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Tamale Teaching Hospital receives crucial equipment boost

By AlatiphA - March 31, 2015

The Tamale Teaching Hospital has received equipment to cater for pregnant women and patients needing dialysis, curtailing the need to travel up to 501kilometers or 7 hours by road for the closest source of treatment. Patients in Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions have had to travel to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) to get MRI and CT scans or a dialysis treatment for those who suffer kidney failure. Outgoing Health Minister Dr. Kwaku Agyemang Mensah commissioned these facilities at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The impact of these equipment is enormous for the region in the SADA enclave. Last year, eight expectant mothers died because they did not have access to an MRI machine and CT scan. Now the Tamale Teaching Hospital will have to find how to run the equipment affordably yet profitably. According to Chief Executive of the Tamale Teaching Hospital Prosper Akamnong, dialysis treatment costs between $150 to $200 at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospita...

28 persons suspected to be involved in Internet fraud, ‘Sakawa’ in the Tamale metropolis have been arrested.

By AlatiphA - March 30, 2015

The suspected Sakawa boys, also referred to as Shattas in the Tamale metropolis, were arrested during joint police and military swoops at the Moshi Zongo and other areas in the metropolis on Saturday night. Even though a police source that confirmed the arrest to the Daily Graphic in Tamale failed to give details on the operations, it is believed to be part of efforts by the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to clamp down on the rise of cyber fraud activities among the youth in Tamale. The source said some of the boys who managed to escape arrest have fled the city but indicated that the security agencies would not relent in their efforts to weed out miscreants in the metropolis. Clamp down At a public function last week, the Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, gave a hint (Click this link to view the minister) that the Regional Security Council was going to clamp down on the operations of the ‘Sakawa Boys.’ The swoop is, therefore, believed to be part o...

Senior High Students begin 2015 WASSCE today

By AlatiphA - March 30, 2015

The 2015 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) begins today across the country. In all, 268,771 candidates from 868 public and private Senior High Schools (SHS), will participate in the examination at 866 centres. The figure represents an increase of 20,603 candidates over the 2014 figure of 242,162 candidates. Speaking to the media last Friday during a tour of some examination centres in Accra, the Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, congratulated the candidates for successfully going through their respective programmes and wished them success in the examinations. She said it was time for the candidates to bring to bear the knowledge and skills they have acquired through the period of their study, and justify the investments made in them by the government, their parents and teachers. Prof. Opoku-Agyemang implored the candidates to observe examination rules and regulations, and understand questions before answering them. She reminded ...

Tolon DCE decries high dropout rate of girls

By AlatiphA - March 29, 2015

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Tolon, Seidu Abubakari, has decried the high rate of girls’ school dropout in the country. Although interventions such as the school feeding programme and the capitation grant have helped increase enrolment, the DCE expressed his alarm at the dropout rate of girls in the country’s schools. The DCE decried this situation at the distribution of school uniforms, sanitary pads, sandals and writing materials among other things to girls in the District. Mr Abubakari said the disturbing trend compelled Government to introduce the Girls Participatory Approach to Student Success (GIRLS PASS) to increase girls’ enrolment in the country. The policy which provides these girls with books, uniforms and sanitary pads, he explained, is not just to retain the girls in school but also to encourage them to study hard and obtain good results. Mr Abubakari implored the girls to study hard to justify the resources being pumped into their education...

Opportunity Insulter

By AlatiphA - March 25, 2015

One can only market shit, if only one can package it very well. Pius, one of the most incisive Public commentators of our times, really knows how to package and market insult across board. He is an equal opportunity “insulter”. Being an eminent connoisseur of words, this broda of mine, could dress you in borrowed robes, with venerable embroidery of words that seduces the undiscerning nostrils of the un-initiated, into seeing you in great odor, even when, like the unspeakable tyrant, proverbially one walks around aping the pomp of a non-existent office. He knows that neutrality has forever been the refuge of scoundrels. He did not want to directly accuse me of being a scoundrel. So, he went into the packaging business. In the African cultural tradition, where respect for elders is a cultural good of eternal legitimacy, a child can only get away with calling his father a beast, if he can creatively package that insult, and clothe it in the garbs of valor. To successfully ca...

The Offer and the Acceptance?

By AlatiphA - March 25, 2015

A woman according to Sheikh was in a trotro travelling with her baby. Sitting beside her was a well-dressed Kumbungu man, laboring under the sweaty weight of his suit and tie, on a very humid afternoon, in a Tamale trotro packed to the brim; with the itinerant herbalists peddling their spiritual wares. The hapless woman could not get her baby to feed on anything she had to offer. Instead of the woman, minding her child, she would tease the kid, “you better eat this WASAWASA (black jalof) or I will give to broda, ooo!, referring to the unbeknownst to her, hunger-terrorized neighbor laboring under a sweaty suit. All entreaties to the kid fell on deaf ears, no matter the tasty temptation thrown at him.”Wagashi” came and went the same way. Even 'bofuroti' made an appearance. But the kid resisted every temptation thrown at him. It may have been that someone was binding and casting the devil of temptation from the kid. Broda sat quietly nearby and did not interfere in the...

Sakawa boys threaten to kill Minister

By AlatiphA - March 25, 2015

The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed Muniru, says his life is under threat following text messages he has received from some internet fraudsters, popularly known as "Sakawa" boys in the Tamale metropolis. This follows a DIRECTIVE he issued to the security agencies to arrest and prosecute such fraudsters in the metropolis, and other parts of the region. He mentioned some of the death-threatening messages as "Hello, Mr. Minister, you better stop the threats on us or we teach you a bitter lesson," "Nothing can stop us from our businesses, not even you the minister" and "We don't fear anybody, not even the security". Alhaji Muniru was speaking at a sod-cutting ceremony for work to begin on the construction of a multi-purpose bus terminal at Datoyili, a suburb of Tamale yesterday. He said the several SMS text messages warned him to stay away from them, else he would have himself to blame. The Minister, however, war...