EastEnders: Police arrest Ghananian who killed two kids, wife in London

The partner of a former EastEnders actress who was murdered alongside her two young sons has been arrested in Ghana.

Arthur Simpson-Ken

Arthur Simpson-Kent, 48, was detained earlier, two days after the Ghanaian police began their hunt for him.

The bodies of Sian Blake, 43, Zachary, eight, and Amon, four, were discovered in the garden of their London home on Tuesday.

The family had been reported missing on 16 December.

The Met Police said it had been “made aware of an arrest in Ghana” and was “working alongside the Ghanaian authorities but is not in a position to discuss further at this time”.

BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead, who is in Ghana, said Mr Simpson-Kent was arrested in a coastal area popular with tourists.

“Around 10 police officers went down to the beach where he was spotted hiding amongst some rocks and the police, who were all armed, called out to him,” he said.

“He gave himself up and they found that he had a knife on him, but he didn’t use it in a threatening way.

“He was then taken to a nearby village where police thanked the people who had informed them he was in this area.”

Mr Leithead said the arrest involved Met and Ghanaian Police as well as officers from Interpol.

Mr Simpson-Kent, the children’s father, arrived in Ghana on 19 December, with the country’s police force becoming involved in the hunt for him on Thursday.

Ghanaian Police had initially been sent to the Cape Coast in the south of the country – where the extended Simpson family is from – as well as to other parts of the Atlantic shoreline.

Ms Blake and the couple’s sons had not been seen at their south-east London home since 13 December and a missing persons inquiry launched on 16 December, after the NSPCC had raised concerns about their welfare.

Three days later, police spoke to her partner, the children’s father Arthur Simpson-Kent, 48, at the family’s home in Erith, Kent, and he has since disappeared. Police have refused to clarify why they spoke to Mr Simpson-Kent.

A murder investigation was launched after the bodies were discovered and forensic teams were seen searching the property. Neighbours said police had been at the house for several days.

Questions are being asked as to why officers missed three bodies during their 20-day search for the mother-of-two.

 

EastEnders: Police arrest Ghananian who killed two kids, wife in London

Ghana resolves dispute with Nigeria over unpaid gas bill

The Ghanaian Government said it would pay a Nigerian gas consortium 170 million dollars it owed by February, apparently resolving a dispute that led the consortium to threaten to cut supply.

Nigeria

Ghana’s state power generating company, the Volta River Authority, will settle the debt to Nigeria’s N-Gas in three tranches starting in November, said Kweku Sersah.

He is a spokesman for Ghana’s Ministry of Power.

Sersah also said that the terms were still being finalised.

“The high-powered delegation that went … (to the Nigerian capital Abuja) was able to negotiate for Nigeria Gas (N-Gas) to continue to supply the country the needed gas,” Sersah said in a statement.

Ghana’s government has promised to end crippling power blackouts by the end of the year.

According to media report, Ghana gets around 25 per cent of its power through gas from Nigeria.

The threat by N-Gas to reduce supplies by 70 per cent would have made it harder to achieve the government’s goal of tackling blackouts and raising the cost of supply.

The issue is sensitive in the run-up to Ghana’s election next year that is expected to be closely fought.

Power cuts have angered voters.

Ghana resolves dispute with Nigeria over unpaid gas bill

Ghanian Government panic over Nigeria threat to cut gas supply

Reuter:

ACCRA: A Ghanaian government delegation is holding emergency talks in Nigeria to avert a drastic gas supply cut threat, a government spokesman said, thus avoiding a potential political crisis.

KACHIKWU nnpc

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said it will cut gas supply by 70 percent to Ghana’s main power generation company by Friday due to unpaid debts of $181 million. Ghana already suffers power shortages and Nigerian gas meets about 25 percent of its needs.

“They are already in Nigeria. They left Ghana last night. We are praying that they are able to negotiate … so that it doesn’t come to a cut in supply,” a spokesman for the power ministry told Joy FM radio Thursday.

Power cuts have raised the cost of doing business and angered voters at a sensitive time for President John Mahama’s government ahead of what is expected to be a tough re-election battle next year.

Mahama has vowed to end the power cuts by the start of next year and the minister for power has said he would resign if the problem has not been fixed by then.

The government’s room for manoeuvre is limited, however, under the terms of an aid program with the International Monetary Fund it is following to restore balance to its economy.

Ghana was for years one of Africa’s economic stars but falling global commodity prices have blunted the value of its gold, cocoa and oil exports.

Its fiscal problems include inflation of up to 17.4 percent in September, a currency that has fallen sharply in the last two years and a debt-to-GDP ratio of around 70 percent with what economists say are high debt service costs.

The Nigerian threat is a sign of budgetary stress and the strain of energy sector reform in Ghana, experts said.

“It is extremely embarrassing for the government. It touches on credibility … Every investor will be looking at that and saying, ‘Is this a country to do business in?"” Ben Boakye of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy think tank told Reuters.

Nigerian gas flows to Ghana through the West African Gas Pipeline Company’s pipe that runs via Benin and Togo. VRA buys the gas to fire power plants mainly in the east of the country.

Hydro supplies around 50 percent of Ghana’s power with the rest from its own gas and other sources.

The power crisis stems from a fall in supply from Ghana’s dams, government underpayment to the Electricity Company of Ghana, residents’ illegal consumption and tariffs too low for VRA to recoup its costs.

Ghanian Government panic over Nigeria threat to cut gas supply

Buhari orders takeover of Nigerian airspace from Ghana

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday ordered the Ministry of Aviation to immediately start the process of securing the management of the Nigerian airspace over the Gulf of Guinea from Ghana.

Buhari

He also directed the ministry to look into the possibility of getting a national carrier for the country as soon as possible.

The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Binta Bello, told State House correspondents, that Buhari handed down the directives when she and her team briefed him of their activities at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Bello said Ghana had been maintaining the airspace over the Gulf of Guinea since 1945.

She said the President’s directive for the takeover by Nigeria came at a time when some other neighbouring countries were making moves to take over their own airspace too.

“We have a directive by the President to start the process of securing the management of the Nigerian airspace over the Gulf of Guinea which Ghana has been maintaining since 1945 and there is a move on the ground by Togo and Republic of Benin to take over their own airspace from Ghana,” Bello said.

She added that the President also raised concerns over the country’s inability to have a national carrier.

To that end, Bello, said Buhari directed her ministry to look at the possibility of having a national carrier as soon as possible.

“The President is quite concerned about lack of national carrier for now and he has directed the ministry to look into the possibility of having a national carrier as soon as possible,” she added.

The Permanent Secretary added that she briefed the President of the four international terminal buildings that are being constructed across the country.

She said the buildings would be ready for commissioning at the end of the first quarter of 2016.

She said, “We briefed the President of the four international terminal buildings that are being constructed using the China NEXIM Bank loan.

“They are very big projects that are being funded 100 per cent by China NEXIM Bank and DMO. Work is progressing very well.

“The terminals will be ready for commissioning at the end of the first quarter of 2016. At the completion of the projects, Nigerians will appreciate the works that have been put into them.

“The capacity of the terminals would have been expanded to contain big aircraft, such as the A380 Air Bus and there will be a lot of commercial activities that are obtainable in other international airports.”

Bello said she also briefed Buhari on the challenges domestic airlines were facing, despite the Federal Government’s N300bn intervention fund.

She regretted that despite the intervention, many of the airlines are still heavily indebted to regulatory agencies.

She reassured Nigerians and the international community, that Nigeria’s airspace ‎is safe and has just recorded a score of over 90 per cent by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Buhari orders takeover of Nigerian airspace from Ghana

Investigation: Two government employees arrested in Ghana over theft of foreign food aid (Video)

• Foreign food aid stolen and sold on black market in Ghana

• Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigation leads to arrest of two nutrition officers

In this week’s episode of Africa Investigates, Ghanaian undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposes the theft and black market sale of foreign food aid by nutrition officers of the Ghanaian government in the country’s impoverished north.

Thousands of children in northern Ghana suffer from acute malnutrition. Many die.

Despite the provision of substantial food aid to the region, Anas documents how local families cannot access adequate food at clinics and distribution centers.

His months-long investigation reveals how officials of the Ghana Health Service – tasked with distributing the aid to starving children – are stealing and selling it for their own gain.

After secretly filming the stockpiling and sale of stolen food aid by nutrition officers, Anas presents the shocking evidence to Ghanaian police. Police raids then result in the dramatic on-camera arrest of those responsible.

Finally Anas shows his undercover footage to a stunned Dr. James, director of The King’s Village Health Center, which treats thousands of Ghana’s malnourished children. Shaking his head in despair, Dr. James says, “This is comparable to murder.”

Spell of The Albino, a previous investigation Anas filmed for Africa Investigates, won a One World Media Award and was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg0XTh–fWg

Investigation: Two government employees arrested in Ghana over theft of foreign food aid (Video)

Ghana may have just recorded first Ebola case

By StarrFMOnline

Ghana may now have recorded her first Ebola case. A Burkinabe man, who had fever and bled from his nose and ears “was brought in dead,” at the Bawku Presby Hospital in Ghana’s Upper East region Friday afternoon.

The Medical Director at the Hospital, Dr Joseph Yaw Manu, confirmed to StarrFMonline.com that the man had died at the time he was brought in, saying: “…What scared me most as a Medical Doctor is that he was bleeding from his ears and nose–symptoms of Ebola.”

On Dr Manu’s orders, blood samples from the deceased have been taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana for testing. If positive, this would be Ghana’s first confirmed case of the virus, which has killed at least 961 people in the West African sub-region out of 1,779 total cases. Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are among the hardest hit countries.

Nigeria started recording a few cases recently. Africa’s most populous country became the fourth West African country involved in the outbreak when a dual US-Liberian citizen infected with Ebola arrived in Lagos after flying from Liberia via Togo on 20 July.

Several cases of suspected Ebola have been reported in Ghana since the outbreak in March but they all proved negative after tests. The Government of Ghana says it has put in place measures to contain the disease if it breaks in the country. It recently said screening measures were being tightened at the country’s various borders to ensure the virus is not imported into the world’s second-largest cocoa producer.

StarrFMonline.com, learnt that the Burkinabe who just died from the Ebola-like symptoms, came down with a fever while in neighbouring Burkina Faso and was taken to a hospital for treatment in that country but saw no improvement in his condition.

His relatives then decided to transport him across the common border between Burkina Faso and Ghana’s Upper East region, for proper care. But he died on the way. His body has been taken back to a town called Sankanduri in Burkina Faso for burial, local Reporter Musah Lansa told StarrFMonline.com.

If tests by NMIMR prove positive, then the relatives of the deceased, as well as the Medical staff that attended to the patient, both in Burkina Faso and Ghana, may have also been exposed to the virus, which the World Health Organization has described as the fastest spreading “worst ever” epidemic of its kind and necessitating a declaration of an international health emergency.

“The outbreak is moving faster than we can control it,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told reporters on a telephone briefing from her Geneva headquarters.

The U.N. agency referred to the outbreak as “particularly serious” and said all states where the virus is having a toll on citizens and spreading from one person to another should declare a national emergency.

“The declaration … will galvanise the attention of leaders of all countries at the top level. It cannot be done by the ministries of health alone,” Chan said.

In compliance, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia, have all declared a national emergency over the outbreak.

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with fluids of an infected person, and also through the consumption of bush meat – apes, antelopes and bats – delicacies in some West African countries. The sale of bush meat in Ghana has been affected by the outbreak.

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Ghana may have just recorded first Ebola case

Ghana government bans flights from Nigeria over Ebola

Following the death of a Liberian victim of the deadly Ebola virus in the country, Ghana has banned flights from Nigeria and other West African countries, according to allafrica.com.

Ebola

The Managing Director, Ghana Airport Company, Charles Asare, said it was part of elaborate emergency measures the authorities were implementing to prevent the virus from spreading into the West African country.

Also, restrictions have been imposed on the movement of Liberian refugees who are still at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in the country.

Ever since its outbreak, the Ebola virus has claimed the lives of over 600 victims in the West African sub-region.

Ghana also bans flight from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ghana’s Health Ministry also announced that efforts were underway to establish Ebola treatment centres across the country.

The country’s Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, advised Ghanaians to be patient because government was doing its best to protect the citizens.

“It is worth bearing in mind that preparedness is not an event but a process,” he said.

Though a suspected fever case which was reported at a clinic in Ghana was negative, Ghanaians have expressed fear about the possible spread of the disease in the country due to closeness to the four countries where deaths have been recorded.

Governments in the sub-region are putting in place stringent measures to prevent the further spread of the disease.

According to the health minister, the disease surveillance system in Ghana has been placed on “high alert through intensification of viral haemorrhagic fever surveillance, the field officers are on the alert to pick, package and transport specimens to the lab for confirmation.”

The respective health officers at Ghana’s ports have been given orientation in the detection of cases at points of entry.

“We have activated a system for screening all passengers especially from countries that have recorded cases,” Agyeman-Mensah added. The health minister gave the assurance that his outfit was monitoring the progression of the Ebola disease in West African nations.

But the Federal Government had said that there was no outbreak.

The General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Fan Ndubouke, said that the agency was not aware of such a development.

He said, “We are not aware of any such thing, we have confirmed from Arik Air and Aero Contractors which are the two airlines that fly to Ghana from Nigeria, and Arik has confirmed to us that they haven’t received such notice.

“We are still trying to get Aero to confirm, but I can tell you that from NCAA’s angle, there is nothing like that.”

The Spokesman, Aero Contractors, Mr. Simon Tunba, told our correspondent that Aero had not heard anything like that.

“We have not heard anything concerning such, and have not seen any letter to that effect.”

Efforts to reach Arik for comments could not yield as at press time.

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Ghana government bans flights from Nigeria over Ebola

ECOWAS reaffirmed determination to combat terrorism

ECOWAS Heads of State at an extraordinary meeting in Ghana yesterday condemned Boko Haram as a threat to regional peace and security

ECOWAS  welcomed measures adopted by the Nigerian Govt to bring Boko Haram insurgency to an end, and reaffirmed their determination to actively combat terrorism.

The Summit encouraged the Nigerian Government to pursue national dialogue & reconciliation. #NoToBokoHaram

The leaders commended the international community for supporting Nigeria, especially France, US, UK, China, Israel, AU, UN

The authority further commended the positive outcome of the May 17 Paris Summit on Nigeria, urged member-states to strengthen their co-operation in information sharing & law enforcement against terrorists.

The Heads of States directed the Commission to ensure immediate implementation of ECOWAS counter-terrorism strategy.

The  Heads of State further discussed the situation in Mali & the successful conclusion of the transition process in Guinea Bissau.

 

ECOWAS reaffirmed determination to combat terrorism

ECOWAS chair Mahama meets Jonathan over Boko Haram

Accra – The ECOWAS Chairman, Ghana’s President John Mahama, is to hold discussions with  President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, on the atrocities of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram in the country.

A statement from the Ghanaian presidency said that the discussions would be held  today on the sidelines of the 2014 World Economic Forum for Africa being held in Abuja.

The statement said that the discussions would focus on the security situation in Nigeria in view of the deadly and destructive activities of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

President Mahama has already written on behalf of his colleague heads of state of West Africa to the Nigerian President.

Mahama expressed concern, solidarity and support of ECOWAS member-states to the government and people of Nigeria as they address the pressing security challenges.

Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin’’ has claimed responsibility for the abduction of over 200 girls in a secondary school in the northeast of the country with the leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, threatening to sell them.

The abduction has attracted a worldwide condemnation with various countries, including the U.S. and UK, pledging assistance.

It has also generated a huge uproar in Nigeria where the population has questioned the commitment of the government to end the reign of terror being unleashed on the country by the group that has killed thousands of Nigerians.

Reports further emerged of the killing of scores of people in another part of northeast Nigeria, giving the country a bad image on insecurity.

Abuja was a recent target of Boko Haram as the capital recorded two bomb blasts at a bus station, two weeks apart killing dozens of people.

 

ECOWAS chair Mahama meets Jonathan over Boko Haram

Nigeria Pays $10m to Ghana over Failure to Meet Gas Supply Agreement

The Federal Government has paid $10 million to Ghana as compensation for Nigeria’s failure to meet the gas supply agreement it entered with latter.

Under the agreement signed in 1999,  Nigeria was required to supply Ghana with 123 Million Metric British Thermal Units (MMBtu) per day.

However, Nigeria was said to have failed to meet the target, supplying only 30 MMBtu/d and less sometimes.

The Director of Planning and Business Development of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Kofi Ellis, told TV3’s Sandra Amarquaye weekend that Ghana has been paid $10 million as damages by Nigeria over the shortfall as stipulated in the gas supply contract.

“The contract already stipulates some liquidated damages for reduction in supply,” Ghanaweb quoted Ellis to have said.

“I know that already we have been paid some damages for the reduction in supply”, he added.

A recent visit of the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, to Nigeria culminated in West Africa’s biggest gas-supply nation promising to supply a constant 50 MMBtu/d.

Ellis noted that intervention by government, admitting that inasmuch as Nigeria would want to help Ghana, they are also facing challenges.

“I guess the Nigerians also share in our problems. They understand. The unfortunate thing is that this is a commodity that both countries need for themselves. So it is a matter of trying to see how best you can help your neighbor”, he said.

He however said the contract will not be abrogated notwithstanding that Nigeria is facing challenges in meeting the terms.

The recent below-expectation supply of gas from Nigeria has been cited as one of the causes of challenges in the energy sector.

Power shortage has been on the rise in Ghana as hopes to solve its electricity woes by producing

natural gas to power electricity plants had been held back by the loss of a shipment of materials and delays in paying contractors.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation in 1999 signed a gas supply agreement to further implement the West African Gas Pipeline project.

Under the agreement, Ghana would be conserving between 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and 20, 000 bpd of crude oil by taking gas from Nigeria to run its power plants. Ghana would be taking 84 per cent of about 120 mm cfpd of gas that Nigeria would be selling to the other three countries, Ghana, Benin, Togo under the project.

Aimed at boosting Nigeria’s revenue and protecting environment by reducing gas flaring, the West African Gas Pipeline Project was among the first major projects President Olusegun Obasanjo administration launched at its inauguration on May 29, 1999.

Recently, Ghana had approached Nigeria press for supply of more gas for power generation. Following a recent meeting with its energy and petroleum minister to Nigeria, Nigeria agreed to increase its gas sales to Ghana from 30 million to 50 million cubic feet per day, which was below the 123 million cubic feet per day contained in the gas supply agreement by the two countries.

Nigeria Pays $10m to Ghana over Failure to Meet Gas Supply Agreement

Ghana Pledges To Partner Nigeria In Fighting Terrorism

Alhaji Abdulai Abukari, Consul General of Ghana High Commission in Lagos, on Sunday expressed Ghana’s readiness to partner with Nigeria to fight terrorism.

Abukari told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Ghana’s support had become imperative toward a successful war against terror.

He said Nigeria also needed the support and cooperation of governments of member-states in the sub-region in fighting terrorists.

The envoy said that his country would work closely with the INTERPOL and other international security agencies at the borders in tracking down “gunrunners” and those engaging in cross-border crimes.

“Presently as we all know, Nigeria, our brother country, is faced with the challenges of Boko Haram insurgents.

“There are reported cases of arrest being made at our borders of persons and groups moving arms from one country to another.

“Things like this will often exacerbate insecurity, terrorism and other cross-border crimes in the sub-region.

“Ghana is, therefore, looking at the possibility of collaborating with Nigeria through sharing of intelligence information on the movement of arms across the region,’’ Abukari said.

Abukari said that such partnership between both countries would not only reduce terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria, but in other West Africa countries.

The consul general said that his government had realised that no country could fight insecurity and terrorism alone.

He added:“We strongly believe that our planned partnership with Nigeria in this regard will reduce activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria, insecurity and other cross-border crimes in the region.

“We all need to close ranks in promoting peace and security among West African countries as well as along the Gulf of Guinea.

“We all should be able to provide useful information to the relevant security agencies in tracking activities of terrorists and other cross-border crimes.’’ (NAN)

Ghana Pledges To Partner Nigeria In Fighting Terrorism

Protesters Storm Ghanaian Mission Over Killing Of Nigerian Student

Protesters from some non- governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria have stormed the premises of the Ghanaian Mission, at Oba Akinjobi Crescent, in Ikeja area of Lagos State, yesterday, over the killing of a Nigerian student of Cape Coast University, Ghana.

The 19 -year-old student, Godwin Ayogu Chukwudi was said to have been killed by his roommates and other collaborators who allegedly dispossessed him of his $4,600 school fees on February 19, 2014.

The protest organised by Paths Of Peace Initiatives in conjunction with Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) and other bodies was to ensure that justice was done and the perpetrators of the dastardly act brought to book.

The petition from Paths Of Peace Initiatives which was signed by its president, Dandy Eze was dated March 18, 2014, and entitled, “Re: The killing and slow investigation in the case of Godwin Ayogu Chukwudi, a student of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana”.

The letter stipulated that the perpetrators suspected that Chukwudi who wanted to return to his country, Nigeria on the fateful day would reveal the gang that dispossessed him of the cash decided to kill him.

“Since then the Ghanaian police in support of the University authority have failed to fish out the perpetrators of this dastardly act, even when they know the perpetrators and their accomplice. It should be noted that since the killing was reported to the police no arrest has been made by the police”.

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Protesters Storm Ghanaian Mission Over Killing Of Nigerian Student