Fire has gutted structures at Ritz Junction, a suburb of Madina in Accra on Monday, January 30.The cause is not yet known. Four fire tenders were present at the scene to douse the inferno, TV3’s George Kwening reported. “Police visibility has been intensified to check theft and also maintain law and order. In November last year, the same area got gutted by fire and it appears more attention ought to be directed there,” Kwening further reported. Source: 3news.com

Following the release of the results of the 2022 BECE results, management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has given an update on the release of the SHS school placement for  students. The service in their statement on 29th January, 2023 reveals that preparations are ongoing for the release of Senior High School Placement for the 2023/24 academic year. They also use the opportunity to caution the public against deceitful persons that may approach them to pay money for a place in a specified Senior High School. PRESS RELEASE ON SHS PLACEMENT FOR 2023/24 ACADEMIC YEAR Management of Ghana Education Service (GES) wishes to announce to the general public that preparations are ongoing for the release of Senior High School Placement for the 2023/24 academic year. Management strongly cautions the general public NOT to fall prey to deceitful persons that may approach them to pay money for a place in SHS. Such personsare to be reported immediately to the Police. “We also advise the general public to beware of fake news portals and instead follow GES official social media handles: Facebook (ges.gov.gh). Twitter(@gheduservice). Instagram (@gheduservice) and website (ges.gov.gh) for credible information" The Ghana Education Service (GES) remains committed to ensuring a smooth, merit-based SHS placement process under the established guidelines and looksforward to your full cooperation. Source: Coverghana.com.gh

Information reaching Thinknewsonline.com indicates that a police officer (Name Withheld) has allegedly beaten a young man to death at Bortianor, a community in the Awutu Senya Municipality. Sister of the deceased, Perpetual Didier, a Gospel Musician, narrated the incident to an Accra-based television station which was monitored by Thinknewsonline.com. Explaining further, Madam Perpetual Didier said "My brother was set to travel out of the country today. He went to West Hills Mall to do some shopping. My brother hails from Nzema hence has been at Bortianor for a week." "He went to withdraw money and on leaving met a police officer. The officer asked to search my brother's bag but he refused saying they should go to the police station" Lady Perpetual Didier added that upon refusal, the police officer fiscally abused the young man which led to the deceased hitting his head to the ground. The Gospel Musician also mentioned that the police officer used his shocker on the deceased till he died. Lady Perpetual Didier says she is calling on the Inspector-General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare and other authorities to seek justice for her late brother. It is emerging that the deceased, a 32 year-old was expected to fly out of the country with the kids of his sister. Thinknewsonline.com will update its readers on new developments. Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith

SM Boss, Shatta Wale has added his voice to the ongoing feud between Samini and Sarkodie. The feud left Samini tagging Sarkodie as 'fake and disrespectful'. Ghana's award-winning rapper, Sarkodie has been admonished never to forget the impact ‘his father’, Samini had on his career now that he is famous. Shatta Wale in a Facebook Live session on January 28 took on Sarkodie for disrespecting the same artiste who offered a helping hand and also blessed him with a verse on his 2014 hit single 'Love Rock' without hesitation. According to Shatta, Samini will forever remain Sarkodie's icon and legend no matter the rapper's achievements in the music space. "How can Samini and Sarkodie be fighting? Samini and Sarkodie shouldn't be fighting but ask yourself why? Right now Sarkodie feels like he has the people so he has forgotten about Samini. "Hey Sarkodie, Samini be your father, forever and ever. Hey Sarkodie, Samini be your legend, icon, superstar forever and ever. Forget everything, I have a beef with him but even with that, I give him respect. Forget yourself, nonsense!" he charged. Shatta added that he was displeased with the turn of events at Hitz FM when Samini was called on the phone during Sarkodie's interview with Andy Dosty. He noted that Sarkodie should have accorded Samini respect by shutting up to hear him speak instead of defending his action. As earlier reported by GhanaWeb, Samini in a series of tweets accused Sarkodie of ignoring his WhatsApp messages. Shatta added: "He (Samini) is talking to you on the radio as your father...you see what fame can cause? You guys play with everything...Samini is the guy that when he is speaking on radio, you have to shut up and listen because he has been on that forkin journey. The road he (Samini) has cleared for some of us to enjoy mustn't be taken for granted. It is very nonsense and stupid something. It is not your fault but those 12 people in the music industry." Credit: 1 One Ghana Tv

A court has ordered a woman to refund shillings 9.4 million (about $80,000) to a man who she has refused to marry after he paid her school fees. Magistrate Grade One, Asanasio Mukobi of Chief Magistrate’s Court of Kanungu in Uganda, ruled that Fortunate Kyarikunda breached her promise to marry Richard Tumwine. According to Nile Post, court documents show that Tumwine and Kyarikunda met in 2015 while he was a teacher at Kiringa Primary School and she had come to the same school for teaching practice. The duo fell in love and agreed to marry in 2018, for which reason the man conveniently sponsored her studies at Law Development Centre (LDC). “The plaintiff financially supported the defendant including sponsoring her for a Diploma in Law at LDC. He spent Shs9,439, 100,” the court document partly reads as quoted by Nile Post. Tumwine and Kyarikunda agreed to hold an introduction ceremony in February 2022, but she refused his proposal the man, saying he was too old to be her husband. “On 10th January 2022, the two persons arranged for an introduction ceremony and a budget was drawn with the function slated for February 2022. The defendant later turned against the plaintiff saying she cannot marry an old man hence this suit,” the court document stated. Tumwine, out of disappointment and heartbreak, went to the court to sue Kyarikunda, asking for Shs1m in compensation from her. Ruling on the case on Wednesday, Mukobi said the plaintiff had a justifiable reason to seek compensation. “Consequently, I hold that since the promise to marry was not fulfilled by the defendant to the detriment of the plaintiff, then the plaintiff is entitled to reimbursement of his Shs9,439,100 spent on her,” the Nile Post quotes the magistrate as saying. Aside from the damage awarded against her, the court again ordered Kyarikunda to pay legal costs. Credit: 1 One Ghana Tv

Actress and Entrepreneur, Yvonne Nelson has described love as a scam and a joke. She shared her views about love and life on an Accra-based radio station. “What you see on the screen is acting,” she responded to the host before delving into the issue of love: “Love is a scam (in reality) and we all know it, isn’t it so?” She explained further: “I think love is a scam because we are all deceitful. If a person talks about love, there is something they are seeking, be it money or sex; it is conditional so it is a scam.” In her opinion, love is the route through which men have often lied to women: “It is just a way of telling you that I want something from you and so they just use the word love and it is usually the ladies being lied to by the men.” Asked a point-bank question about whether she was not in love, she responded: “Love, I am sorry, I am not there yet. I used to love but it was like a joke. It is a scam,” she emphasized. Yvonne Nelson has a daughter with her partner. Credit: 1 One Ghana Tv

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful, Alan Kyerematen, was mobbed by his supporters, on Monday, January 30, 2023, as he arrived in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi. According to reports, Alan is in Kumasi to pay a courtesy call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. A viral video of Alan’s arrival at the Kumasi Airport showed a crowd of supporters amassed at the airport as they awaited his arrival. As he was alighting from the plane, some of the supporters could be seen jumping as they shouted, “this is the next president of Ghana." The former minister of trade and industry is expected to face stiff competition from Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and former Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, for the flagbearership position of the NPP. Meanwhile, the vice president has been projected to be the flagbearer of the NPP in a recent study co-conducted by Outcomes International Ghana and the Centre for Sustainable African Development Initiatives (C-SADI) UK. According to the survey, the most popular candidate for the New Patriotic Party flagbearer position in all 16 regions of Ghana is the vice president. In all, the survey got responses from around 197,000 NPP polling station executives (PSEs) in all the regions. “Data was obtained mainly through computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technology between 15th November 2022 and 15th December 2022. Based on 95% confidence level and 2% margin of error a sample size of 6000 PSEs was used. However, 5641 PSEs were successfully interviewed (response rate of 94%) from all 96 constituencies." “Greater Accra region had the highest number of PSEs interviewed with 1142 PSEs followed by the Ashanti region with 869 PSEs corresponding to 20.2% and 15.4% respectively. More than half of PSE’s who participated in the survey were Akan (54% [n=3056 PSEs]), and 46% (n=2585 PSEs) were non-Akan. In terms of religious distribution, 78% of the PSEs were Christian whilst 20.6% were Muslim,” the report stated. Credit: 1 One Ģhana Tv

Popular sound engineer, Appiah Darkwah known professionally as Appietus says after several years of producing beats for musicians, Daddy Lumba was the first artiste to pay him huge money. He says when he started out his career, his focus was on selling himself to the world and making known his innate abilities. Appietus who was speaking on Kumasi-based Pure FM said Daddy Lumba blessed the work of his hands with huge sums of money for a project they did together; hence giving him an understanding of how lucrative the industry could be. “Daddy Lumba was the first artiste to give me a substantial amount of money in my career. He came to the studio and we had a discussion, afterwards, he went out and brought a jute back saying he had brought me drinks." "I carried the bag home without checking the content. The following day, my wife asked me if i won’t send the money to the bank so I got confused. Then she told me the bag I brought was filled with cash. You know when we started it wasn’t about the money but rather it was about the talent,” he said. Credit: 1 One Ghana Tv

One year after she called it quits with her media broadcasting career, Jessica Opare Saforo has disclosed what necessitated her decision. Jessica, who has currently ventured into full-time digital media (YouTubing), after 17 years of media practice with her immediate past firm, said the timing was just right. Narrating her story on her channel, the broadcaster cum voice over artiste said she had decided to quit her job at age 40 onwards. She said the media job took the better part of her life and as such, there was the need to break free and explore herself better. Jessica also refuted several rumors that she fell out with her former boss. "On the 28th of January 2022, I quit my job. Media outlets were reporting it all over the place, social media was ablaze. To be honest, working in the media took the best part of my life, the best years of it. There were rumors swirling up all over the place, some said I had fallen out with my boss, you know, and that kind of thing. things being said on my behalf that I knew nothing about. None of them were true. I’m still very much in good terms with my boss. there's no bad blood. I left Citi because It was time." "It was time to truly explore being me. I had hit 40 years and a few months earlier, and I just felt I knew that as soon as I hit 40, I was going to quit. It was just a matter of time and it was a decision I made," she stated. Jessica, who currently has close to 1 million subscribers on YouTube, described her new venture as fulfilling adding that she Is finally living her dreams. "Has it been a rewarding journey so far? Absolutely, Absolutely. some of my wildest dreams have come true. Things I never thought I'd have been able to do. I'm not the type that shows things on social media and I'm happy to share my successes with those who are really close to me. do I miss my former job? No." Watch the video below: Credit: GhanaWeb

Head Coach of Accra-based Football Club, Legon Cities, Maxwell Konadu has revealed that he has never taken money to influence player selection. The Head Coach made these remarks while responding to allegations of coaches taking monies before giving some players the chance to play. He said "I can say openly that, from Black Stars, local Black Stars and even club side I have never taken money to influence selection." Maxwell Konadu who doubles as Former Black Stars assistant coach also said "The last time I went to Andre Ayew’s house people claimed we have been taking money from the players" "But these Black Stars players, from the least to the greatest, I have never taken money from them before, you can ask them." Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, has tasked the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) Secretariat to undertake a number of development project in mining communities across the country. The Lands Minister made this disclosure during his engagement with Management and Staff of the Fund on Monday, January 30, 2023 where he was extensively briefed on the 2023 action plans of the fund for the year, 2023. In an interaction with the Media after the meeting, Hon. Jinapor spoke glowingly of the achievements of MDF so far under the Akufo-Addo administration. He touted the action plan of the MDF for 2023 as lofty and ambitious one that can only be achieved through a concerted and collaborative efforts between Agency and the Ministry. He explained that the plan contains project in the areas of health, education, Alternative livelihood empowerment and general infrastructure. Hon. Jinapor stressed that MDF holds a key and it’s consequential in government’s plans to create a sustainable and environmental friendly mining sector. The Minister said MDF’s core responsibility of promoting the welfare of mining communities in the country is important for the country. He observed that MDF was created to ensure that the bridge between mining communities and developmental gap is bridged to allow for a serene and incident-free environment for the mining industry to thrive. “The action plan is such that they are going to roll out a lot more projects in the mining communities. It is absolutely important that we carry indigenous mining communities with us because without them, we will not have the needed stability to construct the mining industry we so wish”, he said. “The Ministry is grateful for the work done so far and we want to commend the management and staff of the fund for doing an excellent work. The mandate and work of the MDF is so important and consequential to our efforts at constructing a responsible mining industry in the country which has regards for the environment”, he added. Dr. Norris Hammah, the Administrator for the MDF said his outfit is grateful to the Ministry for the support it has been receiving and were willing to team up with Ministry to achieve it’s set objectives for the 2023 calendar year and beyond. He stated that the MDF is mandated by law to provide financial assistance in various ways to mining communities and will ensure that the fund execute its mandate to the satisfaction of the residents in all mining communities. Below are some pictures: Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith

The Bui Power Authority has provided resources for some beneficiaries under its Livelihood Enhancement Program II. The resources were provided to the business modules for the Project Affected Persons within the Bui Generating Station. According to Bui Power Authority, the provision of resources forms part of its corporate social responsibility. The Authority believes this will help in community development. Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith