A former Director for the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem has supported calls for an independent investigation into a bribery allegation levelled against the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah. Just like the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Azeem is sceptical that neither the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council nor the Judicial Service’s investigation into the alleged misconduct will be impartial. He believes an independent body such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) would conduct a more credible investigation. “The General Legal Council should not be the one investigating the matter because the Chief Justice is the Chair of that body. I think CHRAJ should be the body that should investigate the matter,” said Mr. Azeem on Eyewitness News. Justice Anin-Yeboah denied the allegations which were contained in the response of a lawyer, Akwasi Afrifa, against a petition filed against him by his client at the disciplinary committee of the General Legal Council. He has petitioned the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the matter. There have since been calls by the NDC for the Chief Justice to step aside while investigations are conducted into the allegation. Chief Justice could remain in office Responding to such calls, Mr. Azeem said the Chief Justice could remain in office so far as the investigation does not specifically border on malpractices in the Judiciary. “I think if it is an institution like CHRAJ that is investigating the matter, once it does not have to do with the overall malpractices in the Judiciary he could remain there while the independent body is carrying out the investigation.” The case Ogyeedom IV dragged Mr. Afrifa to the GLC alleging that the lawyer collected $100,000 from him with a promise to help get a favourable judgement on his behalf as a client. Ogyeedom Atta IV asked the council to order Mr. Afrifa to refund the $100,000, saying the lawyer failed to deliver on his promise. In a response dated July 8, 2021, Mr. Afrifa denied the claims by Ogyeedom Kwesi Atta IV, further alleging that he was asked to refund $300,000 in legal fees to enable his client to raise a $5 million bribe to be paid to the Chief Justice to get a favourable decision in the legal dispute.

The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, is urging the government to vary its vaccination strategy amid rising cases of COVID-19.

According to him, the government’s unfocused vaccination plan and the refusal to continue the public testing regime provides no hope for the country’s fight against COVID-19.

“As I stand here as the Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, if you ask me when we are going to roll out the next vaccination plan, the answer is I don’t know, and the worst of it all is that we have stopped doing testing. Now, if you have a positive case, it takes you the patient to go and test your relatives. The only way we can arrest the rise in the active cases is vaccination,” he said.

What is Ghana’s current COVID-19 situation?

There has been a steady rise in the number of cases in recent days, after it dropped below 500 a few weeks ago.

The country currently has an active case count of 2,314 after recording 143 new cases on July 9, 2021, per the latest update from the Ghana Health Service.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country on March 12, 2020, a total of 97,728 cases have been recorded.

Out of this number, 94,612 persons have recovered from the disease and 802 persons have succumbed to it.

Enforce adherence to COVID-19 protocols to curb spread of Delta variant – NCCE 

Recently, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), asked the police to enforce strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocols to prevent the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 strain, Delta.

“The Commission urges the Ghana Police Service to enforce strict adherence to the COVID-19 prevention protocols to curb the spread of the Delta variant,” the NCCE said in a statement.

The NCCE also called on Ghanaians to strictly observe the laid down public health safety protocols.

It explained that its call had been necessitated by a disregard of the COVID-19 protocols by the majority of Ghanaians.

“The NCCE is disturbed about the general disinterest and disregard for the COVID-19 safety protocols among the Ghanaian public in various places and spaces.”

“In spite of the stringent measures outlined by the government to manage the spread of the virus, including the mandatory wearing of masks; social distancing protocols at public events; the rigorous public education; the maximum number of 100 participants at gatherings, it appears citizens have reverted to their lifestyle prior to the global pandemic.

The Ghana Health Service has already detected the Delta variant within the Ghanaian population, with cases recorded at the Achimota School.

The Delta variant was initially said to have been contained at the Kotoka International Airport after it was detected among some travellers.