Cholera kills 16 in Central Region

THE CAPE Coast Metropolitan Health Director (MHD), Dr. Joseph Nuertey has disclosed that his outfit has recorded 16 deaths in relation to the recent Cholera outbreak in the country.

He said 495 cases have already been detected and currently the people are receiving treatment at the various hospitals throughout the region.

He stated that five districts in the region including Gomoa East, Agona East and West, Awutu Senya and Effutu districts have so far been indentified to have been affected by the epidemic.

He therefore added that his outfit together with other health agencies in the region has put in place measures to prevent the disease from spreading to other districts and municipalities in the region that has resulted in organizing educational programmes to raise awareness in the various communities.

Dr. Nuertey made this known on Tuesday when Better Ghana Management Services Limited (BGMSL), a non profiting company in the country organized a one day sensitization programme to educate local food operators in the Cape Coast Metropolis (CCM) of the Central Region on how to control and curb the increasing Cholera outbreak in the region.

He however advised people to ensure personal hygiene through the washing of hands with soap under clean and safe running water before taking meals, adding that, that was the only way to prevent more people from being infected.

He also recommended the old method of boiling water before drinking since the disease spreads quickly through tainted water.

The occasion attracted hundreds of women who prepare local dishes for sale through the use of various ingredients and measures.

Participants were taken through the importance of hand washing practices which is said to be the most effective way to curb various diseases in the communities and nation as a whole.

The programme which was in collaboration with the Ministry of Health was to help individuals increase control over their health system.

Addressing the participants, the Central Regional Programmes Coordinator of BGMSL, Ms. Ivy Naa Deedei Thompson disclosed that BGMSL aims at supporting disease prevention and control through the organization of national health promotion and education programmes in the various communities.

According to her, the initiative forms part of government’s public-private sector support to attract communities to involve themselves in the implementation of health promotion interventions which include the process of enabling people to increase control over their health.

She added that BGMSL has taken the initiative to make available ‘Veronica Buckets’ at public lavatories, market places, bus terminals and for food vendors to encourage hand washing with soap under clean running water.

In order to curb the situation, she said the Central Regional office of BGMSL has trained about one hundred health promotion officers at the various district and sub district levels who are actively involved in health promotion activities at churches, market places, schools and social gatherings to educate the masses on preventive health.

She therefore assured participants that BGMSL will continue to participate in such collaborative ventures to ensure Ghanaians become healthier as a result of the drastic reduction in the incidences of preventable diseases.

Ms.Thompson later presented 50 hand washing containers (Veronica Buckets) on behalf of BGMSL to the Central Regional Branch of the Association of Local Food Operator’s (ALFO) to help them educate their customers, workers and families on how to curb cholera by washing their hands with soap before taking any meal.

Sack Allotey Jacobs

Educated Fisherman-Allotey Jacobs

A NATIONAL Democratic Congress (NDC) branch Chairman at Ebubonku, a suburb of Cape Coast, Seth Berikorang, has sent a strong warning to President Atta Mills to sack the Central Regional Director of Communication of the party, Bernard Allotey Jacobs.

According to the Chairman, Allotey was the biggest enemy of President Mills and so the President should not work with such a person who was tarnishing the image of the party.

He alleged that it was people like Allotey who made the founder of the party, Jerry John Rawlings, call some party members in the Mills administration “greedy bastards.”

“Allotey has been able to put up a multibillion cedi mansion, a hotel, and wedded his wife within two years of the Mills administration,” they claimed.

He described the seat of government as a “Holy Seat” and should not be surrounded by unrighteous people like Allotey Jacobs, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Cape Coast, Anthony Egyir Aikins, as well as the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast, Ebow Barton Odro, who did not have the party’s interest at heart.

Speaking at a press conference in Cape Coast yesterday, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Concerned NDC Youth, Baba Yusif, alleged that Allotey Jacobs, in 2007, used letter heads of then candidate Mills to solicit funds from contractors to support the 2008 elections but allegedly failed to render accounts.

Yusif further alleged that Allotey had been flirting with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and was divulging secrets of the party.

Yusif alleged that Allotey was serving on three boards and was being paid dollars to defend government on radio but was still picking quarrels with the Central Regional Minister, Comfort Ama Benyiwa Doe, for not giving him a particular contract.

“Benyiwa Doe is our Regional Minister so if Allotey has any problem with her, he shouldn’t have gone on air to insult her but rather sit down to thrash out issues,” he said.

The PRO however expressed concern about the way some gurus in the party including Barton Odro, Mr. Aikins, and one Col. Otoo, co-ordinator in charge of the MP’s office, had been maltreating members of the party whenever they went to seek assistance from them.

Yusif expressed disappointment about the way President Mills chose the MCE, adding that since his assumption of office, he had done nothing to uplift the image of the metropolis.

“Aikins sometimes gathers courage to tell party members who go to his office for assistance that he was not appointed to serve NDC foot-soldiers who have toiled for the success of the party.”

The PRO described the utterances of the MCE as distasteful, disgraceful and, therefore, he was unqualified to lead the party.

“All the executives are busily seeking contracts and appointment while the foot-soldiers are hungry,” they stated.

“This menace exhibited by the MP and MCE, if not checked, will undermine the performance of the party which will totally contribute to our defeat in the next general election,” they said.

The angry PRO noted that due to the poor performance of the MCE, the NDC had only 20 seats in the recent district assembly elections while NPP had 24 seats, a situation they claimed posed a threat to the party in the next election.

He said some members of the party had defected to other parties because of the attitude of the leaders.

He alleged that the defectors had been going round telling people that even if the party gave them billions of cedis and other material things, they would never vote for the party.

NDC Foot Soldiers Strike

A CROSS-SECTION of foot-soldiers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Cape Coast in the Central Region on Friday stormed the regional office of DAILY GUIDE to express disappointment with the leaders of the party for neglecting them after they came to power. 

The foot-soldiers, who called themselves ‘Movement for Change’, stated that their leadership, together with the group, mobilized more than a 1000 youth across the country, called ‘Brotherhood for Change’, to solicit for votes that helped the party to win the presidential election in 2008.

According to them, they were sent to various polling stations to act as observers for the party, but were beaten by the then ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters and as a result some of them lost their personal belongings.

In an interview with Daddymus Arthur-Moses, the organizer of ‘Brotherhood for Change’, he noted that the  leadership of the group, led by the national coordinators, Nana Ohene Agyekum, Alfred Mahama, Nii Ashie Moore and Ebenezer Mahama, encouraged them to match the NPP boot for boot, which they did.

According to him, two years down the line after their selfless dedication to the party, they had not been rewarded, hence their resolve to go to the press for the whole country to hear their grievances.

Mr. Arthur-Moses emphatically stated that Vice President John Dramani Mahama was aware of the group’s existence and how they helped the party, adding that the group had gone to the Central Regional Minister, Comfort Ama Benyiwa Doe; the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cape Coast, Ebow Barton-Odro and regional executives of the party, to ask for jobs, but to no avail.

He therefore urged the leaders of the party in the region to, as a matter of urgency, come to their aid and offer them jobs, stressing that if the leaders failed to help them, they would stage a massive demonstration across the country.

Mr. Arthur-Moses added that the demonstration would lead to destruction of properties, among others, if the President and the entire national and regional executives of the party did not come to their aid.

He reminded the leaders that 2012 was just around the corner, warning that they would vote against the NDC if they failed to fulfill the promises made to them.

“We are planning to stage a massive demonstration across the nation to remind our leaders to provide us with jobs to do. If they fail, we shall show them where the power lies in 2012. We fought for the party to win power, now we have been neglected.

They are using the monies for their own business while we remained jobless. Ok,” he said.

Earlier, a group calling itself ‘Friends of Atta Mills’, in the Central Region, had called on President Mills to sack Ama Benyiwa Doe for neglecting the party and developmental projects for the region.