Road safety advocacy organization, the Akwaaba Foundation has predicted that there would be more accident cases in the coming months unless the government mandates an agency to solely prevent accidents.

Ho, Oct. 13, GNA - Some pupils in and around the SSNIT and DOSCA flats in Ho are either staying away from school or going to school late due to their inability to pay a bridge toll of 20 pesewas.

A carpenter, Mr Dennis Anku who re-constructed a temporal foot bridge over an over flowing stream connecting a path to Kabore School Complex and other public schools in the SSNIT Flats, insists that the pupils pay the tolls or take long detours walking or by taxis to go to school.

Regular commuters in and out of the area said Mr Anku gets to "work" at the bridge as early as 0500 hours to take his tolls. They reported instances of some school kids having to cry before being allowed passage, with strong warnings to bring the money the next time.

Mr Anku, for convenience, was said to be collecting the tolls on Mondays to cover the week.

Miss Loretha Otabil, a Junior High School student at Kabore, told the GNA that she had to pay the 20 pesewas to be allowed to walk on the wooden bridge and that she had made a report to her class teacher. Mr Anku confirmed the story to the GNA and explained that the toll was to defray the cost of re-constructing the bridge. He said materials bought to fix the bridge cost 8.00 Ghana cedis and that he had managed to retrieve 3.00 Ghana cedis. Ms Perfect Apasu, whose fried yam business around the bridge plummeted as a result of lower numbers of pupils using the bridge, pleaded with Mr Anku to stop collecting the tolls while she contacts people to raise money to pay for his expenses. Mr Anku, the commuters said, was not collecting monies from adults who use the same bridge.

Accra, Oct. 13, GNA - Food and Agriculture Minister Kwesi Ahwoi on Wednesday said it would be very unwise to produce large quantity of food that was unsafe for public consumption.

Sunyani, Aug. 22 GNA - The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), gearing up for the 2010 Population and Housing Census, has called on the media to educate people to take part in the exercise.

Mr Omar Seidu, Regional Statistician, said at a training programme in Sunyani on the census enumeration on Saturday that the media must sensitize and inform people about the importance of the exercise in nation building.

"The media will play an important role in making the exercise successful and a complete and accurate count is in the hands of the media", he added.

The programme was organized for media personnel, regional and district census implementation committee members towards the effective promotion of public awareness and provision of positive publicity throughout the census process.

Mr Seidu said it was important people co-operate with enumerators and to avoid politicization of the exercise. He also advised all census officials taking part in the exercise to contact personnel of the Service in case of difficulties.

Giving assurance how prepared the Service was for the exercise, the Regional Statistician said, maps, questionnaires and manuals to be used by field personnel were ready for the exercise. He added that field personnel were also being trained.

Mr Seidu said publicity on the census had started and regional and district census officers have been set up.

He said the listing of houses and structures would be carried out from September 20 to 26, the Census night.

Alhaji Mohammed Issah Asagri, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of the National Commission or Civic Education (NCCE), who presided, urged census officials to endeavour to reach every person so they could fully be informed and participated in the exercise.

Mr Francis Yankey, Head of Training and Recruitment and Mr Godwin Odei Gyebi, Statistician at the Field Operations Unit of the Service, educated the participants on many issues including some frequently asked questions of the census exercise.

Source:ghanaweb.com