Accra needs $8m for resettlement
Labour Hiring Centres to be set up
SSB Bank registers ¢45 billion profit
Ghanaian teenager in US exhibits academic
brilliance
Ex-defence minister in 5billion cedis scandal
More state assets to be divested
Customs, police move on Huudu Yahaya
Fertile rice land going waste at Salaga
Kan Dapaah replies Asante
Chief’s body missing
Amandi charged with tax evasion
'Who says I'm dead?' - Lord Kenya
Music pirate faces police
Man stones wife to death
Accra needs $8m for resettlement
An amount of $8 million will be needed for the
voluntary resettlement of residents living along flood-prone areas in the city
of Accra, according to a Daily Graphic report.
An
additional $22 million will also be required to construct good drainage systems
in the city as a long-term measure to avert the annual occurrence of floods in
the city, the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA), Nii
Ofei Darko said at a photo exhibition of the July 27 floods in Accra, held for
Senator James Inhofe, a Senator from Oklahoma in the United States of America,
at the end of his two-day visit to the country.
He
named six constituencies - Ablekuma, Ashiedu Keteke, Ayawaso, Kpeshie, Okaishie
and Osu Clottey as those identified by the AMA as prone to floods.
Nii
Darko said these areas do lie in flood prone lands, lack proper drainage
system, have choked drainages or suffer from indiscriminate building along
water paths.
The
AMA, he said, has drawn up strategic plan to avert future occurrence.
More…/
Labour Hiring Centres to be set up
The Daily Graphic in another report says Labour
Hiring Companies (LHC) are to be established to recruit unskilled and
semi-skilled people to provide them with basic skills specific to the textile
and garments industry.
The
move forms part of the scheme to take full advantage of the Africa Growth
Opportunities Act, which provides a window of opportunity for African countries
capable of supplying textiles and garment into the American markets.
Under
a proposal, the Federation of Association of Ghanaian Exporters (FAGE) is to
work with relevant bodies such as the Ghana Employers Association, the Trades
Union Congress, the Department of Labour and the Manpower Development Ministry
to have such centres incorporated to work towards the objective.
Sources
close to FAGE said the LHC will guarantee to provide the specific factory with
the exact number of employees required at any particular time under the term
and conditions of agreement between the centres and the factory or company concerned.
More…/
SSB Bank registers ¢45 billion profit
The SSB Bank Ltd registered growth in its
profit earnings at the close of the first half year which ended June, 30, 2001.
Profit
after tax rose by 23 per cent from ¢36.77 billion to ¢45 billion. In the light
of this the bank is paying an interim dividend of ¢150 per share to its
shareholders. The amount is payable on September 28, 2001.
This
indicates the robust performance for the first half of the year, which is a
major signal to all shareholders and prospective investors that the bank is
poised for a better second half year.
Net
interest income rose by 53 per cent from a previous close of ¢68.9 million to
¢106 billion.
According
to the bank, forecast generating profit before taxation is expected to show an
increase over the previous year due to the efficient utilisation of assets. The
share price of the bank as of the close of last Monday's trading session stood
at ¢2,300 per share.
More…/
Ghanaian teenager in US exhibits academic
brilliance
Sharon Doku could be a story herself, says the
Graphic. The young Ghanaian lady living in the US is making giant strides to
fame.
Sharon,
who is 17, resides in North Carolina with her parents, Mr and Mrs Albert Doku.
A senior in Myers Park High School International Baccalaureate class, Sharon
was accepted into Harvard and MIT, when the senior year was only half over.
Sharon
whose out standing performance was featured in the local newspaper, The
Charlotte Observer, together with other members of her class, was also selected
the 'Carousel Queen' at the 53rd annual Carolinas' Carousel Parade
on Thanksgiving day in November, last year.
The
Carousel is supported each year by corporate contributors and winners chosen
must be a senior in their school's marching band, demonstrate leadership and
have a letter of recommendation.
Sharon
received a prize of $3,000 scholarship.
GRi…/
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Ex-defence minister in 5billion cedis scandal
The Chronicle carries that former Defence
Minister, Lt. Col (Rtd) E.K.T. Donkor, is involved in another 5 billion cedis
scandal involving the purchase of unauthorised vehicles for the Ghana Armed
Forces (GAF) from the British Military.
The
paper says the latest allegation comes at a time when action is yet to be taken
on findings of a board of enquiry constituted by the Armed Forces to probe a
One billion cedis scandal involving the purchase of tuna in the run-up to the
December 2000 elations.
The latest board of enquiry into the
second scandal has indicted the former minister for swerving the GAF High
Command to purchase about 30 Bedford vehicles and 15 Land Rovers.
The
vehicles, with ages ranging between 28 and 15 years, were impounded by the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS)
upon arrival at the Tema port because they were too old. For some of them, the
manufactured date could not be traced.
According
to the paper, its investigations indicate that some of the vehicles could not
even be driven from the Tema port but had to be towed.
Besides
their age it emerged also that they did not fall within the specifications of
vehicles used by the GAF.
More…/
More state assets to be divested
The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has
disclosed that Cabinet has approved the divestiture of more state assets valued
at about 50 billion cedis to support this year’s budget.
Cabinet,
he said, has also approved the divestiture of “Bank of Ghana shareholding of
financial institutions under its supervision”.
GRi…/
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Customs, police move on Huudu Yahaya
The Police and the Customs, Excise and
Preventive Service (CEPS) have mounted a search for AlhajI Huudu Yahaya, the
General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According
to The Independent newspaper, Alhaji Yahaya has proved elusive within the last
two weeks despite assurances from his lawyer that the NDC General Secretary was
prepared to hand over the disputed Mercedes Benz Salon car to the police for
onward delivery to the rightful owner, one Fred Oware.
The
Independent in its July 12th issue had reported of how the owner of
the car stormed the premises of the NDC headquarters in Accra to demand it.
The
embarrassing standoff is said to have hit a crescendo when Alhaji Yahaya in the
company of his lawyer made an undertaking that he would return the car to the
police either on Friday August 3rd or Monday 6th August.
However
the Independent says it gathered from the police that Alhaji Yahaya did not
honour his promise as was agreed upon. The police thus threatened to pick Alhaji
Yahaya but that never materialised.
The paper says latest information
reaching it show that the police are so upset by the elusive stance adopted by
the NDC scribe and has thus almost declared Alhaji Yahaya a wanted person with
the CEPS giving its full backing.
More…/
Fertile rice land going waste at Salaga
About 10,000 acres of vast land, which could be
used for growing rice, is lying idle at Katanga, a village near Salaga in the
East Gonja District.
Known
as the Katanga valley, the land, which is waterlogged all year round, is also
bordered at its eastern part by the all-year run river Daka. The valley in the
1960’s was used to grow rice under the era of the State farms and was later
taken over by the Brigade farms under the Acheampong regime.
According
to Kpembewura Haruna, the Chief of the Kpembe Division and custodian of the
land, rice production on the land in those days was very high and the quality
of the rice produced could match up to foreign grains.
He
said at Kpemba near Salaga that not long ago the land was being used for rice
production but the situation changed when the government’s policy towards the
usage of the land changed.
Kpembewura
Haruna lamented that numerous appeals to the former regime to revive the rice project
on the land were rebuffed saying that if it had been revived it could have
served as an employment avenue for the youth in and around the area.
GRi…/
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Kan Dapaah replies Asante
The Energy Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has
entreated the Minority Spokesman on Energy, Abraham Kofi Asante, to crosscheck his
facts before coming out to make public statements, reports The Crusading Guide.
The
paper says in a reaction to its Tuesday publication in which Kofi Asante
slammed the minister for deceiving Ghanaians on the government’s intention to
privatise Tema Oil Refinery, Kan-Dapaah explained that the Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) between Ghana and SAMSUNG did not originate with the
Government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) but rather the government of the
NDC led by Kwame Peprah, ex-Finance Minister, on 27th June, 2000.
The
Energy Minister submitted that his government, in a discussion with SAMSUNG,
recalled certain understandings reached during the NDC period but never signed
an agreement to sell TOR.
Kan-Dapaah
stressed that the topics discussed with SAMSUNG would only be taken into
account once a decision is taken to privatize TOR.
"The
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) did not originate with us; the memorandum was
signed by the NDC and subsequently it has come up for discussion as a result of
which we have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding but it was not meant to
sell TOR to SAMSUNG", the Energy Minister affirmed.
Asante
in reaction to earlier reports quoting Ken-Dapaah as saying that the Government
had no intention of selling TOR, said he was aware of plans to sell the
refinery.
GRi../
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Chief’s body missing
The Daily Guide says it has learnt that seven
months after the death of the Chief of Denkyira-Nkroful near Dunkwa-on-Offin in
the Central Region, the body of Nana Ewudzi II, who was aged 71, cannot be
traced for burial.
The
late Nana Ewudzi was a retired Registrar of the Judicial Service of Ghana known
in private life as John Kweku Ansere.
The
missing body has thus set the royal house as well as the town folk in great
sorrow.
Following
the death of Nana Ewudzi, after a short illness on January 1, this year, his body
was deposited at a mortuary (morgue) at the Dunkwa-On-Offin Government Hospital
for preservation while the royalty (the family of the late chief) prepared the
grounds for his befitting burial.
However
when the late chief’s family members called at the hospital mortuary to take
the corpse away, they rather found to their chagrin a different body lying in
place of their beloved deceased royal.
The
body of the late chief was said to have been taken to the Dunkwa Government
Hospital on the same day that he passed away by his nephews, Nana Kofi Asante,
Jonah and a retinue of his sub chiefs in the Denkyira-Nkroful Township.
GRi…/
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Amandi charged with tax evasion
The Osu Community Tribunal on Tuesday adjourned
to August 20, the case in which Boniface Amandi, a businessman, has been
charged on four counts of evading tax totaling ¢735.4 million, writes The
Ghanaian Times.
His
charge includes, failure to furnish returns for assessment of his personal
income tax, failure to pay ¢61.8 million being arrears of personal income tax
with penalty, failure to pay ¢674.5 million being arrears of corporate tax with
penalty and impeding tax administration contrary to the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) Act 592.
When
the case was called Amandi, the Managing Director of Aluminum Enterprise
Limited (AEL) at Tema, was not in court.
Counsel
for Amandi, Frimpong Armah, informed the court that his client was indisposed,
and prayed the tribunal to grant an adjournment at which time his client would
be able to make himself available to answer the charges preferred against him.
Armah
raised a preliminary objection that the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to
hear the case since the amount allegedly involved was far above the amount that
a Community Tribunal could try.
Mahama
Dubick Yakubu of the IRS legal Department, countered the argument saying that
the case was criminal therefore the tribunal had the right and jurisdiction to
handle it.
He
said that the Osu Community Tribunal could try the case and where Amandi was
found guilty, the tribunal could decide to refer him to the High Court.
Nana
George Donkor, the chairman of the tribunal, granted the request for
adjournment and pointed out that he would use the adjournment to study the
Court’s Act as to whether his tribunal had the powers to hear the case or not.
GRi../
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'Who says I'm dead?' - Lord Kenya
Ghana's rap heavyweight champion, Lord Kenya,
has described as "irresponsible," the story carried by an Accra
newspaper that he had died from drowning.
"Me,
dead?" The Graphic Showbiz reports the musician as telling its reporter by
phone on Wednesday from his Kumasi home. "Why should anyone tell such a
lie?" he asked.
Lord
Kenya was reacting to the story, which named another fellow who goes by a
similar name as the musician. That fellow was reported to have drowned.
"I
don't think there are 20 people in Ghana today who know this supposed Lord
Kenya. So if you write it boldly in a newspaper that Lord Kenya is dead, I can
subscribe only one motive - the editor wanted to sell his paper badly," he
said.
Lord
Kenya told Showbiz that although the story did not refer to him, he has
suffered unnecessary harassment since the publication last Monday. He said he
has continuously been receiving calls by concerned individuals and even his
father has had his share of condolence calls.
"For
a moment, I thought I was really dead," he said. "I thought I was in
a different world, you know, like I was dreaming that I was alive when I was
really dead."
Lord
Kenya said that the timing of the publication was most vexing as it came right
in the middle of his preparations towards an 18-states tour of the United
States, beginning September 10. Also it came at a time when he is getting ready
to perform the outdooring ceremony for his one-month old son, Laud Kenya.
More…/
Music pirate faces police
The
Police Striking Force Unit in Kumasi has arrested a Kumasi-based music
producer, Frank Yeboah, alias Frank Minah Production, for his alleged
involvement in music piracy, reports the Graphic Showbiz.
He
is alleged to have produced thousands of cassettes of Adomako Nyamekye, when
the veteran musician was on self-imposed exile abroad in the early 90s and
embezzled the revenue generated from the cassettes.
He
is also alleged to have pirated the gospel music of a Kumasi-based female
musician, Henrietta Aidoo on CD and has repeatedly refused to negotiate on how
to compensate her.
Briefing
Graphic Showbiz at the police station on Saturday where Frank Minnah was in
custody, Adomako Nyamekye said following the PNDC government’s order to
incarcerate him, he went to Holland to seek political asylum. While there, he
managed to produce varieties of songs but found it difficult marketing them
because of his predicament.
He
said, he met Frank Minnah and they agreed verbally that he (Frank Minnah)
should become the executive producer of the music.
"My
brother, the album became an instant hit in Ghana and Frank sold more than
50,000 cassettes but he took advantage of my predicament and embezzled all the
amount generated from the sales of the cassettes," he bemoaned.
On
his part, Frank Minnah confirmed Adomako Nyamekye's story but denied that he
had embezzled the money accrued from the sale of the cassettes. He said they
had a verbal agreement in 1991 that he (Frank Minnah) should become executive
producer of Adomako Nyamekye's songs to be able to market them.
GRi…/
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Man stones wife to death
The P&P reports that residents of Koforidua
in the Eastern Region were gripped with fear, disbelief and horror on August 4,
2001, when a woman believed to be in her 20’s was found murdered in cold blood
on the compound of the ascension Presbyterian Junior Secondary School.
The victim who was later identified as
Ernestina Fulera, hailing from Walewale in the Northern Region and residing at
Agege in Accra, was found lying prostrate with deep cuts on her forehead and
cheeks.
A food
flask, a lady’s handbag, a metal object, and a big stone, presumed to have been
used to kill her, were found lying by her.
The
Koforidua Police who mounted an intensive investigation to arrest the suspected
serial killer behind the murder, had good results upon a tip off.
According
the police, Eric Osei and the deceased, until her death, had been in a
relationship for about two years during which period they had a baby who died
when it was four months old.
Due
to the circumstances surrounding the death of the baby, Ernestina always blamed
Osei’s parents as the cause, and as a result, has not been on good terms with
her in-laws.
On
the day in question, Osei allegedly invited Ernestina to accompany him to
Koforidua where his family members reside, with the explanation that he was
going to seek spiritual cure for a stomach ulcer, which Ernestina had been
suffering from since the death of their child.
The
police related that upon reaching Koforidua, Osei allegedly asked Ernestina to
wait for him at the Presbyterian school while he rushed home to check if his
mother was absent, before sending her home.
He
was alleged to have returned to the spot while the woman was asleep and
suddenly picked a heavy concrete block with which he used to hit her head, killing
her instantly.
Osei
is presently being processed for court.
GRi…/
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