Ashanti Today

Invasion of the fall armyworm on maize farms in the Ashanti region continues to spread as it has now been reported in all the 30 administrative districts compared with the 13 we reported early this week.  The Ashanti Regional Director of Agric, Joseph Faalong, who made this known to Ashanti Today in Kumasi disclosed also, that the number of farms attacked has also shot up from 500 to almost one thousand hectares during the same period.  He noted that some of the farms being cultivated under the government’s flagship agric programme “Planting for Food and Jobs” have also been attacked.  According to him, the pests eat the plants in the early and late hours of the day thereby necessitating strategic methods in fighting them.  Mr. Faalong noted that even though maize production in the region is under threat, all is not lost as corrective measures have been adopted for implementation by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. He said the Ministry...

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has sworn-in the second batch of fourteen DCEs bringing the total number of sworn-in DCEs in the region to 23 so far. The DCEs sworn in are for Adansi South, Afigya Kwabre, Asante Akim North, Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipal Assembly, Ahafo Ano North and South.  The rest are Amansie West, Obuasi Municipal, Sekyere Central, Atwima Mponua, Sekyere Afram Plains, Sekyere Kumawu and Amansie Central.   Led by the Regional Minister, they took the Oath of Allegiance, Oath of Secrecy and the Official Oath.  Mr. Osei Mensah congratulated the new DCEs and tasked them to tackle challenges bedeviling their districts such as environmental degradation especially illegal mining head on.  The Regional Minister asked them to assume office immediately in order to implement the President’s vision for the country.  Mr. Osei Mensah again charged them not to be too partisan in the discharge of their duties but seek counsel of tradi...

  A Kumasi Circuit Court has convicted and sentenced a water tanker driver to 30 years in prison in hard labour.  The convict, 35-year old Alexander Kwabena Num, was charged with the offence of possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.  The Court, presided over by Madam Lydia Owusu, also confiscated the water tanker to the state and ordered that documents covering the vehicle be transferred in the name of the Ghana Police Service.  The exhibits, which involve a large quantity of compressed dried Indian hemp, were destroyed about six months ago on the orders of the Court after confirmation that, indeed, they were narcotic drugs. Kwabena Num pleaded with the Court to tamper Justice with mercy.  Convict Kwabena Num was arrested by the Drugs Law Enforcement Unit of the Ashanti regional police command about two years ago near Asante Mampong when he concealed that large quantity of the banned drugs in his water tanker.  Durin...