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| | | Planing To Fly To Ghana? Check Here For Best Price Offers With BA! | | LATEST GHANA WEATHER | Your Opinions | Older Ghana News? Please Scroll Down | Latest Ghana News of Friday, 24 December 2010 - Wikileaks: Mills rejected oil bribe PLEASE SCROLL DOWN, to read! | Latest Ghana News of Monday, 20 December 2010 - The oil cannot build Ghana: Mensah Otabil | | Latest Ghana News of Sunday, 19 December 2010 - 'Jungle law' at Kejetia lorry terminal | | Latest Ghana News of Sunday, 19 December 2010 - Asantehene takes on Railway Company over illegal sale of land | | Latest Ghana News of Saturday, 18 December 2010 - How Ghana Became Cocaine Coast | | Latest Ghana News of Saturday, 18 December 2010 - Drug barons sponsor politicians - Former NACOB boss | | Latest Ghana News of Saturday, 18 December 2010 - Chinese national remanded for murder | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 07th December 2010 - No more promises - Voltarians tell NDC | | Tourism can alleviate poverty in Ghana - Prof. Holden / 19.11.2010 | | Latest Ghana News of Wednesday, 10th November 2010 - Increasing cases of child abuse in Brong Ahafo region - DOVSSU | | Latest Ghana News of Wednesday, 10th November 2010 - Spio fires Mills for leaving Rawlings homeless | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 09th November 2010 -Stx Housing Deal Is Fraud- Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 09th November 2010 -Mills is no.1 fear monger - Kofi Jumah | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 09th November 2010 -Court summons Gbevlo-Lartey | | Latest Ghana News of Monday, 08th November 2010 - Time up for fear mongers - Prez Mills declares | | Latest Ghana News of Monday, 08th November 2010 - Five injured in shooting at Okyenhene's Palace | | Latest Ghana News of Monday, 01th November 2010 - Police arrest woman over Kintampo mass rape 'hoax' | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 28th October 2010 - There's Power Struggle Within NDC - Allotey Jacobs | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 28th October 2010 - VRA To Spill Akosombo Dam On November 1 | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 28th October 2010 - Armed robbers induce mass rape on passenger bus | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 28th October 2010 -It will be greatest injustice not to have Nana Addo as president -Ambrose Derry | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 28th October 2010 - Police deny brutalizing residents in search of robber | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 28th October 2010 - Hackman Collapses, As Sikelele Goes Bankrupt.. | | Latest Ghana News of Wednesday, 27th October 2010 - NDC to share presidential mugs to pupils | | Latest Ghana News of Thursday, 21th October 2010 - I have a problem with President Mills - Rawlings | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 19th October 2010 - Spillage from Akosombo dam will be managed - VRA Boss | | Latest Ghana News of Friday, 15 October 2010 - Rawlings betrayed me - Obed Asamoah | | Latest Ghana News of Wednesday, 13th October 2010 - Mills Buys 110 Cars For Selected Journalists | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 29th September 2010 - Obetsebi-Lamptey ready to co-operate with police | | Latest Ghana News of Wednesday, 15th September 2010 - Armed robbers gun down businessman in front of wife | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 07th September 2010 - ‘Snake Girl’ grabbed in Kumasi | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 07th September 2010 - Nana Addo cries for Atiwa | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 07th September 2010 - UNICEF (Ghana) Silent Over Osu Home Abuse | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 07th September 2010 - More Drama at OSU Children's Home | | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 07th September 2010 - Committee to investigate Anas' exposé inaugurated | Latest Ghana News of Tuesday, 01th September 2010 - Kumasi Sex Workers Angry Over Nigeria "Ashawos" | | Latest Ghana News of Wednesday, 01th September 2010 - I Am Innocent –Vice President Declares | | 26.08.2010 - Four Killed In Explosion | 19 perish in fatal accident on Ada-Tema highway * Source: Myjoyfm | -16.08.2010- Nineteen people have died in two separate accidents involving four vehicles on the Ada-Tema highway.
A Metro Mass bus Monday morning run into a stationary cargo truck, killing sixteen people on the spot.
Joy FM correspondent, Benjamin Tetteh said the Metro Bus with registration number AS 60590 was heading to Accra from the Volta Region when the accident occurred at 8:00 am.
15 died on the spot and one died later at the hospital. Several others who sustained injuries have been sent to the Bator Hospital for treatment.
In the other accident which occured Sunday, Benjamin Tetteh reports that three people died when a saloon car hit an urvan bus in a community on the Ada-Tema Highway.
According to eye-witnesses, the saloon car failed to slow down and as a result hit the back of the bus when the latter was climbing a speed ramp. | | Highway robbers strike at Kadjebi-Nkwanta | *Source: GNA Hohoe, Aug 14, GNA - Five masked highway armed robbers, in the early hours of Friday, staged an operation on the Kadjebi-Nkwanta segment of the Pepesu road network in the Kadjebi District and molested commuters on buses.
Mr Seth Alifui, Kadjebi District Chief Executive, who confirmed the incident to the Ghana News Agency, said some female commuters were allegedly raped by the gang after subjecting them to humiliation and molestation.
He said undisclosed sums of money, mobile phones and other valuables were seized from the travelers.
Mr Alifui said no arrests had yet been made but urged communities to be on the look out for suspicious characters in their communities.
He said the robbers, who exhibited brute force shot into a "Burger Bus," which tried to manouvre the logs used as barricades, resulting in the bus running into a ditch, injuring the occupants.
Mr Alifui said the District Security Committee would meet on the matter and possibly erect a barrier at the spot and increase patrols and surveillance. | Tuesday, 03th August 2010: Row Erupts: Govt, Barge Energy At The Hague | Monday, 02.08.2010: STX loan to suffer a second setback- court injunction (Please Scroll Down) | Saturday, 17 July 2010: Ministers Accused of Misconduct in Housing Deal (Please Scroll Down) | No Hope Yet For Trapped Miners * Source: Daily Graphic / 01.07.2010 | About fifty (50) Galamsey miners have been trapped and believed to be dead after rains washed mud and covered them in a mining pit in Akyempem near ...Please Scroll Down | | Minority unhappy with President's trip to South Africa | | Accra June 25, GNA- The Minority in Parliament on Friday, described President John Evans Atta Mills three- day trip to South African trip as a waste of time.... Scroll Down.. | Nation's Worst Flood Disaster... Death Toll Now 35 ... (22.06.2010) Parents Lose 3 Kids To Floods .. (21.06.2010) 24 Confirmed Dead In Sunday’s Heavy Rains ...(21.06.2010) Food sellers make good sales after flood block road .. (21.06.2010) ..Please Scroll Down.. | US & Ghana In Diplomatic Row.. GNPC “Anti- American”? | Independence Day, 06.03.2010 | Atta Mills - State Of The Nation Address 2010, February 25th | UN Millennium Campaign names Charles Abugre as new Deputy Director for Africa |
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| Latest Ghana News of Friday, 24 December 2010 - Daily Guide Wikileaks: Mills rejected oil bribe | It is gradually emerging that President John Evans Atta Mills may, after all, not be immune to bribery and corruption as some corporate bodies troop to the Castle, Osu, the seat of government, attempting to bribe the president.
Latest in the series of leaked cables from the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks, is an open admission by President Mills that some oil companies had attempted to offer him a juicy package to influence him.
The cables, which were sent on February 16, 2010, indicated that President Mills held a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of States, Johnnie Carson, accompanied by the US Ambassador, Special Assistant, Cook and one Econoff on February 3, 2010.
At the said meeting, President Mills told the aforementioned individuals how he was committed to putting the country’s oil proceeds to good use but had cause to complain that a number of corrupt oil company representatives had attempted to bribe him.
"Assistant Secretary Carson, accompanied by the Ambassador, Donald Teittelbaum, Special Assistant Cook and Econof, met with President John Atta Mills on February 3, 2010, Carson strongly emphasized the need for leadership in ensuring that Ghana oil resources, arc managed for the benefit of the country. He stressed the importance of adherence to rule of law and transparency to maintain Ghana's attractiveness for investment and its ultimate success in, developing its oil resources. President Mills said he is determined to ensure oil will be a blessing, but that a number of corrupt oil company representatives have attempted to bribe him. He said that he refused the money and was offended by their efforts," the leaked report said.
President Mills however failed to disclose the names and identities of the supposed companies involved but only said "he said that he refused the money and was offended by their efforts" since he was committed to the rule of law and transparency.
President Mills could not hide his government's reservations in dealing with Kosmos Energy which is currently producing oil along with Jubilee oil partners in the country, accusing the company of not being transparent in their dealing with the Government of Ghana (GoG).
He emphasized the importance of respect in dealing with the GoG, accusing Kosmos Energy of multiple offenses.
Mills claimed that Kosmos initially denied that they were planning to sell their assets in the Jubilee Fields when they were said to be interested in selling:
At the time, President Mills, who appeared bitter, indicated that Kosmos had invited a delegation to go to London to discuss a potential sale, but before the meeting, the CEO of ExxonMobil informed him that Exxon had entered into an exclusive agreement with Kosmos to purchase the asset.
Whilst he acknowledged the right of Exxon to enter into such an agreement with Kosmos, President Mills said he felt both Ghana and he personally had been misled and disrespected by Kosmos.
Two days before President Mills made these disclosures to the US officials, the Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, wrote a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Tillerson, saying the GoG was unable to support an ExxonMobil acquisition of Kosmos's Ghana assets as long as the companies retained their exclusivity agreement and denied the GoG a role in the asset acquisition process.
Later, when President Mills met the US officials, he praised ExxonMobil's expertise in oil exploration and production Whilst raising issues with Kosmos letting other companies view sensitive data in what he described as a violation of Ghanaian law.
Under normal circumstance the President said Kosmos should have sought the consent or the GoG before such access could he granted, indicating that Kosmos had exposed documents on the oil to 26 companies when it was supposed to be confidential.
Mills accused management of Kosmos of ignoring a proposal by government to buy its shares in the Jubilee Fields when the announced their intention to sell.
That notwithstanding, he indicated that GoG would adhere to transparency and the rule of law in its dealings with Kosmos, according to the cables "he also said that he did not want to create the impression that the GoG was singling out anyone company for mistreatment”.
President Mills was also quoted as telling the United States authorities he wanted equipment installed in the presidential lounge of the airport to screen his entourage for drugs when leaving the country.
“Mills wants these officials to be checked in the privacy or his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs,” the cables released on December 14, 2009 read. He also told the US officials that “elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there”.
| | STX loan to suffer a second setback- court injunction / 02.08.2010 | Accra, August 2 GNA - Parliament on Monday deferred debates on the re-laid Supplier's Credit Agreement between Ghana government and the STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited till tomorrow August 3 2010.
At an extended sitting which lasted for about 11 hours, six loan agreements were granted, nine papers laid for the consideration of the House with Education Amendment Bills 2010 passed into law including Economic and Organised Crime Bills 2009 which also received approval into law.
This was without the much expected STX loan agreement.
However the STX which was afflicted with giant waves of resentment between the Majority and Minority leading to its withdrawal on the directives of President John Mills could run into another difficulty of a legal tussle.
Though no official report was made on the floor of House about the court action, a legal suit paper circulated to the press had Mr. James Kwabena Bomfeh (Jnr) National Youth Organiser of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) filed a writ praying the Supreme Court to put an injunction on Parliament to proceed in granting the loan.
The writ which had two defendants, the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice and the Speaker of Parliament demanded the court to restrained Parliament to discontinue its action of laying the loan agreement and its onward approval until the determination of the case.
Meanwhile the loan agreements approved include the Additional Financing Agreement between the government of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of SDR46.2million (US$70.0 million).
It would be used to undertake the Ghana Energy Development Access Project (GEDAP).
Another loan agreement stood between the government of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of SDR49.7 million (US$ 75.0 million) to finance the Rural Water and Sanitation Project.
International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group has given another loan package to Ghana to the tune of SDR6.6 million (US$ 10.0 million).
It will be used to support the Third Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Development Policy Operation (NREG-DPO3).
Parliament also approved a loan agreement between the International Development Association (IDA) and the Ghana government for an amount of SDR 29.6 million (US$ 44.7 million) to be used in financing E-Ghana Project.
Finally, the house okayed a SDR16.5 million (US$ 25.0 million)
International Development Association (IDA) loan to contracted for budgetary support for the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy II (FASDEP II).
The House is expected to rise tomorrow, August 3, 2010. | Ministers Accused of Misconduct in Housing Deal / 17.07.2010 | Two cabinet ministers of Ghana are under pressure to resign as they face misconduct accusations in a housing deal between the government and a South Korean-owned firm.
The agreement of the deal was suspended indefinitely by the parliament on Thursday on grounds that certain portions of the draft were missing.
The ministers involved are Alban Bagbin, minister of water resources, works and housing, and Kwabena Duffuor, minister of finance and economic planning, who worked on the deal before its submission to the parliament.
The deal, worth 10 billion U.S. dollars, was negotiated between the government and the STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited, and involves construction of affordable housing units in the next five years.
Spio Garbrah, vice chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, told a local radio on Friday that the suspension proved the officials in charge of the agreement had done a rather "poor job."
Edward Ennin, an opposition lawmaker, called for immediate resignation of the two ministers, saying that they had failed to heed advice from some lawmakers that the STX housing deal deserved proper scrutiny before it was brought before the parliament for approval.
The Integrity Initiative (GII), Ghana's anti-corruption agency, also called for the dismissal of the ministers whose inaction, it says, led to the suspension of the debate over the deal in the parliament. | Veep unhappy with unruly Ghanaian soccer fans / 25.06.2010 * Source: GNA | Accra, June 25, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghanaians to comport themselves wherever they find themselves in order to reflect the good image of their Mother Land. The Vice President who was speaking to journalists at the Kotoka International Airport, upon his return from South Africa, expressed his displeasure at the conduct of some Ghanaian soccer fans at the FIFA World Cup Tournament.
He said it was not right for the fans to abuse the trust that the government had repose in them.
Mr Mahama said tickets at the on-going tournament were sold online thus denying some of the sponsored fans the opportunity to watch the matches. He said arrangements were however made later for 500 tickets to be made available to them.
Touching on the Black Stars, Mr Mahama advised them to stay focussed and do their best since they are now entering a crucial stage of the tournament.
He said the Stars stood a good chance of achieving great success, adding: "Basically they are technically good." The Vice President said it was not waste of resources for Ghanaian fans to be sponsored to South Africa to support and cheer the Ghanaian team. He said football is of great significance to any nation in the world. Vice President Mahama said considering the fact that the world cup is an occasional event of great importance, it was absolutely appropriate for any nation and Ghana for that matter to offer its citizens the opportunity to go and cheer their heroes on. So far 524 supporters are on record to return to Ghana on Friday. Media reports claimed that some of male Ghanaian soccer fans in decently assaulted a Canadian woman in a hotel in South Africa and harassed others. 25 June 10 | | 50 Galamsey Miners Believed To Be Dead In Mining Pit / 26.06.2010 * Source: PeceFM | About fifty (50) Galamsey miners have been trapped and believed to be dead after rains washed mud and covered them in a mining pit in Akyempem near Dunkwa-on-Ofin the capital of the Upper Denkyira District in the Central Region.
Reports received from Peace Fm’s Western Regional correspondent, Nana Kumi, indicates that the sad incident occurred on Sunday afternoon after about fifty(50) Galamsey operators who were then working in the pit got trapped when water suddenly flooded it.
The pit, according to reports, was left unattended to or uncovered by a mining company who worked at the site.
According to Nana Kumi who spoke to Kwami Sefa Kayi on PeaceFm’s “Kokrokoo” programme Monday morning, said only those at the edge of the pit managed to escape.
In all, about 120 Galamsey operators were said to be at the site when the incident occurred.
Nana Kumi tells Peace Fm that an excavator was needed to dig the pit to hopefully bring out the remains of the Galamsey operators.
More details to follow........ | | Minority unhappy with President's trip to South Africa / 26.06.2010 * Source: GNA | Accra June 25, GNA- The Minority in Parliament on Friday, described President John Evans Atta Mills three- day trip to South African trip as a waste of time, since President Jacob Zuma would not be around to meet him. Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Member of Parliament for New Juabeng North said it would have been better if the President had made it clear that he was going to South Africa to support the Black Stars in their match against the United States of America.
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu Minority Leader, said the President left Ghana before informing parliament, which he said was a violation of the 1992 Constitution.
The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Rashid Pelpuo counteracted the Minority assertion by arguing that the letter to parliament about the visit was received by the Speakers Office before the President travelled. 26 June 10 | Parents Lose 3 Kids To Floods * Source: The New Crusading Guide | | -21.06.2010- A family in Ashaiman lost three children between the ages of 6-12 to Sunday’s severe floods in the Ashaiman municipality.
The three deceased are Abubakar 12, Yusuf 8 and one female Zamalatu 6. According to Japhal Ali Meigah, a relative of the three deceased children, the kids were inundated as they stayed in their bedroom close to a bridge at Valco Flat, a suburb of Ashaiman.
Apparently, the floods had inundated the bridge running into many homes and destroying several properties, including sheep and goats. Mr. Japha Ali Meigah said the children could not escape the severe floods as elderly people were swimming to flee from their homes.
He told an Accra based radio station that the parents of the deceased children, who were not at home when the incident occurred, went unconscious after hearing the news of their kids’ demise. The two are said to be in critical condition at the Tema General Hospital. | | Nation's Worst Flood Disaster... Death Toll Now 35 *Source: Daily Graphic / 22.06.2010 | Thirty-five bodies have so far been retrieved from floodwaters across the country by volunteers and rescue workers who described the havoc after Sunday’s downpour as the worst flood disaster in Ghana’s recent history.
Averaging 24 millimetres (mm) in Accra, 50.1mm and 50.7mm in Tema and Ashaiman respectively and 84.7mm in Pokuase, the volume of the downpour came nowhere near last year’s record figure of 313mm registered at Kaneshie, according to officials of the Metrological Agency.
Officials of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), however, described its tragic aftermath as the worst flood disaster in the country’s recent history.
As of press time yesterday, the rescue teams had retrieved 17 bodies from the floods at Ashaiman, two in Tema, one at Dawhenya, four at Nmai Dzom and 11 in Agona Nyarkrom in the Central Region.
NADMO officials also confirmed that the rains had caused extensive damage to moveable and immovable property at the affected areas and beyond and left hundreds of residents in Ashaiman, Kpone and Dawhenya all in the Tema metropolis, displaced.
Out of the 11 people who died in Nyarkro in two separate incidents during the rains, seven drowned in the Puni River on the outskirts of the town around 11a.m last Sunday when their Hyundai Grace Mini bus with registration number CR522-10 was swept into the river which had overflown its banks, reports Samuel Kyei Boateng.
Six of the bodies were retrieved and identified as Kweku Agbede, 47, Kwame Ocran 22, Alhaji Bella, Afua Saawah, 52, Charlotte Incoom, 22, Esi Abban, 32. All the deceased except Alhaji Bella were passengers who were trapped in the vehicle.
Alhaji Bella, who went to the scene in an attempt to rescue some of the trapped people in the bus, ended up getting drowned in the process.
Divers, however, managed to rescue seven of the passengers on board the bus. They are Kojo Abraham, 33, the driver of the bus; his mate, Kofi Atta; Mary Baidoo, Rita Enya, Deborah Afezie, Anastasia Arthur and Joshua Ansong.
According to a police source, the minibus, which was fully loaded with passengers, was on its way to Breman Asikuma from Agona Swedru.
It said when the driver reached Agona Nyakrom at about 11a.m, he realized that the Pumu River had overflown its banks but he risked to cross the bridge spanning it against the advice of people resident in the area.
The source said on reaching the middle of the floods, the driver realized that he could not cross the river so decided to return to Agona Swedru but the strong currents of the floods overturned the vehicle. It said a number of people including the late Alhaji Bella tried in vain to rescue the trapped passengers. The source said yesterday morning, a team of divers managed to retrieve seven bodies, leaving one that could not be traced.
Six of the bodies have been deposited at the Agona Swedru Government Hospital. In the second incident, four men got drowned in the Agona River as the floodwater swept them away with other personal effects.
From Agona Swedru, Kwamena Apponsha reports that about 2,000 people have been displaced as a result of the floods.
No deaths had been confirmed by the police as of press time yesterday. About 1,500 of the displaced people were from Sabon Zongo, a suburb of the town, and were being housed at the Swedru Town Hall by the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), which was also registering them. | | 24 Confirmed Dead In Sunday’s Heavy Rains *Source: Myjoyonline / 21.06.2010 | Twenty-four people have died nationwide as a result of Sunday's torrential rains that left many areas submerged.
Scores of people have been reported missing whilst hundreds are displaced.
The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) says in the Tema-Ashaiman area alone, eleven people were carried away by the flood waters which inundated homes and submerged bridges.
One household in the Ashaiman municipality alone lost three of its occupants.
On Monday a delegation comprising NADMO boss Kofi Portuphy and his officials as well as the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey embarked on a tour of some of the worst hit areas.
Meanwhile, as at Monday afternoon, victims of Sunday's flooding say they are yet to receive any assistance from authorities.
Some of them who spoke to Joy News said they were sleeping on roof tops.
But NADMO officials have urged the victims to be calm as they try to identify persons displaced by the floods.
Meanwhile, Isaac Mensah, the NADMO Metropolitan coordinator and a member of the demolition team of Tema West Metropolitan Assembly that demolished over 100 buildings at Lashibi last week for being allegedly sited illegally, says the exercise would go on as and when it becomes necessary.
In a related development, the main Accra-Winneba road which links the capital to the Western and Central regions was inundated with floodwater since yesterday.
Checks by Joy News indicated that the floodwaters have still not receded, causing vehicular traffic much to the frustration of commuters. | | Food sellers make good sales after flood block road *Source: GNA / 21.06.2010 | Commercial traders, particularly chop bar operators and other food sellers at Winneba Junction had a field day on Monday following a heavy downpour on Sunday, which resulted in river Ayensu overflowing its banks at Gomoa-Okyereko, near Winneba Junction.
The floods had submerged the Ayensu Bridge on the main Cape Coast-Accra road preventing the free flow of vehicles to and from Accra.
As at 0900 hours on Monday, more than 500 vehicles had lined up at the both ends of the river waiting for the floods to subside to enable them continue their journey.
In an interview with leaders of the Winneba Junction branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr Kweku Seidu, the Stationmaster and Mr Patrice Ainooson, Chief Porter, told the Ghana News Agency that the episode started as early as 0615 hours on Monday when the vehicles that left the station returned to the Junction and reported the situation.
Most commercial drivers, who could not wait for the floods to subside discharged their passengers at Winneba Junction and returned to their base.
Meanwhile, the police have been deplored to the area to ensure peace and order and also prevent any recalcitrant drivers who might attempt to cross the river.
| | NDC vomits $1.5m for stranded footsoldiers *Source: Daily Graphic / 18.06.2010 | The 345 stranded soccer fans may have been successfully flown to South Africa to cheer the Black Stars in their encounter with their Australian counterparts tomorrow, but there are still lingering questions about the names and identities of the individuals and groups of persons said to have sponsored the trip.
Daily Guide sources said that instead of the usual EI-Wak Stadium where pre-departure formalities were carried out the supporters, mostly National Democratic Congress (NDC) foot-soldiers, were ferried to the Zenith College area at the back of the Trade Fair at La where the supporters were screened by NDC officials including the party's Women's Organizer, Anita De Souza.
Deputy Minister of Local Government Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, who was the main architect behind the initiative, is not forthcoming with details about those who sponsored the trip, claiming the sponsors do not want their names and identities to be made public.
In an interview with Daily Guide Thursday, Mr. Afriyie Ankrah said the phantom sponsors undertook the exercise from a humanitarian point of view since they were touched by the plight of the stranded supporters, some of whom had been staying at the El-Wak stadium for almost a week without food or water.
He said “for all you know, me too I contributed maybe some GH¢500 or GH¢1,000."
"If I hire a bus to cart people from EI-Wak to the airport, it's a contribution, isn't it. If somebody brings 1,000 packs of take-away, it's a contribution. If somebody brings water to them, it's a contribution, do you understand me?" he asked rhetorically, stressing that "people contributed in diverse ways but everybody thinks it should be a quiet thing,” he added.
However, Daily Guide sources said an individual who was at the Zenith College for the screening coughed out a staggering $1.5million to support the airlifting of the supporters.
According to sources, Kobby Woyome, the NDC Member of Parliament for South Tongu and his brother, Alfred Woyome of the Office of the President, are said to have contributed to the funding of the airlifting the fans to South Africa.
When contacted on his mobile phone yesterday, the MP confirmed to that they were "supporting the government as private individuals" to airlift the stranded fans to South Africa.
"We came in as a private entity. We are using our own money to support the government to get the fans there," he said
Asked how much they were spending to airlift the fans, Mr. Woyome, who sounded busy, said "this is something we can talk about later. We are under serious tension. You can hear from the background. Everybody wants to go to watch Ghana play."
Daily Guide learnt that his elder brother, Alfred, was mentioning the names of the supporters at the Zenith College, prior to their departure.
Even before the World Cup is over, a pressure group, Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF), has already expressed concern about the manner in which the government was handling the airlifting of the fans and has called for investigations into the matter. | | Let's scrap appointment of ministers from parliament *Source: GNA / 18.06.2010 | Odumase (Ash), June 18, GNA - Participants at a consultative forum on the review of the constitution held at Odumase in the Asante-Akim North Municipality, have suggested that the appointment of ministers from parliament should be scrapped.
This arrangement, they said, did not augur well for good governance and should be dumped.
They said parliamentarians, who become ministers, end up neglecting their responsibilities to their constituents.
"To help keep their ministerial jobs such ministers tend to give more time and attention to their ministries, missing parliamentary sittings and rarely visit their various constituencies. The only time you see them is when it is about time for elections." Chiefs, civil society groups, representatives of the political parties, heads of department, assembly members, the security services and students attended the forum.
The participants criticized the huge sums of money paid to article 71 office holders as end of service benefit and want this slashed. Mr Akenteng Appiah-Menka, a member of the Constitution Review Commission, said it was imperative for the public to participate in the exercise to ensure its success. | | Minister appeals to Volta Region to avoid chieftaincy disputes *Source: GNA / 18.06.2010 | Keta, June 18, GNA - Mr Joseph Amenowode, the Volta Regional Minister, has appealed to the chiefs and people of the region to avoid protracted chieftaincy conflicts that have dogged some parts of the country. He said the region had limited time and resources that must be used for development rather than on avoidable disputes and conflicts. Mr Amenowode was addressing the chiefs and people of the Ketu South District and the Keta Municipal area separately on Thursday. He said an alternative bridge is to be built on the Volta River at Dofor-Adidome to ease pressure on the Sogakope and the Adomi bridges and open up the area to commerce and development.
Mr Amenowode said the 2.6 million cedis shortfall of the 3.2 million cedis worth of exercise books earmarked for distribution to pupils of basic schools in the region had been released. He said 29,016 pieces of school uniforms are to be sewn in the region in addition to the 18,578 pieces from Accra.
Mr Amenowode advised the people to stop smuggling petroleum products and cocoa to Togo in order to help maximize revenue for development. Mr Frank Amable, the Ketu South District Chief Executive, said 100 communities are being connected to the national electricity grid and potable water.
Mr Sylvester Tornyeava, the Keta Municipal Chief Executive, (appealed to government to speed up action on plans for a defence wall to save Akplortorkor, Dzita and Anyanui areas from total destruction by the sea. During open forums the people asked government to deepen exploration works for the discovery of crude oil in the Keta Basin and the early completion of the Aflao/Akatsi portion of the Aflao-Accra highway. | Daimler Admits Bribing Ghana Military *Source: Public Agenda / 17.06.2010 | Ghana needs $200m to tackle sanitation- Bagbin *Source: Financial Intelligence / 16.06.2010 | WASH United Ghana, a sanitation oriented non-governmental organisation (NGO) was launched in Accra on Friday with a new innovative approach to the promotion of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the country as its core function.
Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alban Sumana Kinsford Bagbin who performed the launch disclosed that Ghana needs at least US$ 200 million per annum over time to tackle head-on sanitation-related problems the country is saddled with.
For this reason, he said the ministry had developed a SWAP (Sector Wide Approach) for the development and execution of its policies for the water, sanitation and hygiene for the country.
“It is now widely accepted that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) are critical measures of a nation’s standard of living, Mr. Bagbin noted, adding, “To have a healthy and prosperous citizenry, you must first have access to safe and clean environment.”
He said although the country would exceed the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for water, that of sanitation could be missed.
He said the government recognizes the important role of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, “not only as a catalyst for socio-economic development, but also as an ingredient for personal well-being.”
“This is why at the ministry we have rededicated ourselves to the rallying battle cry of “ Water to the people, not People to the water,” Hon. A.S.K Bagbin stated.
He said by this guiding principle, the ministry will deliver key benefits such as the prevention of water-borne disease, ensure reduction in mortality and morbidity rates as well as reduce post-natal risks.
He said his ministry would also work at ensuring higher enrolment of especially girls in school by reducing the hours they have to spend looking for water, enhance the dignity of women and their ability to lead as well as bring about an increased productivity by Ghanaian farmers and workforce.
He commended management of WASH United Ghana for the innovative dimension they have brought to the Ministry's commitment in ensuring that Ghanaians had access to adequate water, good sanitation and hygienic services.
“I wish to note however that any campaign aimed at making public and personal hygiene a way of life must necessarily involve sustained public education, not only to create awareness of the problem, but more importantly to go further to change attitudes and negative behaviours regarding public and personal hygiene.
Wash-United whose Ghana launch was timed to coincide with the opening of the 2010 World Cup tournament being hosted by South Africa was established by a German NGO Brot fur die Welt and is operational in about eight African countries.
Ghana Country Coordinator of WASH-United, Rudolf Amega-Etego, observed that about 900 million people lack access to drinking water while 2.5 billion people had no access to improved sanitation.
"Also more than one billion people have absolutely no place to attend nature's call, forcing them to use buckets, plastic bags or nearby bushes and shrubs," he said.
He that preventable diseases caused by polluted water and poor sanitation kills a child under five years every 20 seconds or more than 4,000 daily.
He said that every year, 443 million school attendance days were lost due to sicknesses caused by poor water and sanitation, thereby depriving children the chance of better future.
“Apart from the direct human cost, current crisis in water and sanitation undermines efforts towards overall economic development,” he stated, noting that Ghana had serious challenges of providing adequate water for all rural and urban residents.
| Government abolishes coupon system for fertilizer purchase *Source: GNA / 13.06.2010 | Damongo, (N/R), June 13, GNA - Government has abolished the coupon system used in the purchase of fertilizer by farmers on account of its hi gh overhead and administrative costs.
Other reasons cited include the diversion of the coupons from the intended target beneficiaries as well as the large amount of time spent b y officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture policing the distributi on system.
Government's new policy on the fertilizer program for the year 2010 is therefore among other things to absorb the port handling charges, loading
and transport costs as well as agents' commission and margins to the fertilizer companies. This is to arrive at prices that are affordable to the small-scale farmers. Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture announced the new policy at the launching of the Youth in Agric Block Farm Programme (YIABF P) in Damongo in the West Gonja District on Saturday.
He said government would also adopt an open market sales policy that
ensured that each type of fertilizer was sold at the same price across th e country by the fertilizer companies. Government, he said, would also open up the scheme such that all categories of farmers both small, medium and large scale have equal acces s to fertilizers at uniform prices agreed upon with the fertilizer companie s to guarantee both productivity and output in increases.
Mr Ahwoi said government's fertilizer subsidy programme for the 2010
farming season was 100,000 metric tons at the cost of GH¢32 million, ad ding that this meant that the subsidy to be paid by government at an average r ate of GH¢16 per bag of 50 kilograms down from GH¢26 per bag during the 2 009 farming season.
He said the approved selling prices for all major type of fertilizer s would now therefore be as follows: NPK approved selling price for a bag o f 50 kilograms would be GH¢27.00, with government subsidy at 38.6 per cen t, while urea and sulphate of amonia would be GH¢25 and GH¢18 with gover nment subsidy of 36.6 per cent and 48.5 per cent respectively.
The Agriculture Minister said the operational modalities for the sal e of the fertilizers would ensure that a waybill receipt system would be employed in the distribution and sale while participating fertilizer companies would be allocated quotas of various fertilizers for the farmer s. He said the companies would import, clear the fertilizers from the ports, pay all charges and deliver allocated quantities of the various ty pes of fertilizers to the designated regions and districts for sale to farmer s by their registered sales agents. He said the recommended subsidy per 50 kilograms would be paid after
sales, presentation and reconciliation of the relevant waybills by the companies and authenticated by the Regional and District Directors of agriculture. Mr Ahwoi urged farmers in their own interest to report any dealer selling fertilizer above the announced prices to MOFA officials and appea led to the security agencies to be on the alert and arrest and prosecute any person found smuggling fertilizer across the country's borders. | Monkey terrorises residents - They want MP's intervention *Source: GNA / 12.06.2010 | Koforidua, June 12, GNA - Residents near the taxi rank at Hackman area, at Effiduase, have appealed to the Member of Parliament (MP) to stop their constant harassment by a monkey, bred by one of their neighbours. Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, MP for New Juaben North, is their representative.
The residents, who made the appeal through the Ghana News Agency, (GNA) complained that, the monkey is not properly controlled by its owner, whom they only identified as Paa Willie, so it often breaks loose from its chain to attack them.
The residents claimed that some of them were scratched by the monkey when it attacked them while some women and children who fled the animal fell down and got hurt.
"The monkey attacks, collects and eats food items being sold along the road and even enter people's shops to pick some of their items to eat," they complained.
One of the residents, Ms Lydia Sertodzi, said on one occasion when the monkey went to her house, after chasing her children away, it dipped its hands into some soup she had prepared for her family and they had to throw the soup away.
She said last Wednesday the monkey again went to her house, ate her maize from a bowl and attacked her. Ms Sertodzi said she witnessed the monkey chasing a woman who was carrying some wares and when she fell she sustained bruises all over her legs. She said the owner of the monkey did not take the complaints of the residents seriously. | | China Jiangxi International denies allegation *Source: GNA / 08.06.2010 Workers accuse Chinese company of maltreatment *Source: GNA / 08.06.2010 - Please Scroll Down | The World's Worst Economies - Ghana is 9th *Source: FORBES / 09.06.2010 | Ghana has the world's largest manmade lake and the 1-gigawatt Aksombo Hydroelectric Plant, built to supply electricity to Africa's largest aluminum smelter. But the smelter has been idle since 2009, a casualty of low aluminum prices and persistent electricity shortages that have forced the government to divert the power elsewhere.
Ghana is a typical example of the world's worst-managed economies: It's a country that shouldn't be poor, but it is. The West African nation's gross domestic product per capita fell 9% last year to $621, ranking it 154th out of 184 countries tracked by the International Monetary Fund, below resource-impoverished Haiti. With a $3 billion trade deficit last year and $4.9 billion in external debt, Ghana is struggling to pay its bills even as it sits on some of the world's biggest reserves of gold and bauxite, as well as considerable amounts of offshore oil, which is being developed by Anadarko Petroleum and others.
"Ghana's problems are mostly homegrown," said Peter Allum, the IMF's mission chief to Ghana, in February. Forbes ranks Ghana ninth on our list of the world's worst economies.
As the world focuses on Greece and the rest of the so-called PIIGs--Portugal, Italy and Ireland--in their fight to reverse years of irresponsible fiscal policies, another group of nations make them look positively well-managed. Forbes screened IMF data for countries that have low and declining per-capita GDP, high trade deficits and high inflation, all indicators of bad economic management regardless of the country's inherent wealth.
All have at least one trait in common: Their governments discourage private investment--and economic growth--through policies of crony capitalism, expropriation or arbitrary enforcement of the laws. That makes it hard to generate hard currency to pay off government debt and discourages citizens from investing in education to improve their own economic lot.
"Most of these vulnerably low-income countries are in a trap," said Otaviano Canuto, vice president and head of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network. "The climate is not conducive to investments, not only in factories and agricultural improvements, but in education."
No surprise as to the winner of this race to the bottom: Zimbabwe, a country where the annual inflation rate hit the surreal level of more than 500 billion percent in late 2008 as the government of dictator Robert Mugabe tried to print his way out of his own mistaken economic policies. Before the fever broke last year, Zimbabwe restaurants felt compelled to post signs reminding patrons not to use the nearly worthless dollar bills as toilet paper. Zimbabwe's inflation rate has since dropped to around 5% as the country abandoned its currency and allowed transactions to be conducted in U.S. dollars and other currencies. But it still was forced to import 500,000 tons of maize last year to make up for shortfalls in its once-bountiful agricultural sector.
Ranking fifth on the list is Nicaragua, the only Latin American country to show such a poisonous combination of poverty and stagnant growth. Nicaragua's inflation-adjusted GDP fell 1.5% in 2009 and foreign investors have shunned the country since 1980s socialist President Daniel Ortega returned to office in 2007. Textile manufacturers have closed and European aid agencies balked at supporting the Ortega government after flawed elections in 2008. One reliable source of income in this socialist paradise: remittances from expatriates, which represented 13% of GDP in 2008.
In eighth place is Liberia, another resource-rich nation that has mismanaged its way to poverty through decades of corruption and civil war. The country has been relatively stable since 2005 and may achieve 6% GDP growth this year. But that's a GDP of less than $900 million, with rubber exports the single largest source of foreign currency at $170 million. Registrations of foreign ships brings in another $18 million, hardly enough to make a dent in the country's $3.4 billion debt. Last year commercial creditors agreed to call it even at 3 cents on the dollar, possibly allowing Liberia to begin the cycle of borrowing and defaulting anew. Some economic growth is expected after Arcelor Mittal ( MT - news - people ) begins shipping iron ore from the Yekapi complex in 2011.
Eritrea also has a history of war, which might explain its per-capita GDP of $363, ranking it 176th out of 185 countries and seventh on Forbes' list of the world's worst economies. Bad government plays a role, too. The agricultural sector employs 80% of the workers in this East African state, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, but generates only 12% of GDP. The ruling PFDJ party has "imposed an arbitrary and complex set of regulatory requirements" that discourage foreign and domestic investment, and frequently expropriates property, the U.S. State Department says.
"Poverty by itself is not a sufficient condition for conflict," said Canuto of the World Bank. "But whenever you have a situation of conflict and poverty together, the country is trapped."
Sixth-place Burundi, like many of the countries on this list, has another big problem: bloated government payrolls. The IMF estimates government wages account for 12% of GDP, but 63% of the population remains undernourished. The country, still recovering from years of civil war, needs $5.8 billion in infrastructure but will be hard-pressed to pay for it with just $68 million in exports--most of it coffee--and $275 million in imports last year. A 24% domestic inflation rate doesn't help.
The global financial crisis does offer some signs of hope that perennially mismanaged countries can change their ways. Other than Nicaragua and Venezuela, most of the Latin American nations muddled through the crisis without their historical reliance on hyperinflation and default.
"That had a lot to do with macroeconomic policies," said Canuto, who cited Mexico, Brazil and Uruguay as being particularly well managed. "Latin America has learned a hard lesson on the benefits of cutting this serial default behavior." | Workers accuse Chinese company of maltreatment *Source: GNA / 08.06.2010 | Tadzewu (V/R), Jun 8, GNA - Tension is mounting among the 221 Ghanaian workforce of the China Jiangxi International and Technical Cooperation (CJIC) engaged on the Akatsi-Tadzewu-Dzodze- Akanu road over alleged bad treatment by the Chinese management.
The workers accused management of wrongful and frequent dismissals, under payment, failure to provide them with safety gadgets and refusal to pay compensation to workers who died or suffered permanent disabilities on duty.
They have therefore appealed to the Minister of Roads and Highways to intervene to ensure a peaceful industrial atmosphere on the project. A Spokesperson for the workers told the Ghana News Agency at Tadzewu that one Sisu Iddi, who had his left leg amputated after it was crushed by a pay-loader and the family of James Tuglo, a quarry crasher operator who was milled to death when he fell into the quarry mill, has not been compensated. He alleged that Iddi had been dumped by management at his home town near Tamale.
The Spokesperson said management has also been frustrating attempts by the workers to form a union under the Construction and Building Material Workers Union (CBMWU) of the TUC.
He said they have been working as casual workers and they do not know the hourly rate used in calculating their wages neither were they provided pay slips to enable them cross check the basis for calculating their wages. The spokesperson said the company does not provide any medical package for the workers who have to take care of their own medical problems. Ms Richlove Avedzi, CBMWU Assistant Industrial Relations Officer, said her visit to assist with the formation of a union was fiercely objected to by management who threatened to cause her arrest.
She said last year the CBMWU, under the supervision of Volta Regional Secretary of the TUC Maxwell Akoto-Mireku, held executive elections for the CJIC workers union at Tadzewu and submitted the list to management but management sacked the eight elected executives outright. The Company's Chief Accountant who gave his name as Vincent denied the allegations and alleged that "the TUC and the Union were introducing bad influence among our workers".
He said compensation was paid to Tuglo's family while that of Iddi was being worked out.
The Accountant said all dismissals were due to thefts. | Reshuffle In The Offing *Source: Daily Post / 08.06.2010 | · Ministers Panic and Kickstart lobbying
· Mike Hammah, Hannah on their way out? Official sources have confirmed Daily Post’s earlier publication that the mother of all reshuffles will soon hit the nation.
They have further confirmed reports that the reshuffle may claim Transport Minister Mike Hammah and Trades Minister, Hannah Tetteh, as casualties.
The Transport Minister, according to impeccable sources, has made himself unpopular at the Presidency following a litany of revelations that he has and is still flirting busily with New Patriotic Party moles, an action which may derail the Better Ghana agenda.
In one of the instances cited, Mike Hammah is said to have been strongly lobbying for Mr. Chris Quaye, a die-in-the-wool NPP chap to become Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Company Limited. (GACL) Mr. Quaye, who knows next to nothing about Aviation, was hurriedly appointed by the Kufuor government to the management of the GACL.
Though a damning audit report currently hangs around his neck, Mr. Hammah is said to be moving heaven and earth to ensure this goes through.
The Transport Minister is also linked to another NPP square peg at the GACL, Mr. Yaw Kwakwa. Mr. Kwakwa, who is also handicapped in aviation issues, was flown down from Canada by the erstwhile NPP government to become Deputy Managing Director of GACL without recourse to laid down procedures of employment.
Party insiders told Daily Post the Minister’s flirtations with the NPP are more pronounced when he went for the biological brother of Mrs. Gloria Akuffo, former Minister of Aviation in the Kufuor regime to become his personal driver. In a recent interview with this reporter, Mike Hammah said he did not know that the driver is a brother to Mrs. Akuffo.
“I applied to the Ministry for a driver and they gave him to me. I didn’t know he is NPP,” he said. The Transport Minister however lied when he told this reporter that he has never lobbied for Mr. Quaye for the post of Deputy Managing Director. Daily Postdiscovered the shocker when it stumbled upon a letter written by Mr. Hammah dated 18th September 2009, to the Secretary of the President seeking approval for the appointment of Mr. Quaye as Deputy MD of GACL.
Sources say this litany of flirtations has caused the anger of many party gurus who want him removed for sabotaging the Better Ghana agenda.
With regards to the PSC Tema Shipyard, Mr. Hammah has been partnering the Malaysian saboteurs to prevent a complete government take-over of the entity. The imminent reshuffle has as its heartbeat the major objective to ensure efficiency. Usually reliable sources further disclosed that Trades Minister, Hannah Tetteh, at a recent stakeholders’ meeting in destination inspection at the Castle displayed gross disrespect to the President.
“This particular incident which you also reported in your newspaper has also incensed the Presidency. They cannot continue to harbour her in government to continue on that path,” the source stressed.
With that incidence vividly recalled, party insiders observe that Hannah Tetteh’s cup is full and she may have to find alternative areas of employment. The reshuffle, according to sources, was to be announced in June/July but President Mills is said to be breezing with a shocker as he keeps close to his chest the actual date to announce it.
Ever since Daily Post hit town with the upcoming reshuffle, some Ministers have begun extreme lobbying to keep their jobs.
One Minister is reported to have gone to the President to brief him on the work he has so far done at his Ministry. The Minister presented some policy actions and said that he will need 16 months to implement them.
Other Ministers have sought refuge very senior government officials, trying to win their hearts in order for intense lobbying at the Presidency.
Daily Postintelligence has spotted other Ministers who have constantly been knocking at the doors of NDC power brokers to do their bidding for them.
Daily Postnews hounds have also picked up further indications of moves to scuttle original plans to swap three Ministers.
According to initial plans, a Ministerial diva who has made the NPP hot is to take the place of another Minister as Ghana’s international policy chief negotiator. The latter, a crack lawyer, will then head that domestic unit to supervise and co-ordinate the security agencies in maintaining law and order.
In Mathematical permutations, a recently appointed Minister in charge of internal security will move to that Ministry where everybody believes he’ll give thieving ex-Ministers sleepless nights and have justice delivered to Ghanaians. Stay tuned! | Girl dies after boyfriend inserts concoction to abort six-month pregnancy *Source: GNA / 08.06.2010 | Akim Oda, (E/R) June 8, GNA - A farmer, whose 15-year-old girlfriend died, after he allegedly inserted some concoction in her genitals to terminate the six months-old pregnancy has been remanded in prison custody. Thomas Oppong is facing a provisional murder charge at the Akim Oda Magistrate's Court in the Eastern Region but the court, presided by Mr Albert Owusu Annor, did not take his plea.
He would reappear on July 15.
The body of the deceased, Linda Amoakoa, 15, has since been deposited at the Akim Oda Government Hospital morgue for autopsy. Briefing the court, Police Inspector Kweku Appiah, said on May 26, this year, Oppong, who hails from Akim Abenase, visited Amoakoa at Otwereso where he passed the night and left the following day.
He said three days later, at about 0330 hours, the co-tenants of Amoakoa, heard that she was screaming in her room for help and when asked about the cause, she told them that his boyfriend, Oppong, inserted medicine into her vagina to terminate her pregnancy. But in the course of her narration, Amoakoa suddenly became unconscious and sweated profusely.
She was then rushed to the Otwereso Local Clinic but was referred to the Akim Oda Government Hospital where she died on admission. The GNA's interviews revealed that the parents of Amoakoa were aware of the relationship and that it was Oppong who rented the place for Amoakoa to live. | Five Polyclinics in the north have no doctors *Source: Citifmonline.com / 23.05.2010 | The Northern Region has been saddled with a lot of challenges in terms of the ratio of health personnel especially medical Doctors.
This situation has rendered ineffective five ultra modern polyclinics comprising that of Janga in the West Mamprusi district, Karaga, Kpandai, Tatale and Chereponi.
Dr. Akwesi Twumasi, Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service disclosed this at a get-together organized in honor of 25 fresh medical Doctors who have accepted posting to the region to do their housemanship.
He cited the so-much talked about in-secured nature of the entire northern region as one of the major factors which has giving medical Doctors and other paramedical health personnel the license to refuse postings to the north.
Dr. Twumasi however said the region was endowed with opportunities and advised the new Doctors to stay and work in the region after their two years housemanship.
For his part, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba commended the fresh Doctors for ignoring all reports about the north as being volatile, and accepted postings to the area. He assured them of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council’s commitment to provide them decent accommodation at the Russian Bungalows.
Alhaji A.B Yakubu, Northern Regional Health Promoter partly blamed the media for portraying the region as volatile thus scaring away potential investors and health personnel.
He therefore appealed to the media to highlight the positive development that is springing up in the region to make people around the globe believe that the northern region is the fastest developing area in West-Africa.
Several dignitaries including the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana the Chief Director in charge of Personnel, Dr. Atipoe and Heads of various departments in the health sector graced the occasion. | Nana Addo's Men Want To Kill Me - Former MP *Source: Citifmonline.com / 23.05.2010 | The Communications Director for Alan Kyeremanten’s campaign team in the Ashanti Region and a Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwadaso constituency has alleged that some unknown persons from Nana Addo’s camp are threatening to kill her.
In an interview on the Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday May 20, Hilda Josephine Addo said some persons have threatened to attack and kill her if she continues to campaign against Nana Akufo Addo.
According to Mrs Addo, she received death threats through a phone call from some unknown persons after a debate where she had stated that Nana Addo ‘s failure to win elections against then candidate Mills, would make it impossible for him to win an election against John Mills who is now President.
She said a stern warning was issued to her to refrain from making any arguments on radio which sought to make Nana Addo unpopular. “They called me on phone after the debate on the presidential aspirants and their positions, they said, Hilda are you the person insulting Nana Addo…henceforth if we realize that u are on a radio anywhere, we will come there and attack you and if you say anything again we will kill you”.
She said a report has been made to the police and investigations are ongoing to unravel the unknown people willing to take her life. The allegations against Nana Addo’s camp comes after a cousin of the 2008 presidential candidate who has declared open support for Alan, recently accused some members of Nana Addo’s camp of attempts to murder him.
Nana Akufo Addo and Alan Kyeremanten are perceived to be the front runners for the New Patriotic Party’s Presidential slot. Tensions have been rife between the two camps with some members making some derogatory remarks against each other. The NPP is scheduled to go to congress on August 7 to elect a flagbearer to lead the party to recapture power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). | | Minority Leader chides NDC for failed election promises *Source: GNA / 18.05.2010 | Kumasi, May 18, GNA - Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader, has criticised the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), for failing to deliver on its election campaign promises and worsening the economic situation of Ghanaians.
He said the "better Ghana man tra" has proven to be an empty rhetoric and a big deception.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was addressing a meeting of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Al-Wahda Club, in Kumasi. Al-Wahda, which translates into English as "unity" is made of a group of supporters of the party in the Zongo community. The meeting that was held on the theme: "Picking up the pieces - the way forward for the NPP in 2012 and beyond", discussed ways of strengthening and broadening NPP support base.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the NPP was the only political party that could lift Ghanaians out of poverty and end their suffering. He called on NPP members to unite and work hard to enable the party to win wrest power from the NDC in the 2012 Election. Mr. Ahmed Seidu, Chairman of the Club, said the group sought to strengthen the bond of unity among NPP supporters and work assiduously to return the party to power.
He called for clean campaign from those vying for the party's presidential ticket and their supporters, saying, they should avoid utterances that could create unnecessary tension and acrimony. Mr. Seidu said "We should always remember that our party is in opposition and it is important we stay clear of divisions and ensure that we put our house in order ahead of the general elections." He called on Ghanaians to reject the NDC in 2012 for bad management of the economy. | Ministers Chastised For Lateness To Function * Source: The Ghanaian Times / 18.05.2010 | The late arrival of the Minister of Education and other governmental officials to the prize-giving day ceremony of the Anfoega Senior High School in the Kpando District on Saturday, May 15 incurred the displeasure of the Paramount Chief of Anfoega traditional area, Togbe Tepre Hodo II, who minced no words in chastising them.
The program which should have begun at 9:30 am, started at 1:30pm. The Education Minister, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, the Volta Regional Minister, Joseph Amenowode and the Director of Education, Gabriel Kploanyi, all arrived at 12:11pm. Togbe Hodo castigated government officials and politicians in general for being in the habit of arriving at functions late and thus “distorting the programme and wasting everybody’s time.”
He said that “if the President does not put his foot down to check these attitudes of his ministers and other politicians; they would derail his ‘Better Ghana’ agenda.” Togbe Hodo said “the time has come for politicians to call a spade a spade and not a big spoon, because Ghanaians can no longer be taken for granted by politicians.
He cautioned that if things continued to be done the same way as was done in past, then the Better Ghana agenda that Ghanaians had been promised and were yeaning for would elude them. “We are all talking about leadership and if our politicians continue this way, what type of signals are they sending to the youth? “My chiefs and I disapprove of late start of functions and especially so when no reasons are assigned for the lateness,” the paramount chief said.
He cautioned politicians not to take traditional authorities for granted or they would pay dearly for it. Both the Minister of Education and the Regional Minister apologized to the guests. Mr. Tettey-Enyo said they could not have absented themselves from the function and had to attend at all cost. He said it was not their intention to inconvenience traditional authorities and inconvenience traditional authorities and other dignitaries and invited guests.
Mr. Amenowode said he would not attempt an explanation for arriving late. The occasion which was on the theme: “45-yerars of Community Education. Challenges and the way forward,” was used on commission a bus, a computer laboratory and girls hostel. Mrs. Margaret Krampah, the headmistress of the school, appealed for a boy’s dormitory, administration block, a dinning hall complex, classrooms and staff bungalows to enhance academic work.
Mr. Peter Hayibor, chairman of the Board of Governors, expressed concern about the school’s low enrolment, describing it as a setback in the human resource development of the area and appealed to stakeholders in education to save the situation. | | Spider’s Man Gunned Down *Source : Daily Guide / 17.05.2010 | | After evading the police for several years, Mathias Kwesi Tsegah, an accomplice of one-time Ghana’s most notorious and wanted armed robber, the late John Kofi Fiagbdezi alias Spider, has been killed. The police have thus crushed Spider’s empire, with the death of the last person on the wanted list, and the arrest, last week, of another notorious member of the Spider web, David Agbanyo. Mathias Kwesi Tsegah was killed at Ashongman Estates last Friday after his attempt to rob a certain Joseph Kingsley Hayford, together with Kofi Agbowu, 29 an accomplice. Mathias and his accomplice, Kofi Agbowu, robbed the victim of GH¢12, 000 and his latest Toyota Camry, shooting him in an ensuing struggle. The armed robber was however attacked by an irate mob when he ran short of bullets, though his two US-made pistols could load up to 16 rounds of ammunition. Mathias was lynched while his accomplice continued to fire shots as he ran into a nearby bush. Narrating the incident to DAILY GUIDE, the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Rose Bio-Atinga indicated that around 2:10pm, Mathias Kwesi Tsegah attacked and shot one Joseph Kingsley Hayford. She said in the process, the robbers who had three US-made pistols which could load up to 16 rounds of ammunition each, also bolted with an amount of GH¢12,000 belonging to the victim and his latest Toyota Camry saloon car with registration number GE 1170. “A few meters away after moving the car, the vehicle engine automatically ceased and went into a ditch.” She noted that at this point, the robbers abandoned the car and attempted to snatch a lady’s car amid firing of gunshots. “The sound of the pistols attracted a mob to the scene, but the mob could not pursue them because of the pistols that they were holding.” The Police Commander noted that the mob, on realizing that Mathias Tsegah had run out of bullets, gave him a hot chase and grabbed him. DCOP Rose Bio-Atenga said a patriotic citizen at the same time also called the police, and swiftly, a team of police personnel from the Accra Regional Police command and the Kwabenya Police respectively went to the scene. The Regional Commander disclosed that when the police got to the scene, the mob had already killed Mathias Tsegah, while his accomplice had ran into a nearby bush. “The police, with the assistance of the mob, combed the whole bush and managed to shoot the left leg of Kofi Agbowu, a native of Adaklu in the Volta Region, before he was over-powered”. She noted that the lynched robber was later identified as Mathias Kwesi Tsegah, who had been on the police wanted list for some time and on whom a ransom of GH¢4000 had been placed. The notorious robber, an accomplice of Spider who was also gunned down by the police a month ago after attacking a Ghanaian diplomat, was then put on police radar. Kofi Agbowu, Tsegah’s accomplice, the Regional Commander noted, also died shortly on arrival at the Police Hospital. She mentioned that the three pistols used by the suspected robbers had been retrieved. It would be recalled that on March 1, 2010, Mathias Kwesi Tsegah, together with the late Spider, stormed the residence of Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Alhaji Baba Kamara, at West Legon in Accra. The armed robbers ransacked the High Commissioner’s house and took some foreign currencies and jewellery belonging to his wife. Mathias managed to escape with gunshot wounds and the booty when the police shot Spider dead. The police later found that Spider’s two pistols could load up to 26 rounds of ammunition while Mathias’ could load up to 16 rounds. Until his death last Friday, Mathias, a right-hand man of Spider, was said to have been the assistant ringleader of a group of notorious armed robbers who operated on the Accra, Kumasi and the Volta region highways. Mathias and Spider were said to be part of the group that robbed a Ghanaian woman from the United States of an amount of $64000, with their accomplices, Aaron and David Agbanyo, now in police custody. David was grabbed last week from a hideout after some robbery incidents. In 2008, together with Spider, they robbed a foreigner of a Pathfinder Cross Country vehicle and other valuables whilst in early 2009, the two were said to have also robbed a forex bureau of some huge amounts of money near the St John’s Senior High School in Achimota, Accra. Furthermore, they were believed to have been part of a car snatching syndicate and introduced a number of people to robbery. During the 2009 Yam Festival in Ho, Spider and Mathias were said to have violently robbed and shot a driver in the leg and snatched his RAV4 vehicle. But their accomplices and some clearing agents were arrested when they attempted to sell the vehicle. They were later said to have robbed a white man. By Linda Tenyah | Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah exhibited in Northern Region / * Source: GNA / 17.05.2010 | Tamale, May 17, GNA - The Ministry of Chieftaincy and National Culture, on Monday opened an exhibition in Tamale to showcase the works and achievement of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The exhibition, which was part of the centenary celebration of the birth of Ghana's first president and under the auspices of the Centre for National Culture targeted mainly the youth. Some of the pictures exhibited included; Dr. Nkrumah inaugurating the Akosombo Dam in 1966, Dr. Nkrumah and his first cabinet, Dr. Nkrumah and Queen Elizabeth during her visit to Ghana in 1961. The exhibition was witnessed by a number of individuals and groups including students.
Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister in a speech read on his behalf, called on the youth to rekindle the spirit of patriotism and selflessness by emulating the nationalistic fervour of Dr. Nkrumah and his exemplary leadership, to propel the Better Ghana Agenda. He urged them to be committed to the service of the nation beyond material possessions and power gratification. Mr. Mabengba said the African liberation struggles of Dr. Nkrumah run through the length and breadth of the continent, adding: "He laid the foundation for the infrastructural and architectural development of the country."
Dulug-Lana Ebenezer Adams who was the first Northern Regional Minister during Nkrumah's regime noted that the first president was a sharing and listening person who took his time to understand people and share their concerns. He commended the government for taken the initiative to celebrate the legendary leader.
Some of the students at the exhibition who attended the exhibition told the Ghana News Agency that if the ideals, plans, and visionary ideology of Dr. Nkrumah had been followed by successive governments, the country would have been part of the first world nations. | NDC Is Broke – Asiedu Nketia / * Source: Daily Guide / 14.05.2010 | The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has stated that the ruling party is currently facing financial difficulties.
The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi West said the situation was so devastating that various party programmes had been adversely affected. General Mosquito, as he is affectionately called told Angel FM in Kumasi on Wednesday morning that the NDC’s ongoing outreach programme was one project affected by the lack of funds.
He explained that the initiative was commendable because it was helping the Party’s hierarchy to have close interaction with its foot soldiers to listen to their concerns and disseminate information about what the government was doing for them. “This initiative from all intents and purposes is laudable but you know it requires money before the executive can travel the length and breadth of the country to meet with foot soldiers, General Mosquito emphasized.
According to him, if the NDC had started the outreach programme long ago, most of the current agitations by the foot soldiers would not have occurred because they would have been fed with the right information for them to appreciate government’s work. He said the Party was currently cash-trapped and unable to sponsor intended programs because of an inability to mobilize funds from members. As usual the NDC General Secretary attributed this to what he described as the poor state of the economy.
He argued that because the economy was not on a sound footing, members of the ruling party were not getting enough money in their pockets to enable them donate to the Party. “Because of the poor economy we inherited, we were forced to cut down expenditure as part of austerity measures geared towards resurrecting the ailing economy, so there is not much money in the system for our members to get hold onto in order to be able to donate to the Party,” he stressed.
Commenting on the current spate of the dismissals of some Ministers and other government functionaries, General Mosquito stated that due diligence was followed in each case. Insisting that President Mills had never been pressured by foot solders or party executives to dismiss any member of his government, the NDC general Secretary said the process was effected transparently.
He disclosed that unlike the ex-President Rawlings regime where government officials were arbitrarily sacked, government functionaries in the Mills administration are given fair opportunity to defend charges against them before they are fired. “Every member of our government who has been sacked cannot look God in the eye and say he was not given an opportunity to react to allegations preferred against him or her before he or she was sacked.”
He explained that in the case of the dismissed Upper West Regional Minister, Mahamud Khalid, the presidency gave him enough time to prove that the allegation leveled against him were frivolous. “I can tell you that he was summoned to the Castle, where I was present and the President told him that he wanted to monitor him for a month to see for himself whether the accusations against him were genuine or not,” General Mosquito stated.
He said President Mills finally decided to crack the whip of the Regional Minister when he failed to prove that the allegations being championed against him were unfounded. According to the NDC General Secretary, the violent incident which preceded the dismissal of Mahamud Khalid was just unfortunate a mere coincidence as the decision had already been taken. | Woman dies in BNI premises / * Source: GNA / 14.05.2010 | Accra, May 14, GNA - The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) on Friday confirmed the death of a 27-year-old woman, who was invited by the security agency to assist in an investigation on Thursday May 13, 2010. A statement issued in Accra and signed by the Director of BNI said the woman, who arrived at their premises in the company of her husband, collapsed shortly before she met with investigators.
Details made available by the BNI explained that, the woman was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital, in the company of her husband, where she died, after some attempts to resuscitate her.
"The woman was invited to assist them with information, when the tragic incident occurred," the statement said. Meanwhile, the BNI has sent a message of condolence to the bereaved family. | New GH¢2 banknote comes into circulation / * Source: GNA / 14.05.2010 | Accra, May 14, GNA - The new GH¢2 banknote came into circulation on Friday after Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, cashed the first cheque at a short ceremony in Accra. The GH¢2 denomination has been introduced in response to the need for an intermediary banknote between the GH¢1 and GH¢5 banknotes. Mr Amissah-Arthur said the bank was pursuing a clean note policy and asked Ghanaians to handle the notes in a manner to enhance their life span to save the country the frequency and associated cost of printing large volumes of banknotes. He asked people in the rural areas to take careful look at the notes and always feel them when they had been given so as not to be deceived by unscrupulous people. Mr Amissah-Arthur said the bank would pursue the use of different portraits of the country's celebrities to identify various denominations to recognise departed national heroes who positively impacted on the lives of Ghanaians.
The GH¢2 banknote bears the portrait of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's First President, to commemorate the centenary celebration of his birth. The reverse of the banknote depicts the old and new Parliament buildings, signifying Ghana's deepening democracy. The introductory issue also has the commemorative text "Centenary of the Birth of Dr Kwame Nkrumah," but this text would be removed from subsequent prints. The new banknote also came with enhanced security features such as blind recognition marks with high tactility for the blind and visually impaired.. | Market women threaten nude demo on Osu Castle / * Source: Myjoyonline / 14.05.2010 | Traders at Novotel hotel area here in Accra are threatening to march naked to the Castle.
Their threat follows a final ejection notice from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to relocate them to the Odawna shopping mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
The traders numbering over 2,000 have resisted earlier attempts, saying the market at Odawna is too small to accommodate them all.
On Wednesday, the city authorities met and gave them up to Sunday to relocate or face forceful ejection.
The Public Relations Officer of the AMA James Dorgbetor told Joy News the decision to relocate them was taken after thorough deliberations by a committee.
He said the AMA has repeatedly treated the issue with a human face but has realized that the traders are taking the AMA for granted.
The traders however are vowing to resist the ejection, with some of them telling Joy News, sacking them from the park amounts to conscripting them into prostitution for daily bread and their naked demonstration to the Castle will afford the decision makers to see them naked since that is what they are aiming at. | Minority Leader, four ex-ministers to refund GH¢94,000 / * Source:The New Crusading Guide / 13.05.2010 | Five ex-ministers in the Kufuor administration and the current Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, have been ordered to refund a total of GH¢94,080 as overpayment made to them in their ex-gratia computation.
The directive, which follows the Auditor-General's Report on the Verification of Payments of emoluments for ex-ministers and Members of Parliament (MPs), drew an angry reaction from the Minority Leader when the Daily Graphic contacted him for a response.
He dismissed the news as "a childish prank by the NDC government to create disaffection for members of the NPP".
Those ordered to refund the money are Mr Christopher Addae, GH¢ 17,936; Mr Samuel Kweku Obodai, GH¢17,936; Mr Kyei-Bonsu GH¢20,848; Mr Ernest Debrah, GH¢19,424, and Mr Kofi Osei Ameyaw, GH¢ 17,936.
It follows a request by the Office of the President, by a letter dated March 29, 2010, requesting the Auditor-General to conduct an audit verification of Emoluments for Ex-Ministers and MPs to advise on whether there were shortfalls in payments made by the Office of the President, whether there were any overpayments by Parliament and whether there was a basis for reconciliation of the various payments.
Reacting to the Auditor-General's finding, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu expressed surprise that the affected persons had not been notified but added that it would be interesting to know the basis of the said computation, adding, "We will react appropriately when the details are made available to us."
The Auditor-General, after carrying out the requested verification, submitted that there were no shortfalls in payments made by the Office of the President but that there were some under and over-payments made by Parliament.
That was also dismissed by the Minority Leader, who insisted that each MP was paid about the same amount of gratuity and wondered how "only the five of us could have been overpaid".
"The purpose of this prank is obvious but this cannot intimidate us," he added.
It would be recalled that President John Evans Atta Mills, after the submission of the Ishmael Yamson Report on the emoluments of Article 71 office holders, requested that payments be made to a category of holders who served between January 7, 2005 and January 6, 2009.
It made the categorisation of distribution as follows - four months' consolidated salary for each completed year of service or pro rata to calculate the end-of-service benefit (ESB), installation grant of one month's consolidated salary, and resettlement grant of one month's consolidated salary for each completed year of service.
That request was conveyed to Parliament by a letter dated November 5,2009.
According to the audit report, payments were made to ministers who were not MPs, saying those were paid all their benefits by the Office of the President.
It said ministers who were MPs were paid their ex-gratia by Parliament and their installation and resettlement grants by the Office of the President, while MPs who were not ministers collected their ESB and installation and resettlement grants from Parliament.
The report said the Office of the President paid the ESB and installation and resettlement grants to the 43 ministers who were not MPs, adding that they received the full amounts as calculated by the Office of the President based on the presidential directive.
It said the monthly salaries used for the computation of the ESB of 59 ministers were less than their approved monthly consolidated salaries, thereby resulting in total under-payment of GH¢411,632 being made to 54 of the 59 ministers.
It said the names of five of the 59 ex-ministers appeared again on the list paid by Parliament, although they had had their installation and resettlement grants paid by the Office of the President, stressing that by "this repetition, the five
ex-ministers have been paid the installation and resettlement grant twice".
In respect of the installation and resettlement grant, it said after setting off the under-payments against the over-payments, GH¢648, 710 had been paid to 176 MPs who were not ministers.
"The under-payment and overpayment by Parliament were as a result of the computations not going through any audit verification before being submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for the release of funds for the payment," the report said. | Murder of Ya-Na: Arrest Kufuor and Akufo-Addo / * Source:The New Crusading Guide / 05.05.2010 | A group calling itself Gubdanda Association from the Northern Region has called on the ruling government to cause the immediate arrest of former President John Agyekum Kufuor and the 2008 flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, who served as the Attorney-General in the erstwhile NPP government.
According to the group, former President Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo are responsible for the murder of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II and all the others who perished with him during the attack on the Gbewaa Palace in the region eight years ago.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, the spokesperson of the association, Alhaji Ibrahim Adams, alleged that former President Kufuor’s “hand are dripping with blood of the late Ya-Na’s death which occurred in March 2002.” He asserted that “former President Kufuor must be held to account for breaching his presidential oath in which he swore, among other things, to dedicate himself to the service and well-being of the people of the country to do the right to all manner of persons.
Alhaji Ibrahim, who sounded somewhat worried over the death of the Ya-Na, pointed out that Kufuor, who swore with a Bible in his right hand used the name of God in vein and lied to the good people of the country and Dagbon in particular, whiles he was aware of the conflicts at the Northern part of the country.
On Nana Akufo-Addo’s alleged role, Alhaji Ibrahim stressed that his (Nana Akufo-Addo’s) conduct, “… in the investigations into the murder of Ya-Na Yakubu II, suggests strongly that he was bent on going to extreme lengths to subvert the cause of justice. His office even extended its interference to the domain of the media where it manipulated some aspects of the news coverage of the proceedings at the Wuaku Commission.
Commenting on the work of the Wuaku Commission which was set up to investigate the matter, the spokesperson indicated that the Commission was a conspiracy to prevent the truth from being exposed, instead of adhering to its term of reference which were subjected to the death of the Ya-Na. According to Alhaji Ibrahim, the Wuaku Commission succeeded in misrepresenting the issue that the tragic events in Yendi were the result of chieftaincy dispute between the Abudu’s and the Andanis.
“All other alternative scenarios such as investigations into the criminal nature of the events were foreclosed. We would like to state emphatically that what happened in Yendi was murder, the brutal murder of the King of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu II; there was no chieftaincy dispute,” he underscored. The spokesperson continued that former President Kufuor had earlier on admitted on nationwide broadcast that the carnage in Yendi was a ‘heinous crime” and promised to bring the law to bear on the criminals and gangs responsible for the dastardly act.
To buttress this point, he said the Wuaku Commission described the act as war. “If indeed it was a war, as the Wuaku Commission would want the whole world to believe, then why did it prefer murder charges on Yidana Sugri and Iddrisu Jahinfo?” he queried.
Ibrahim noted that evidence gathered by the Commission (which he described as “discredited’ commission) clearly confirmed that the armed attack was concentrated on the Palace of the late Ya-Na, and all those killed were members of his retinue and household. “Not a single assailant was killed,” he observed.
He stated that lawyers at the Commission had raised doubts about the validity of the constitutional instrument which allowed the establishment of the Wuaku Commission. He said the doubts were raised based on the fact that the instrument was not laid before Parliament as required by Article 11, Clause 7 of the 1992 Constitution. | Vice President advises vandals against violence / * Source:GNA / 05.05.2010 | Accra, May 5, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday advised students of Commonwealth Hall of University of Ghana to use dialogue and negotiations to solve their grievances with the university authorities and avoid violence on campus.
"Vandalism is not anarchism, it is a tradition that has over the years promoted accountability in the university and I will urge you to postpone your demonstrations as the old vandals and your current leadership dialogued with the university authorities to redress your issues," he said. Vice President Mahama gave the advice when leadership of Commonwealth Junior Common Room (JCR) members called on him in his office to lay bare their grievances against closing down of the Hall to be converted into a mixed post-graduate hall later.
The Vice President, an old vandal, said he was shocked about the developments on campus adding: "I am sure that negotiations the old vandals are going to hold with the university authorities would yield dividends". He urged them to present their petition to Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Information for response and reactions from the Presidency.
Mr. Wonder Madjido, President of National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) said the decision to convert Commonwealth Hall into a mixed Post-Graduate Hall had the intention of curtailing powers of students all over the country and should therefore be nib in the bud. He said over 3,000 students would be rendered "homeless" if the Hall was allowed to be closed down for re-designing as a mixed post-graduate hall and called for government intervention before it went off-hand. Mr Joshua Larry, President of Commonwealth Hall JCR said they would use negotiations, demonstrations and other acceptable means to ensure that the decisions of university authorities were nullified.
There has been strained relationship with students of Commonwealth Hall of University of Ghana since the authorities announced that it would be closed down and later converted into a mixed post-graduate hall. While the students see it as a means of curtailing their powers, university authorities think it is part of their reform programmes on campus and should therefore be accepted. | About four million Ghanaians are Hepatitis B positive / * Source:GNA / 01.05.2010 | Accra, April 30, GNA - Hepatitis B, a chronic and deadly disease, is said to be fast-spreading among Ghanaians, with about four million people currently affected by the disease.
The figure, which is sourced from the Ghana Health Service report in 2009, is an increase on the rate of infection recorded in 2005 which stood at a ratio of 8:1 as against 6:1 now.
On the world stage, 350 million people are carrying the virus out of which one million deaths are recorded annually.
Ms Abigail Kumah, a private Laboratory Technologist announced this at the launch of a campaign in Accra to create awareness on the disease and for people to adopt responsible lifestyles to prevent its spread.
The campaign spearheaded by the Eagles Alliance Club's (EAC), is being promoted by Ms Jennifer Asabere, a 26 year-old Accountancy Graduate of the Accra Polytechnic, who intends to walk from Accra to Kumasi, a distance of 270-kilometres to create awareness on Hepatitis B and C.
The walk is also to encourage individuals to undergo a test to know their status and get treated if needed. Ms Asabere starts the journey, which would last for 15 days, from May 5, 2010 where she is expected to hold interactions on the disease with District Chief Executives, Health Directors, students and people along th= e way. Ms Kumah, who is also a member of the EAC, said the hepatitis B infection was on the rise because of the relatively low level of knowledge on its existence and mode of acquiring it. Hepatitis B, which is a serious form of liver inflammation, is acquired through the use of un-sterilized infected sharp objects such as barbering, tattooing and ear-piercing equipment, sexual intercourse with and kissing of infected person, body contact with other person's body fluid such as sweat among other things.
Ms Kumah said the disease was more dangerous than HIV/AIDS because it killed much quicker adding that some of its modes of transmission were ju= st very difficult to evade. She said due to the dangerous nature, there was the need to increase awareness on its existence as was done for AIDS, malaria and others and educate the people on ways to avoid contracting it so as to prevent its spread.
Ms Asabere, also a member of the EAC, said she decided to embark on the initiative because of the devastation the disease was causing families and also to demonstrate the seriousness she attached to fighting the dreadful disease. She said the subject matter of her campaign was "prevention, diagnosis and treatment" and that it would focus on children because there would bea reduction in cases if children in Ghana were immunized against the disease. She said the campaign was estimated to cost GH¢13,000 and appealed to corporate organizations and individuals to assist her with financial and other resources to ensure its success. Mr Ernest Gyimah, Executive Director of EAC, noted that though hepatitis B posed a serious threat to society, most people in the rural areas were not aware of its existence. Mr Gyimah said in view of this, EAC would continue to adopt strategies to increase awareness on the disease especially among rural folks. EAC is a Non Governmental Organization, which educates the youth on the moral implications of their lifestyles to enable them to lead responsible lives. | NPP asks Upper East Regional Minister to step aside / * Source:GNA / 12.04.2010 | Bolgatanga, April 12, GNA - The New Patriotic Party(NPP) has called on the Executive, to ask the Upper East Regional Minister, to step aside to facilitate the work of the committee set up to investigate acts of malfeasance against him.
Government has set up a committee to investigate allegations that Mr. Mark Woyongo and the Regional Co-ordinating Council awarded contracts without following the due process.
A statement issued by the spokespersons of the Communications Group of the NPP in the region; Mr. Randy Agana and Mr. Bediako Ahmed, explained that the continuous stay in office of the Minister while the investigations are on-going may compromise the process. It said the case was a test case of government's resolve to fight against corruption in the public service.
The group also called for the immediate investigations into claims by the Regional Minister that one Clement Akapami, a contractor contributed GHc50, 000 to the National Democratic Congress campaign in 2008.
The statement said if the allegation was found to be true then it contravened section 20 of the Political Party Law, which forbids individuals from contributing such huge sums of money towards a political party. | Abudu Youth Seizes Yendi Market / * Source:Citifmonline / 11.04.2010 | | Following the arrest of Mba Dugu Iddi Alhassan, caretaker of the regent of Abudu gate and forty others, some irate Abudu youth in retaliation on Sunday 11 held traders at the Yendi market hostage, beat them mercilessly and locked up their stores. ... | Learn to forgive one another - Veep / * Source: GNA / 04.04.2010 | Ministry of tourism is to diversify and add value to tourist products / * Source: GNA / 04.04.2010 | Togbe Afede calls for highways to link regional and district capitals / * GNA / 04.04.2010 | | Board undertaking restoration works on Fort Apollonia at Beyin / * GNA / 04.04.2010 | | Christians in Ghana mark Easter / * GNA / 04.04.2010 | | Christians asked to ensure peace and love / * GNA / 04.04.2010 | | Youth agitations could disturb focus of government-Lodonu / * GNA / 04.04.2010 | | Consumers question legitimacy of tariff increases / * GNA / 04.04.2010 | 7 journalists narrowly escape lynching by NDC youth / * Source: Myjoyonline / 02.04.2010 | | Six die in accident at Ntoaso / * Source: GNA / 02.04.2010 | Minister in Trouble Over GH¢88bn Fishy Contracts / * Source: Daily Guide / 30.03.2010 | SUPPORTERS OF the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper East Region are at the heels of the Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo, accusing him of nepotism and fraudulently awarding juicy contracts to relatives and cronies without going through the necessary tendering and procurement procedures.
The angry NDC faithful, DAILY GUIDE gathered, are also calling for the regional minister’s immediate removal for undermining party unity and the prospects of the Atta Mills-led administration in the next general elections with divide and rule tactics, adding that the minister’s continued presence in the region will bring the ruling party into disrepute and cause serious embarrassment to the government of Prof. Atta Mills.
The agitated supporters, DAILY GUIDE learnt, have gone to file a legal writ against Mr. Woyongo in a Bolgatanga High Court for the alleged fishy contracts to be set aside and to restrain the minister from awarding contracts to cronies, including an alleged friend of Vice President John Mahama.
The minister claimed the friend had contributed to the campaign chest of the vice president.
Five of the juicy contracts for the supply of 10,000 dual desks, 4000 bunk beds for Upper East schools and construction of a wall at Bolga Senior High School to the tune of ¢46.96 billion or GH¢4,696,416.73, were awarded to three different companies, all owned by one Clement Akapani, the alleged friend of Vice President Mahama.
DAILY GUIDE further learnt that after NDC supporters accused Mr. Woyongo of giving many contracts to one person while leaving out other party loyalists, the minister reportedly stunned a group of journalists by claiming that the man had been favoured because he contributed about ¢1billion to Vice President Mahama’s campaign.
However, the regional minister has denied the allegations saying they are coming from a few disgruntled party supporters.
In a telephone interview with DAILY GUIDE, Mr. Woyongo said the allegations are being made by people who have contested elections of the party in the region and lost, asking DAILY GUIDE to treat them with contempt.
On the accusation that he awarded contracts to his cronies, Mr. Woyongo said it was a wild goose chase by his opponents as he did not do anything unlawful.
He however admitted awarding contracts to Mr. Clement Akapani because the man, according to Woyongo, contributed ¢500 million (GH¢50,000) to the vice president’s campaign, and not ¢1billion as is being bandied about.
He asked DAILY GUIDE: “Is it wrong to give contracts to somebody who has contributed to our party?”
According to him, he was not directly involved in the award of the contracts, pushing the burden onto the head of a certain Sagito Issakah who signed for the approval of the contracts on behalf of the Secretary of the Regional Entity Committee.
Mr. Woyongo, the NDC supporters pointed out, had been embroiled in one controversy after another, starting from his appearance before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting where he was quizzed on three different occasions over the procurement of some equipment for his radio station, Diamond FM, in Tamale.
Documents available to DAILY GUIDE indicate a possible complicity on the part of Mr. Woyongo in breach of procurement laws, as he is said to have wrongfully awarded contracts to his ‘buddies’ to the tune of ¢88 billion or GH¢8.8 million before invitations for tender.
Correspondences indicated that some of the contracts were approved or awarded on February 26 2010, whilst invitation for tenders described as National Competitive Tender for the same contracts was published in the Ghanaian Times on March 3 and 6 2010, apparently violating the Public Procurement Act, (Act 663) 2003.
One of the contracts for the building of a two-storey girls’ dormitory at Bongo Senior High School at the cost of GH¢1,127,167.15 or ¢11 billion went to Messrs VIYAHS Enterprises Limited, a company which DAILY GUIDE learnt is owned by Victor Yahaya, the Regional Minister’s nephew.
Mr. Yahaya is also the Upper East Regional Vice Chairman of the NDC, and was elected through alleged manipulation of the Regional Minister.
Other contracts were awarded to Messrs Kambo Company Ltd, owned by Bolnaba Mumuni, NDC Regional Chairman, to supply 5,000 dual desks and 2,000 bunk beds at a contract price of GH¢975,000.00; and Messrs Amaland Company Ltd for the construction of a two-storey girls’ dormitory at Awe Senior High School at the price of GH¢1,131,770.09.
The rest were awarded to Messrs Sunlu Ghana Ltd for the rehabilitation of a three-storey boys’ dormitory at Bawku Technical Institute and the construction of a wall for Bolga Poly at the contract sum of GH¢906,411.47.
Apart from the award of the contracts to alleged cronies, which has incurred the wrath of Upper East NDC supporters, Mr. Woyongo is also alleged by party supporters to have instigated various members of the party to write letters to its national leadership and the presidency, seeking to destroy the reputation of long-standing, dedicated and loyal NDC members who are languishing in poverty and lack jobs. | GCB Sacked 251 Workers / * Source: GNA / 30.03.2010 | The state-owned Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) terminated the appointment of 251 employees last year to reposition itself in the industry.
An annual report, which was issued by the bank for the last fiscal year, revealed that total benefits paid to the affected employees amounted to GH¢4,521,708 compared to GH¢9,382,240 paid in 2008. GCB also experienced a whopping 50 percent drop in profit in 2009 compared to the previous year.
Profit after tax stood at GH¢18.8 million which was 50 percent below the 2008 figure of GH¢37.6 million.
The Board Chairman of GCB, Pryce Kojo Thompson, told shareholders in Accra last Friday that the dip in profit was largely due to the indebtedness of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).“The reduction in profit-after-tax was due largely to the relatively higher provision made against loans and advances to companies in the downstream oil sector.
Abnormal increase in the international prices of crude oil and refined petroleum products in 2009 presented serious challenges to the country’s downstream oil sector.
Traditionally, your bank (GCB) has been the main financier to the country’s oil sector, especially TOR.
“Despite the reduced profits, the board still deems it fit to propose a dividend of GHp3.56 per share, amounting to GH¢9.4 million compared with GH¢15.9 million in the previous year,” the statement said.
TOR’s debt is estimated to range somewhere between 600 and GH¢900 million. The percentage of non-performing loans to gross loans and advances stood at 19 percent, significantly higher than the previous year’s figure of 2 percent.
The bank’s net operating income also declined from the previous year’s figure by some seven percent to GH¢165.5 million. Total operating expenses however went up by 18 percent to GH¢140.7 million. Although the bank is still licking its wounds over the loss, Mr Thompson said there would be better times.
“The prospects for growth of the Ghanaian economy are bright despite the challenges in the international economy.
This is buttressed by the economic stabilization and growth agenda set by the government, coupled with the imminent commercial production of oil in the latter part of the year,” Mr Thompson said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is negotiating final terms of a debt restructuring facility to save the TOR.
The restructuring would also ensure that TOR’s indebtedness to the GCB is cleared.
Also contained in the financial statement is the gross loans and advances of the bank which increased to GH¢1,319 million as at the end of December, 2009 from GH¢1,103.8 million in 2008, representing a rise of 19.5 percent.The significant increase was attributed to increases in overdrafts and term loans, particularly to the petroleum sector.
Its interest income increased from GH¢ 181.7 million in 2008 to GH¢ 266.0 million in 2009, representing a growth of GH¢ 84.3 or 46.4 per cent.
The bank was able to achieve this feat as a result of competitive pricing of its assets due to higher outstanding exposure to the petroleum sector as well as its ability to introduce innovative products and services onto the market.
Shareholders’ funds stood at GH¢ 207.7 million as at the end of 2008, but declined to GH¢ 203.4 million in 2009, registering a drop of GH¢4.3 million or 2.1 percent. The total assets of GCB rose to GH¢1,922.7 million in 2009 from GH¢1,650.2 million in 2008, representing a growth of GH¢272.0 million or 16.5 percent.
Total deposits of the bank increased from GH¢1,030.1 million to GH¢1,259.5 million in 2009, representing a growth of GH¢229.4 million or 22.3 percent.
As a responsible corporate citizen, the bank allocates a reasonable amount of funds annually to support critical areas of the Ghanaian society such as education, health, sports and the environment. The bank committed GH¢3 million in 2009 to attain these objectives. | Bawku Naba condemns acts by Mamprusis during Damba Festival / * Source: GNA / 30.03.2010 | Bawku, March 30, GNA - The Paramount Chief of Bawku Traditional Area, Naba Asigri Abugragu Azoka 11, and his elders have condemned acts by the Mamprusis in Bawku during the recent Damba Festival that was celebrated on March 20. He said this in a statement read by his spokesman, Mr Thomas Abilla at Bawku. Naba Asigri Abugragu Azoka said some of the exhibits put up by the Mamprusis during the celebration had come into his possession in the form of T-Shirts and video cassettes depicting crowds dancing and some outrageous speeches made by Alhaji Akarlifa, the leader of the Mamprusis.
He said the effigy and list of former chiefs of Bawku printed on the T- Shirts, naming them as the original Chiefs who had ruled Bawku, was a cause of provocation to the people of Bawku and could have led to violence.
The chief said there was a sudden increase in violent acts and occasional gun shots in Bawku and its environs resulting in some people getting injured. MORENSOC 005 Social Condemnation Bawku 2 Bawku Naba Asigri Abugragu Azoka said, "As Bawku Naba, I won my position through the legal process in 2003 at the Supreme Court as my late father did in 1957. I am fully accepted and respected by my chiefs and people throughout the Bawku Traditional Area and by all communities. The clandestine or backdoor manoeuvres to re-open or ridicule the decision of the courts on the old Bawku chieftaincy dispute cannot succeed in reversing my position as Bawku Naba."
He said the Damba festival was celebrated by Dagombas, Walas and other ethnic groups in the northern regions and was meant to renew allegiance to the traditional leaders of the respective areas and that it was the chiefs who authorized the celebration of the festival. Naba Asigri Abugragu Azoka said in the case of the Damba Festival in the Bawku Municipality, he was not informed about the celebration by the Mamprusis, neither was the Municipal Chief Executive informed.
He said it was the normal and expected practice for any group of people intending to celebrate a festival to inform the chief about it and also invite other leaders to the function, saying that he had always invited all the leaders and people of the ethnic groups in Bawku to the Samanpiid Festival of the Kusasis. The Paramount chief said the T-shirts must be withdrawn for the sake of peace and appealed to his chiefs and people to be calm and law-abiding and give peace a chance for Bawku to develop since their common enemies are poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease. | Government is on course to creating jobs and wealth - Mr Tia / * Source: GNA / 27.03.2010 | Mampong (Ash), March 27, GNA - Mr John Akologu Tia, Minister of Information, has said government was on course to achieving its goal of turning the economy around to create jobs and wealth for the people. He said already inflation was on the decline with the economy enjoying stability.
The Information Minister said this when he paid separate courtesy calls on the Asante-Mamponghene, Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, and the Ejurahene, Nana Kwaku Sarfo-Kantanka at their respective palaces recently. The Minister was on a two-day official visit to the Ashanti Region to meet and interact with the staff of agencies and organizations under his ministry.
He was accompanied by Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah, Deputy Minister of Information and other top officials of the Ministry. Mr Tia said President Mills' administration was determined to fulfill the election campaign promises it made to the nation and asked for patience. Daasebre Osei Bonsu appealed to government to assist farmers with credit and inputs to expand their farms and boost their earnings. He said that way, farmers living conditions would significantly improve.
At the various departments and agencies that Mr Tia visited, he called for team work among staff. | Entrust public transportation into GPRTU's care-Drivers / * Source: GNA / 27.03.2010 | Accra, March 27, GNA - The Accra-Akuapim branch of the Ghana Private Road and Transport Union (GPTRU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), on Friday, appealed to government, to entrust public transportation into the care of the GPRTU.
They said there was ample evidence to show that since the colonial time up to the present, private sector transportation had never collapsed, and this was largely due to commercial drivers' good management practices. Mr Kofi Afful, the branch Chairman, who made the appeal through the Ghana News Agency on Friday, after his re-election as chairman for the fourth consecutive time, said government participation in the transport business had not been smooth sailing and cited the collapse of the Omnibus Transport Services as an example. He suggested that part of the monies accruing from the road tolls should be used to acquire a fleet of buses for the GPRTU, for members to buy and operate them, adding that, the government could count on the GPRTU for a successful business.
Mr Afful called for unity among Members of the GPRTU and charged them to obey road regulations to avoid accidents during the coming Easter. Other officers elected were, Mr Isaac Aryee, Vice chairman, who was also elected for the third time running, Mr Kwesi Donkoh, Secretary, while Messrs Okata and Fianko became first and second trustees respectively. | Consumers express concern about frequent power outages/ * Source: GNA / 26.03.2010 | Tamale, March 26, GNA - Participants at a public forum organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Tamale have expressed their displeasure at the frequent power cuts without any warnings from the utility companies and complained that this was damaging their personal as well as commercial gadgets and equipment.
The participants urged the service providers, namely the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the Volta River Authority (VRA) and GRIDCO to provide efficient services to correspond with the tariff they want consumers to pay.
The forum was organised by the PURC to solicit the opinions and inputs on the proposed tariff increases by the utility providers. A large number of the consumers called on the regulatory bodies to ensure that service providers rendered efficient and quality service to correspond with any increment they were proposing.
Dr. Emmanuel Annan, chairman of the PURC, said the commission was not only interested in the periodic review of tariffs but also concerned with the protection of consumers.
He said the Commission would enforce the law and its accompanying regulations and sanctions. | Headmistress expresses concern about murder of female teachers / * Source: GNA / 26.03.2010 | Sunyani, March 26, GNA - Hajia Zenabu Joyce Mahama, the Headmistress of an Islamic school, has expressed concern about the murder of female teachers in Sunyani and appealed to the security agencies to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book.
Hajia Mahama said in a statement on Thursday she was upset by the latest death of another teacher, Alice Ama Nimo, who was shot dead by unknown assailants in her house at Mayfair in Sunyani a week ago. The statement said a female teacher, Philomena Awuah, was found stabbed to death in her bedroom in a house near Florence Maternity Home in Sunyani. "There was another instance when the husband of a female teacher set himself and his wife ablaze at Atronie and these incidents are still being investigated by the police", the statement said.
Hajia Mahama appealed to relevant authorities connected to these incidents to expedite action in their investigations. She called on the police and other security agencies to, in the interim, give maximum protection to women in general and female teachers in particular in and around Sunyani "whilst they work towards the abatement of such mysterious deaths among female teachers." Hajia Mahama said she believed the police and the other security agencies are capable of finding a solution to these unfortunate challenges to female teachers in Sunyani and women in general. | Government halts payment of emoluments / * Source: GNA / 26.03.2010 | Accra, March 26, GNA - Government on Friday confirmed that cheques for additional payments of emoluments to former Ministers of State have been stopped.
This follows the advice from the Auditor-General's Department that it had detected some discrepancies in the computation of the benefits.
A statement issued in Accra by the Deputy Minister of Information, Mr James Agyenim-Boateng explained that the discrepancies arose following a different computation process used by Parliament in paying Members of Parliament (MP) of the last Parliament as opposed to that used by the Office of the President to pay members of the former executive. It said consequently, the Auditor-General's Department had advised that the Bank of Ghana should in the meantime withhold payments pending audit verification.
Government emphasised that all former MPs and ex-Ministers have received payment of their benefits.
"What is at stake is a claim by former Ministers of State that they were underpaid compared to their colleagues in Parliament who were not Ministers," the statement said.
It said payments were made in categories; the first category comprised MPs who were paid End of Service Benefits, Installation Grants and Resettlement Grants by Parliament.
The second category were MPs who were ministers, who were paid End of Service Benefits by Parliament whilst their Installation Grants and Resettlement Grants were paid by the Office of the President. The third category included ministers who were not MPs, and were paid End of Service Benefits, Installation Grants and Resettlement Grants by the Office of the President.
The statement said there seemed to be a difference in computation between those in the first category as opposed to the other two categories. "Government wishes to assure all interested parties that it will expedite action on the matter, "the statement said. | Judge slaps complainant / * Source: GNA / 25.03.2010 | Intelligence gathered by The Chronicle newspaper indicates that the government has placed an embargo on the remaining end-of-service benefits of 13 former Ministers who served in the previous Kufuor administration.
Sources at the Castle, seat of government, revealed that the government had placed the embargo on the outstanding amount due the former ministers, for no apparent reason.
A senior government official is said have issued a directive to the Bank of Ghana to stop the payment of the cheque, which was issued on Tuesday, March 23rd, this year, and dated December 23, 2009, for the former ministers of state.
The situation is said to have aggravated the anger of the former ministers, who had persistently engaged the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, for the remaining part of their end-of-service gratuities.
Some of the beneficiaries include Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and Member of Parliament (MP) for Weija, Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah, former Minister of Lands and Forestry and MP for Abirem, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, former Minister of State at the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing and MP for Bantama.
Others are Mr. Emmanuel Asamoah Owusu-Ansah, former Ashanti Regional Minister and MP for Kwabre West, Mr. Ernest Akubuor Debrah, former Minister of Food and Agriculture and MP for Tano North, Madam Gifty Ohene Konadu, former Deputy Minister of Trade and MP for Asante Akim South.
When The Chronicle contacted Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, she confirmed the story, and wondered why the government took that decision without their consent, after having issued a cheque to effect payment of their outstanding entitlement. “Why do you have to go and stop the bank from paying us,” she queried fuming.
Madam Esther Obeng Dappah, when reached on her mobile handset, also confirmed the story, and wondered what had informed government to place the embargo on their gratuities. “This so deceptive. Why do you have to wait for us to go on recess before you issue a cheque, and later stop the bank from effecting payment?” she queried.
The Minority Leader and MP for Suame, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, in a telephone interview with The Chronicle from Dubai, also confirmed the story, and described the incident as unfortunate.
According to him, the cheques were brought to Parliament on Tuesday evening, March 23rd, this year, and distributed them to the beneficiaries the following day.
He explained that Madam Gifty Ohene Kunadu’s name was not on the list, whilst Mr. Emmanuel Owusu Ansah’s name was wrongly spelt on the cheque, and therefore, the two decided to contact the Castle, but were told not to worry, as an embargo had been placed on the cheque. “This is most dishonest. I don’t think this government wants anybody to take them serious,” he noted.
Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu is in Dubai en-route to Thailand to attend a world conference for Parliamentarians with the Speaker of Parliament, Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, and Mr. Emmamuel Anyimadu, Clerk to parliament.
However, several attempts to get Mr. Martey Newman, Chief of Staff, Mr. John Tia, Minister of Information, and his two deputies for the government’s side of the story, proved futile, as their mobile handsets were either switched off, or out of coverage area.
The former ministers have for sometimes now, been battling Dr Kwabena Duffuor for the remaining amount of their end-of-service entitlements, which has been outstanding for over a year now. They had questioned Dr. Kwabena Duffuor why their entitlements were not fully paid, but were told it was due to some errors in the calculations on the documents to effect the payment.
Dr. Kwabena Duffuor was said to have promised to effect payment of the outstanding entitlement immediately the errors were corrected, but nothing was heard from him until the former ministers called on him again at his office.
They were also said to have engaged him in a closed-door sitting, immediately after the President delivered his State of the Nation Address on February 25th, 2010.
The Chronicle gathered that irrespective of the numerous promises made by the Finance Minister, nothing was heard from him, until last Tuesday, when a cheque was issued at the Castle, seat of Government, to effect payment. | Government Embargoes Ex-Gratia Of 13 Ministers / * Source: The Chronicle / 26.03.2010 | Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), March 25, GNA - A presiding judge at Wamfie District court, Kaakyire Atta-Owusu, is alleged to have slapped a complainant outside his court for allegedly threatening to curse any official who might deny him justice in an alleged armed robbery case pending before the court.
Kaakyire Atta-Owusu was alleged to have slapped Mr. Daniel Ansu, a businessman from Dormaa-Ahenkro immediately after the adjournment of the robbery case on March 5.
Narrating the incident to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dormaa-Ahenkro, Mr. Ansu said six suspected armed robbers who attacked him and several others and collected his 8.4 million CFA at gun point on the Dormaa-Nkrankwanta trunk road earlier in the week were arraigned before the district court.
He said the judge surprisingly granted bail to all the suspects upon the request of their counsel which to him was strange as several victims of the robbery had identified the suspects in police cells. The businessman said when the court adjourned, he and some friends and sympathizers were gathered outside the court pondering over the judge's strange bail and what could have given rise to his decision. "In the course of our discussions I stated unequivocally that woe betides any official - police or judicial - who might wish to use their influence to block dispensation of justice in the determination of my case", Mr. Ansu said.
He said as soon as he uttered the words the judge, who had then come out of his office to pick something from his car, overheard the threat slapped him on his left cheek. Mr. Ansu said he did not retaliate but reported the incident to the Dormaa Municipal Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police John Kwabena Arthur.
Meanwhile, when the GNA contacted the judge in his office at Wamfie, he denied having slapped Mr Ansu but admitted he shoved him at the shoulder to register his displeasure at his threat. | | Youth vandalize prayer ministry / * Source: GNA / 25.03.2010 | Goaso (B/A), March 25, GNA - Irate youth from Goaso in Asunafo North Municipality last Friday vandalized the Holy Ghost Pentecostal Ministry, also known as "Ogya Nyame Prayer Camp" a prayer healing ministry at Goaso and destroyed property.
Some of the items destroyed were a pubic address system, drums, amplifiers, wall clock, tables and chairs and an altar. Briefing the Ghana News Agency at Goaso a spokesperson for the church, Elder Osei Kofi, said they were at the prayer camp when the youth besieged the prayer camp and asked of the founder of the church Apostle Nana Sefa also known as "Ogya Nyame" who had travelled.
The youth accused the apostle of sexual harassment of some women in the church including their wives who attend prayers at his ministry. They also accused the apostle of refusing to attend to invitation extended to him by the Omanhene of the Goaso Traditional Area after allegations of such harassment against him.
The youth subjected some of the members to severe beating and the incident had been reported to the police. | Rawlings & Kufuor’s Govt Cannot Be Compared To Nkrumah’s…He was Impeccable- Pratt * Source: PeaceFM / 6th march 2010 | The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper and member of the Socialist Forum of Ghana, Kwesi Pratt, has once again re-ignited the debate about Ghana’s first Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s unimpeachable leadership, by categorically stating that not even the 19 years of Rawlings’ administration and 8years of Kufuor’s rule, when added up, is comparable to Nkrumah's government.
Speaking during a panel discussion on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo”, Mr. Pratt virtually discredited all successive regimes after Nkrumah’s overthrow. According to him, since the 1966 coup d’état that toppled Dr. Nkrumah’s administration, no government has performed creditably up till now, neither can the two regimes boast of the scale of infrastructural development witnessed under Nkrumah.
“The 8-year democratic rule of former Presidents John Kufuor and Rawlings, is incomparable to Kwame Nkrumah’s 9-year rule…the infrastructural development under Nkrumah’s rule is unprecedented…till date none of the previous governments have been able to equal that record,” he said.
Mr. Pratt’s sweeping statement was in reaction to earlier comments passed by NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Asokwa in the Ashanti Region, Hon. Maxwell Kofi Jumah.
Hon. Jumah had argued that “though Kwame Nkrumah was a great leader, it was wise and very prudent that his government was overthrown.”
Rationalizing Nkrumah’s overthrow, the Asokwa MP explained that there was enough good reason for what happened to Ghana’s first President, because prior to the 1966 coup d’état, prices of goods had skyrocketed, and the violation and abuse of human rights were the order of the day.
But Mr. Pratt was quick to counter that the basis for Nkrumah’s overthrow were unjustifiable because successive governments have not been able to perk up the living conditions of the populace whiles the economic situation has not seen much improvement.
“…53 years after independence, there are inadequate public places of convenience and it’s an eyesore to see people queuing just to ease themselves,” he argued.
The outspoken Nkrumaist indicated his willingness to “debate anytime” what led to the 1966 coup by “saboteurs which changed the country’s bright future”.
“There are clear evidence indicating how and who caused the coup. The motivations for overthrowing him (Dr. Kwame Nkrumah)…I’m ready for that debate anytime because the facts are very clear….At the end of that debate we’ll see who will run for cover,” he added.
| Rawlings' sympathisers storm Top Radio * Source: GNA / 18.02.2010 | Angry sympathizers of former President Jerry John Rawlings on Thursday besieged the premises of Top Radio, an Accra-based radio station, to demand evidence for a statement made by a panelist during the morning show, Adekyepa, that last Sunday's fire at the Ridge residence of the Rawlingses was deliberately caused by the former president.
The sympathizers, chanting and shouting, said Nana Darkwa, one of the panelists on the programme hosted by Kwasi Fokuo Kudom, made the allegation during the discussion.
The spokesman for the former President, Mr Kofi Adams, also came to the studios of Top Radio to demand proof for the claim made by Nana Danquah, according to sources at the radio station.
Mr Adams was well composed, but the supporters angrily banged the gates of Top radio, the sources said.
Two of the panelists, George Best and Nana Darkwa, both of the NPP, were invited to the Regional Police Headquarters for interrogation.
Scuffles ensued when the two men were being taken away in a police vehicle, with the irate NDC supporters demanding proof for the allegation.
Later, several policemen from the Nima Divisional Command rushed to the premises of Top Radio to prevent any confusion. | Cocoa Industry In Danger * Source: Business Guide / Ghana / 15.02.2010 | Jimmy Carter confers with President Mills * Source: GNA / 09.02.2010 | NDC Rape At Tema Harbour ... 158 Vehicles Carted Away By Party Activists! * Source: Daily Searchlight / 07.02.2010 | Reshuffle Blues: Sena Dansua Heads Sports Ministry * Source: Daily Searchlight / 26.01.2010 | We should not forget Dr. Hilla Liman-PNC * Source: GNA / 24.01.2010 | Ashanti NPP Chair mad at Nana Addo * Source: Ghanaian Chronicle / 23.01.2010 | | Ghana Donate $3m to Haiti / *Source: Ghanaian Times / 21.01.2010 | The Government of Ghana has announced a three million United States dollar ($3,000,000) donation to the people of Haiti, following the January 12 devastating earthquake in that country.
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister for Information, told the Ghanaian Times in Accra Wednesday that the donation was in fulfillment of President John Atta Mills' pledge in a letter to his Haitian counterpart, Rene Preval that the government and people of Ghana, "will in due course, make our modest contribution to your national efforts."
The President, on behalf of the people and government of Ghana, expressed heartfelt condolences and sympathies for the incalculable losses suffered.
The Deputy Minister said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was arranging for the prompt transfer of the money to the Haitian government.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) is mobilising relief items that will, at the appropriate time, be presented to the people of Haiti.
Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa said individuals and corporate bodies desirous of assisting the people of Haiti could contact the local office of World Vision International, which was engaged in an international relief effort for Haiti.
He noted, however, that government was not associated with and had not been informed by any private organisation or individuals seeking to use text messages and charity concerts to raise funds for the people of Haiti.
Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa advised interested individuals to contact the World Vision Office if they had any doubts about an institution or organisation soliciting for funds on behalf of the people of Haiti.
| | Foreign Ministry educate stakeholders on biometric passports / * Source: GNA | Accra, Jan. 15, GNA - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration on Friday organized a training session for Regional Immigration Commanders and Information Service Officers on the issuance of the new biometric passports to be launched on Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
"The session would also mark the beginning of important and effective publicity and sensitization campaign for the implementation of the issuance of biometric passport to be undertaken by the stakeholders," Mr. Martin Quansah, Deputy Director of Passports, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in Accra. He said the training programme would also afford the stakeholders an opportunity to be conversant with the importance of the adoption of biometric passports, their features, mode of acquisition and all other relevant information.
Mr. Quansah said government's decision to adopt the biometric passport system was in compliance with a directive from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) that all member countries should adopt the system by 2015. He cited the easy manner by which fake passports were being acquired worldwide and their abuse as the main reason that necessitated the directive from the ICAO.
Mr. Quansah mentioned holographic foil, watermark paper, invisible and visible foil, digital photographs as some of the features of the biometric passports.
On its advantages, Mr. Quansah said it could effectively stop impersonation, share vital information on a holder with national and international organisations, genuine and acceptable photographs. "It would also help us to cross-check a holder on Stop List and other reference list when the need arises and enhance Ghana's image internationally under the ICAO directive," he added. Ms. Bernice Benneh, Director of Passports, said the application fee would be higher due to some features on them. She appealed to the stakeholders to communicate feedback on the passports from the public and their challenges to the implementation agencies for redress to improve on the campaign. Ms. Benneh noted that at the moment only the Passport Office in Accra had been equipped to undertake the project and other passport offices in the regions would be resourced soon. | African Top News: Egypt: New find shows slaves didn't build pyramids | | IMPEACH THE McMANU GANG *30.12.2009 What is the difference between the James Gang and the McManu Gang? One is made up of trigger happy, pistol whipping, cold-blooded murderers, and social deviants and bank robbers whose eyes glint at the sight of money. The other is made up of tramples of democracy... READ MORE | | Seized Car Saga; Castle Man Pulls Gun * 24.12.2009 | The seized cars debacle took a ballistic turn Wednesday as the deputy to the Castle-appointed Chairman of Confiscated Vehicle Disposal Committee, Carl Wilson, pulled a pistol on a National Security operative attached to the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) at the Tema Port State Warehouse.
Nana Kublan Olivier, thought to be a French national and a deputy to Mr Wilson, is being held by the Ports and Railway Police after he was disarmed by Chief Collector Nicholas Okporah of CEPS, when he threatened to blow off the head of a national security operative.
Olivier turned up Wednesday at the Golden Jubilee Container Terminal at the Port of Tema in the company of some National Security operatives from the Castle, armed with a document signed by his boss, Carl Wilson, seeking access to a container loaded with cars.
The CEPS officials at the spot, finding the procedure a breach of the stipulated arrangement, prevented the man from having his way.
The CEPS officials' stance was premised on the fact that the opening of containers with the marking UCL or Undeclared Container List must be guided by the Customs Act No. 634.
Angry at the turn of events, the man with the delegated authority of Carl Wilson and therefore the Castle, pulled a pistol after engaging in a brief war of words with some National Security operatives attached to CEPS at the port.
As he pulled the pistol, a scene was created but in a flash, Chief Collector Nicholas Okporah, the CEPS officer in charge of the State Warehouse at the Port of Tema, disarmed the Castle man to the relief of his colleagues.
Olivier was handed over to the National Security Council's representative at the port, a certain Lt. Col. Agodogoh (rtd) who ordered an emergency meeting between representatives of CEPS at the port and their National Security counterparts to discuss what had transpired as the gun-pulling Olivier was handed over to the Port and Railway Police, according to Oman FM's Moses Dawutey.
The Port and Railway Police Commander, ACP Adu-Amankwah, confirmed the story to Oman FM.
The Confiscated Vehicle Car Disposal Committee attracted disturbing headlines last week when it was disclosed that the chairman of the Castle-established body was involved in dubious deals as regards the disposal of the vehicles.
While some of the vehicles went for pittance, others simply went away gratis, to people dangling flimsy chits issued at the Castle.
The Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, defended the committee and the procedure for the disposal, asking that anybody with evidence against his appointee, Carl Wilson, should come forward.
Carl Wilson was arrested by some Castle operatives when he sent a car to a joint at Asylum Down for spraying under the cover of darkness, but he was released almost immediately.
The disposal of cars is part of the party cronies supporting mechanisms and the government is set to defend it to the hilt.
Source: GNA | | P.C. Accuses Rawlings’ Men of Theft / * 22.12.2009 | Paul Collins Appiah Ofori, the controversial Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, has accused some close allies of former President Rawlings of stealing state money when they were in office.
According to P.C. Appiah Ofori, this occurred when he personally reported a lumber operating firm called Conglomerate for evading their tax obligation to the then President Rawlings when he was in office.
He indicated that he had just resumed work as the chief accountant of the company but realised that 10 years before he started working with them, they had not for once paid tax. He told parliament that upon prevalence from the institutions responsible, the company complied with the directive. He lamented that those men whose names he withheld paid just a little into government coffers and used the rest for their personal gains.
He indicated that when he reported their conduct to Rawlings, he was arrested and kept in a guardroom for hours before he was released. He made these allegations when he rose to contribute to the motion that the Ghana Revenue Authority Bill, 2009 be read the second time. He indicated that since the bill had not explicit provisions to punish people who would evade tax obligations; it should be withdrawn and revisited to include massive punishment for such people.
Even though the Majority Leader of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin prevailed upon to withdraw or retract since he could not substantiate his allegations concerning the former president, he resisted and indicated that he knew what he was saying was the truth. The Speaker Joyce Bamford Addo asked him to withdraw since it happened long ago and hence he could not provide any documentary prove to his allegations.
Also contributing to the motion, Minister for Communications, Haruna Iddrisu noted that, leakages in tax administration systems should be blocked to ensure that more revenue mobilization for the government. He added that, institutions responsible for enforcing these obligations should be up and doing.
The house rose yesterday for the Christmas and New Year holidays. The MPs would be away from parliament for 7 weeks and are expected to reconvene on the 26th of January, 2010.
Source: Daily Searchlight | | Sixteen armed robbers arrested for attempting to rob a warehouse / * 19.12.2009 | Klagon, Dec. 19, GNA - The Tema Regional Police Command has arrested 16 suspected armed robbers at Klagon near Ashaiman, for attempting to rob a warehouse belonging to Novel Commodities Ghana Limited. Briefing the media in Tema on Friday, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Augustine Gyening, Regional Commander, said the Police had a tip-off that the suspects had come to seek assistance from the security personnel of the company to carry out the operation at the warehouse.
ACP Gyening said the security man in turn disclosed the information to the authorities of the Company who later reported to the Police. He said at about 8:30pm on Thursday, the gang stormed the warehouse full of rice with a truck to load the commodity.
He said another truck was parked outside waiting for the first one to finish loading, so that it could also load.
ACP Gyening said the Police, who had then laid ambush, pounced on the suspects and arrested 16 of them but their leader, whose name was mentioned as Bismarck, escaped.
The Regional Commander gave the names of the 16 suspects as Mohammed Fuseini, Mohammed Ali, Ibrahim Yussif, Issah Mohammed, Ishmael Addah, Yak= ubu Mussah, Awudu Kadri, Samuel Teye, Osman Gariba, Agyabeng Samuel, Osman Haruna, Abass Mohammed, Shaibu Mohammed, Dawuda Ali, Shaibu Issah, and Gariba Amidu adding that were all in Police custody. Mr Dan Obimpeh, Managing Director of the Company, said the 176,000 b= ags of rice in the warehouse were imported from Vietnam.
He said they started getting information from the armed robbers on Tuesday that they wanted to come and rob the place and so offered to give GH¢20,000 Ghana cedis to the security man.
He commended the Tema Regional Police Command for the good job done, and requested for the assistance of the security services, including the Police and the Military, to ensure security at the place. Source: GNA | | Support Mills to succeed- Rawlings / 14.12.2009 | Sunyani, Dec. 14, GNA - The former President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings on Saturday called on Ghanaians to support President John Evans Atta Mills to succeed because he has great intentions for Ghana. Speaking in Sunyani at a ceremony to mark the awards ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Brong Ahafo Region, Flt. Lt. Rawlings said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) "has no option but to succeed" because the party promised to liberate Ghanaians from economic hardship.
He said the current situation in the country required "candid criticism" to goad government on the right path, saying, "this should not be misconstrued as washing the party's dirty linen in public". Flt. Lt. Rawlings said Ghanaians had a responsibility to demand accountability from government, not only about financial prudence and propriety, but to get clarification about policies.
He said his critique of government was an: "Exercise in self-assessment and exposure of the realities that the ordinary folk face. There is talk of great efforts at fixing the economy, but the economy cannot be fixed unless the holes have been plugged. It is like pouring water into a basket."
The former Head of State said the people were suffering although the NDC promised to deliver them from the bondage they found themselves. "When I speak about these issues, it is because I cannot allow my beloved party to fail. Like I mentioned earlier, Professor Mills has great intentions for Ghana and each individual of sound mind has to help him succeed," he said.
Flt. Lt. Rawlings noted that the NDC had the requisite manpower and expertise to make the country politically and economically vibrant to ensure national development.
He commended the people of the Brong Ahafo Region for voting for the NDC in the 2008 elections.
He noted that the region had played significant roles in agriculture and tourism and called for concerted efforts to develop and exploit the region's tourism potential.
"Today as we celebrate Brong Ahafo@ 50 let us meditate on our dear country Ghana, pray for wisdom for our leaders and adopt a work ethic that exudes patriotism and dedication.
"Ghana is at the crossroads and we all have a responsibility to ensure that the change we clamoured for comes into reality. When we fail we fail together and when we succeed we do so together, so let us pool our resources and ensure that we succeed!"
Flt. Lt. Rawlings used the occasion to call for peace in Bawku, saying: "We need to help bring an end to this conflict.Let us work towards peace."
Source: GNA | | I prefer the Mills administration to Kufuor’s -Pratt / 14.12.2009 | Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has said for all who expect him to criticize the Mills administration to prove his objectivity and balance, they can expect to hear him speak only the truth and nothing else.
He said there is a funny expectation of persons who are compelled, by the nature of their vocation and profession, to do public analysis of events to be critical of the Mills administration because they were also critical of the Kufuor administration in order to prove their objectivity.
“Any time there is an issue, they say ah! But you criticized the NPP why are you not criticizing the Mills administration. If you want to be seen as objective and balanced, then fight Mills, then punch Professor Mills, then discredit his administration.
"Look, I think this is just hogwash. We did not criticize the NPP administration for the fun of it or because we hated the administration or because that other journalists have confessed ‘we were in a conspiracy to make anybody unpopular.’ We criticized things that we thought were unjustified. We criticized things that were wrong.
"So therefore if the current administration is doing things that are wrong, that look like what the NPP did, we have a responsibility to criticize them, you understand, to apply the same standards to the old administration and to the new administration. But we cannot fight the current administration for fighting sake just to establish that we’re objective!”
Kwesi Pratt who was speaking on Radio Gold’s discussion programme, Alhaji and Alhaji on Saturday, said objectivity is not a balance between fact and falsehood, but recognizing objective reality, so that if one administration was bad relative to another one, “it is our responsibility to say so.
“And in all honesty, in all honesty and sincerity, Sohini, (programme host) any day, give me the Kufuor administration and give me the Mills administration and I will select the Mills administration. Look at the gap, look at the difference between the two administrations – I am not shy, I am not ashamed of saying that I prefer the Mills administration any day, to the Kufuor administration.”
He said a record of achievements of the 11-month administration of Mills compared to the same period in the Kufuor administration best tells the story.
“Look, look, look, you look! Yesterday (Friday) there was a little discussion on Peace FM about our recent trip to South Africa, and I mentioned that look, for the six days that I was in South Africa, the total per diem allowance I was given was $500, all the people on the panel just burst out laughing, they were laughing, they were surprised because under Kufuor, the standard per diem for journalists travelling with official delegations was $250 a night. It’s been cut so drastically…this is a government which is committed to prudence in public spending and I recognize that.”
He also cited the recent announcement of the award of contract for the construction of 200,000 houses to cut back on the national housing deficit, the expansion of the School Feeding Programme, a stable cedi over the last five months, a drop in inflation the New Pensions Act and the Right to Information programme among several things.
He said against the backdrop of claims that the Mills government is slow or has not done anything, acknowledging these things is being objective. “I don’t care whether people say I’m objective or I’m not objective, what I care about is whether I say is the truth.
Source: joyfmonline | | Address me by my titles - Hannah Bissiw / 09.12.2009 | Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr Hannah Louisa Bisiw, has demand that she is addressed by her titles.
“If titles were not to be used, they wouldn’t have been created?” She asked.
Bisiw was speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana Programme where Mr Kweku Kwarteng, Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and a co-discussant on the programme, addressed the President of the nation as “Mills.”
She insisted that Kwarteng addressed the President as “His Excellency, Professor John Evans Atta Mills” to show respect for his position.
To make matters worse, Mr Kwarteng again addressed the deputy minister as ‘Hannah’ and she became so alarmed that she maintained that she is addressed properly by her titles or else she will not allow the communications director to make his submissions.
It took the intervention of Shamima Moslem, host of the programme for the discussion to continue.
Source: My Joy FM Online | | "I Will Resign If..."-Kofi Wayo / 09.12.2009 | The founder and leader of the United Renaissance Party (URP) and businessman, Charles Kofi Wayo, popularly known as ‘Chuck’ has disclosed that he would resign from the Coalition he entered into with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) prior to the 2008 elections should the government fail to deliver on the campaign promises made to Ghanaians by August 4, 2010.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme recently, Mr. Wayo blamed the elites of this country as having done very little to alleviate the plights and sufferings of majority of the people of this country but used the opportunity to enrich themselves. He did not mince words in pointing out that the leaders of this country have been repeating the same old things we began with as a country as that has not helped in the developmental efforts of this country. |  |
“We are still doing the same things that brought Rawlings to power. Rawlings was a reformer but he was destroyed by the elites who surrounded him”, he retorted.
Mr. Wayo bemoaned the appalling standards of living of the ordinary men and women who have in diverse ways contributed their quota towards national development. He said, “Farmers don’t get pension, the taxi drivers, traders, fishermen, the cripple do not get help from the State.”
He however commended the leadership style of President Evans Atta Mills and mentioned the fact that he was not corrupt. Mr. Wayo stated, “President Mills gave off his per diem for the benefit of the man on the street and wants his Ministers to do the same. Prof. Mill is more ethical and humble.”
The URP leader was full of praise for His Excellency Prof. Mills and stressed that once the head was clean, the bottom would be cleaned up in no time. “I am happy with his intentions, he has no Giselle behind him and I see great hope for the future, Prof. is a gradualist but quite tough. He has shown the intent of fighting corruption”, he remarked.
Touching on the problems of confronting the energy sector, Chuck Wayo said the place had been turned into an arena of corruption when he and his group were appointed by the President to the board and that they were trying to unravel the damage at the Energy Ministry and was hopeful that things were going to get well and better very soon.
Presenting his thought on the 2010 budget that was presented to Parliament by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning about two weeks ago, Mr. Wayo noted that our economy has been run in the colonial mentality for the past 52 years and that it was time “we resisted the Breton Woods Institutions”.
He said our country was fifteen times richer than England and yet we are stucked in abject poverty notwithstanding the fact that we sat on abundant resources but have allowed ourselves to be overwhelmed by external actors to cause serious damage to us.
Mr. Wayo appealed to the President to take very good care of the security agencies notably the police, army among others as our very existence as a nation-state depends greatly to them. He also asked for better remuneration for ordinary workers in the country for they have suffered for far too long.
The Lens Ghana | | Sex ring uncovered - Ghanaian women lured to Russia / 08.12.2009 | A collaborative investigation undertaken by Ghana’s mission in Moscow and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has uncovered a human trafficking and prostitution ring which recruits young Ghanaian women for commercial sex work in Moscow and other cities of the Russian Federation.
A report on the findings of the investigation said Ghana’s mission in Moscow had established that at least 50 Ghanaian women had been lured into the Russian Federation by the syndicate operating in Ghana and the Russian Federation, to practice prostitution.
According to the report, the young women, usually enticed by the guise of further education in Russian universities, “are kept in confinement for the purpose of the said trade and their documents and other personal items seized. Those found to be unwilling or non-cooperative are maltreated”.
“Amid the general insecurity in the Russian Federation, the girls are being subjected to rape, torture, and assault. Within the past one year, two Nigerian prostitutes were thrown down to their death from apartment buildings,” the report said.
According to the Ghana Mission in Moscow, 10 of the women were in the custody of three Nigerians, Kingsley Chinedu (alias Boss), resident in Bratislavkaya Dom. 15; Tony Stephane and one Linda. The report said each of the 10 women had been requested to pay between $35,000 and $45,000, in order to obtain their freedom to live wherever they chose in Russia.
The report named Ebenezer Wiredu, Addo Nartey, alias “God’s Time”, Nana Yaw Amankwa, Comfort Akwasi Amoah, Auntie Bee and an individual indentified by the code name “Lava”, as the ring’s agents in Ghana. Their alleged Ghanaian accomplices resident in Russia were named as De Graft Oppong Checheku, alias Samsung, of House No 60, Ryazanski Prospect, Moscow; Nana Akwasi Amoah, House No 1, Kalushkaya, Samiratu Hassan and Georgina Adoma Afriyie.
The report said the mission had identified some of the girls Nartey recruited and sent to Russia to engage in prostitution during the past four years as Samiratu Hassan, Rita Yeboah, Mariama Osumanu, Apau Emmanuela, Vida Annor, Fremah Cecilia Ama, and Adoma Georgina Afriyie.
Wiredu and Amankwah jointly recruited Gifty Asante, Salihu Zainab, Bremang Boateng and Comfort Aluah, the report said. The Ghana Mission said it was alleged during the investigations that Wiredu had been engaging in passport racketeering as well. “The Ghana Mission has learnt that on or about July, 2009, he sent 10 Ghanaian passports through a courier to one Peter Boamah in Moscow, which were then sold to Nigerian citizens in the Russian Federation.
The passports are being used for advance fee fraud and prostitution,” the report said. The report named a popular top-class hotel at Madina and two popular night clubs at Osu and Lapaz as centers for the recruitment of young women to work as prostitutes in Russia.
The investigators said they had established that the agent, known by the code name “Lava”, is a native of Wenchi, who recruits girls from the Brong Ahafo Region. “Lava” is said to have recruited from the region and sent to Russia Barbara Konadu Mavis, Getrude Frimpomaa and Rosemond Anima. The mission said it found that Comfort Amoah and Auntie Bee facilitated the trafficking of two girls, Susan Danso and Harriet Brago Abena, who were sent to Nana Akwasi Amoah in Russia on May 15, 2009.
According to the findings of the investigation, Akwasi and Joyce Ababio attempted to sell the two Ghanaian girls to a Nigerian woman identified as Linda, for $5000 each, but the girls escaped. Ghana mission facilitated their repatriation to Ghana with the assistance of the International Organisation for Migration.
The report said it has been established that there were two groups of women who had been sent to Russia to work as prostitutes: those who were already in the sex trade in Ghana and who, therefore, knew what they were being recruited for in Russia and others who were sent to Russia on the pretext of finding them employment and admission into universities and other schools.
The investigators said they had identified some educational institutions in Russia which were being used to facilitate the trafficking of women from Ghana. Communication between Ghanaian agents of the ring and their Russian accomplices is mainly by e-mail, telephone and courier services. From Ghana, they send by mail nude pictures of Ghanaians girls for assessment. If found suitable, the girls’ particulars are submitted to universities in Russia for investigation/admission.
The mission said it had seen invitations sent to secure young Ghanaian women from the People’s Friendship University (Patrice Lumumba University) Kursk State University and Moscow State Technical University. The Ghana Mission made references to the high HIV and AIDS prevalence rate in the Russian Federation, stressing that the Ghanaian girls recruited to engage in commercial sex work in the country were at great risk as some of them were often forced to have unprotected sex in spite of the high risk of infection.
The mission estimated that there were over 500 Nigerian and Cameroonian girls engaged in prostitution in Russia and said the activities of the prostitutes were influencing the behaviour of some African students, especially at the People’s Friendship University. “If the trend is not curtailed, it may also extend to Ghanaian students,” the report added. The report said some Nigerian girls, especially those in Saint Petersburg, were using Ghanaian passports obtained through Ebenezer Wiredu in Ghana.
It said the Ghana Mission was finding it difficult to break the illicit trade in Ghanaian passports because of the ‘unhelpful attitude of the Russian Law enforcement agents”. The Ghana Mission recommended that the authorities in Ghana solicit the assistance of the media to educate the Ghanaian public on the dangers of embarking on adventurous trips to Russia.
| | Mills Saves Millions …Using Lean Convoys / 08.12.2009 | | Fact-finding enquiries done by The Heritage newspaper have revealed that the decision by the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, early this year, to drastically cut down the number of vehicles in his convoy has saved millions of Ghana cedis for the development of the country.
The Mills-led administration, in line with the National Democratic Congress campaign promise to cut down ostentation if voted into government, has for the past 11 months employed a lean presidential convoy. Under this administration, a minimum of three and a maximum of six or slightly higher than that number of cars are used, depending on the occasion and the distance. That is in a sharp contrast to the over 20 vehicles that became the norm under the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
A government source contended in an interaction with the Heritage newspaper over the weekend that, “Considering the huge number of travels that the president has to make within the country, and the quantum of fuel involved, the amount accrued over the past months runs into millions of cedis.’
The source noted that, in line with the style of the president, every pesewa saved by the austere measure would be “appropriately channeled into the development of schools, health centres and the provision of pipe-borne water to the millions of Ghanaians who are walloping in abject poverty.”
The source added that Prof. Mills has not only used the country’s resources judiciously, but also contributed immensely to reducing the heavy traffic on most of the busy streets across the country. “The president has lived at the Castle (the seat of government) and effectively performed government business for more than 10 months; that, for me, is enough to show how concerned he is about the canker of traffic in the capital,” it said.
Comparing what pertained under the erstwhile NPP regime to the current government, the source said, “Former President John Agyekum Kufuor operated from his Airport residence for the first 10 months, after renovating his residence and throughout his eight years of reign. “In contrast, the current president has functioned at the Castle, instead of his residence at Regimanuel Gray on the Spintex road to compound the already heavy traffic situation there.” Noble as the law professor’s resolve to reduce the number of vehicles involved in the presidential convoy may be, many concerns have been raised regarding his safety in a small convoy.
Political and security analyst, George Kuntu Blankson of the University of Cape Coast cautioned the presidency to increase the convoy to 10 or 12, depending on the security situation in an area of visit.
He praised Prof. Mills for fulfilling his promise of running a lean but very effective administration and cautioned officials to emulate the father of the nation so that the Better Ghana agenda could be achieved.
Source: The Heritage | | 17.3 million Euro rice project launched / 07.12.2009 | Tamale, Dec.7, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Monday launched 17.3 million Euro Rice Sector Support Project (RSSP), aimed at boosting lowland rice production in the country.
He said the Project was one of several strategies government was embarking upon to revamp the local rice industry to meet domestic food demand.
Vice President Mahama said apart from maize, rice was the second most important cereal crop in the country and noted that its consumption had increased with total annual consumption reaching 500,000 metric tons. He said statistics indicated that over the last several years, production of the crop had fallen to about 10 per cent of national demand, making the country heavily depended on imported rice.
The Vice President said more that 600 million US dollars was being used to import rice, meat, fish and other products into the country annually adding that this substantial foreign exchange could have been conserved for more urgent national needs.
He said that government was determined to reverse the trend within the next few years by producing food not only for local consumption but for export.
Vice President Mahama appealed to the AFD to allow the government integrate the RSSP into the block farming programme
He said government intended to identify rice lands in the districts where the Project would be implemented and bring farmers in those areas together to make enhance mechanisation and extension services. The Agence Francaise de Develppement (AFD) is partly funding the Project with 13.8 million Euros
Mr. Francis Hurtut, French Ambassador to Ghana in a speech read for him by Mr. Benoit Lebeurre, Resident Manager of the AFD, said the Project covered a period of five years and was aimed at developing rice production in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and the Volta Regions. He said under the Project, 6,000 hectares of lowland would be develo= ped with water control infrastructure and technical support to farmers. Mr. Hurtut said the Project would also focus on family farms, which were playing a major role towards food security and conservation of natural resources.
He said about 2,500 farms would be established and more that 15,000 people would benefit from the Project.
Mr. Stephen Sumani Nayina, Northern Regional Minister in a speech read on his behalf, called on the youth in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions to take advantage of the project and go into farming rather than migrating to the South in search of non-existent jobs. He appealed to the chiefs and elders to provide land to enable the project achieve its objective.
Source: GNA | | Osibisa Marks 40th Birthday / 07 December 2009 | Nairobi — Osibisa, the great Ghanaian band, is celebrating 40 years of musical excellence with the launch of two albums, Osee Yee and The Very Best of Osibisa.
"We've decided to come up with two albums. The Very Best of Osibisa, is a compilation of our favourites and hits from over the years.
The second, Osee Yee is interesting well-played music with great spirit and enough of the original Osibisa flavour," band leader Teddy Osei told The Hindu newspaper of India recently.
Fresh from the band's just concluded tour of India -- the first in almost three decades -- Osei told The EastAfrican that the new albums will be launched on February 27 next year at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
The 14-track fourth generation album Osee Yee, performed in the Ghanaian Akan dialect and English, has songs like Osuna, Watusi, Ayioko, Yen Ara Ghana, Higher and Higher, Boyengya, Too Much Going On, Saworowa, and My Sweet Lord (a gospel song).
The musicians on the new album are Osei (on sax, flute, African drums and vocals), Mac Tontoh (flugelhorn), Colin Graham (trumpet), Alfred Kari Bannerman (lead guitar), Emmanuel Rentzos (organ, vocals), Kwame Yeboah (acoustic guitar, keyboards, drums and congas), Gregg Kofi Brown (vocals), Kofi Ayivor (congas) and Alex Kwaku-Boateng (drums), among others.
The 17-track The Very Best of Osibisa compilation, specially chosen by Osei, includes their first instrumental jazz hit, Music for Gong Gong (bestseller on the pop charts in both the UK and US in 1971).
Woyaya (1971) later covered by Art Garfunkel, Highlife-influenced party favourite Sunshine Day (1975), Dance the Body Music (1976), Coffee Song (1976), I Feel Pata Pata (performed with the late Maria Makeba), Welcome Home, Ayiko Bia, Uhuru, and Nkosi Sikeleli Africa, among other hits featured.
As to whether their fans should expect more releases, Osei said: "It's very possible, but let's see how this goes first."
Osei attributes the bands' success to a number of factors.
"We have had many new band members who have introduced their own style of playing and modern technology has definitely lent a new edge to the sound. But our music continues to remains the same -- from the West Coast of Africa," he said.
"Osibisa's music still retains the Ghanaian highlife influence. London's varied sounds have definitely touched our music, which is where its global feel comes from. Our music exists because of the rich tradition and heritage of African sounds. Osibisa put African fusion with Western music genres on the world map," Osei noted.
"...Osibisa promises music that feels traditionalist, because the core of their music comes from the heart of Africa -- from deep-toned Congo drums, pounding out cross-rhythms in an unbroken torrent, without trampling on the intricacies of global sound," The Hindu observes.
"Osibisa were true pioneers. They were the first band to successfully promote West African music genres, not just in Britain (where they are based) but to the world, and were the first African fusion band to notch up a whole series of bestselling singles and albums in the pop charts - with more international hits than any other African band has enjoyed since...," writes Robin Denselow on the sleeve notes of The Very Best of Osibisa.
At its inception in 1969, Denselow notes: "...The Osibisa mix of what they called criss-cross rhythms that explode with happiness naturally included Highlife influences..., along with jazz, rock, calypso and other West Indian styles, along with a dash of disco and unashamed pop. They were a band who could hold their own along side the rock stars of the era, supporting the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd..."
But in the 1980s it all suddenly changed, as these pioneers of the new global music scene fell from fashion just as the "world music" movement was beginning to gather momentum, Denselow writes, adding: "The band battled with record companies who wanted them to abandon their African influences and play disco, while hardcore fans of authentic African sounds were put off by those earlier pop hits. No matter. The band kept going, and they are still going, 40 years on, with a repertoire of very different songs, and an incredible history to look back on."
Source: Bamuturaki Musingizi | | | FLASHBACK; Nana Akufo-Addo begs Northerners .... Addressing a mini rally at Mandari and Bole in the Bole-Bamboi constituency, Nana Akuffo-Addo claimed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would never come back to power again and stressed the need for all Ghanaians including those in the North to rally behind the NPP for a well deserved victory in December.... (13.07.2008) | Senate Resoultion Celebrating the 100th Birthday of the late Kwame Nkrumah / 12.10.2009 | | The New York State Senate has honoured Ghana''s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with a Legislative Resolution celebrating Nkrumah''s 100th Birthday. The resolution was proposed and led by Senator Bill Perkins of the 30th District of the New York State of the United States of America.
The resolution:
LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION celebrating the 100th Birthday of the late Kwame Nkrumah, and paying tribute to his many contributions to Pan-Africanism on Monday, September 21, 2009
WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to honor those distinguished individuals whose lifework and civic endeavor served to enhance the quality of life in their communities; and
WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its long standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to celebrate the 100th Birthday of the late Kwame Nkrumah, and to pay tribute to his many contributions to Pan-Africanism on Monday, September 21, 2009; and
WHEREAS, In 1909, Kwame Nkrumah was born to Madam Nyaniba in Nkroful, Gold Coast; he graduated from the prestigious Achimota School in Accra in 1930, studied at a Roman Catholic Seminary, and taught at a Catholic school in Axim; in 1935, he left Ghana for the United States, receiving a BA degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1939, where he pledged the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and later received an STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) degree in 1942; and
WHEREAS, Kwame Nkrumah earned a Master of Science degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942, and a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy the following year; while lecturing in political science at Lincoln University, he was elected president of the African Students Organization of America and Canada; and undergraduate at Lincoln University, Kwame Nkrumah participated in at least one student theater production and published an essay on European government in Africa in the student newspaper, The Lincolnian; during his time in the United States, he preached at black Presbyterian Churches in Philadelphia and New York City, read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy; and
WHEREAS, Kwame Nkrumah encountered the ideas of Marcus Garvey, and in 1943 met and began a lengthy correspondence with Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James, Russian expatriate Raya Dunayevskaya, and Chinese-American Grace Lee Boggs, all of whom were members of a US based Trotskyist intellectual cohort; Kwame Nkrumah later credited James with teaching him ''how an underground movement worked''; and
WHEREAS, Kwame Nkrumah arrived in London in May of 1945 intending to study at the LSE; after meeting with George Padmore, he helped organize the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England; he then founded the West African National Secretariat to work for the decolonization of Africa; in addition, he served as Vice-President of the West African Students'' Union (WASU); and
WHEREAS, Returning to Ghana in 1947, Kwame Nkrumah became general secretary of the newly founded United Gold Coast Convention, but split from it in 1949 to form the Convention People''s Party (CPP); and
WHEREAS, After his ''positive action'' campaign created disturbances in 1950, Kwame Nkrumah was jailed, but when the CPP swept the 1951 elections, he was freed to form a government, and he led the colony to independence as Ghana in 1957; and
WHEREAS, Kwame Nkrumah was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966; over his lifetime, he was awarded honorary doctorates by Lincoln University; Moscow State university; Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt; Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; Humboldt University in the former East Berlin; and several other institutions; and
WHEREAS, Kwame Nkrumah was the motivating force behind the movement for independence of Ghana, then British West Africa, and its first president when it became independent in 1957; his numerous writings address Africa''s political destiny; and
WHEREAS, A firm believer in African liberation, Kwame Nkrumah pursued a radical Pan-African policy, playing a key role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity in 1963; and
WHEREAS, In 1964, Kwame Nkrumah formed a one-party state; he was over thrown by the military in 1966, with the help of western backing and spent his last years in exile, dying in Bucharest, Romania, on April 27, 1972; his legacy and dream of a "United States of Africa" still remains a goal among many; and
WHEREAS, Kwame Nkrumah''s distinguished record merits the recognition and respectful tribute of this Legislative Body; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to celebrate the 100th Birthday of the late Kwame Nkrumah, and to pay tribute to his many contributions to Pan-Africanism on Monday, September 21, 2009.
Bill Perkins District 30
Source: New York (US) Senate
| | A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE FOUNDERS DAY CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF DR. KWAME NKRUMAH / 21.09.2009 - Accra | "Good morning fellow Ghanaians, 100 years ago, a great son was born to our soil and today, together with the rest of the Continent, we are celebrating Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Founder and first President of our dear nation.
This event is in fulfillment of a commitment I made that under my Presidency the Birthday of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah will be recognized on our national calendar as Founder’s Day.
Further to this, the African Union has adopted the centenary birthday celebration of our first President as a continental event to be included on the AU’s calendar of Special Events.
These two events are unprecedented and speak to the uniqueness and global stature of our own Kwame Nkraumah.
As a people, we must take collective pride in celebrating today, the 100th birthday of the man who led our independence struggle and lit the flame that blazed the liberation struggle of the African Continent.
Fellow Ghanaians, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of Mother Ghana, we are not celebrating our Founder for the sake of doing so; we are celebrating him because of what he stood for and what he gave the nation.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s contributions to the development of Ghana and Africa; to creating a vision for Ghana; nurturing and forming the life and spirit of our nation, are unsurpassed.
Kwame Nkrumah opened the doors of Ghanaian politics, previously the exclusive domain of the educated elite and wealthy merchant class, to the ordinary people of Ghana, market women, farmers, fisher folk, teachers, civil servants and the youth, derisively called by some, ‘verandah boys’.
Beyond this inclusiveness in our politics, Kwame Nkrumah broke down ethnic barriers in Ghanaian politics and everyday life, imbuing in us, a strong sense of oneness, national identity and pride.
In Kwame Nkrumah, there was no North, South, East or West; there was one Ghana.
Above all, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah bequeathed to Ghanaians a sense of self worth, national pride and dignity.
He embodied and promoted the Ghanaian identity far beyond the shores of the African Continent.
Attempts have been made, and attempts will continue to be made but the history of our independence struggle and the pivotal role Dr. Nkrumah played in giving us an independent Ghana cannot be wished away.
Kwame Nkrumah, the star of Ghana, projected Ghana as the true black star of Africa and emphasized our independence, our ownership of our resources, and our capacity to manage our resources and take charge of our future.
Dr. Nkrumah created the Ghanaian and African personality which resonated, and continues to resonate globally.
Fellow Ghanaians, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, let this day be the day we begin to breathe new life into Dr. Nkrumah’s vision of a strong and united Ghana.
Let us grab this opportunity and rekindle our sense of national pride and self worth.
We need to measure the greatness of this nation by the extent to which we are each others keeper.
Let us care for each other and so doing, we will care for Mother Ghana.
To the youth I say, the future belongs to you. Take control of your destiny and anchor yourselves to the virtues of life knowing that it shall profit you nothing if you gain the whole world and lose your soul.
There are no shortcuts to success. Hard work is what will bring you genuine success.
Fellow Ghanaians, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the land, this day hence, the 21st of September each year shall be known and called Founder’s Day.
It is our time to build on the legacy of our Founder so that individually and collectively, posterity will also position us properly in the history of Ghana.
Fellow Ghanaians, my brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the land, there are rays of hope flickering through the skies, and I know and believe that together, and with the right attitude that makes us unite behind the things that unite rather than divide us, we will build a Better Ghana.
My clarion call to you this morning as we celebrate the 100th birthday of our Great Founder is to please join me in building the Ghana we desire. The beginning may be rough but I know that just as the Great Osagyefo gave life to his dreams, we can also give life to our Better Ghana dream.
Kwame Nkrumah built Ghana; it is our time to build a Better Ghana.
Fellow Ghanaians, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of Ghana, arise and shine. I thank you for allowing me to share some time with you this morning and may God continue to bless our homeland Ghana and make us greater and stronger.
Thank you."
Source: Grand Durbar |
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