CEPS impounds stolen vehicles
Ministry's inaction causes Ghana 72.4m Cedis debt
NDC blames Kufuor for Akuafo Cheque flop
Rawlings and wife adopt Ethiopian children?
Diplomat in sex scandal
CEPS impounds stolen vehicles
The Daily Graphic reports in a front-page banner headline story that the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has impounded 100 vehicles at the Tema and Takoradi ports, suspected to have been stolen from abroad. Nii Okine Adjei, Commissioner of CEPS, who is said to have disclosed this in an interview in Accra, indicated that the Service will seek the assistance of the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) to investigate the circumstances under which the vehicles were smuggled into Ghana.
He said the collaboration with the INTERPOL is necessary and worthwhile to ensure that the state does not become party to the stealing syndicate. The Graphic says that Nii Adjei explained that under normal circumstances, the vehicles should have been confiscated to the state outright because they were unmanifested.
He said eight of the vehicles were impounded at the Takoradi Port while the rest were seized at Tema. On the collaboration with the INTERPOL, the CEPS boss said that in some cases his organisation does not receive any response from the international police organisation and when no response is forthcoming the items are confiscated to the state. He explained that because of the possibility of insurance companies paying for the loss of such vehicles, the owners do not waste time to look for them, thus making it difficult for the INTERPOL to make a headway in its investigations.
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Ministry's inaction causes Ghana 72.4m Cedis debt
In a front-page story, the Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana will pay 72.4 million cedis as interest on a loan which was approved by Parliament yesterday, due to the delay by the Ministry of the Interior to bring it early for ratification.
The Times says in a motion for the adoption of the report from the Parliamentary Finance Committee on the loan of $13.429 million from Exim Bank of the United States, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, (rtd) the committee's chairman, said an 0.5% interest had accrued on the first tranche of the loan since July 26, this year.
According to him, the loan was to purchase a number dual-purpose fire tenders with monitors and spare parts for the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS). Commodore Obimpeh said apart from the loan, another agreement of $10 million from Spain and the Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Bank, S.A.E., which would secure more logistics for the GNFS, was also brought for approval.
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The Statesman
NDC blames Kufuor for Akuafo Cheque flop
The Statesman says the NDC has resorted to dirty tricks and outright falsehood to shore up its flagging fortunes. The paper, in a front-page story, says that having failed to release funds to the Produce Buying Company to pay cocoa farmers, who have been in possession of the Akuafo cheques for months now without the banks honouring them, the NDC is now blaming the NPP flagbearer, Mr J.A. Kufuor.
According to the Statesman, the NDC propaganda machinery in the cocoa-growing areas in the Brong Ahafo Region, Ashanti Region and the Sefwi area in the Western Region, is that Mr Kufuor has refused to sign his part of the Akuafo cheque, thus although President Jerry Rawlings has signed his part, the banks have refused to honour their cheques.
The paper says that NSC party agents, mostly members of the Veranda Boys and Girls Association and the Association of the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDRs), have been going round spreading false information that when the cheques were issued somewhere in October, Mr Kufuor had then travelled abroad but on his return, he refused to sign his part because the farmers, who are mostly from the villages, did not vote for him in the 1996 elections.
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The Crusading Guide
Rawlings and wife adopt Ethiopian children?
The Crusading Guide wonders that despite the fact that Ghana is awash with "unquantifiable number of poor,. Homeless and destitute children, the First Couple (Mr J.J. Rawlings and Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings), are reportedly adopting an Ethiopian girl".
The paper says that this is the second Ethiopian child the Ghanaian First Couple is adopting. The Crusading Guide quotes a BBC 'Network Africa' news bulleting as disclosing last Friday that the news about the adoption had appeared in Ethiopian newspapers. The paper says that when asked by the BBC correspondent in Ethiopia as to whether there are no children in Ghana to be adopted by the First Couple, an official at the Ethiopian Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare replied: "Maybe they like Ethiopian children".
According to the Crusading Guide, a follow-up news bulletin on 'Focus Africa' on the BBC, submitted that Ghanaians learnt about the plan of the adoption when it was announced by the BBC that Friday "and it seems to have caught many by surprise in Ghana".
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The Guide
Diplomat in sex scandal
In its top story, the Guide observes that shameful reports of some foreigners having carnal knowledge of male minors in Ghana, have been rife of late. The paper says but allegations of sexual harassment, rape and defilement levelled against a senior diplomat in Accra, is nothing but despicable.
The Guide says that after a three-month painstaking investigation by a team of reporters during which contacts were made with some staff of the Italian Embassy, househelps, lawyers and friends of the diplomat, it is bringing to readers convincing and strong indications of systematic raping and defilement of youngmen in Accra by Sergio Serppellioni, described as a 'diplomatic agent' of the Italian Embassy.
According to the paper, Sergio, who is about 54 years old and who arrived in Ghana in 1994, is in the habit of 'picking' young males from different locations in Accra, especially from the Spintex Road and Golden Tulip Hotel and enticing them to have sex with him. Sergio is said to use a green Nissan Pathfinder with registration number CD 1206.
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