General News of Thursday, 7 January 2021

Source: GNA

Street Sense Organisation donates to Police MTTD

The items worth GHC195,000.00 was to support the activities of the MTTD The items worth GHC195,000.00 was to support the activities of the MTTD

The Street Sense Organisation (SSO) has donated 500 pieces of reflective vests to the Motor, Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service in Accra.

The items worth GHC195,000.00 was to support the activities of the MTTD in curbing accidents as well as saving lives on the country's road.

Mr Samson Oddoye, the National Coordinator of SSO, who presented the items, said it is to assist the MTTD in terms of visibility and controlling road safety in the country.

He said it would also help them to effectively control road traffic during and after the swearing-in of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Thursday, January 7.

Mr Oddoye said recent statistics had shown that road accidents were on the rise again and urged the powers that be to support the MTTD to achieve their goals of reducing carnages on our roads.

"This is our humble donation to the Ghana Police to promote the safety of the citizens as well as the safety of the roads," he said.

Superintendent Dr. Sasu Mensah, Director of Operations, MTTD, who received the items on behalf of the Police Administration, said over the years, they had developed partnerships with SSO to reduce accidents on the roads.

That partnership, he said, was beneficial to all and expressed their gratitude to the SSO for its continuous support.

He said they would use the items for the intended purpose to achieve their goal of reducing road accidents in the country.

"As Oliver Twist we are asking for more...we are asking for collaborations and this type of gestures, so that at the end of the year road traffic accidents will be downsized in the country," Supt. Dr Mensah added.

Mr Christopher King, SSO Legal Advisor, urged the public to embrace road safety to reduce the carnage on the roads.

He said: “Road safety is not an individual issue and must be embraced collectively as a nation".

He also invited all Ghanaians to take safety seriously, adding, "those who can take one little step to promote safety should do so… if not now when... if not you, who?

SSO was set up in 2011 to improve the challenges associated with road and transport agencies to ensure safety for all stakeholders.

It has since been working with main partners towards the realisation of the United Nations decade of action on road safety in the country.






























The only way we can grow is to embrace the tenets of democracy - Francis-Xavier Sosu



Member of parliament-elect for Madina Constituency in the greater Accra region, Francis Xavier Sosu has said embracing democracy is a sure way to grow as a country.

His comment comes on the back of the leadership of parliament expressing worry at the rate at which new entrants make it to parliament, kicking out the experienced once.

Mr Sosu, however, raised concerns on the need to embrace the full principles of democracy as he described the leadership of parliament’s comment as baseless.

“This debate is a needless one because the only way we can grow is to embrace the tenets of democracy and democracy is expensive. I am looking forward to a day when the entire parliament is voted out making way for an entirely new face. We will train them and they will work.”

Commenting on governance of his predecessor, he faulted him for failing to advance a policy that addresses issues of youth unemployment in the constituency.

For the past four years, you can’t identify any policy that was put in place to address the issue of unemployment in Madina. Merely waiting for a vacancy in the police service and claiming that I sent two people to the police service, fire service etc, does not amount to job creation,” he told GhanaWeb.

He further assured his constituents of a quality representation in parliament as he takes the helms of affairs of the Madina constituency.

“ I will provide the people of Madina quality parliamentary representation. My definition of quality parliamentary representation is providing them with an effective representation in parliament. We have heard stories of people who go to parliament and we do not hear of them but they come back to us after 4years to seek our mandate,” he stressed.

Francis Xavier Sosu won against NPP’s Abu-Bakar Saddique Boniface in the 2020 general election.

He won by 61, 274 votes while the incumbent NPP MP managed to poll some 46, 525 votes.

Lawyer Francis Xavier Sosu prior to the elections launched a website dubbed ‘madinajobcenter.com’ to solve the unemployment problems in the constituency.

Nonetheless, Madina has consistently been considered as a swing constituency following its voting pattern since 2004.

The National Democratic Congress took charge of the seat from 2004 till 2012, then the NPP took over in 2016.