

On over voting, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah could not give a clear and cogent answer on the irregularity as had been defined by the petitioners. He suggested that even if more ballots were found in the ballot box at the close of voting than ballots issued to voters, it could not be said to be over voting or wrong if the ballots in the box did not exceed the voters’ register at the polling station.

He also said that even if the ballots in the ballot box exceed the number of ballots issued to voters on Election Day, it was alright as long as all the ballots in the ballot box had the stamp of the electoral commission.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah in giving his testimony also stated that he can confirm that no issue of over voting occurred in all the 26,002 polling stations across the country, defying the electoral commission’s admission that indeed a few polling stations were annulled as a result of over voting and voting without biometric verification and also his own Counsel’s attempt to show that over voting occurred in more polling stations than the petitioners had stated including some areas in the petitioner’s stronghold.

“My Lords, I can state that there was nowhere in all the 26,000 polling stations where over-voting took place” was what he averred on the issue of over voting.

Per his understanding of over voting, Mosquito insisted that allegations in that respect were untrue.

“My Lord I’m saying this because we have come to know over-voting to mean an occurrence where the number of votes found in the ballot box exceeds the number of people who are entitled to vote at that polling station, so that clearly is my understanding of over-voting and I do not have any indication of this happening in any of the 26,002 polling stations which were involved in the 2012 elections”, General Mosquito said.

Aside the allegations of over voting as filed in the affidavits of the petitioners was also the case of voting without biometric verification, duplicate serial numbers on ballot papers and unsigned electoral records (pink sheets).

Priding in his 34 year experience in the electioneering process of the country, the NDC general secretary denied the allegations and disclosed that the petitioners’ key witness insistence on allegations of over voting was his first time of hearing about that phenomenon.

It will be recalled that the petitioners’ key witness, Dr. Bawumia, in his evidence-in-chief gave signals of the incidence of over-voting because ballots tallied at the end of the voting process exceeded the number of ballots issued at certain polling stations.

“…That was my first time of hearing over-voting being defined that way in all my 34 years of experience in elections in this country”, he said.

Concerning the issue of the failure to record numbers in the column provided on the pink sheets, an indicator of the number of ballots issued, Mosquito flimsily replied that that “they were clerical errors” and in his view could not have had any telling consequence on the final results since all agents of the various political parties which participated in the elections appended their signatures. “…My Lord I think that if no papers were issued then the elections couldn’t have taken place at all so I think that, that must be a clerical error”.

In his responses, General Mosquito said the allegations of voting without biometric verification, duplicate serial numbers and unsigned electoral records which were among the propelling factors of violations in the election process according to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and which forms the basis for which they were challenging the election results were figments of their own imagination.

He said the Second Respondent, Electoral Commission, took stock of about 400 polling stations across the country where the biometric verification machines failed on the day of voting, December 7, 2012 and based on a review in that regard, voting continued on December 8 with fully functional biometric verification equipment.

Source Peace News Ghana

Mahamudu Bawumia

A senior member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Collins Appiah Ofori has declared his unflinching support for 2012 vice presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as the party’s flagbearer in future.

He said it is an incontrovertible fact that Dr. Bawumia’s role in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition has put him on a higher pedestal in the party.

P.C. Appiah Ofori’s endorsement marks a massive u-turn from his previous position about Dr. Bawumia candidature.

The uncompromising former MP was an ardent critic of Bawumia’s choice as running mate to the party’s flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo prior to the 2012 elections.

He argued that Dr. Bawumia was not an electoral asset to win votes but given his credentials as an astute economist he [Bawumia] will be very useful as Governor of the Bank of Ghana if the NPP came to power.

However, speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Friday, PC Appiah Ofori said his position about Dr. Bawumia’s candidature at the time was misconstrued.

The former Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odobeng-Brakwa explained that his argument was purely based on Bawumia’s performance in 2008 elections.

“Bawumia did not garner enough votes in his constituency when he was made the running mate in 2008. He cannot win more votes in the Zongos which is a crucial area for the NPP and I believed that caused our defeat,” he added.

This notwithstanding, Appiah Ofori said the sterling performance put up by Dr. Bawumia in the case before the Supreme Court “has totally blown me away”.

He stated emphatically that after Akufo-Addo, Bawumia is the best presidential material in the NPP.

“I have personally told Bawumia that he is an automatic choice for the presidency after Nana Akufo-Addo and I know many people in NPP agree with me”.

PC Appiah Ofori stated that even if the petition goes in their favour and Akufo-Addo becomes president; after serving two terms, Bawumia is next in line.

Source Joy News Ghana

Ayikoi Otoo

A former Attorney General under the erstwhile New Patriotic Party administration is mocking what he says is the Respondents “fixation” on a non-existent 24 pink sheet boxes which were supposed to have been audited by the international accounting firm KPMG.

Ayikoi Otoo says the Respondents‘ compliant about 24 pink sheet boxes increasing to 31 boxes are only “a figment of their own imagination.”

Both the first and third Respondents in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition are alleging that pink sheet boxes in the custody of the Court Registry that were due for counting had miraculously increased from 24 to 31.

The President of the nine judges, Justice William Atuguba appointed KPMG as referee to audit the pink sheets after consistent claims by the Respondents that they received far less the number of pink sheet exhibits than the petitioners claimed to have served the court.

Even before the referee began the auditing process the Respondents claimed the process had been compromised with the addition of seven more boxes and must be halted.

Tsatsu Tsikata in raising the allegation before court said there has been an element of “criminality” on which grounds he called for temporal suspension of the auditing process.

The Presiding Judge refused his request and ordered him to redirect his concerns to the referee.

KPMG has since continued with the counting.

On Joy FM and Multi TV news analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday, Ayikoi Otoo said the allegations by the Respondents have no basis.

He said they are “chasing ghost” because the allegations cannot be authenticated by anybody.

“Who is coming to give evidence for them?” he asked.

Editor in Chief of the Crusading Guide newspaper Kweku Baako Jnr agreed with Otoo.

Contrary to claims by the Respondents that there was an initial inventory taken which put the number of pink sheet boxes to 24, Kweku Baako Jnr said there was no such inventory taken.

According to him, a top KPMG official has publicly admitted there has been no such inventory and wondered how the Respondents came up with the figure 24.

Nana Ato Dadzie who is a member of the NDC legal team, and who was also on the show said they disagree with the views by the KPMG official.

He insisted there was some level of inventory taken, saying every accountant moves around with pens and paper when issues like this crop up.

He said the final results of the auditing will determine the next line of action to be taken.

Source Joy News Ghana

Kwame Nkrumah

Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, Murtala Mohammed, says Nkrumah’s efforts in the days leading to the formation of then Organisation of African Union, now African Union (AU) opened the doors of the country for freedom fighters on the continent, but they turned around to resist his dream of a continental government.

He said the unfortunate misconception that Dr Kwame Nkrumah had a hidden agenda to rule the whole continent was a major disruption in his dream for a united African front.

He believes that was the reason he faced major resistance from some heads of state on the continent.

Citing a book authored by Nelson Mandela, he said there was very little mention of Nkrumah and blamed it on wrong perceptions regarding his quest for an African government.

The Deputy Minister believes Muammar Gaddaf met the same fate in recent efforts towards an immediate continental government, saying though he was regarded a dictator, his vision should have been supported.

According to him, although countries such as Ivory Coast in the early days of Nkrumah’s fight for African unity, were “jealous” because they thought they should lead such a cause, Nkrumah’s legacy is clear for all to see.

Making his submissions on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji talk show Saturday, the Deputy Minister said as a result of the formation of the AU, African leaders are beginning to push for a stronger regional block to facilitate continental government, but that does not look good because of major disparities in the level of developments of some of these blocks.

He suggested that there should be the formation of one African military high command and a common trade for the continent to present a formidable force on the global stage.

“China, one country…which is more populated than the entire continent of Africa, they come out and they have a force”, he cited.

He said though some critics say the AU has not achieved anything, the Africa Peer Review mechanism, the New Partnership for Africa‘s Development (NEPAD), and decline of coups on the continent are notable achievements by the AU.

Source Joy News Ghana

Esther Lamptey and her lover, Raymond Borteir Mensah at the Osu Police Station

The Osu Police has arrested a house help who stole money from her Bulgarian employer to rent accommodation for her lover as well as cater for his expenditure to help him travel out of the country.

A total of $16,500, an equivalent of GH¢34,650 was stolen from Fredi Patric, a Bulgarian project manager with Consul Ghana Limited who resides at Osu.

The house help, Esther Lamptey, 21, resides at Nungua and is believed to have stolen the foreign currency in bits between the months of April and May 2013.

Superintendent Kwesi Annor Arhin, Osu District Police Commander (DPC) briefing the DAILY GUIDE said the complainant called the suspect on May 17, 2013 at about 8:00am when he discovered that his money was missing.

The suspect who was called together with another person admitted the offence when she was questioned about the missing money.

“She however said she only stole some dollars and took it to the forex bureau where she received GH¢20,000 as the cedi equivalent.”

The district commander noted that a formal complaint was therefore lodged with the Osu police which led to the arrest of the suspect.

In a statement to the police, the house help admitted committing the offence and an amount of GH¢1,500 was retrieved from her.

Though she said she used GH¢2,000 out of the money to pay for the medical treatment of her sick mother, the police retrieved a wardrobe, double door fridge, television, ceiling fan, microwave oven, deck which she is believed to have spent the money on.

She had also rented accommodation at the cost of GH¢2,600 for her boy friend identified as Raymond Borteir Mensah, an electrician at Nungua.

The boyfriend, 27, who was later picked up by the Police, has been charged with abatement of crime and they are to be put before an Accra circuit court.

Superintendent Arhin cautioned people who employ the services of house helps especially foreigners to dig into the background of such people.

Source Daily Guide Ghana

Darlington Tamakloe, Emmanuel Kwesi Aidoo and Collins Takyie( the rapist) in police custody

Three suspected armed robbers, who unleashed their libido on two sisters after a robbery attack last Friday at Adenta, have been grabbed by the police.

The suspects are Collins Takyei , 24 year old electrician, Darlington Tamakloe, 45 year old plumber, and Emmanuel kwesi Aidoo.

Suspect Collins Takyei was identified as the suspect, who violently raped the girls who are 16 and 17 years respectively.

The suspects are now in police custody awaiting trial.

Narrating the story to the media, DSP Stephen Kofi Ahiatafu, the Adenta District Police Commander said the incident occurred on May 17, 2012 around 2am.

The victims live with their parents at their self-contain apartment at Aben wo aha near Adenta.

The three young men, on that fateful day, entered the room of the victims wielding a cutlass and two locally manufactured pistols.

The suspects then robed the victims of some assorted beverages including three tins of Milo and Nido together with other assorted drinks.

In the process, suspect Collins Takyei violently raped the two sisters in turns.

The victims, according to the police commander, could not shout for help because they were threatened by the suspects with the cutlass and pistols.

After having three rounds of oral sex with each of the girls by Takyei, the suspects bolted.

The following morning the two girls spotted suspect Emmanuel Kwesi Aidoo in their area.

Together with their parents, the victims reported the matter to the police for action.

Suspect Emmanuel was grabbed on Tuesday may 14, 2013 by the police for questioning.

Upon interrogation, Emmanuel initially denied the allegation but later confessed to the act.

Suspect then mentioned suspects Collins Takyei and Darlington Tamakloe as his accomplices.

The two were also arrested the following day by the police.

The two girls identified suspect Collins Takyei as the one who raped them during the raid.

Parents of the victims also revealed to the police that the girls forgot to lock their main doors that fateful day.

The district commander urged parents to let the security of their homes be paramount to them.

Source Daily Guide Ghana

Pastor David Sunday

A Nigerian who claimed to be a pastor has been arrested for swindling a 19-year-old girl.

Police said he tricked the teenager to hand over her parent’s jewellery and money to prevent the premature death of 12 members of her family.

The young lady at the centre of the scam whose name was being withheld for security reasons was made to part with jewellery worth GH¢5,000 and a total cash amount of GH¢2,750.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Stephen Kofi Ahiataku, Adentan District Police Commander informed DAILY GUIDE that at about 10:00am on February 1, 2013, a stranger approached the young lady for assistance to pay for his transportation cost.

“The young lady who had pity on the stranger gave him GH¢5. But he told her that he was not a Ghanaian and that he would need help to sell some goods he had brought to Ghana.”

The stranger who reportedly gave his name as Patrick said his goods included laptops and phones but when the young girl accompanied him to Labone junction for the said goods, they were met by another young man with brown envelops which he claimed could be transformed into money.

After demonstrating how the brown envelop could be changed into money by simply rubbing it in the arms, the young lady protested that she was only there to help sell laptops and phones and not to change paper into money.

The two gentlemen later took GH¢20 from the young lady and asked her to accompany them to Achimota, a suburb of Accra to meet another man who would give them money to pay her back.

On arrival, they met one Pastor David Sunday, 48, who started telling the young lady about her encounter with the young men but unknown to the teenager, he was the lead trickster.

The alleged kingpin then informed the young lady that 12 of her family members would die prematurely if he did not pray for her.

He convinced the lady to first give him whatever money she had, “So she went to the bank and withdrew GH¢130 for them,” said the Commander.

After the prayers, the pastor ordered her to go home and bring some more money and all the jewelleries in the house since they had been contaminated by bad spirits “and that she was not to mention it to anybody or risk losing her life instantly”.

According to the Adenta Commander, the lady obliged and returned with an amount of GH¢2600 which belonged to her parents and all the family jewellery including gold ornaments which she handed over to the pastor in a hotel.

The pastor asked the teenager to wait for him in the room whilst he went to a different room to pray over the items and the money. However, the man bolted with his booty.

After waiting for a while and calling his phone several times to no avail, the teenager called the first stranger who told her she had been scammed.

The case was then reported to the Adenta Police but while investigations where still ongoing the teenager, on May 13, at about 1:00pm met Pastor David Sunday and raised the alarm.

With the help of some drivers and conductors at a lorry station the pastor was grabbed and handed over to the Adenta Police Station.

In his statement to the police, the pastor initially denied but later confirmed the young lady’s story.

The pastor told the police he arrived in Ghana in 2010 and lived at Nsakina, near Ablekuma where he worshiped with a local church.

DSP Ahiataku advised the public to be wary of tricksters.

Source Daily Guide Ghana

It was unclear as at the time of going to press if the exercise had been completed, but it was likely to confirm the petitioners’ case that they, indeed, attached the 11,842 as exhibits.

The Brouhaha

The issue of how many pink sheets were attached as exhibits in the case became very contentious with the respondents insisting that they did not receive all the further and better particulars as directed by the court.

The request to count the pink sheets was initially made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), before the court. With the consent of all the parties in the petition, an order was given by the court for an independent referee to conduct the exercise.

Just as KPMG commenced the exercise in the presence of two observers each from the parties as ordered by the court, the NDC, through its lead counsel Tsatsu Tsikata, came to court with a story that the exhibits had been compromised and that the boxes containing the pink sheets had increased from 24 to 31.

In fact, the allegation over whether or not the boxes of the exhibits had been tampered with started right after the court’s sitting on Monday, May 20, when news broke that Mr. Tsikata, Tony Lithur who represents President John Dramani Mahama and later James Quarshie-Idun representing the Electoral Commission (EC), had gate-crashed the venue for the counting and requested the Supreme Court panel chairman Justice William Atuguba to review the order of the court.

According to Mr. Tsikata, there were alleged criminalities involved and as a result, they would prefer an extended control mechanism that would take into consideration copies served on at least two panel members to compare that with the pink sheets at the court’s registry.

The issue of whether the petition was being unduly delayed had come up strongly since Mr. Tsikata took over the cross-examination of the principal witness, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is also the 2nd petitioner. And many were of the view that the brouhaha over the pink sheets was part of the ploy to drag the process.

Mr. Tsikata, whose client came into the petition by way of a joinder, was in his 13th day of cross-examination even though NDC’s co-respondents including President John Dramani Mahama and the Electoral Commission (EC) used about three days each to conclude a similar exercise.

Just as he was winding up on his cross-examination, he brought another motion, seeking to cross-examine some of the witnesses who filed affidavits in support of the petitioners’ case; but the court threw him out, together with President Mahama and the EC who made similar applications.

Mr. Tsikata however, had always denied criticisms that his style of cross-examination was designed to delay the process, often accusing the petitioners of presenting exhibits that forced the respondents to ‘dig deep’ in order to counter the petitioners’ claims.

When the NDC complained to the court, the nine-member panel chaired by Justice William Atuguba rejected their attempt to halt the counting exercise.

The court ruled that KPMG should continue with the exercise and any concerns that would be raised by the parties incorporated into the final report.

The accounting firm had the duty of “specifying in respect of each pink sheet, polling station name and its code number and exhibit number if any,” the court stated.

“In doing so the said referee should make a true and faithful count of the said exhibits of pink sheets according to and under the various categories of alleged electoral malpractices in issue before this court.”

The court said the professional fees to be charged by KPMG should be shared equally between the parties and added that each party was at liberty to choose two representatives for the counting exercise as observers.

KPMG, however, opted to do the counting free of charge.

Source Daily Guide Ghana

Nadia Buari

On screen, Nadia Buari is the ‘darling’ of the people and her fans have always wanted to know more about their idol.

Off screen however, she has come under a lot of scrutiny with issues relating to her denying reports that she has a child, her inability in recent times to get lead roles and above all, shoving away her new actor friend or alleged lover.

Ever since she first stepped out with Jim Iyke, fans of the actress have not stopped asking questions on whether or not she is pregnant.

This curiosity may be fuelled because of the visible rapid changes in the actress’ body. It may also be that her body system is reacting to a new kind of food she may be taking or perhaps something else may have caused the sudden change. This something else could include but not limited to pregnancy.

Every woman is different and they show different responses to pregnancy. Not every woman has the same symptoms or even shows the same symptoms from one pregnancy to another, but one of the most familiar symptoms is oedema (when the body is holding onto too much fluid. The extra fluid causes the hands and feet or ankles to swell up. It is quite common during pregnancy).

If our source is anything to go by, then Nadia Buari is not new to motherhood, as the issue of her being a mother came up recently, but seems to have silently died down. In fact, a close friend of the actress has recently stated that her supposed secret child is a girl but not a boy as the media had speculated.

It could also be that Nadia’s face and body as seen at the just concluded 2013 VGMAs which she attended with Jim, may be betraying her.
If it is true Nadia Buari is carrying a baby and the baby happens to be Jim’s, then it should be joyful news, since Jim Iyke has officially broken up with Kenturah.

Source News Ghana