In the news this week…

From the incessant fire outbreaks and road accidents which have swallow-up the entire country in recent times and the series of controversies generated by the ongoing election petition at the Supreme Court, here is a roundup of the issues that made headlines in the week.

Traders clash with Police

Calm returned to Kantamanto market on Tuesday, May7, 2013 after a combined team of police and military personnel on Monday fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse rioting traders.

The traders had vowed to prevent city authorities from taking over the burnt market, set fire to lorry tires, wooden structure and blocked all entrances to the market on Monday.

President Mahama upon returning from South Africa met the leadership of the aggrieved traders, and affirmed the government’s commitment to finding a lasting solution to the tragedy that occurred on Sunday, May 5, 2013.

Doctors suspend strike

Striking doctors on Wednesday finally suspended their over one month long strike. The decision, according to Dr Justice Yamson, General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), was arrived at after a ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC).

The said ruling stipulated: “Members of the GMA are entitled to their conversion difference, and that government and Fair Wages for that matter, should look at some payment plan that the GMA had brought up and negotiate its payment and report back to NLC within a month”.

The move by the association attracted commendations from a section of the public, including the Health Minister, Sherry Ayittey and the Information Minister, Mahama Ayariga.

Supreme Court Judges fume

The Supreme Court hearing the election petition on Monday, May 6, 2013 started off with an unusual barrage of warnings supposedly meant for the Executive Director of Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko as well as lawyers, journalists and the audience in court who are fond of switching off the air conditioners.

Judge Nasiru Gbadegbe set the tone when he lashed implicitly at Gabby for describing judges as “timid” for ruling in favour of Bernard Mornah, General Secretary of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), in a case Mr Mornah filed challenging aspects of CI 74.

Whilst he did not mention any name, a section of the media assumed the learned judge was talking about an article written by the Executive Director in the wake of the ruling given by the judges in that case. Gabby described the judges’ ruling as "timid."

The Judge lamented saying, “much as we are open to fair criticism, some of the criticism are going beyond bounds; to describe judges as timid is not healthy for the administration of justice”.

The Judge believed it was an unacceptable commentary on the decision of the Court. The Judge, however, warned lawyers and journalists to be accurate in their reports of proceedings in court.

Supreme Court orders audit of pink sheets

The Supreme Court, in consultation with parties in the presidential election petition, on Thursday, May 9, 2013 appointed KPMG, an international accounting firm, to conduct an audit of the pink sheets that have been filed at the court’s registry as exhibits by the petitioners.

As the firm’s terms of reference, the court directed that the audit should be based on the court’s exhibits in the custody of the registrar and in accordance with the category of malpractices alleged by the petitioners as contained in paragraphs 44 to 67 of the affidavit deposed to by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the second petitioner and dated April 7, 2013.

Furthermore, the exercise should take into account the polling stations involved, their names, code numbers and exhibit numbers, if any.

The President of the court, Justice William Atuguba, announced this in a ruling on an application for the count at the instance of Tsatsu Tsikata, counsel for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to the court, each of the parties in the petition was at liberty to choose two representatives to observe the exercise.

There was no indication as to when the exercise would commence, but once the order has been given, the exercise will start, provided the necessary paperwork is completed on time.

The petitioners have alleged malpractices covering over-voting, the non-signing of pink sheets by presiding officers or their assistants, voting without biometric verification and duplicated serial numbers of pink sheets.

Fatal crash on N1 kills 4

At least four people are feared dead, and several others seriously injured in a fatal accident on the newly constructed NI highway Wednesday morning.

According to an eyewitness account, a tipper truck coming from the Lapaz stretch of the road for inexplicable reasons lost control and rammed into a tanker in the other lane, which consequently crashed into another truck loaded with sand.

Occupants of the truck carrying sand were mainly construction workers who were on their way to their respective sites, according to an eyewitness.

The accident occurred around 0400 hours, but as at 0800 hours, officials of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service were at the scene to assess the situation.

Ghana unchanged on FIFA ranking table

The Black Stars remained unchanged at 22nd in the May edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released Thursday.

The Black Stars took that position in the previous ranking as they hold on for the second consecutive month with their point build up still 874 points.

Kwesi Appiah's team is still ranked second on the African continent behind Ivory Coast with Mali in third place.

With little changes, the top three in the World rankings remained the same from last month as champions, Spain hold onto the number one spot ahead of Germany and Argentina.

The May edition of the world ranking recorded very few changes compared to the previous month.