A pastor and two church workers have been sent to the Ho Central Prison to serve a four-year jail for insisting on holding church service despite the strict ban on public gathering.
One Apostle Sampson Agakpe, the founder of the Church of Pure Christ in the Volta Region was arrested on April 12 together with his assistant pastor, Maxwell Dzogoedzikpe and church secretary, Samuel Agakpe for holding a church service last Sunday for more than 50.
The ban on public gathering makes it a punishable offence when more than 25 people mass up at a location.
The accused were promptly carted off to court where they pleaded guilty. They were consequently charged a fine of GHC 13,200 each or in default serve four-year jail term each.
As at Thursday, April 16, the three could not raise the fine, prompting the being sent to the Ho Central Prison to begin serving their prison sentence.
According to reports, upon tip-off of the breach, the police stormed the church an caught the Pastor preaching “in flagrant disregard of the president of the Republic of Ghana’s imposed restrictions on public gathering including religious activities in churches”, the court heard.
They were promptly arrested, amidst a mass escape by church members, leaving their pastor to his fate.
Phoney UNIPASS FAILS, Confusion Hits Ghana Ports
The questionable decision by the Akufo Addo administration to clandestinely hand over Ghana’s port management services to UNIPASS has backfired because UNIPASS is unable to operate because it has been exposed to lack the necessary infrastructure.
Whatsup News has gathered that the original operator of the port and customs management system to who the government is trying to illegally kick out of the Single Window system at the port, the Ghana Community Network (GCNET) and West Blue, have refused to hand over their proprietary platform to UNIPASS, a system owned by CUIPEA of South Korea and Ghana Link Limited.
Confusion has reportedly erupted at the Takoradi Port because it turns out that even though the government had coyly directed importers to circumvent the GCNET system, the UNIPASS system has failed as it was overwhelmed demands on the very first day of operations on April 1, 2020.
According to insiders, many clearing agents and freight forwarders are unable to register onto the new platform, forcing UNIPASS to hold an emergency meeting with representative members of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF).
At the meeting, it was reportedly agreed that UNIPASS has pushed Ghana’s port management system back to its bureaucratic days as freight forwarders cannot register their goods onto the platform themselves and would have to seek the help of UNIPASS officials.
This development will result in losses in revenue and start a downward spiral of corruption at the ports, Whatsup News gathered.
Faced with the possibility with the disastrous showing, The Akufo Addo government has reportedly intensified its efforts to get GC Net and West Blue to hand over their operating systems to their competitors-UNIPASS.
Critics, including several think-tanks, have questioned the government’s motivation for handing over the sensitive port management system to UNIPASS despite them clearly exhibiting inadequacy in implementing the project.
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo is reported to be the main brain behind the attempted seizure of the lucrative business from GCNET and hand it over to UNIPASS which is co-owned by a Ghanaian company called Ghana Link Network Limited, which is owned by one Nick Danso Adjei-an alleged friend of the Jubilee House bigwigs.
The new contract also means that the government has totally ignored warnings issued by freight-forwarder that they believe the UNIPASS system was inferior to the GCNET system and will cost Ghanaian freight forwarders more to access and more to operate and would affect government revenue from the ports.
For instance, the new system means Ghanaian importers would be paying more-0.75 per cent fee (FOB), against GCNET’s 0.54 per cent charges. Also, the main infrastructure that would be used by UNIPASS was built by GCNET.