The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson told Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday June 22 that former presidents, lawmakers and senior government officials in the country will no longer have special privileges for private travels to the United States and are expected to join the queue like any other ordinary Ghanaian when applying for visas. But Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says government will do all it can to reverse the decision by the US Embassy to withdraw some privileges extended to former presidents in the country.
The Supreme Court on June 22 declared as unconstitutional an agreement between the then Mahama government and the United States which saw two Guantanamo Bay detainees brought into the country. The court has ordered that government must within the next three months send the agreement to Parliament for ratification or have the two detainees sent back to the United States. But it appears government may allow the continuous stay of the detainees after noting that they have been well behaved, as it is taking “prompt” steps to deal with the Supreme Court’s orders concerning the continued stay of the two. Will this be a challenge for Akufo-Addo following his comments on the campaign trail that if he were in power he would have sent them back to the States?
A 13-member Committee, formed after the NDC’s humiliating defeat in last year’s polls, was tasked to find out the causes of the party’s defeat. After about six months of deliberations, the Committee chairman, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey presented its findings to the NDC leadership and recommended they embark on a healing tour to ensure a formidable party ahead of the 2020 general elections. But according to the former Minister of Sports Nii Lante Vanderpuye, it was revealed in the report that Lordina Mahama was cited several times in the report contributing in various ways towards the defeat of the National Democratic Congress.
The National Media Commission on Thursday directed XYZ TV, Thunder TV and Ice TV to stop showing pornographic materials on their screens with immediate effect. This follows a petition filed by James Oberko and Tommy Annan Forson against the stations for violating Section 7(e) of the NMC Broadcasting guidelines but the management of Ice TV has threatened a court action against the National Media Commission for restraining it from airing pornographic movies. According to them, they want the court to give clarification on whether the Commission has the right to stop it from airing such content on free-to-air TV.
These and other trending issues including the Data Protection Commission sending a task force made up of personnel from the Ghana Police Service to arrest Chief Executive Officers of companies that have failed to register with it as required by law, the Minority in Parliament accusing government of offering cocoa farmers a terrible deal with its decision not to increase the cocoa producer price due to a fall in world market prices and COCOBOD describing as inaccurate claims by the Minority will be discussed on Newsfile.
