Press Review 23-04-99

Daily Graphic

Ghanaian Times

The Ghanaian Chronicle

Free Press

The disbandment of the national timber task force following detection of corruption that has crept into the body, is the subject of the lead story of the Daily Graphic. The paper says the Ministry of Lands and Forestry has disbanded the National Timber Task Force for failing to meet the expectation of the government. The paper says the task force was constituted to check the wanton destruction of the country's forest products but according to the Minister of Lands and Forestry, Dr Christina Amoako-Nuama, many of them have become corrupt, and 'turned themselves into rackets to enrich themselves at the expense of the country. The Minister said instead of protecting and sustaining the forest reserves, the task force concentrated on confiscating illegal lumber in order to get the 3 per cent bonus offered to its members from proceeds of the sale f seized umber'.

The Graphic says Dr Amoako-Nuama announced this when she addressed the staff of the Forestry Department at Cape Coast as part of a day's familiarisation tour of the Central Region. She said the protection ad policing of the country's forest products has been reverted to the Forestry Department whose duty it was before the introduction of the task force. The Graphic says the Minister announced that an ad-hoc surveillance team will be dispatched from Accra periodically to monitor the activities of the district offices of the Forestry Department

 In another front page story headlined Cruelty over one ripe mango', the Graphic reports that Basogle Kuolo, a 48-year-old foreman cruelly wounded an eight-ear-old school boy with an axe for attempting to pluk a ripe mango from his mango tree, has been jailed for four years in hard labour by the Wa circuit Court. Kuolo is a foreman of the Sankana Community Collaborative Forest Initiative in the Upper West Region, pleaded guilty to causing harm to Yaw Donkuruu, the school boy. He, however, pleaded for mitigation of sentence since he claimed to have 'learnt his lesson'. The Graphic reports the prosecution as telling the court that on April 6, this year, onkuruu, a pupil of Sankana Local authority Primary School, spotted a ripe mango on a tree behind Kuolos house. Te boy who was hungry, threw a stone to pluck the mango, but Kuolo, who was on the roof of the building, saw Donkuruu and threw a a hammer at him but it missed him. The boy took to his heels while Kuolo pursued him and wounded the boy in his right ribs with a sharp axe. The prosecution said not satisfied with the deepcut he had inflicted on the boy, Kuolo chased Donkuruu with the axe and again inflicted wounds on the boys legs until he fell down yelling for help in pain. According to the prosecution, Kuolo then pounced on the bleeding and helpless boy and beat him up mercilessly. People in the neighbourhood who were attracted by the boy's scream for help rushed to the scene, took Donuruu to the hospital and later reported the matter to the police.

'Missing mammogram found at harbour', says the Times in a front page story in which the paper reports that the 160 million (=A338,000) mammogram donated to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital by the Milton Keynes Union of London, has now been located at the Tema Harbour. The Times says the machine will finally be cleared and sent to the hospital next Tuesday. According to the paper, the mammogram was discovered among a number of items the Ministry of Health is clearing at the harbour. It quotes Lt-Colonel J.K. Sackey, Special Assistant to the Minister as disclosing this in an interview. Lt-Col. Sackey the paper says, explained that the Ministry had a copy of the Bill of Lading but without the invoice which would enable the machine to be cleared from the port. According to Lt-Col Sackey, after discussions early this week and with the help of the Ghana Supply Commission office at Tema, the shipping company that brought in the machine was traced and they showed us where the mammogram was located'. 'At present an official from Korle-Bu, has gone to the port to open and inspect the machine to ensure that all the contents are intact for clearance', he is quoted as saying. The Times recalls that it carried a story last Saturday that the mammogram had been sitting at the Tema Harbour since December 7, last year when it arrived.

'Demolition of $5 million Accra hotel...AMA violated constitution, says international law expert, but Addowei Addo defends action', says the Chronicle in a front page screamer. In the accompanying story the paper says as the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA)avoided answering direct questions from the press and rather went on state radio last Wednesday night to justify the Assembly's on-going exercise, demolishing so-called illegal structures, an international law expert and social commentators have suggested that the AMA breached the constitution in its earlier exercise which saw the destruction of a five million-dollar, 65-room hotel in Accra The paper says a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, who specialises in corporate litigation and capital market transaction, said even if the AMA's explanation that the proprietor of the hotel had violated its building code was to be accepted, the Assembly had contravened Article 296 of the constitution. The Chronicle quotes the United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, Mr Kwasi Prempeh as saying that even though the 1992 constitution gives discretionary powers to public office-holders in the performance of their dduties, the same constitution, wary of the abuse of such powers, states that the use of such discretion must be 'fairad candid', must bot be used n a manner that is 'arbitrary, capricious or biased either by resentment, prejudice or personal dislike and must accord such 'accused' the due process of law'

The Free Press splashes its front age with the headline: 'Dirty propaganda in rural politics...Kufuor is a cripple- says NDC...But the crowd mobs him Eastern Region'. In the following story, the paper says a NDC-orchestrated vicious campaign of naked lies and distortions, including the 'portrayal of Mr J.A. Kufuor, as a cripple, was exposed during the NPP flag-bearer's one-day tour of the Fanteakwa constituency in the Eastern Region, last week. According to the Free Press, against all expectations, there was a tumultuous welcome for Mr Kufuor anywhere he and his entourage stopped as curious people surged forward to catch a glimpse of the 'Gentle Giant'. The paper says what was amazing was that normal activities came to a halt as people scrambled for Kufuor's posters. It says Krobo chiefs poured libation for the NPP, rams were resented to to him while some people in the audience willingly came forward to confess to Mr Kufuor and his entourage how the 1996 elections were conducted in the villages. The Free Press says at Hyiamankyene, one of the large villages in the Fanteakwa District, where the visit coincided with the market day, activities at the market came to a standstill as people surged forward to take a closer look at Mr Kufuor. According to the paper, most of the villagers expressed amazement when they met Mr Kufuor, because the person they saw was not the one they had been made to believe during the last general elections