It’s
not easy to be in opposition
German lady lands President Kufuor in water!
At
Hajia Ocansey’s trial – Witness says Committee report does not hold
Accra (Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - The Volta River
Authority (VRA) has submitted proposals to the Public Utilities Regulatory
Commission (PURC) for a review of tariffs from ¢194 to ¢478 per unit to enable
the authority to meet the cost of production and supply. The VRA requested for
an adjustment of the tariffs to ¢432 per unit last year, but the PURC agreed to
a ¢194 increase.
Mrs Ellen Essilfie, Director of Public Affairs of the VRA, who disclosed this
in an interview in Accra on Monday, said although the increase granted by the
PURC did not meet half the cost of production and supply, “the situation has
become even worse because of the low level of the lake, which means that we
have to increase generation from the thermal plant.
She said this year a total of 8,573 gigawatt hour (GWh) of energy will be
required to meet the country’s energy needs. She said out of this, 4,950 GWh
will come from hydro sources at Akosombo and Kpong while the remaining 3,623
GWh will be derived from the Takoradi Thermal Plant and imports from Cote
d’Ivoire.
According to Mrs Essilfie the VRA expects to generate 3,326 GWh from the
thermal plant, representing more than half the 1,226 GWh it generated last
year. She said the VRA will require about $135 million to import crude oil to
run the thermal plant to meet its production targets.
The Director of Public Affairs noted that with the low level of the dam, it is
likely that the authority may have to rely on the thermal plant for most of the
energy supply needs for this year. Mrs Essilfie said as a result of consistent
low tariffs, the VRA’s indebtedness runs into several millions of dollars and
this has affected its ability to secure funds from the capital market to
support its operations.
She said the VRA owes the government of Ghana more than ¢600 billion in crude
imports and Cote d’Ivoire more than $32 million in electricity imports, while
the authority is indebted to a number of banks. She said it is in view of these
factors that the VRA has submitted the proposals for an upward review of the
tariffs so that it will be in a position to meet the cost of production and
supply.
“If VRA cannot recover the cost of production and supply, it cannot certainly
guarantee reliable power supply this year,” she added. Mrs Essilfie said the
VRA will also not be in a position to expand its production base to meet the
growing needs, undertake maintenance, upgrade its substations, replace its capacitors
to reduce and eliminate low voltage, among others.
When asked if the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has been able to settle
its indebtedness, she said under an agreement, the government agreed to supply
the VRA with crude oil to settle the debt. Mrs Essilfie said under the
agreement, the ECG now pays the VRA about ¢15 billion on a weekly basis. –
Daily Graphic.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - The Convention
People’s Party (CPP) and the National Reform Party (NRP) have proposed the
formation of a new political party to be known as the New Convention People’s Party
(NCPP).
“Following nine months of negotiations and consultations within the Inter-Party
Co-ordinating Committee, the leaderships of the Convention People’s Party and
the National Reform Party have proposed the name for the merged party as the
New Convention People’s Party,” it said.
This was contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Abubakr Al-Hassan and Mr
Peter Gameli Kpordugbe, Leader of the CPP and Chairman of the NRP respectively.
According to the statement, the proposed symbol for the new party is a red
cockerel against a background of a rising sun.
It said the draft political platform of the two political parties, the “ New
Convention”, commits the NCPP to mobilise grassroots activism, especially
amongst women and youth, in the fight against exploitation and social
injustice. The statement said the new party will prosecute vigorously issues of
national unity and a productive and self-reliant national economy.
It said the draft constitution of the party also guarantees internal party
democracy, stressing that “our organisation building programme will ensure that
the New Convention People’s Party will be fully owned by all its members”. The
statement said the proposals for the formation of the new party will now be
presented to the mass membership of the parties for approval and ratification
at their respective congresses.
“Subsequently, the New Convention People’s Party will hold a congress to adopt
the final version of the New Convention and the party constitution and also
elect national officers,” it said.
The statement said the leadership of the two parties will be launching a national programme of activities to popularise the New Convention and the demands and opportunities of activist politics. It said the New Convention People’s Party shall keep the doors of unity open for others desirous of joining its ranks to wrest political power in the next elections. – Daily Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra)
16 April 2002 - The poverty level in the country is 39 per cent, according to
the 1999 Ghana Living Standards Survey. The next survey will be conducted next
year. Dr Kwaku Twum-Baah, acting Government Statistician, who said this in
Accra at the weekend, explained that the surveys were conducted to measure the
level of poverty in the country.
He was speaking on
the topic ‘Poverty Alleviation or Wealth Creation- The Christian factor’ at St
Peter’s Methodist Church, at Odorkor in Accra. Dr Twum-Baah announced that
questionnaires on Care and Welfare indicators would be completed this year.
He said the
government was committed to reducing poverty in the country and had therefore
initiated poverty reduction programmes in its Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy
(GPRS).
Dr Twum-Baah appealed
to Christians to support the programme stressing that “it is the duty of
Christians to ensure that the poor are taken care of.” He said that Ghana’s
development partners at the 11th consultative Group Meeting
expressed support for the GPRS document and had consequently pledged one
billion dollars towards it.
Dr Twum-Baah urged
the government to target the Northern, Central, Upper East and Upper West
Regions, identified as poor in the 1999 GLSS report. He urged Ghanaians to
change attitudes that turned to retard economic growth. Mr Twum-Baah appealed
to Ghanaians to desist from acts such as working lotto during working hours and
non-payment of taxes. – Ghanaian Times.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - The former Minister of Education in the NDC
regime, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has stated that after his party had lost the
elections and found themselves in the opposition, he has personally realised
that it is not easy to stay in the opposition.
We are
actually in hell now so we must find a way of gaining freedom to heaven, he
said, while addressing the Central Regional delegates congress of the party in
Cape Coast last Saturday. The former minister, however, blamed his own people
for allowing their great party to find itself in the opposition through the
activities and behaviour of some of them, adding that they are all feeling the
heat since as opposition party they have no ministers and DCEs to approach for
help when the need arises.
According
to Spio-Garbrah, the party has now realised those who were actually committed
members and those who were not when they were in power. He said for instance,
when the 2000 elections reached its peak, and bullets were being fired from all
angels, some of them were left in the battlefront to face the music whiles
others also distanced themselves.
The former
minister further said even now some of the people they know have been on their
side when the party was in power have either distanced themselves or kept mute
in the face of the difficulties they are going through. He further told the
well-attended congress that in order to avoid this mistake where people would
be voted for when, as a matter of fact, they do not have the party at heart,
they must try and vote for people who are battle-ready and also prepared to
sacrifice to ensure the return of the party to power in the next general
elections.
Spio-Garbrah,
one-time Ghana’s Ambassador to the US, also expressed concern about the way the
Central Region, the home of Prof John Atta Mills, NDC presidential candidate in
the last elections, betrayed their own man by voting against him. “In so doing
many thought they were voting against Mills without knowing that it was NDC
that they were rather voting against,” he added.
A former
presidential staffer, Nii Boye Adjei Sekan, on his part, said NDC was formed
with people who came from different political traditions, therefore, they would
be fighting themselves but said in all these cases, the supreme interest of the
party must always be considered first.
“We must
also try and find out whether what we are saying or doing would bring disgrace
or embarrassment to the party,” he said, adding that NDC as a party is ready to
offer alternative solution to the problems confronting the country hence their
decision to organise themselves and get ready for the 2004 elections. “I want
to assure you that a new political tradition, the Rawlings tradition, has come
to stay in the politics of the country so let us all help to ensure that it
stays for ever,” he said. – The Chronicle.
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Hit list found at Beckley’s shrine
Accra (Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - The socio-economic conditions in the country has now forced many Ghanaians to seek for jobs through occultic means. This was evidenced by thousands of letters from job seekers both within the country and outside, found in the house/shrine of Dr Sir Yogi Ram Beckley, moments before an irate mob razed it down, on Sunday.
Prominent amongst the letters, were people seeking jobs from financial institutions who felt that certain individuals were being difficult and wished to have them dealt with by the occultic powers of Beckley.
One such letter, undated, was from on applicant who wanted Beckley’s occult to deal with officials of the Agricultural Development Bank and Barclays Bank Ghana Limited. The letter contained the names of the various officers in charge of Human Resource, the deputy managing directors and the managing directors.
That, of Barclays Bank, has the name of the managing director Mr Kobina Quansah, while the top men of the ADB included Dr Korankye, the former MD, Mr Welbeck, deputy MD, and Mr Boakye Agyeman, director of Human Resource.
All the letters were smeared with Florida Water and incense with bloodstains all around them. Another letter from London was also seeking for help from Dr Beckley to let the writer’s employers accept his proposal to change his full time job schedule into a part time one. Other letters sighted, basically sought the help of Beckley’s macabre occultic powers to either kill certain individuals or deal with people who were considered as threats to the senders’ interests.
In the midst of the melee, word went round that some prominent men of God in the country had gone to Dr Beckley with written request to increase their powers and help them perform miracles. Another document bore the name of a man and two women resident at La in Accra with their dates of birth and a caption “the man in question,” on top of one of several occultic drawings, which had fire and air beside them.
On the flip side of the document, were laid out questions like “find out cause for his attack,” “why the family member wants to hurt him badly,” “what kind of trap they set for him”. Other questions include “who is that friend so close?” “who gave him up?” and “how best to restore Eugene back to good health”. – The Evening News.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
16 April 2002 - The Member of Parliament (MP) for the
Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem, Dr Ato Quarshie, has been elected the new Central
Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). This was the
outcome of the NDC’s regional delegates congress at Cape Coast at the weekend.
It was attended by 85 delegates from 17 constituencies in the region.
Other officials elected were Messrs Anin-Adjei, Organiser; Peter Coomson,
Secretary; Alhaji Abubakar; Treasurer, and Adams Kofi, Youth Organiser. The
rest were, Messrs Abeiku Aggrey, First Deputy Youth Organiser; James Mettle,
Second Deputy Youth Organiser; Asoma Kofi Anderson, Propaganda Secretary, Ben
Abdallah, Deputy Propaganda Secretary; and Ms Rebecca Forson, Women’s
Organiser.
In his acceptance speech, Dr Quarshie promised to work hard to unite members of
the party in the region to prepare adequately for the 2004 presidential and
parliamentary elections. He advised the delegates to work as a team and strive
to tolerate one another’s views to ensure that the NDC recaptures political
power in the next elections. – Daily Graphic.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - A former Minister of the erstwhile
Rawlings administration, who is also a leading member of the National
Democratic Congress, told the Statesman on Monday that the country’s second
largest party is on the brink of disintegrating ahead of the ‘unsavoury’
prospect.
The seasoned politician who spoke under the cloak of anonymity, accused
Dr Obed Asamoah of engineering the selection of party delegates to “suite his
personal interest.” He said of the former Attorney General, “if he wins a lot
of people will leave the party.” “Yet, it may spell the end of the NDC party,”
said the party strongman who also describes himself as a political scientist,
adding, “and the end of Ghana’s democracy.”
So who would your preferred candidate be? “I have none, per se,” he
replied, “but I want somebody who has respect for his peers – because that is a
very, very important attribute of leadership of leadership. We need to have a
leader who is modest enough and honest. I don’t think Dr Asamoah has those
attributes.
The source is also a staunch supporter of the former President, as proof
of the sources of the dichotomy within the party. In the interview he claimed
that “people within the party are not happy with the methods he (Obed) has
employed,” especially, by virtue of his leadership role in helping to
re-organise the party last year, to position himself today as the favourite
candidate in the forthcoming 27 April congress, to be held at the Trade Fair
Centre, Accra.
“As a political scientist and a person who has been with the NDC all
this time, I can say with authority that if (Obed) gains control of the party a
lot of people will leave the party.”
But to where? “They don’t have to go to any other party,” he quickly
added, mindful of the vacuum which the NDC’s rivals can benefit from. “They can
air their opinions freely as ordinary citizens of this country,” he said.
He accused the former Minister of Justice of possessing the instincts of
an autocrat, but failed to back it with any specifics. “So far Dr Obed Asamoah
has presented himself as a dictator. A lot of our members don’t like his style
of leadership. His preferred method of winning is crude and dictatorial,”
adding, “it is absolutely clear that he only wants the party for himself and he
does stand a chance of achieving that.”
The fears
of the Rawlings’ camp within the NDC were heightened by the wins bagged by
pro-Obed candidates in the weekend’s National Delegates conference of the Youth
Wing of the party. Iddrisu Haruna, Ludwing Hlodze and Kelly Forson, the
triumvirate to head the youth wing are all seen as staunch Obed supporters.
Also, the
non-conciliatory attitude of Bismark Agbemenule- who was woefully beaten by
Haruna for the position of the National Youth Organiser- as he tried to explain
his bad defeat with brickebats on Obed Asamoah appears to support the anxiety
shared by some people that irrespective of his actual credentials a win by Obed
could very well lead either to a massive exodus from the party or a serious
internal rift, the ferocity of which could distract the party from the
all-important uphill struggle to wrest power from the NPP in the 2004
elections.
Not
forgetting the common ‘foe’ our source said of the ruling party, “the NPP is
clandestinely supporting Obed Asamoah.” This, he said, is being done “through
their newspapers.” Bizarrely, he mentioned reports in the Daily Guide and the
Independent, as showing instances of his claim.
The source
said he found it ironic that Dr Obed Asamoah is presenting himself as the man
to introduce democracy into the party, which has been seen from its inception
as a political grouping, built around the domineering personality of one man-
J.J. Rawlings. He warned “those who have accepted Obed as a democrat” to
“investigate to see if indeed he is so.”
Pointing to
the electoral caucus of the party, comes the keenly awaited party congress, the
source said “the people who would be given the mandate to choose the new
chairman and other elected officials would not necessarily be the people’s
choice.” He lamented over the fact that members most congnisant with the
party’s internal affairs and personalities, like himself, would not have the vote
to stop the Obed gravy train.
On Monday,
the Chronicle reported another leading member of the NDC as stating that the
party has been divided ever since it lost the 2000 elections. Kwamena Ahwoi
told the youth congress at Prampram over the weekend that their party
leadership has failed to resolve internal divisions in a democratic way.
Squadron
Leader Clend Sowu, who is also competing for the party chairmanship said of the
NDC on Accra’s Choice FM on Monday, “we had to lose the 2000 elections,”
adding, “if we had won the 2000 election this country would have been so
ungovernable.”
Also at the
weekend, which saw Obed’s candidate, Iddrisu Haruna, elected as the NDC’s new
National Youth Organiser, Ms Frances A. Asiam became the new National Women’s
Organiser. She beat her only challenger, Mrs Tabitha Quaye, who got only two
out of the 30 votes. – The Statesman.
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German lady lands President Kufuor in water!
Accra
(Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - The government’s private sector participation
policy to tackle the acute problems associated with the provision of water,
which the public sector has failed to improve over the years, has landed
President J.A. Kufuor into the hands of an irate German lady.
This is as
a result of the lady’s continuous campaign on the internet, painting the
government’s water strategic approach as a deliberate policy to exploit the
poor in Ghana. President Kufuor disclosed this in his opening address during
the ongoing three-day Accra Water Conference on “Water Conference on “Water
Sustainable Development in Africa: Regional Stakeholders’ Conference for
Priority Setting” in Accra on Monday.
According
to the President, he receives an average of 10 faxes a day from the lady who
has “launched a worldwide e-mail campaign in the misplaced belief that
government wants to exploit the poor or something worse in its water policy.”
The lady, the President noted, has been mounting pressure on the government not
to invite private sector participation in the provision of water services as
well as not to build the Bui Dam, planned to provide energy source and water
supply for irrigation and drinking for people in the Brong Ahafo Region.
President
Kufuor emphasized that such misplaced campaign is going on because certain
vocal and rather utopian elements within society seem to lack the basic truth
that “it is not possible to acquire the know-how and technology to develop our
water resources without cost.” He said the effect of lack of such fact is that
such elements confuse the search for effective means to provide vital water
service with the unconscionable profit motive.
The
President, therefore, urged the participants to deliberate with the necessary
realism to find how to make access to safe and sufficient water for all in
sustained manner and at affordable cost. – The Statesman.
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Asantehene, two others as mediators in Yendi dispute not right - Lawyer
Accra
(Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - A prominent legal practitioner based in Accra
has criticised the Kufuor administration saying, the President has muddied the
waters of the noble Chieftaincy institution by the appointment of the
Asantehene, the Yabgon Wura and the Nayiri to mediate in the Yendi crisis.
The legal
practitioner, who wants to remain anonymous, told the “The Ghana Palaver” in an
interview that, the appointment of the Yagbon Wura and the Nayiri by the
government to the mediation team is likely to prejudice their participation in
judicial committee of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs.
He said,
when the matter comes to the National House of Chiefs, the Asantehene’s
position would also be compromised. “This will be when the rivalry referred to
by the President in his nationwide broadcast, turns out to be a revival by the
government of the Supreme Court-settled Yendi Skin Chieftaincy dispute,” the
learned lawyer said.
He said
what makes the President’s attempt to compromise these Kings at this early
stage of a criminal investigation into the murder of their colleague dangerous,
is that the three Kings are the three most powerful Kings of Ghana whose
lineage extends several years back in our history.
The lawyer
emphasised that their sub-chiefs can not traditionally challenge their
judgement in matters of custom, adding “It is regrettable that in an ethnically
diverse society like ours, where voting patterns demonstrate ethnicity as a
dominant premodial and socio-politico-economic mobilizing instrument, the
President should think it prudent to appoint his ethnic King as the lead
mediator.”
This
perception, the legal man said, does not help matters by the fact that the
President chose to meet the Northern Kings together but met his own ethnic King
alone. There may be justified reason for this arrangement, but they do not
answer the perceptional problem, he said, “Justice must not only be done but
must manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done,” he added. – Ghana Palaver.
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Tema (Greater Accra)
16 April 2002 - The quit order issued to the vehicle dealers around the Tema
Motorway round about and the Meridian area by the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA)
in conjunction with the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) last month has been
challenged as being politically motivated.
Speaking to The
Crusading Guide, members of the Progressive Car Dealers Association alleged
that Mr Narh, Chief Executive for Tema, and the Acting Chief Director, Miss
Mansah Bansah are all NDC members and since Miss Mansah Bansah has been a close
friend to the former Director for TDC, Mr Ayibonte she is aware of all the
tricks of the former Director and is also trying to continue with the same
trend.
They also asserted
that Mr Ayibonte told them point blank that he was not going to let them stay
where they are since they are believed to be NPP members who could use their
wealth to sponsor the NPP Government to stay in power. The car dealers were
unhappy that the TDC and TMA did not give them any land within Tema as the
piece of land around the ‘Tarzan’ motorway roundabout was intended to be given
to investors.
It is also alleged
that the former Chief Executive of Tema, Nii Armah Ashitey is a very good
friend of Mr Narh and the latter is said to be the personal contractor to the
former and also allegedly using his position to influence him to fuel the
removal of the car dealers around the Tema Motorway.
They also said in a
conversation between the Chief Executive and one GPRTU official of Tema, Mr
Narh had stated that he was going to move the Motorway Roundabout car dealers
away and that even if the NPP government did not get a single vote in 2004, he
would not mind since he is an NDC member.
The car dealers
challenged the Chief Executive of lying on Adom FM, a Tema-based radio station
that he had taken them to court and that the court ordered their ejection on 10
November 1999. According to them, the matter under reference did not take place
during his tenure of office but during Nii Armah Ashitey’s tenure.
The Association
disclosed that it was some individual car dealers who took them to court and
Mansah Bansah, a lawyer succeeded in winning the case against those
individuals.
The Crusading Guide
went to TDC to see the Acting Director but was referred to the PRO, Mr Sammy
Abeka who said they (TDC) have been ordered to suspend any action against the
Association as TMA was politically stronger and promised getting in touch with
the paper but failed to do so.
Further efforts at
the TMA and then TDC to cross-check the story also proved futile. When the
paper succeeded in getting in touch with the Tema District Chief executive, in
the company of the Presiding Member, he said he could not talk to the paper on
the matter since he had to attend to other visitors. – Crusading Guide
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 16 April 2002 - Evidence tendered before an Accra Regional
tribunal where Hajia Baby Ocansey is standing trial in the $1.5 million Bank of
Ghana (BOG) scandal indicates that the bank had already taken punitive action
against the former Assistant Manager, Mrs Dorothy Nyarko, who prepared a schedule
for the payment of the said amount, ahead of judgement.
According
to a report from a committee instituted by the Bank of Ghana to look into the
alleged scandal, Mrs Nyarko, having worked with the bank for 27 years rising
through the ranks from the position of a clerk, has been demoted to the rank of
an Officer 2 of the bank as a result of her negligence in the issuing of the
$1.5 million to the recipient.
Mrs Nyarko,
who is also the fifth prosecution witness, completing her evidence in chief
under cross-examination, told the tribunal presided over by His Lordship, Isaac
Duose, that the committee’s report demoting her as a result of her negligence
does not hold.
According
to her, she received a swift message ordering for the release of the said amount
after she had earlier had a conversation with the second accused, Mr Sebastian
D.K.N. Gavor, that the money was intended to import rice from Togo. Because the
source of the supposed message for the release of money was doubtful, Mrs
Nyarko contended that her boss, Mrs Caroline Kese, refused to sign the cheque
until she had approval from her boss.
The matter
was later put to rest as both Mrs Nyarko and Mrs Kese eventually signed the
cheque for the release of the money. In this respect, Mrs Nyarko held that the
action taken by both of them in respect of appending their signatures on the
said document for the payment of the money was done in good faith.
Mrs Nyarko
further told the court that she was not satisfied with the confirmation of
credit but still went ahead to prepare a schedule for the payment of the cheque
with the face value of $1.5 million without any pressure whatsoever being
mounted on her by the second accused, nor by the third accused, Justice
Archibald Nee Ofosu Larbi, who was not notified prior to the payment of the
cheque.
Subsequently,
Mrs Nyarko, whose responsibility was to send the cheque for clearing, making
sure the cheque was endorsed by the beneficiary, upon taking a second look at
an exhibit shown her, told the court that the said money was received by Hajia
Amina Abubakari-Sadiq, alias Baby Ocansey, contrary to an earlier statement she
made before the court that the money was received by the first and the second
accused.
The sixth
prosecution witness, Samuel Tackie-Yarboi, a messenger at the bank, whose duty
is to dispatch official transactions from the manager, Mr Philip Djan, who at
the time, was a Deputy Chief Manager at the bank, told the court that a
document tendered before the court indicating the exact transaction on the said
case was not the right document because it had no minute on it.
According
to him, every document he dispatches has a sign indicating that it has been
duly dispatched to the right person, adding that on the said date, December 7,
1999, he dispatched a swift message to Mrs Kese’s office.
Hajia Baby
Ocansey is alleged to have conspired with Sebastian Dick Kobla Gavor and
Justice Archibald Nee Ofosu Larbie of the BOG the cause financial loss to the
state to the tune of $1.5 million. They pleaded guilty to the charges with
cases adjourned to 19 May 2002. – The Chronicle.
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