Elections now on Dec 7
$560m to boost economy
Fuel prices won't be increased - Mahama
NDC gov't sells Tema Motorway
Asutsuare in flames!
NDC to account for excesses in 2001-Kufour
NPP fighting to save Hamidu
Elections now on Dec 7
The Daily Graphic in its banner story says indications are that this year's presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on December 7 and not December 8 as originally scheduled.
The Paper says highly placed sources at the Electoral Commission (EC), said the new date, based strictly on constitutional requirements, was reached when the leadership of the commission and its legal advisors met in Accra on Wednesday.
Officials of EC, including its chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, are said to have declined commenting on the issue but promised making a major policy statement on Friday.
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$560m to boost economy
Ghana is to receive a total of $560 million from various donor communities and international financial bodies between this month and December to boost the national economy, the Graphic said in another front-page story.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved in principle to release $35.1 million while the World Bank will also disburse $130 million. Bilateral donor agencies and other countries will also release $134.9 million.
Another $260 million will be injected into the national economy by the first week of October through Ghana Cocoa Board syndication with international financial institutions for the purchase of cocoa.
The paper quotes Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Governor of the Bank of Ghana as disclosing in an interview on the outcome of the second review under the three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, that the IMF facility has unlocked donor inflow into the national economy.
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Fuel prices won't be increased - Mahama
The Ghanaian Times reports on its front-page that the Minister of Communications, Mr. John Mahama, has said that the government has no intention of increasing the prices of petroleum products as being speculated by some people.
According to the story, although the country is facing difficult times due to the high rise in the world price of petroleum products, the government has not held any discussion on the possibility of increasing prices of the products.
Mr. Mahama told cadres on Wednesday that despite the fact that prices of petroleum products in the country were the lowest in Africa, the government would not increase it even though at the current price level it posed challenge.
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NDC gov't sells Tema Motorway
The Free Press says the massive selling of state owned properties under the sledge -hammer of the ruling NDC in the name of privatisation has now affected the Accra-Tema Motorway, the only freeway in Ghana, which was built by the first President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1962.
The paper says indepth investigations it has conducted reveal a very unusual form of privatisation in which the collection of tolls on the motorway is put into private hands but the maintenance aspect still remained the responsibility of the government and the taxpayer.
"Currently the west and east ends of the motorway are owned by two companies, Crown Channel Limited and Bet-Butco Limited respectively," the paper said.
The Free Press quotes the Road Fund Secretariat as saying however that the private contractors are only collection agents of the Ghana Road Fund but the road still remains the property of the nation, which prior to its being privatised was in the hands of the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA).
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Asutsuare in flames!
The Statesman reports that the vibrant sugar-producing town of Asutsuare in the Eastern Region is now a pale shadow of itself as most of its inhabitants have fled, leaving behind smouldering houses and a large military-cum-police presence.
"Most of the people have fled across the river Volta because the police, which is supposed to protect them, is brutalising them," the Statesman quotes a young man as saying.
According to the paper, several attempts to talk to the police at both Asutsuare and Akuse proved futile as a result of endless buck-passing.
Not even the Commanding Officer would be seen once the word 'press' was mentioned, the paper said.
The Statesman adds however that information that it gathered before its trip was that following persistent clashes between an NPP group that had in their fold the Assemblyman, Vadis Teye Mumo, and another from the NDC, a convoy of military and police personnel were dispatched to the area to destroy Vadis and his group.
Nene Michael Tetteh Ablorh II, chief of the town is however reported to have cited differences between Vadis and the townsmen over the choice of a project as the reason for the violence in the town.
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The Chronicle reports on it’s front page that, the Ministry of Defence has initiated moves to strip former Chief of Defence Staff, (CDS), Lieutenant-General Joshua Hamidu of his military rank he earned during his years of service in the Army and all other benefits.
The paper gathers that the Ministry of Defence and the Army brass have met and identified charges to be brought against the General under the Ghana Armed Forces Act, the legislation that guides the military. He may soon be served the charges.
The chronicle says it does not know how long the process will take and under which law he would be charged.
The Chronicle reports sources as saying that the process to strip the former officer in charge of National Security of his rank, may have to go through the civil judicial system, since Lt. Gen. Hamidu, cannot be court martial by the Army, because, he is not a serving officer.
However, in a phone interview that the General granted the Chronicle, he said he could not see how he could be deprived of the rank and honour earned through his meritorious service to the state saying, “I can’t see how that can be done”. “Since I am no longer in the Army, it is a matter for the courts”.
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NDC to account for excesses in 2001-Kufour
The Dispatch in a front-page story says Mr. J. A Kufour, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party has cast doubts on the sincerity of President Jerry Rawlings to leave office at the end of his term, accusing him of using threatening and mincing language.
The paper says M Kufour also believes that the President is “Leaving behind a legacy of problems for his successor and his party (National Democratic Party) because they will have to account for the many excesses committed while leading.”
Mr. Kufour, according to the Dispatch, made these remarks in an interview published in the September 2000 issue of the London based Ghana Review International. He is reported to have told the magazine that the President continues to celebrate his revolutionary days publicly, which reminds people of the unfortunate happenings and high handedness they suffered. He also accused him of playing the Army against civil society.
Kufour is said to have continued that he would like to hear him talk in conciliatory tones to leave a legacy that will be healing and soothing for society.
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NPP fighting to save Hamidu
The Ghana Palaver says, the exposure of Lt. Gen. Joshua Hamidu (Rtd.) as one of those who insisted on the execution of Gen. A.A. Afrifa in 1979 by Dr. Tony Aidoo on August 18, 2000, has caused the hierarchy of the NPP to convene an emergency meeting to find ways to damage control Dr. Aidoo’s precision.
A committee, which has been put in place by the NPP to refute claims made by Dr. Tony Aidoo and also to contact some close associates of Maj. Boakye Djan and Capt. Baah Achamfour in the United Kingdom is to put up a spirited defence in favour of Gen. Hamidu.
The paper reports that telephone and fax contacts have been made with one of the two former members of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and soon the rebuttal from London on this issue will be planted in sections of the media.
The disclosure has however jolted the NPP leadership, especially those lobbying for the former Chief of Defence Staff to be selected as Kufour’s running mate, whiles other contestants of the same slot, namely, Mustapha Ali, Courage Quashigah and Hawa Yakuba are beaming with smiles as a result of the Generals predicament.
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