GRi Press Review Headlines 28 – 4 – 99
"Goosie in trouble…Hammer falls on reformers"
"Foreign Ministry to account for 8 billion cedis"
"Our image at Stake…Nigerians abuse Ghanaian passport abroad…Law-abiding Ghanaians in Libya hooked in the net"
"Chieftaincy risks death, History Prof. Warns"
AMA earmarks 200 houses for demolition
James Fort Prison rejects Captain Owoo
Stealing at Tema Harbour on the increase
Court directs Ministry to pay severance awards to SCC workers
"Goosie in trouble…Hammer falls on reformers", says the Weekly Insight in a lead headline story. According to the paper, Mr Goosie Tanoh, apparent leader of the Reform Movement, is not in the best of days. Everything he has cherished as a youthful loyalist of the Rawlings regime, diplomat and business executive, has been target for total destruction. The Weekly Insight says Goosie is most certainly having a taste of what his former comrades like Akoto Ampaw, Kwame Karikari, Yao Graham and Kwasi Adu-Amankwa, were made to suffer when he strode through the corridors of power. The paper says fortunately for him, his ordeal is not likely to extend to being placed in prison cells for many agonising months because of the constitutional dispensation which Goosie’s former political opponents struggled to enthrone. It says already many of his associates and leaders of the Reform Movement have suffered the pain of being in opposition to the neo-colonial rule of the (P)NDC. The Weekly Insight says the first to be hit was Mr Peter Kpordugbe, who was thrown out of his job as Director of the National Service Secretariat on account of his dissident activities in the NDC. According to the paper, Goosie’s two brothers, Dr Nathaniel Tanoh, Managing Director and Brazini Tanoh, Sales Manager, both of World Space, have allegedly been axed from their jobs after being found guilty of being relations of an NDC ‘spoiler’.
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The Dispatch writes on the Auditor-General’s report which covered ministries, departments and other agencies of the Central Government and says: "Foreign Ministry to account for 8 billion cedis". The paper says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to account for a total of $3,247,543, a little over 8 billion cedis. It says according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs circular of September 3, 1994, revenue accruing to the Special Collections Account should be paid regularly into the Special Investment Account in London. The Auditor-General’s report, the Dispatch says, found that not all the revenue from 11 Ghana Missions abroad Were fully transferred into the London account as required. According to the report, out of a total amount of $3,939,923, only $1,068,253 was transferred. At the Ghana Mission in Nigeria for the year 1997, only 4.29 out of the 10.29 million Naira, in respect of Special Collections, was transferred to the Special Investments Account in London. The difference of six million Naira was instead paid into a Deposit Account in Lagos.
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A screaming front page headline of the Free Press says: "Our image at Stake…Nigerians abuse Ghanaian passport abroad…Law-abiding Ghanaians in Libya hooked in the net". The accompanying account says some Nigerians in Libya carrying Ghanaian passports are indulging in all sorts of crimes, including murder and deliberately leaving clues to incriminate Ghanaians. According to the Free Press, the criminal activities of these Nigerian imposters, have so stigmatised Ghanaians as well as made them so despised that they have become the victims of Libyan police raids and harassment. The paper says as recently as March 18, this year, following the murder of a girl in a villa in Benghazi by Nigerians who left traces to connect Ghanaians, the police mounted a house-to-house search for the arrest of innocent Ghanaians. The girl’s father is said to be a top Libyan official. The Free Press says the report of the impersonation was contained in a letter dated March 23, 1999 written to its editor by a worried Ghanaian from Tamale living in Jardina Benghazi, who gave his name as Mashud A. Mumuni. The author of the letter, the paper says, appealed to the Ghana Immigration Service, the police, the passport office, local organisations and Ghanaian ambassadors world-wide to take steps to stop the acquisition of Ghanaian passport by aliens.
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The Chronicle reports on its front page that a Professor of History has warned that the chieftaincy Institution stands the risk of dying or becoming anachronistic unless chiefs comport and conduct themselves so as to restore the confidence of their subjects. In a story headlined: "Chieftaincy risks death, History Prof. Warns", the paper quotes Prof. Addo-Fening of the University of Ghana, Legon, as saying though the roles of chiefs and kings have changed since the advent of colonialism and independence, the way some chiefs conduct themselves, if not checked, might whittle away the little respect left for the institution. "It is the way the chieftaincy institution conduct itself that will determine whether it is going to survive or die or whether it is going to grow into a very respectable institution or it is going to become anachronistic", Prof. Addo-Fening is reported as telling a "GTV" programme in Accra, last Saturday.
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In a front page story, the Graphic reports that the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has earmarked 200 houses built along waterways in the North Kaneshie Last Stop area of Accra, for immediate demolition. The Paper quotes Mr Johnson Quarshie, Chairman of the Okaikoi sub-Metropolitan Assembly, who was briefing newsmen yesterday at the site where an AMA task force pulled down a structure to pave way for a bulldozer to carry out the demolition, as saying owners of the houses have already been notified about the exercise. He said the houses, some of which were built as far back as 1964, are in the course of the Mukose and Odaw streams. According to him, the unauthorised structures have been impeding the flow of water resulting in flooding after rains. Mr Quarshie said although most of the owners of the houses have been fully compensated, they have refused to move out and the AMA has no choice but to demolish the houses and prevent further loss of lives when the rains set in.
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In another front page story, the Graphic says Captain James Owoo a 53-year-old retired officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, who is standing trial for treason and who was remanded in prison custody by an Accra Circuit Tribunal at its last adjourned date, has been rejected by the authorities at the James Fort Prison in Accra. The paper says the prosecution who told the court trying Captain Owoo yesterday, therefore requested that the tribunal remand the accused in prison custody. According to the prosecution, officers at the James Fort Prison refused to admit Captain Owoo because the charge preferred against him is a serious one and that they cannot keep him there. The Graphic says the tribunal, chaired by Mr Charles Quist, however, remanded Captain Owoo in police custody until May 11, but ordered the police to give the accused and his counsel time for consultation without the presence of any official.
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The Times reports that the lack of adequate security and the high rate of stealing at the Tema Harbour are a cause of great worry for people who import and export goods through the port. The paper says its investigations on Monday revealed that the theft of vehicle parts, personal effects, commercial goods as well as tampering with containers were on the increase at the port. According to the Times these nefarious activities are being perpetrated by criminals referred to as "water rats’, who have ‘adopted’ the numerous laid-up vessels abandoned at the mainstream of the harbour. The criminals are said to launch their raids from the vessels in which their booty is also kept. The investigations, the paper says, also showed that the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority security is ill-equipped and limited in strength to effectively handle the situation. Mr Seth Martey, Ports Operations Manager, is quoted as confirming the story and said the port in recent times, has been operating under a lot of security risk due to the activities of the ‘water rats’.
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In a back page story, the Times says an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Mr V.C. Doegah, yesterday directed the Ministry of Finance to start negotiations for the payment of severance awards to retrenched workers of the State Construction Company (SCC). The court, the paper says, gave the ruling in the case in which Mr Samuel Aamoah Larbi, a spokesman for the retrenched workers is praying the court to expedite action on the payment of their severance awards. The Times says in December. last year, 1,750 workers of the SCC were retrenched following the divestiture of the company. The affected workers claimed that they were not paid their salaries from January 1996, to December 31, 1997, running into five billion cedis when their appointments were terminated.
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