Owusu-Acheampong to contest NDC top post
Accra (Greater Accra)
10 April 2002 - The VAT Secretariat has paid a total of ˘410 billion to the
Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) between January 2001 and February 2002.
Out of the amount, the GETFUND has spent ˘130 billion to finance educational
projects in tertiary and second cycle institutions.
Mr Fosuaba Mensah Banahene, the Administrator of GETFUND, who made this known
in an interview in Accra on Tuesday, said the educational sector could be
transformed if the government continues to show commitment to the fund.
The fund was established in August 2000 as an alternative source of financing
education in the country. Mr Banahene said even though the VAT Secretariat gave
a notification that it had collected a total of ˘168 billion in the year 2000,
only ˘31 billion of the amount was released to the fund.
He said the remaining amount of ˘137 billion has still not been made available
to the fund. He said out of the ˘130 billion, the GETFUND has paid ˘350 million
to the Scholarship Secretariat to provide scholarships to brilliant but needy
students in second cycle institutions.
Besides, he said, the fund has released ˘21.55 billion to the Ghana Education
Service for the reprinting of textbooks for distribution to basic and secondary
schools. It has also provided an amount of ˘3.3 billion for the purchase of 20
heavy-duty vehicles to facilitate the distribution of textbooks to educational
institutions.
Mr Banahene said as its contribution towards financing tertiary education, the
fund has paid ˘60 billion to support the Students Loan Scheme operated by the
Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
He said the GETFUND is also committed to the development of vocational and
technical education in the country and it is providing additional
infrastructure for 20 vocational and technical institutions at the cost of
˘20.1 billion. Additionally, he said, accommodation facilities, computers,
laboratory equipment, classrooms, lecture halls and vehicles are being provided
by the fund at all levels to improve on the standard and delivery of education
in the country.
Mr Banahene said one
policy direction of the fund for this year is to provide substantial amount of
money for the development of academic facilities at the University for
Development Studies. It is also the policy of the fund to allocate more
resources to schools, especially in the three northern regions where infrastructure
is woefully inadequate.
Mr Banahene said the
fund would also concentrate on development of pre-tertiary education to ensure
that all schools organise their classes in classrooms instead of under trees.
He said one of the best things to have happened in the educational sector is
the establishment of the GETFUND and indicated that it holds the trump card for
the development of educational institutions in the country. – Daily Graphic.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo Region) 10 April 2002 - Agyewodin Professor Adu Gyamfi Ampem, Acheresuahene and former chairman of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Council, has appeared before Sunyani High Court charged with murder.
The accused allegedly shot and killed Nii Ato Quaye, when a mob, including the deceased allegedly attacked him at his palace on 17 April 2001. The prosecution called two witnesses, Kwasi Boakye and Obeng Manu Bempah on Monday while the third witness, Yaw Duku, spoke on Tuesday.
The first prosecution witness, Kwasi Boakye, a tutor at the Acherensua Secondary School told the court presided over by Mr Justice Baffoe Bonnie that, about 6.15 pm on 17 April last year, he and two other friends, Obeng Manu and Mensah Boateng were at a drinking bar at the Acherensua Community Centre, adjacent to the local palace, when they heard that Agyewodin had fired at a crowd injuring one person.
He said they rushed to the scene and took the victim to the Hwidiem Hospital in a private car belonging to the second prosecution witness, Mr Obeng Manu Bempah. According to Boakye, the victim was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. The second prosecution witness, Mr Obeng Manu Bempah corroborated the evidence of the first prosecution witness.
The third prosecution witness, Mr Yaw Duku, a driver, in his evidence, stated that a number of people, including himself met at Achesrensua Community Centre to discuss the rehabilitation of the town’s public place of convenience. He said after the meeting, they were returning to their various houses when Agyewodin Ampem’s wife came from the palace to inform the chief’s sister who was sitting in front of the palace to go away because Agyewodin was coming out with a gun.
Mr Duku stated that minutes later, he heard gunshots form Agyewodin Ampem. He said Agyewodin Ampem first shot in the air and later fired two more shots into the crowd. The leading counsel for the accused, Mr K.T. Otu-Essel, drew the attention of witness to the discrepancies between some of the details in his evidence and the statement to the police relating to the number of shots fired and the place where the crowd was when Agyewodin Ampem first fired the shots.
He said the shot that killed the deceased did not come from Agyewodin Ampem’s gun although the accused fired a warning shot. Mr Otu-Essel contended that if Agyewodin Ampem had fired the three shots, the crowd would have killed him. Again, he stated that the Acherensua communal labour is organised by the Unit Committee and the Area Council but that particular meeting was not organised by the two bodies.
The witness admitted that particular suggestion by counsel but he denied the suggestion by Mr Otu-Essel that it was organised by NPP youth wing. The prosecutor, Mr B. Cab-Beyuo, who is Chief State Attorney for the Brong Ahafo Region, intimated that in all he will call 16 witnesses. Sitting continues on Wednesday. – Daily Graphic
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 10 April 2002 - The Ministry of Education (MOE) has said that
the delay in handling over the ˘150 million prize package to the National Best
Teacher, Mr Joseph Yaw Nyarko, was caused by his inability to present a site
plan for a house for which the money would be released.
Mr Ahmed
Ayuba, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, told the Ghanaian Times on
Tuesday that it was made clear, as part of the requirements, that the Best
Teacher should present a site plan of a building before the cheque for the
amount would be handed over to him.
That
requirement was to ensure that the money was used for the intended purpose. He
stated that the cheque was ready and would be handed over to Mr Nyarko. Asked
whether the money that would be used to acquire the land for the building was part
of the ˘150 million, he answered in the negative, adding that the Best Teacher
had to acquire the land himself and prepare a site plan for the building after
which the package would be released.
He further
explained that although there could be a possibility that the Best Teacher did
not have money, he should have communicated that to the Ministry to see how
best it could be solved.
The Times
on Monday, reported that six months after Mr Nyarko was adjudged the National
Best Teacher for 2001, he had still not received his ˘150 million package to
build a house. Mr Nyarko had on several occasions called on the education
authorities for his package but to no avail. “The reason given by the education
authorities is that there is no money and, therefore, I should wait,” he said.
– The Ghanaian Times.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
10 April 2002 - The former Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr J.H.
Owusu-Acheampong, has declared his intention to contest the position of
National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at its national
delegates congress slated for 26 April.
“My foremost intention to seek the position of National Chairman of the NDC is
to reconcile the apparent differences that have emerged on our front and which,
if not checked, will weaken our resolve to fight and win the next general
elections,” he said.
According Mr Owusu-Acheampong, looking at the unhealthy rivalry on the party’s
front and his desire to ensure the survival of the NDC as the
government-in-waiting, “I decided, upon persistent and intense pressure, to
offer myself to be elected as the National Chairman of the NDC at the upcoming
delegates congress slated for Accra.”
He said the NDC, which finds itself as the leading opposition party for the
first time since its formation, needs a person of his calibre who can weld the
feuding factions into an impregnable, united and cohesive force capable of
wresting political power from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and form the
next government in January 2005.
“There is the clamour among leading personalities and the rank and file of the
party for a compromised candidate who will be acceptable to the two factions
and thereby prevent the NDC from fragmenting into splinter groups,” he said. He
said such a development will offer the ruling party the chance to strengthen
and entrench its hold on the country and thereby dilute the potency and
efficacy of the country’s democratic process.
Mr Owusu-Acheampong said he sincerely believes that the NDC is bigger than the
expectations and aspirations of any individual of the party and for that
matter, “I decided to step into the fray to bring to an end the problems in the
party, which are assuming an amoebic feature, and build bridges of cooperation
to ensure that both past and present members of the party join the new
political vehicle, of which I will be the manager after the congress, to
prepare the party adequately for a massive victory in the next presidential and
parliamentary elections.”
He promised to strive unceasingly, if elected, to encourage all past leading
members who, due to circumstances best known to themselves, recoiled into their
shells to rejoin the party since their ideas, support and presence are crucial
to help achieve the party’s goal of recapturing political power in the next
elections.
Mr Owusu-Acheampong said the mass of functionaries in this category who are
resident in Ghana and elsewhere in the world are imbued with organisational and
other skills, which the party can tap and embody in its overall strategy to
prepare adequately for the next polls. – Daily Graphic.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 10 April 2002 - The National Executive Committee of the NDC was
expected to hold a marathon meeting in Accra on Tuesday to discuss problems, which
if not properly handled could impact negatively on the forthcoming congress of
the party.
Critical on
the agenda is a committee report on the contentious amendment of the
constitution, which will abolish the title of Founder and Leader currently
being held by former President J.J. Rawlings. Also on the agenda for discussion
is a protest letter by Mr Haruna Iddrisu, one of the candidates for the
position of national youth organiser, against the holding of the youth congress
at Prampram.
On the
national congress itself, Mr Attor said it would definitely come on and
debunked rumours that the party cannot hold the congress because it was cash
strapped. He said the congress is not only to elect national officers but also
to discuss the ideological and future direction of the party.
The MP said
full reports of three committees set up would be discussed in detail. The
committees, he said are the Constitutional Amendment Committee, the Political
Direction Committee and the National Economic Direction Committee. He said all
the committees had completed their work but were yet to brief the national
executive committee.
He
however, pointed out that the congress will not elect the flagbearer of the
party. According to him, many people had collected nomination forms to contest
the various positions but are yet to return them. The positions to be contested
for, he said, are the chairman and two deputies, general secretary and two
deputies, national organiser and a deputy and propaganda secretary/deputy. –
The Evening News.
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More trouble at Ghanair as senior staff, workers union decry poor
management
Accra
(Greater Accra) 10 April 2002 - “Come to Macedonia and help us,” was the cry by
the Ghana Airways Senior Staff Association (GASSA) and the Local Union members
to the government during a press conference by the two powerful bodies of the
troubled airline last week.
The two
bodies appealed to the government to take a critical look at the management of
the troubled airline to avoid past mistakes that pushed the company into its
present predicaments. It was admitted that in spite of the agitation for the
state to step in and bail the airline, if the company does not put its house in
order, it will continue to wallow in its present predicaments, even if all the
national budget is handed over to the company.
According
to GASSA and Union members, nothing seems to have changed in the management of
Ghanair because the company’s debts continue to swell each passing day. “The
same old hands and people, whose commissions and omissions in Emmanuel
Quartey’s (the airline’s former boss) administration had brought us this far,
are still manipulating the system and controlling the affairs of the airline
hence the continued decline of the progress of the company”, Chronicle heard.
“It is not
only in the Ghana Football Association (GFA) that we have three wise men. There
is another set of three wise men in Ghana Airways whose modus operandi has
brought the national airline to its current position,” a dejected looking staff
pointed out.
GASSA and
the Union were of the view that if government does not throw a prompt life-line
to salvage Ghanair, there was no way that the company could stand on its feet
till the completion of the Forensic Audit, which is to be commissioned to look
into how the company was mismanaged.
Addressing
the press, Mr Roland Wobil Mosore, President of the Senior Staff Association
and national chairman of General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers
Union of TUC noted this was not the time to apportion blame to single
individuals but “all the workers must be collectively blamed for the present
state of the airline.”
However, he
attributed the present precarious position of Ghanair to lack of transparency
in the management of the company, coupled with political patronage that had
been the order of the day. Mosore also blamed the past government for
engineering and supervising the destruction of Ghanair.
The
President of the Senior Staff Association recounted how masked soldiers stormed
KIA one afternoon in 1994 and hijacked Ghanair’s ground handling equipment,
which was a major source of income to the company, and handed it over to AFGO.
“It is not that when things were going astray we did not alert the management
or draw their attention, but at a certain stage we were all living witnesses to
the threats and victimisation that were going on in the company,” he said.
According
to Mosore, after the NDC government had wrestled the equipment from the company
and given it to AFGO, Ghanair continued to service the loans it contracted for
the purchase of the equipment. “Apart from all these, it is disheartening to
note that Ghanair pays $263,000 per month to AFGO for using our own equipment
to render services for us,” he lamented.
To rub salt
on injury, Mosore said, the catering service that was left to support the other
source of income was also mysteriously taken and dashed to another company.
“When all these sources of revenue were taken away, the airline was left to
make do with only income from the passenger service, which, we are all aware,
is not reliable to sustain us,” he said.
He also
expressed grave concern about the maintenance agreement between Ghanair and
Alitalia, the Italian airline. He noted that under the terms of contract,
Alitialia continued to bill Ghanair the same amount even when it was clear that
there was no aircraft for them to service for Ghanair.
It also
came to light that the management of Ghanair sold all the company’s spare parts
to A.J. Walters and Alitalia some years back, but the parts are still stocked
in Ghanair’s stores in Accra and whenever Ghanair is in serious need of any
parts the company then goes to its stores, takes the same parts they have sold
out and pays hard earned dollars for them.
According
to GASSA and the Union, the company is viable but due to mismanagement of the
place and the old hands that are still controlling almost everything nothing
seems to be moving towards its viability. – The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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Kumasi
(Ashanti Region) 10 April 2002 - A programme for the observation of the third
anniversary of the enstoolment of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has
been launched in Kumasi. The activities, which will be coordinated by Yankah
and Associates, a Public Relations Consultancy, in collaboration with the
Institute of African Studies, will span 11 days, from 26 April to 6 May 2002.
A statement
issued in Kumasi indicated that a photo exhibition has been planned to
highlight the Asantehene’s enstoolment. The programme is also oriented towards
the promotion of education and development of health. The statement said Nana
Wereko Ampem, Chancellor of the University of Ghana, would perform the official
opening of the photo exhibition on 26 April, the day the Asantehene was
enstooled three years ago.
Films on
the Golden Stool and the King’s trips abroad will be shown. Other activities
include lectures, church services, soccer gala, awards night and a reception to
commemorate the Asantehene’s birthday on 6 May. The anniversary is expected to
set the stage for a documentary to be made on the Asantehene’s Golden reign.
The
programme is against the background that the Asantehene has within this short
period of ascending the Golden Stool, distinguished himself as a progressive,
forward-looking, development-oriented leader. He has resolved long-standing
chieftaincy and land disputes and set up education and health funds and also
established an investment into Asanteman.
The King
has added to the image of traditional leaders in Africa, having earned for
himself a high recognition. He has since ascension to the Golden Stool,
received three international and a local honorary degrees. About 2,000 people
are expected to visit the exhibition daily. – The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 April 2002 - Recent allegations and moves against Major Abubakar Sulemana of the National Security apparatus are nothing more than a grand move to deal with the Sulemana-phobia that has gripped former President J.J. Rawlings and his associates ever since the former Recce Commander returned to Ghana last year, Statesman investigations indicate.
An Accra FM Station recently mentioned Maj. Sulemana as the brain behind the dastardly act in Dabgonland and went on with the wild allegation of having spotted him fleeing the country to Burkina Faso in the company of Liberian mercenaries.
The Statesman’s investigations have however, exposed the news item as a crude and cruel lie after firmly establishing that the ruthlessly efficient veteran soldier has never set foot outside Accra since 2 March this year when he returned from Tamale where he celebrated the Ed-il-Adha festival.
Compounding the flummox, a press statement by some representatives of Dagbon alleged that “some survivors of the Yendi massacre have said Major Sulemana was seen leading what is believed to be dozens of heavily armed Liberian mercenaries in the attack on the Ya-Na’s palace.”
Pursuing the motive behind the wild allegations and painful efforts to stick a charge of murder against him has however revealed a morbid hatred for the man who has become the bęte-noir of former President Rawlings who he has beaten at every turn.
The Rawlings-Sulemana cat and mouse game dates back to 15 May 1979 when the lean and hungry looking Ft-Lt tried to stage his own coup d’etat, which flopped as a stillborn uprising. The man behind his failure was Major Sulemana who was then the officer commanding the Reece regiment of the Ghana Army.
Military legend has it that while the frustrated Ft-Lt, in furtherance of the conspiracy and his band of hungry and angry young men were on a shooting spree in their desire to seize Burma Camp, Sulemana went through the hail of bullets, seized the Ft-Lt’s weapon and mockingly told him to “learn how to do coups properly next time,” after whipping him with it.
When the June 4 uprising succeeded and installed the skimpy looking Rawlings as Head of State of Ghana, Sulemana went underground, slipping through a massive dragnet thrown for him by the regime of junior officers. Though he is known to have lived in the capital for the entire duration of the AFRC, all attempts to capture him proved futile.
Resurfacing immediately after the AFRC’s handover to Dr Hilla Limann, the PNP government must have committed one of its gravest errors when barely six months after, it sent Sulemana away for an overseas course. The December 31 coup took place before the tough Major could return. For him, however, the coup consigned him to life in exile as he was dismissed from the Ghana Army and declared a persona-non-grata.
Sulemana’s next brush with Rawlings was in 1985 when agents of the regime traced him to the home of Alhaji Abass in Kumasi where he was reported to be planning a coup d’etat with some young former military personnel. Within hours, truckloads of heavily armed soldiers were discharged in the vicinity and ordered to storm the house. Again, legend has it that in the ensuring shootout, Sulemana ordered his heavily outgunned group to take flight, giving firm instructions that none of them should look back.
The men who obeyed his order succeeded in running to safety while one young man who disobeyed him and looked behind him was, like the wife of Lot, immediately cut down by the massive ricochet of firepower besieging them.
Outside Ghana, Sulemana for years lived in Togo and Nigeria as a “dissident” of the PNDC until he landed in Liberia. Like the feared Capt Kojo Tsikata before him, who fought as a mercenary in the Congo civil war, Sulemana saw action in the Liberia civil war where he was in the trenches as the military supremo of then rebel leader Charles Taylor who eventually won the war and went on to win the election to become the President of that country.
It is widely believed that the remote cause of the Rawlings government at that time to intervene in the civil war was to prevent Charles Taylor, with Major Sulemana as his right hand man, from taking over the country. The fear was that if that was allowed to happen, Charles Taylor could reciprocate Sulemana’s assistance by offering him a helping hand in his desire to rescue Ghana from PNDC rule.
The Sulemana legend in Liberia is one of a mystery man in charge of a ruthlessly efficient and effective security apparatus, which propped up Charles Taylor and helped him contain waves of moves to assassinate or topple him.
Determined not to allow him back home even while it was declaring a state of amnesty, the NDC in 1998 refused permission for Sulemana to come home for the funeral rites of his father, the late Tolon-Na. The call to national service with the dawn of positive change however brought Sulemana back to Ghana and into the sector he has been comfortable with, the security machinery of state.
The surge of attacks against the Taylor regime and the advances by rebels to his regime since Sulemana’s return speaks volumes about his bulwark role in that regime and how much his absence over there is being felt.
His salvo to Rawlings on his return, “the playing field is now even”, and daring the former President to try his familiar trick again must however have alerted his old foe, now with a political machinery behind him to get back to the drawing board of scheming and chicanery again.
Today, the Dagbon royal finds himself embroiled in the most gruesome of murder allegations against his own king. The Government Spokesman on the Yendi crisis, Ferdinand O. Ayim has said that whoever has allegations of charges to press against anybody should channel them through the avenues that have officially been created, such as the police investigation team under the leadership of Chief Superintendent David Appiah Apeatu and the ministerial team, under the chairmanship of Senior Minister, J.H. Mensah. He also appealed for patience and confidence in the machinery of state, which he said “Is in the hands of competent professionals.”
Some members of the Andani family are, however adamant that “hired foreign mercenaries and their collaborators within the national security apparatus managed to get to the Gbewaa Palace at Yendi to “carry out the massacres of scores of people, including our king.”
They have, accordingly, appealed to the government to “effect the immediate arrest of the following because of what” they see as “their complicity in these heinous crimes against the Dagbon state.” The individuals concerned include Major Abubakar Sulemana of the National Security Advisor, and Malik Yakubu Alhassan, former Minister of Interior. The Government Spokesman on the Yendi crises has asked all parties to the conflict to restrain themselves from “aggravating the situation by refraining from media wars and trials since they have the potential of inflaming the situation and prejudicing investigation.” – The Statesman.
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Koforidua
(Eastern Region) 10 April 2002 - In spite of the fear and publicity accorded
HIV/AIDS, malaria, on the quiet, remains Ghana’s number one killer disease, as
suggested by records available in the Eastern Region. The Regional Health
Services indicates that 42.1 per cent nearly half of all deaths last year were
caused by malaria alone.
Health
officials regretted that malaria is often not taken seriously when one is
infected, allowing the disease chances for remarkable devastation of lives. The
supposition is that it is curable, unlike HIV/AIDS.
The
prevalence of malaria infection in the Eastern Region can be attributed to the
poor sanitation conditions in areas such as Suhum, Akwatia, Koforidua and Kpong
where rubbish is dumped in unauthorized places. Areas mined for diamonds create
stagnant water and become a breeding place for mosquitoes. But this can be
checked to prevent more deaths caused by the disease.
Mr Charles
Baah, a pharmacist at the Koforidua Central Hospital, argues that since malaria
is a curable and preventable disease, it ought to receive greater attention to
protect the vulnerable.
Another
medical expert, Dr Appiah, at the Koforidua Central Hospital also concurs. He
was not happy about the rate at which fake traditional medicines believed to be
effective against the disease are flooding our system and making the problem of
malaria complicated.
The medical
expert advised the public to seek proper treatment from qualified health
practitioners whenever they are ill. Dr Appiah praised the government for
introducing the certificate training school for traditional herbalists. He
believes this will help in checking quack herbalists in the system. He proposed
the holding of regular workshops for doctors to upgrade their knowledge in
treating the disease.
According
to the Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Aaron Offei, the
control of a disease like cholera is becoming a big challenge to the sector
because of the increasing number of cases being reported each year over the
last four years. He said logistics improved both last year and this year but
the relative increase in the number of deaths has been due to late reporting to
health facilities, attributable to lack of education and poverty.
Reports
submitted for January, this year still showed malaria leading with 28,699
cases, followed by tuberculosis 101 and measles 92. The rest are HIV/AIDS 8,
cholera 66 cases with two deaths, buruli ulcer five and yellow fever nil. – The
Ghanaian Chronicle.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 10 April 2002 - The Attorney-General has ordered investigations
into the death of Devine Owusu during circumcision at the Mamobi Polyclinic on
4 January 2002. This would allow for the payment of suitable compensation
package to the family of the deceased.
The Medical
Officer in-charge of the Mamobi Polyclinic, Dr Brese, announced this during a
meeting with the family in Accra on Tuesday. He said that the
Attorney-General’s directive came after the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) referred the case to the A-G’s Department for
advice on the compensation package.
The Accra
Metropolitan Health Authorities had planned to pay some amount as compensation
to the family. But after three meetings by the two parties, they could not agree
on the type or quantum of the compensation, so the matter was referred to CHRAJ
for assistance. While the Health authorities wanted the family to come out with
a figure for consideration, the family said they could not put a price on the
deceased.
The
Ghanaian Times on 21 January, this year, carried a front-page story of Devine’s
death from an overdose of anaesthetics. A post-mortem report issued by the
Korle-Bu Teacher Hospital described the case of death as “Anaesthetic death.”
The boy had been sent to the hospital by his mother for circumcision. – The
Ghanaian Times.
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Bawku
(Upper East Region) 10 April 2002 - More than 800 Ghanaians traveling from
various towns in Burkina Faso to Ghana are stranded at Bittou, a Burkinabe
town, 28 kilometres from Bawku, as a Burkinabe transport union deny vehicles
with Ghanaian registration numbers passage. There are also at the moment more
than 600 passengers made up of Ghanaians, Burkinabes and Nigerians traveling to
Burkina Faso and Niger, equally stranded at Bawku.
This was
disclosed by Alhaji Mamah Gumah, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana
Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in an interview with the Ghana News Agency
at Bawku at the weekend. Alhaji Gumah said the travellers’ predicament started
last Thursday, when “Otraf”, a transport union at Bittou, refused to allow
passenger vehicles with Ghanaian registration numbers access through the town
to or from Ghana.
Members of
Otraf want the Ghanaian vehicles to convey passengers from Bawku or anywhere in
Ghana to Bittou as the last stop. “No passenger vehicle bearing the
registration number of Burkina Faso traveling to Southern Ghana or from
Southern Ghana will from hence also be allowed access through Bawku, a union
member said adding that, “we will cause their passengers too to be stranded in
our town,” he revealed.
The
Regional Chairman described the situation as unfortunate, more especially, at a
time when African countries were striving to forge closer relations among
themselves, adding that Otraf’s action was even in contravention of the
Economic Community and West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on traveling
agreement.
He,
therefore, appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency, take up the
matter with her Burkinabe counterpart to find a lasting solution to the
problem. The Ghana Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Colonel George Minyila (rtd), is
currently meeting with officials of the Otraf and GPRTU at Poutenga in Southern
Burkina Faso to try and resolve the problem. – The Ghanaian Times.
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