Daily Graphic / 'The Ghanaian Times'
Ghana
says no / Sankoh can't stand trial - in Ghana
'Deportee
was caught shoplifting' (Graphic)
Fake
dollars abound (Times)
Issifu
Ali speaks out - lashes at sloppy handling of VP issue
Parties
dare IGP
Ghana
loses 120 billion cedis - as poverty engulfs Ghanaians
'I
am a Zongo boy' - Kufuor
Daily
Graphic / 'The Ghanaian Times'
Ghana
says no / Sankoh can't stand trial - in Ghana
The
Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times in their banner stories report that
President Jerry John Rawlings on Tuesday said Ghana will not allow the trial of
rebel leader Foday Sankoh or any member of his Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
in the country.
President
Rawlings, according to the stories, said during a meeting with United Nations
Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, currently on a five-day official visit to
the country, that the rebels who have committed atrocities against their people
do not deserve the honour of entering Ghana.
Reacting
to speculations of a would be international war crime tribunal to try Sankoh
and the RUF in Ghana, President Rawlings said the nation could host decent
individuals accused of any offence but not brutish ones in the mode of Sankoh
and his group.
"Look
at the carnage and the suffering he had inflicted on his people. I think that
character is not fit to be tried in any country," President Rawlings was
quoted by the Times as saying.
"Those
beastly characters are only fit for the zoo or at best, a psychiatric
home," President Rawlings said.
More…/
'Deportee
was caught shoplifting' (Graphic)
The
Daily Graphic in another front-page story says the British High Commission on
Tuesday
explained that the Ghanaian woman deported over the weekend was arrested for
shoplifting. Ms Patience Annobil Fosuwah also kept a fake passport, according
to the report.
Political
and Press Officer of the Commission, Mr. Mike Nithavrianakis, said Patience was
not able to provide any evidence of lawful entry to the UK when she was
arrested.
Graphic
quotes Mr. Nithavrianakis as saying that Patience's application was considered
and rejected somewhere in 1994 but she managed to find her way to London.
More…/
Fake
dollars abound (Times)
The
police on Tuesday alerted the public to be on guard in business transactions
that involve the dollar and other currencies because its attention has been
drawn to the circulation of fake notes by some unscrupulous persons and
criminal gangs.
A
statement signed by Mr. W.K. Aboah, Commissioner of Police in charge of the
Criminal Investigations Department (CID), requested members of the public who
are suspicious of the authenticity of currencies that they have purchased to
report the matter to the security agencies.
The
Police also cautioned travellers against giving huge sums of money to fake visa
dealers who are promising visas to the United States and Europe.
GRi…/
The
Ghanaian Chronicle
Issifu
Ali speaks out - lashes at sloppy handling of VP issue
The
banner story of the Ghanaian Chronicle says the chairman of the NDC, Alhaji
Issifu Ali, has asked the party's hierarchy to put to rest the indiscretion
being displayed by some of them in the party's bid for a vice-presidential
candidate for the 2000 elections.
"So
far, some of us have not spoken because we don't want to create
confusion," Alhaji Ali is reported to have told the paper in an interview
at Tamale.
He
said "whenever a running mate has been chosen, as was in the case of
Professor Mills in 1996, it has been done in a refined way and not handled
clumsily or in a purely speculative way as is being done."
Alhaji
Ali, explained that the choice of Prof. Mills as a running mate was discussed
exhaustively by the Executive Council of the party and the decision made public
when there were no dissenting views.
On
the selection of Parliamentary candidates, Alhaji Ali said, the rating system
being used by the party was adopted with the aim of avoiding the rancour and
bitterness that ensued between winners and losers in system used in the 1996 primaries.
GRi…/
The
Evening News
Parties
dare IGP
The
Evening News reports that a number of political parties have expressed their
disapproval at a directive by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Peter
Nanfuri, that they should remove their party flags, banners and billboards from
unauthorised places immediately.
The
Evening News says its interaction with Major Courage Quarshigah (NPP), Mr.
Bin-Kotten (PNC), Mr. Eric Dutenya (UGM) Mr. Kyeretwie Opoku (NRP) and Mr.
George Quaynor Mettle (NDC) indicated that some of the parties' rejection of
the directive.
The
NPP, PNC and UGM challenged the police to specify areas where it regarded as
'authorised' or 'unauthorised' while stating that the security agency had no
right to order the removal of their symbols.
They
are reported as saying that the police, by their directive, was taking undue
powers that had not been conferred on it by the Constitution and called for a meeting of the Inter Party
Advisory Committee to resolve the issue.
The
NRP and the NDC stated separately that they will respect the law if the police
were found to be right.
Ms
Doris Ocansey, deputy chairman of the National Commission on Civic Education
(NCCE), said Constitution does not specify where a poster, banner or symbol of
a political party should be displayed.
GRi…/
Weekly
Insight
Ghana
loses 120 billion cedis - as poverty engulfs Ghanaians
The
Weekly Insight writes that its investigations have established that Ghana lost
up to 120 billion cedis over the last six months through illegal operations of
companies licensed to indulge in Internet Data Services.
The
companies which were licensed by the National Communication Authority (NCA),
have linked up with foreign companies to install voice over Internet Protocol
equipment that make international calls appear as local calls on the switches
of Ghanaian telephone companies such as Ghana Telecom (GT) and Westel.
The
paper names TIN-IFA as one of the companies and says it has installed an
international gateway in the middle of what appears to be a family house near
the Kwame Nkrumah circle.
The
company has also installed a large quantity of packet switches routers and
other communication network elements, which could be used to transmit
international voice and make it look like they were calls from local telephone
operator.
GRi.../
Free
Press
'I
am a Zongo boy' - Kufuor
Critics
of Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer were
astonished when he stated categorically that he was born and bred in the Zongo
the Free Press reports.
Mr.
Kufuor, according to the paper, made the revelation when he inaugurated the NPP
Nasara Club in Kumasi last week in
reaction to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) propaganda that an
NPP government would re-introduce the aliens compliance order to expel
nationals from neighbouring countries from Ghana.
"I
was born and bred in Zongo and therefore I am one of you. I will never sack any
of you," Mr. Kufuor was quoted to have assured the Zongo listeners.
He
is reported to have asked the Zongo community to disabuse their minds about the
so-called compliance order being used against the party.
Free
Press quotes him as saying that the NPP has a very competent team to form a
government and appealed to the party members not to disappoint Ghanaians, since
"all eyes are on the NPP" to salvage the shattered economy of the
country.
GRi…/