* Monday, 08 February 2010 | NDC Chiefs Lock Horns Over Majority Leader * Source: Daily Guide | The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is at a cross-roads over the protracted issue of Majority Leader in Parliament, as various interest groups within the party battle for their preferred candidates.
Reliable information gathered indicates that while the founder, Jerry John Rawlings, has not expressed any overt preference, other leading members of the party, Daily Guide has learnt, are rotting for Member of Parliament for Anlo, Clement Kofi Humado whilst President John Atta Mills is battling to settle the sacked Minister for the Interior, Cletus Apul Avoka with the enviable position.
Apart from these, some MPs recently indicated that MP for Tamale North, Abukari Sumani, was their preferred candidate, locking-horns with the two leading personalities in the NDC. The issue of Majority Leader cropped up after three front-benchers and leaders of the majority side in Parliament were nominated for ministerial portfolios by President Mills in his maiden cabinet reshuffle.
The three are Alban S.K. Bagbin, Majority Leader in Parliament; John Akologu Tia, Deputy Majority and Enoch Teye Mensah, Majority Chief Whip.
Subsequent pronouncements by Avoka that he had been proposed by President Mills to be chosen as Majority Leader were greeted with condemnation from MDC MPs who thought they had not been consulted on the matter, resulting in a crisis meeting at the seat of presidency, during which the president reportedly denied making such a proposal.
According to the Daily Guide, President Mills had confided in Avoka that every effort will be made to let him snatch the top post of Majority Leader, Unfortunately, the outgoing Minister and MP for Zebilla betrayed the confidence of the president by going public on the matter when asked about his removal from the Interior Ministry.
President Mills was said to have told Avoka at the Castle meeting, fully attended by Majority caucus in Parliament, NDC national chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei; General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to "shut up" on the matter to allow the arty go through its consultative procedure in settling on who becomes the leader in Parliament.
Meanwhile, latest developments on the issue indicate that Avoka may grab the top post ahead of other colleagues, as a series of negotiations are underway to keep faith with the presidency by allowing President Mills’ choice.
A senior member of NDC leadership in Parliament told this paper that they would be speaking with their colleagues lawmakers to allow Avoka to be the Majority Leaders.
According to him, the MPs were peeved because of the way the matter was initially handled and that with sober reflections and series of negotiations within the party, he was convinced the legislators would allow Avoka to lead them as he was capable of doing so. He said the issue of Majority Leader has not been put to rest because they were not sure if the outgoing leader, Alban S.K. Bagbin who was in Singapore on official duties, was still interested in keeping his post or not.
"Now that Bagbin has returned from his official trip and announcement has been made in Parliament, confirming his new portfolio as incoming Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, a final decision will be taken soon on the matter," the senior legislator confirmed to newsmen.
Other leadership positions up for grabs are, Deputy Majority Leader, Majority Chief Whip, First and Second Deputy Majority Chiefs, as the majority side is likely to restructure its frontline following the ministerial reshuffle that snatched the front-benchers. | | > BACK to TOP < | | Veep Blasts Tabloid Joy Fm * Source: The Enquirer | …Over Concocted Story
… Concerns Heighten Over Lowering Standards
Whilst the Editor of the New Punch newspaper, Ebenezer Ato Sam, a.k.a. Baby Ansabah, was busily purging his conscience over concocted stories against the current president, Joy FM, a popular radio station in reporting his story, ended up concocting their own story about the current vice President.
The usually genteel and media shy Vice President John Dramani Mahama, is said to be fuming with rage at Joy FM, for concocting such a terrible story about him.
The Joy FM story implied that Baby Ansabah, Editor of The New Punch newspaper was under pressure to make confessions about concocted stories he published against President John Evans Atta Mills, because he is acting under a spell of blackmail from a monetary payment he received from the Vice President.
Meanwhile, sources within Joy Fm’s newsroom have told The Enquirer that the initial storyline was that the government paid the editor to go on several radio stations with his confessions and again paid Metro TV to allow him to appear on their current affairs programme to repeat the allegations.
The Joy FM sources said, when they contacted the host of the Good Evening Ghana Programme, he debunked the story and stated that the decision to bring Mr. Ansabah on the TV programme was made by the producer of the show and that the allegation was too wild.
The Joy FM sources continued that when that leg of the story collapsed, another allegation surfaced immediately, which was that the Vice President had, as a condition for paying monies to Baby Ansabah, requested him to make certain confessions.
"Even that allegation too, was shot down by family members of the late pastor, who told us that they had not received any payment from Mr. Ansabah. In the absence of evidence that the Veep paid any money to Ansabah, there was no story. But my people went ahead and run the story against the Veep," revealed the newsroom source.
Reacting to the Joy FM blackmail news story, the Office of the Vice President has described as "highly irresponsible another deliberate attempt to malign the Vice President, John Mahama, the Mills administration and the ruling NDC."
The statement signed by John Abdulai Jinapor, Media Co-ordinator to the Vice President, said the JoyFM news report can, at best, be described as a "fabrication calculated to impugn the reputation of the Vice President."
The statement said, Joy FM in its report claimed, among others, that it had been able to confirm that the Vice President assisted the said Baby Ansabah with money to pay compensation to the family of a pastor he allegedly knocked down in a motor accident. The statement says the report also falsely claimed that officials of the NDC used that assistance to blackmail Mr. Ansabah to avoid prosecution.
Mr. Janipor stated that neither has the Vice President given out any money to Mr. Ansabah nor has he coerced him to make any confession.
"Despite the clear denial by both a family representative of the deceased pastor and Mr. Ansabah that there has not been any such compensation paid, JoyFM claimed in its news report that it had gathered that as a fact and went ahead to broadcast the news item though it did not prove that so-called fact," the Veep’s office stated.
The Office of the Vice President, in the statement said whilst the "Mills government believes in the freedom of the media and will continue to promote that, the media must desist from the deliberate peddling of falsehood and the fabrication of stories intended to malign personalities and institutions."
The statement advised JoyFM, in particular, to remember the basics of journalism and endeavour to promote professionalism in the trade.
Meanwhile, there have been general concerns about falling standards at Joy FM, with others speculating that certain particular journalists at the station appear to have taken a negative political stance against the current government.
There are some media observers who also say the lowering of standards at the station could be attributable to the exit of key news anchors over the years.
These pundits say the station has not found fitting replacements for some of its key anchors, who include, Komla Durmor, Akwasi Sarpong, Sony Decker, Mawuko Zormelo, Stan Dogbe, and Paul Adom Otchere. | > BACK to TOP < | | NDC Summons Spio Garbrah * Source: The Chronicle | Reliable information available to the Chronicle indicates that the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed disappointment in one of its National Vice Chairmen, Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah, who has reportedly used the official letterhead of the party to solicit for funds, without the knowledge and consent of his other colleagues.
The leadership of the party, at its Functional Executive committee (FEC) last week, took serious exception to the action of Dr. Spio Garbrah, and consequently directed Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the General Secretary, to summon him for explanations.
Though the party contends that every member has a right to solicit for funds, the modus-operandi adopted by the Vice Chairman has raised a lot of suspicion, since he is not the Finance Committee Chairman.
At the meeting during which Spio’s letter was part of the agenda, all members of the FEC were furious, and demanded an explanation from him.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Education and Communication under the administration of former president Jerry John Rawlings, who described President John Evans Atta Mills’ ministers as ‘Team B players,’ was out to town when the meeting was held.
Attempts to reach, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah failed, but his deputy General Secretary, Mr. Kofi Adams, could not confirm or deny the story.
According to him, during the meeting he was very busy moving in and out of the room, and could therefore not tell whether a decision was taking against Spio Garbrah over his letter or not.
Mr. Adams however stated that the leadership of the party was worried about how funds are raised by individuals. According to him, the party believes that there was the need for an improvement of the security features of letter sent out for funds, and that letters sent out should not be photocopied.
The Deputy General Secretary, stated that the though the party believes that every executive member could raise funds, things must be done in such a way that nobody would abuse the system.
"It was a general concern that we improve upon the security features of the system. We don’t want to create a situation where the system would be abused, or to prevent anybody from raising funds for the party. We believe that everybody within the party is a fund raiser," he said.
A few days after his election, as one of the Vice National Chairmen of the NDC, Dr. Spio-Garbrah wrote a letter dated January, 20, 2010, under the caption, "Appeal for computers for NDC offices," in which he requested for funds.
The letter, which bore the NDC letterhead, states: "As you may know, at the recent delegates’ congress of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) the ruling party of Ghana, I was elected as a vice chairman.
One of the commitments I made to delegates, prior to the voting, was to assist the various branches, constituency and regional offices of the party with computers, printers, fax machines and other ICT accessories, to enable them become more functional and efficient."
He continued: "My offer to assist the NDC office with ICT support is also related to the fact that I am the CEO of the commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, based in London, which focuses on improving ICT access in its member countries, especially for disadvantaged groups."
Dr. Garbrah, recounting is former roles in the letter, noted: "As a former Ambassador of Ghana to the USA, a former Minister of Education and Communications in the Rawlings administration, and with previous work experience at the World Bank Group and the African Development bank Group, many NDC members believe that I have a lot to offer the party and Ghana in the area of knowledge acquisition, storage, and distribution, through ICT.
"However, I am unable to meet these high expectations alone. I therefore appeal to you for a donation of new or refurbished computers, desktops, laptops, printers, photocopies, fax machines and related accessories, which could be used to equip offices of the NDC, in order to make them more efficient. An efficient ruling party will lead to an efficient government, and good governance is good for business.
"I thank you for your kind consideration, and look forward to your support. You may kindly call me on my Ghana number, or my UK number, if you would like to meet or have a prior conversation." | > BACK to TOP < | | Yamoah Ponkoh Goes Mad * Source: Daily Guide | Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh, Ashanti Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), created a nasty scene at the studios of a Kumasi based radio station, on Saturday morning when he allegedly violently attacked Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka ‘Sir John’, a contender in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary race.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) linchpin was on the weekend morning programme dubbed, "Akoko abon" hosted by Kwame Nkrumah with Sir John and other panelists.
Ponkoh was said to have pulled a chair and tried to smash it on Sir John. It took the intervention of the people around to save the situation as the NHIS boss threatened fire and brimstone.
The topics for discussion-included governments announced taxes on goods and services, the Baby Ansabah confession saga and the selling of cars at cheaper prices for functionaries of the ruling party. Characteristically, Sir John chastised President Mills’ government for introducing what he learned ‘killer’ taxes on Ghanaians and also condemned Baby Ansabah for his infamous confession.
Condemning Baby Ansabah, Sir John observed that the confession was unnecessary because President Mills, at the time of the publication, did not deny that he was sick at all, but rather refuted the assertion in the publication that he was suffering from a particular ailment.
Yamoah Ponkoh, who was ostensibly not pleased with Sir John criticism on the announced tax increases and the handling of the governance style of his boss, flared up.
Fuming with anger, the politician interjected, describing Sir John as a nonentity whose views should not be respected. Still descending heavily on his co-panelist, Ponkoh described Sir John as a shameful person who was moving around town as a lawyer but with no certificate.
According to him, he had a dossier on Sir John, which indicated that the NPP General Secretary contender was not a lawyer because he never attended any law school and had no law certificate to that effect. In spite of these harsh personal attacks, Sir John entreated Yamoah Ponkoh to calm his nerves because they were not at the studios to fight but to share ideas.
Still enjoining him to cool down, Sir John remarked that Yamoah Ponkoh needed not to be angry with him because of his views about the NDC, because he (Yamoah Ponkoh) was a greenhorn in the ruling party and could not pretend to be holier than the Pope.
This comment from Sir John fueled the anger of Yamoah Ponkoh who moved from his seat to pounce on the NPP man, but was restrained by other members of the panel which included Sampson K. Nyamekye, a broadcast journalist.
Determined to cause havoc at the studios, agitated Yamoah Ponkoh allegedly grabbed one of the chairs with the intention of hitting Sir John with it, but was again restrained by the panel members who became dumfounded at the behavior of the NHIS regional boss. Yamoah Ponkoh did not spare the host of the programme, hurling insults at him and threatening to vandalize the ultra-modern studio.
Yamoah Ponkoh, in a sheer display of madness, allegedly vented his frustrations on the chairs and knocked them down, whilst scattering papers at the studio in a bullish manner. When the producers of the show and the panel members realized that Yamoah Ponkoh was determined to cause mayhem, they escorted Sir John from the studios to avert any calamity.
Whilst moving out of the studios, Yamoah Ponkoh, who was still charged, continued raining unprintable insults on Sir John, threatening to beat him severely anytime he came across him.
Due to the nasty incident, the host was compelled to end the programme abruptly. | > BACK to TOP < | | Deputy Minister Suspended * Source: The Enquirer | A Deputy Minister for Information and National Orientation, Mr James Kwadwo Agyenim Boateng has been suspended for failing to attend an official ceremony at the Ghana School of Law.
According to impeccable sources, the reason for suspending the Minister who is in his first year as a law student was because he failed to attend a cocktail reception organised by the Director of the School.
Sources close to the Deputy Minister stated that Mr Agyenim Boateng might have skipped the event due to pressure of work as a Minister.
Mr Agyenim is said to have been among about thirty students both at the first and second year grades who failed to honour the Director’s cocktail which is a compulsory function for all law students.
The Deputy Minister is one of two Deputy Ministers at the Ministry of Information. By press time Saturday, The Enquirer could not confirm the duration of the suspension. | > BACK to TOP < |
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