Top 10 stories that made headlines this week

The week ended with various developments making the headlines and shaping national discourse. Here are a few of such stories you may have missed in the course of the week.

1. Parliament replaces broken down GH₵21mil Chinese chairs

With barely two years of Parliament using Chinese chairs at a cost of 21 million cedis reports show these have broken down forcing parliament to change them. Just after resumption from their Easter break on Tuesday May 17, 2016, all chairs were seen to have been replaced with new ones. Deputy Majority Whip Ahmed Ibrahim said the replacement of the chairs was done at no cost to the state due to a warranty clause in the contract with the Chinese company.

2. MP allegedly fingered in JB Danquah-Adu muder
Alleged killer of JB Danquah, Daniel Asiedu in handcuffs.

Daniel Asiedu, the young man who is being held for allegedly killing Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region says he is now relying on the initial statement he gave to the police which indicates he committed the crime upon a tip from a yet to be mentioned member of parliament.

3. Supreme Court suspends Zanetor’s case.

The Supreme Court suspended a high court case between incumbent member of parliament for the Klottey Korley constituency, Nii Armah Ashitey, and Zanetor Rawlings arguing the high court erred in law when it assumed jurisdiction over Article 94 clause 1(a) of the 1992 constitution, which states that a person must be a registered voter before he or she can contest as a Member of Parliament.

4. Ghana’s public debt is now Gh¢99.9 billion-
Finance Minister, Seth Terkper

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) revealed that Ghana’s public debt has shot up from Gh¢96.9 billion to Gh¢99.9 billion as of December 2015. According to the central bank the rise in the nation’s public debts has also seen the ballooning of external debt to Gh¢59.9 billion cedis with domestic debt hitting 40 billion Ghana cedis.

5. EC promises not to delete names of NHIS card holders from register.

The Electoral Commission (EC) in the course of the week assured it would not expunge names of persons who registered with their National Health Insurance (NHIS) cards from the electoral roll. At an Inter – Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting the commission said the Supreme Court did not order it to delete names of NHIS registrants – a decision which follows a supreme court order for the deletion of such names from the voters roll.

6. Amanda Acquah speaks out about her latest leaked sex tape

Ex-wife of Black Stars player Amanda Acquah opened up on her latest sex tape making rounds on social media. According to Amanda the video was meant for her husband and was not for public consumption. She also opined that she is not a prostitute like people are tagging her on social media.

7. MzVee nominated for BET award

Ghanaian dancehall star MzVee was nominated in a new BET fan-voted category that will celebrate rising stars from across the channel’s international footprint alongside South Africa’s Cassper Nyovest, Uganda’s Eddy Kenzo, the United Kingdom’s MIC Lowry, George the Poet and Novelist in the viewer’s choice ‘Best International’ category.

8. T.B Joshua ‘predicts’ arrest of escapee robber.

Pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) T.B Joshua ‘predicted’ the re-arrest of an armed robber Kwaku Yeboah who escaped from police custody in the Brong Ahafo region.

9. Ghana to roll out chip embedded passports from 2017

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration revealed that Ghana will make available chip-embedded passport to its citizens globally, replacing the current biometric passports. This would require holders of the current biometric passport to upgrade to the chip embedded passports, which she said can be acquired locally from all the 10 regional passport application centres nationwide, as soon as the procurement processes have been initiated.

10. Police shoots robber at First Atlantic Bank.

Police in Accra prevented a robbery attack at the entrance of First Atlantic Bank in Ridge on Tuesday. The customer was reportedly shot by one of the robbers several times in the leg after he refused to hand over the money to them as the source revealed that the customer eventually handed over the money to the robbers only for the police to intervene seconds later shooting one of them (robbers) in the leg.