Join Samson Lardy Anyenini and his abled panellists as they delve into issues that made headlines this week on current affairs show, ‘Newsfile’.
Up for discussion today is the possibility of finding the three girls kidnapped in Takoradi last year.
It’s been almost a year since the kidnapping and the police is yet to find victims. In April, the CID boss Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told Ghanaians the police know where the girls are but after a month without any update she has come under attack from both families of the victims and the general public with some calling for her resignation. She now says she was misunderstood by Ghanaians and that the police only wanted to give the family hope.
The questions on the minds of many now are that, are the girls still alive and is there any hope of them ever being found.
Alsoup for discussion is the performance of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, a year after its formation. Many have expressed disappointment in Martin Amidu for failing to prosecute any case of corruption within his first year in office.
Expressing his disappointment is the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Vice-President of policy think tank Imani Africa, Kofi Bentil Ghanaians are being given a “host of excuses and it’s not acceptable that they’ve not performed as we all expected. They generally have disappointed most people and there’s a lot of excuses on why they’ve performed poorly…”
But Chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Ben Abdallah Banda, has described as unfair, suggestions that the Office of the Special Prosecutor has failed to live up to expectation a year after its establishment.
He argues that the mandate of the office and its operations require more time to be fruitful.
Meanwhile, a list of 26 cases receiving attention at the Office of the Special Prosecutor was made public over the week.
The list includes opposition figures as high profile as former President John Mahama and government appointees under the Akufo-Addo administration such as Board Chair of the Ghana National Petroleum Company and national chairman of the governing NPP Freddie Blay.
The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has so far filed one case in court among the 25 cases which have piqued his interest.
During the 2016 general elections, the Electoral Commission announced it system had been targeted by hackers and urged Ghanaians to ignore fake results circulating on social media.
At a recent lecture at the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, UK, former president John Dramani Mahama demanded answers from the Electoral Commission (EC) concerning the hacking.
Mr Mahama believes a full probe is needed with the implementation of counter-measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future as the 2020 general elections approach.
“I am not aware that the Electoral Commission has carried out any investigation into what compromised their IT system. And even if they have, we, the stakeholders, the political parties, have not been briefed on what caused the corruption of the system,” he stated.
This will also be addressed by the panel.
Also expected to be discussed on today’s show are issues related to the abandoned Saglemi Housing project as well as the imported arms controversy.
Watch a live feed of the show below
