This week, government waged war on illegal mining, this time with a directive from the presidency, asking personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces to go back into areas of the country where illegal mining is still ongoing. This was after a Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining.

The Minister for Lands and Forestry, Samuel Abu Jinapor toured the Western Region and charged the District Chief Executives to flash out individuals and entities engaged in mining in forest reserves and close to water bodies without being considerate.

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu the second, marked his 22^nd anniversary on the Golden Stool with a call to end degradation at Lake Bosomtwe. He said he was particularly worried about the impact of the menace on residents there and also on the future generation. The Otumfuor reiterated why he ordered a tree planting exercise around the Lake to preserve it. 

The Central regional police waged war on criminals in Kasoa. It has so far arrested 340 suspects engaged in several criminal acts. Speaking to the media during one of the swoops there, regional police commander DCOP Habibah Twumasi Sarpong said ‘we will make the region uncomfortable for criminals to stay here’

The nomination of private legal practitioner, Kissi Adjabeng as the next special prosecutor came with some criticisms. Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu responded by saying ‘it is a disappointing appointment, you need men of wits and will to fight corruption’

Also this week, ahigh level stakeholder’s review of the 2020 elections was held. There, former UN Chairman for West Africa Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas revealed how the December 2020 tainted Ghana’s image as a beacon of democracy and noted ‘we must be worried about it’. The Ghana Police Service also has vowed to get to the bottom of the killings that occurred in the 2020 elections. 5 persons died during the polls.

Meanwhile NDC has also been meeting and continues to discuss the 2020 elections. Its flagbearer and former President John Mahama told a Forum of Professionals that the party has discovered, deployment of ‘illiterate’ party agents to some polling stations negatively affected the NDC’s chances in the 2020 polls.

This, according to the former President, was contained in a report submitted by some regional chairmen. Mr Mahama went on to urge the professionals to offer to become electoral officers during elections; a move he believes would serve the interest of the party.

Some parts of the country continue to endure power outages. The energy ministry has explained it is due to some works being done but the minority leader Haruna Iddrisu wants government to be candid with Ghanaians on the real challenge with the power situation. ‘They owe the Ghanaian people a certain sincerely and honesty as to of what the nature and character of the energy crisis is and how they intend to resolve it’

With delays in getting covid-19 vaccines, the Health Minister saysthe President is now personally leading international diplomatic efforts to get some vaccines.

The week ended with a sad and bizarre story of how a four-year-old boy was allegedly killed and his body hidden under a bed at  Boete in the Obuasi municipality of the Ashanti region. The mother of the deceased, Obaa Yaa, said the child was bathing when she left the house to buy porridge but did not find the child when she returned. A search revealed how the dead body of her child was found in the room of a tenant identified as Kwame. The suspect has been arrested by the police but residents say they are living in fear for the lives of their children and are asking for tightened security in the area.