One ambulance per constituency project: Government to distribute 275 by August

The government, through the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives, will this year take delivery of 275 ambulances for distribution to all constituencies in the country, under the one ambulance per constituency project.

The Technical Advisor to the ministry, Dr Daniel Baffour-Awuah, who announced this in Kumasi, said plans were far advanced for the procurement of the ambulances.

Speaking at the 15th anniversary durbar of the Faculty of Law of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Baffour-Awuah, said by August this year, the ambulances would be in for distribution.

The ambulances will help in the referral of complicated cases and in the evacuation of accident victims, he stated.

The theme for the celebration was: “Law, Science and Technology in the 21st Century.”

One million dollars

One million dollars per constituency promised by the government, Dr Baffour-Awuah explained that it was for infrastructural development, adding that most of the constituencies had benefited from their share of the fund.

He said so far, 560 small dams had been dug for communities in the northern part of the country and about 50 warehouses also completed under the one warehouse per district initiative.

Challenges

Dr Baffour-Awuah said one challenge facing the ministry was the legal acquisition of lands for development.

He said at the onset of the programme, communities willingly gave out lands for development projects in their areas, however, midway through the project, “the people will come back to negotiate over the land and this usually delayed and affected the implementation of the projects.”

Training

In a speech read on her behalf, the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo, called for the training of judges and magistrates in science and technology laws to enable them to competently handle cases in those areas.

She said, there “is the need to equip judges and magistrates to competently handle cases arising from scientific and technological advancements.

This is particularly so when some of these new developments are not regulated by domestic law.”

Speaking on the theme for the celebration, the CJ further stressed the need for the law to be developed to catch up with technological advancement.

She said the law had to constantly develop, catch up with and “if possible, overtake scientific and technological advancement.

Law faculty

Giving the brief history of the faculty, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Lydia A. Akansah, said it was started in 2003 with 57 students, 12 lecturers and four administrative staff.

She said the students did not have a permanent lecture hall and had to be moved from one lecture hall to another, depending on their availability.

The students, she said blazed the trail and over the years performed creditably and had won awards at the call to the bar and made the university proud.

Resource centre

As part of the anniversary celebration, the family of the late Mr Thomas Asamoah Totoe, a lawyer, furnished the Thomas Asamoah Totoe Law Resource Centre for the faculty.

It also marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Mr Totoe.

The library is stocked with e-journals, the world constitution, video conferencing facility and law journals.