The brother of former Ghana president John Dramani Mahama is in court for defamation of his character
Ibrahim Mahama, CEO of Engineers and Planners has finally sued Ghana National Gas Company’s communication director Ernest Owusu Bempah as well as UTV which is owned by Despite Group of Companies for defamation of character.
Summon of writ
According to Mahama, on March 3, 2018, Bempah was given an opportunity on UTV’s morning show to run him down, labelling him as a thief in the process and hence, prays the court awards him ¢2 million each from the two parties.
He again prays that the court to restrain the two involved from publishing or uttering such comments about him in future.
The lecturer who recently took time off the airwaves has returned and promises to improve the the system
The Takoradi Technical University lecturer sealed the mouth-watering deal this week, following a successful meeting and will be heard on air on Wednesdays between the hours of 9:00am and 12:00 noon and 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm on Saturdays starting from April 3.
Known for his unique ways of asking questions as well as analysing issues, Oti-Asirifi is expected to help improve the standards of journalism in the Western Region.
The married man with three issues, holds Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Radio Training School Certificate (Sports Broadcasting), B.A.Hons (History & Religion) , M.A. Development Studies and MBA Human Resource Management.
He has previously worked with GBC, Dove (now Sikka FM), Spice FM and Radio 360.
The BhimNation boss has resolved issues amicably with Zylofon Music label and is back to perform in Cape Coast
Dancehall artist Stonebwoy has mutually resolved issues regarding his performance at the VGMA nominees jam slated for March 23 at the Jubilee Park in Cape Coast, AshesGyamera can confirm.
Few days after the release of flyers for the event, letters from Zylofon Music record label insisting that they were unaware of any notification that their artist will be on the bill got people confused.
Later, it was confirmed that Charter House organisers of the show has removed Stonebwoy from the participating to avoid any legal tussle. However, Burniton Music reached an agreement with Zylofon Music after a long meeting and the two bodies reached an agreement to pave way for the artist to be back on the bill.
Stonebwoy recently had issues with Zylofon and hinted that he will cancel his contract with them since he feels unsecured.
Stonebwoy has been nominated for the VGMA Artist of the Year alongside Shatta Wale, Sarkodie and Ebony Reigns of blessed memories and Joe Mettle.
Thirty-four suspects have been remanded into prison custody by Kumasi Circuit Court Four which was presided over by His Worship Justice John Eckow Mensah on Wednesday March 21, 2018, in connection with clashes between Zongo youth and Asante natives, which happened in Ahwiaa in the Kwabre East Municipal in the Ashanti region on Monday March 19, 2018, which claimed the life of one person.
Fifty accused persons were arrested on the day, of which sixteen were give bail.
Presenting the fact, before court, leader of the prosecution team Assistance Commissioner of Police (ACP) Okyere Darko said accused person Emmanuel Kwabena Oppong is the boyfriend of Mariam Ibrahim.
On March 19, 2018, Emmanuel Kwabena Oppong together with one Kwabena Oppong at large, Kwasi Bismarck, at large, and KwakuTakyi, also at large, were at Ahwiaa.
With exception of Mariam Ibrahim all live at Ahwiaa what is known as Asante Line of Ahwiaa in the Kwabre East Municipality of Asante Region.
He further stated on same day, at about 11am the group was confronted by another group also live in the area what is known as Zongo Line of Ahwiaa.
The confrontation was over a percieved sexual relationship between Emmanuel Kwabena Oppong who is from Asante Line and Mariam Ibrahim from Zongo Line, he added.
He stressed in the course of the confrontation, members of two groups briefly retreated and resurfaced, all of them armed with machetes knives and other offensive weapons.
“They also armed themselves with offensive weapons, blocked the main Tafo-Mamponteng road and started attacking each other, the police received a report of the incident rushed to the scene and arrested the accused persons and after interrogations charged with the two counts of Conspiracy to Commit Crime to Wit; Rioting with weapon Contrary To Sections 23(1) And 199 of The Criminal Offensive Code,” he added.
Count Two Rioting With Weapon ; Contrary To Section199.
However the defense legal Counsels led by Lawyer Solomon Oppong Twumasi after hearing the prosecution initiated bail process for the accused persons but was granted only 16 out 50 accused persons brought before it, on the ground of being juveniles and aged persons.
They are to reappear on March 27, 2018 while the court ordered the police to keep the 34 in police cells.
The Fire Club will have to travel to Eastern part of Africa in their bid to make it to the group phase of the competition
Ghana Premier League champions Aduana Stars have been handed a relatively manageable opponents in the Caf Confederation Cup playoffs, after being eliminated from the Champions League by Algerian side E.S Setif 4-1 on aggregate.
The Fire Club will host the Malagasy club at the Nana Agyeman Badu Park I in Dormaa Ahenkro on April 8 before they travel to Stade Alexandre Rabemananjara in the city of Mahajanga for the return leg a fortnight later.
Fosa Juniors eliminated Kenyan side AFC Leopards in the preliminary round of the competition with an away goal rule after sharing the spoils 1-1 away and also drawing goalless at home. They later kicked out A.S Port Loius from Mauritius in the first round with a 3-0 aggregate scoreline which included a 2-0 away victory and will have to square it off with Aduana in the final stage.
Fosa Juniors, who are making their debut appearance in the Confederations Cup just like Aduana, have never won their country’s top-flight title but won the Cup de Madagascar (FA Cup) last season and are currently fifth on the Madagascar Ligue Des Champions with five points.
They are managed by Andre Watzel and the coach spent a couple of days in Kenya prior to their game against Leopards and watched the Super Cup game between his opponents and Gor Mahia, labelled them as a ‘disorganised’ side after the first leg.
The Black Stars will have to wait for June before they can play any game since the football association seems to be struggling to raise funds following recent decisions taken by the government
Ghana Football Association communication director Ibrahim Saanie Daara has revealed that they could not attract any country for an international friendly in March since the association doesn’t have the financial resources to pay for costs involved.
The Black Stars were reported to have planned to lock horns with the Reggae Boys of Jamaica this weekend but negotiations fell through after the Concacaf country revealed that Ghana FA will be paying their bills including flight tickets and bonuses.
Already, the country’s ministry of youth and sports had revealed that, government wasn’t prepared to continue with the footing of the Black Stars’ friendlies as they seek to save money and solve other pressing issues.
“If the funds [to organise matches] are not available, there is very little we can do about it,” Saani Daara said.
“We don’t have any opponent to play against for this window. The only match we have lined up will be in June when we take on Iceland in a pre-World Cup friendly as they will be using it to prepare.
“It is about cost and this is a decision the country has to make, if we don’t have friendly matches we must organise them and pay for it,” he added.
According to AshesGyamera‘s sources, the complete take over of Unibank by Bank of Ghana, following the financial institution’s liquidation dur to improper management, has added insult to injury, as they were one of the two sponsors of the Black Stars.
The decision to pull out of the friendly will affect Kwesi Appiah’s plans to qualify and win the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations to be stage in Cameroon since the Black Stars didn’t qyalify to the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
Ghana is ranked 54th in the FIFA World ranking released for the month of February.
The former British diplomat to Ghana has taken a swipe at the Caf vice president after he said the European country want to learn player registration from Ghana
Former British High Commissioner to Ghana Jon Benjamin has thrown shades at Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi, after the latter said on Monday that English and Scottish FA want to learn how smooth player registration has been done in the West African country after being praised constantly by Fifa.
However, Benjamin, who spent close to three years in the country and got familiar with how Ghanaians register football players, suggests that maybe Nyantakyi wants to teach the Europeans how to have two separate ages -one in real life and one for playing football
Perhaps they want to learn why Kwesi Nyantakyi never ultimately took legal action against UK media outlets that implicated him in match fixing allegations, as he swore he would?
Or perhaps to learn about how the concept of someone’s ‘football age’ differs from their real age? https://t.co/T9nIj9ikCs
The diplomat jokingly revealed that his football age per the Ghanaian ways of doing things is 23 years despite recently turning 55 years of age.
No, it is not a problem here.
If birth records are reliable and any local phenomenon of corruptly falsified personal data is clamped down on, then this problem shouldn't be able to occur.
For the record, I recently turned 55 but my 'football age' is still only 23. https://t.co/zVRzBZCoro
The BhimNation president has given a huge hint about an official declaration of termination of contracts between him and Zylofon Music
One of Ghana’s finest Dancehall artist Stonebwoy has given a clue that he is going to announce officially the mutual termination of contracts between His camp and Zylofon Music label in the coming days.
According to the one-time Ghana Music Awards winner, people can now reach out to him for a show through his own process despite the existing current modules used by Zylofon and this comes about following bust-up between him and some workers of the record label a fortnight ago at the Champs Bar in Accra.
” You can book me through Burniton Music for a show and it will come to me and even if you book me through Zylofon, it us the same thing because it will come back to me just like the old stuff,” Stonebwoy told Joy News.
I’m calm and as far as I’m concerned, I seek to trouble nobody. I’m forgiving but in any way, how and form that I can defend myself in the best of ways, legally and understandably, I will one hundred percent do that and more.
“I may not want to go there but one thing I want to say is that there are developments and I have never come out to mention any contractual clause whatsoever, but there’s a development. Ghana will hear it, but it’s for peace, calmness, growth and progress. I’m not going to break the icy on it now but you’ll hear it when broken,” he added.
Stonebwoy recently released a banger titled Dirty Enemies, which featured Ghana captain and Keyserispor striker Asamoah Gyan and the the song has already gone viral especially on social media.
He has been nominated for the 2018 Artist of the Year in the upcoming Ghana Music Awards. However, he must beat competitions from his bitter rival Shatta Wale, reigning champion Joe Mettle, Sarkodie and Ebony Reigns of blessed memories.
Management of fast-growing Unibank has been taken over by Bank of Ghana, AshesGyamera cam confirm.
The financial institution which in recent times has been offering financial support to the Black Stars, failed to leave up to its expectations
According to an explanation from the Governor of the central bank during a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, explained that the takeover came up as as a result of challenges facing the bank.
Bank of Ghana also revealed through a statement that Unibank “persistently suffered liquidity shortfalls and consistently breached its cash reserve requirement”
The bank couldn’t meet the pressure on them and fell on the central bank for money to the tune of 2.2bn cedis dating from 2016 to enable it operate.
Bank of Ghana
PRESS RELEASE
UniBank’s problems are part of the legacy issues in the financial sector attributed to weak economic growth and poor corporate governance and risk management practices.
It will be recalled that UniBank was one of nine banks identified after the asset quality review exercise undertaken in 2016, to be significantly undercapitalized with a CAR of 4.75%.
As part of efforts to recapitalize the bank, it submitted capital restoration plans to the Bank of Ghana which it implemented to build up its capital to 7.7% in August 2017. Subsequent reviews of UniBank’s books by Bank of Ghana’s supervision teams showed that the bank had not reported the state of its loan book accurately.
Consequently by October 2017, its CAR was estimated at negative 12.5 %, making it technically insolvent. By December 2017, its CAR had dropped further to negative 24%.
The bank has failed to submit its monthly returns to the Bank of Ghana for January and February 2018, and as a result Bank of Ghana has no evidence to suggest that its CAR has been restored to the regulatory minimum of 10%.
Efforts made by Bank of Ghana’s supervisory teams who have visited the bank’s head office several times this month to obtain current information on the bank’s financial health, proved futile as the bank’s management failed to cooperate with the Bank of Ghana staff on site.
The appointment of the Official Administrator has therefore become necessary due to the fact that uniBank has, among other things:
a) Persistently maintained a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) below zero (currently negative 24%), making it technically insolvent. This contravenes section 29 of Act 930 which requires a minimum CAR of 10% to be maintained at all times.
b) Persistently suffered liquidity shortfalls and consistently breached its cash reserve requirement. As a result, UniBank has relied extensively on liquidity support (over GHS 2.2 billion) from the Bank of Ghana over the past two years to meet its recurring liabilities. Among other things, a key shareholder of the bank managed to obtain liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana using third party banks as its agents. The Bank of Ghana’s exposure to the bank was therefore underestimated by nearly GHS 400 million, as this amount was not reflected in its books.
c) Conducted its credit administration in a manner that has jeopardized the interests of depositors and the financial sector as a whole.
d) Failed to comply with a directive of the Bank of Ghana dated 26th October, 2017 under section 105 of Act 930, prohibiting the bank from granting new loans and incurring new capital expenditures.
e) Failed to comply with several other regulatory requirements, including:
Lending to a number of borrowers in excess of its regulatory lending limit (single obligor limit) under section 62 of the Banks and SDIs Act, 2016 (Act 930);
Borrowing from the inter-bank market without the written approval of the Bank of Ghana when its CAR was less than the prescribed ten percent (10%), in breach of section 66(1) of Act 930.
Outsourcing a number of services such as those of tellers, receptionists, and security, to affiliate companies without the prior approval by the Bank of Ghana, contrary to section 60 (12) of Act 930.
Refusing to cooperate with the Bank of Ghana in the performance of its supervisory responsibilities, including deliberately concealing some liabilities from its balance sheet, and failing to submit documents and records for supervisory inspection.
Poor corporate governance and risk management practices which rendered the bank vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks.
Generally conducting its affairs in a manner detrimental to the interests of depositors and the financial system as a whole.
In spite of the Ministry of Finance recently agreeing to absorb a significant amount of the debts of Government contractors owed to the bank to the tune of ¢428,817,961 (backed by Interim Payment Certificates issued to contractors), the bank has not been able to address its capital deficiency, which has continued to deteriorate.
Also, the bank engaged in significant transactions with its parent company and affiliate companies including connected lending and other related party transactions without sufficient controls as required by law.
Allowing the continuation of UniBank’s activities in their current form would be detrimental to the interests of depositors and the banking system as a whole.
Andre Ayew was an ambassador of Unibank
Several attempts by the Bank of Ghana to work together with management and shareholders of the bank to address the capital deficiency and liquidity challenges have failed to achieve the desired outcome, making the continuous reliance on Bank of Ghana for liquidity support unsustainable.
More recently, the bank’s announcement of a purported pledge of ADB Bank shares in its favour by its shareholders to secure commitments for recapitalization, were deemed by the Bank of Ghana to be null and void as no prior approval had been obtained from the Bank of Ghana as required by Act 930 for acquiring significant shares in a bank or exercising other forms of control by virtue of any transaction.
In any event, a request by the Bank of Ghana to the bank to submit copies of the Deed of Pledge and underlying transactional documents were not heeded by uniBank, its shareholders, directors, or management.
Furthermore, there are additional regulatory hurdles outside the control of the Bank of Ghana required to be cleared by UniBank before potentially realizing any value, if at all, from the said transaction, making it incapable of addressing the immediate capital and liquidity needs of the bank.
The Bank of Ghana takes this opportunity to reassure customers of UniBank that all deposits they have with UniBank are, and will remain, safe and that they can continue to do business at any of its branches. NO DEPOSITOR OF THE BANK WILL LOSE ANY MONEY.
Bank of Ghana remains committed to supporting the orderly development of Ghana’s banking sector including indigenous Ghanaian banks, while promoting a strong and resilient sector to drive Ghana’s economic growth.
Kindly direct any questions to Bank of Ghana. You may call telephone number 0302665034 or send email to [email protected].
Fifa referee Reginald Lathbridge has apologised for the terrible error he committed during matchday seven game between Bechem United and Elmina Sharks last season.
The 41-year-old cautioned Sharks’ striker Felix Addo but recorded that it was rather Joseph Amoah, making the latter ineligible in the subsequent games. Olympics capitalised on that situation to delay the start of the 2017-18 since they placed two court injunctions on it after their protests were thrown out
“I have been very honest in the issue at hand. Let’s be honest in our dealings in this world since it could take you even a year to to realize you have made a mistake,” Lathbridge told Sammer during Angel FM’s First half show.
“To err is human . I made a mistake and after I realised that it was creating problem in the football cycles, I have asked for forgiveness from God yet I have been punished with a lifetime ban.
“I’m unperturbed because from now onwards, I will walk as a free man for telling the truth. When was the last time I was banned or suspension for an error so this clearly tells the world that it was not intentional.”
He added: “If it is possible for a doctor to operate a patient and leave a scissor or another material in his tommy and later realise what he has done, why can’t I also do the same even it is a year or two?”
AshesGyamera understands that the referee will likely appeal the decision since he has only four years to retire.
