‘Don’t make Mills’ son a campaign issue’
Another woman murdered – victim No. 30
EC investigates NDC allegation
Amnesty International lauds Ghana’s human rights record
Volta MPs complain – but NPP says it’s a ploy
Why Kufuor declared himself winner
NDC is hot as it entices Togolese to vote in run-off?
Kufuor to win by landslide
The wholesale rape at Asutsuare
Victor Owusu is dead
‘Don’t make Mills’ son a campaign issue’
The Presidential candidate of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr Edward Mahama, has called on Ghanaians to judge Professor John Evans Atta Mills, flagbearer of the NDC, and others seeking public office and avoid stooping low to dig out their negative past, reports the Daily Graphic.
“We all live in glass houses and should stop throwing stones. If we were to dig out everyone’s past, then no one would qualify to serve this nation,” Dr Mahama stated during an interview on Vibe FM, an Accra private radio station.
He noted that everyone at certain stage in the past has made a mistake or two and this should not be used as a yardstick to measure that person’s competence for office.
Dr Mahama, according to the story, rejected attempts at making the son of Professor Atta Mills a campaign issue, saying that since this did not happen while he (Prof. Mills) was Vice-President, it would be improper to make an issue of it and advised that his assessment be based on his record as Vice President.
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Another woman murdered – victim No. 30
The Graphic carries that the professional competence of the Police Administration in handling the serial killings which have hit the Accra metropolis since 1997 once again came to the fore when the body of yet another women was found on the Spintex Road early Monday morning.
The yet to be identified virtually naked woman was lying in a supine position with only a black brazier and a white blouse raised up to her neck level while a pair of blue slippers, a cloth and a torn panties close to her.
The latest victim brings the number of women who have been killed in similar circumstances since December 1997 to 30, without the police having a single clue to the killings.
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EC investigates NDC allegation
The Ghanaian Times says the allegation by Cape Coast constituency branch of the NDC that some known activists of the NPP were recruited as presiding officers and polling assistants with the connivance of the Electoral Commission (EC) at some polling stations during the December election is being investigated by the Electoral body.
Mr Mark Kojo Anyimadu, Central Regional EC Director, told the Times on Monday that should the allegation be found to be true, the seven election officials concerned would be removed and replaced before the run-off, however, they would be retained if the claim turn out to be false.
The Cape Coast Constituency leadership of the NDC in a press conference on Friday alleged that the EC and the police teamed up against the party and engaged in fraudulent conduct to rob the party of victory in the election.
Mr Graham Wilberforce, the chairman, accused the EC of deliberately recruiting some known NPP activists at some polling stations, thus giving the NPP the undue advantage to win the election.
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Amnesty International lauds Ghana’s human rights record
Amnesty International (AI) Ghana Section has commended the government and people of Ghana for improved human rights record but said serial killings of women and rape and defilement cases pose great challenges.
The General Secretary of AI, Mr Felix A. Lartey, stated this at a seminar for selected members of the association from the southern sector of the country at Koforidua in the Eastern Region, and called on members to intensify public education on human rights issues and the abolition of all forms of human rights abuses.
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Volta MPs complain – but NPP says it’s a ploy
The Evening News reports that the MPs of the Volta Region has in a statement signed by 12 out of the 18 of them expressed shock, disgust and alarm at reported news of unleashing of violence, on the minority groups by NPP members in Ashanti Region.
“We are equally appalled by the apparent tacit approval given by the hierarchy of the NPP as demonstrated by the total silence or denial from the NPP leadership since the unleashing of these senseless and murderous acts by their supporters in the Ashanti Region”, they said.
The MPs said they believed and still do believe that elections must constitute a renewal of and consolidation of democratic practice, national unity and cohesion and not instruments for potential national destabilisation.
The statement called on Voltarians domiciled in the Ashanti Region to take necessary steps to protect themselves and their properties while it urged the National Security to take immediate steps to secure the safety of all Ghanaians, irrespective of where they might be lawfully living.
The NPP has however strongly countered the NDC’s allegations describing them as orchestrated campaign machination to muddy the political environment in the run-up to the December 28 run-off.
In a statement signed by the party’s campaign manager, Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey titled, ‘Beware NDC’, it described the allegations as one of several decisions by the NDC, as most vicious and potentially destabilising of the unity of the country.
It said documents that the NPP had laid hands on point to messages to be put out that Ashantis hate Northerners and Ewes and will sack them from the South if Mr Kufuor wins the presidency.
“Accordingly, orchestrated acts, supported by the necessary propaganda, have been initiated to paint a false picture of people of these ethnic groups being persecuted by Ashantis, particularly Akans as a whole.”
The statement reiterated the need for extreme caution in these extra ordinary times “since Ghana cannot afford to travel the tortuous and hazardous path of either election-related or tribally-provoked civil conflicts.”
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Why Kufuor declared himself winner
The Ghanaian Democrat says the NPP flagbearer’s pronouncement that he was going to be the next President of the nation was because the party had set in motion a diabolical plan for massive rigging, enabling them to win the Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Greater Accra and Central Regions, otherwise stronghold areas of the NDC.
The paper reports serious collusion between the NPP and some officials of the EC to rig the elections for Mr Kufuor and the NPP.
“Part of the tricks adopted by the EC and the NPP was to be extra nice to the NDC polling agents while they made sure in the constituencies they had targeted to win, they had only NPP sympathisers officiating.” A number of minors and juveniles allegedly voted in these ‘stolen’ constituencies.
Investigations, according to the paper, reveals that everything appeared to be sealed for an NPP victory hence the behaviour of Mr Kufuor 48 hours after the elections, as if he was already the president of Ghana.
The paper says it was a nightmare for Mr Kufuor seeing all his plans torpedoed and his hopes dashed to the ground since his fears were that having failed to win the first round through the backdoor he would not have the opportunity again in the second round when the NDC would have been wide awake to plug all the loopholes that led to the NPP rigging the first round.
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NDC is hot as it entices Togolese to vote in run-off?
The Crusading Guide writes that reports reaching the NPP leadership strongly indicate that the NDC has embarked upon dangerous moves to win the December 28 Presidential run-up at all cost.
It said among some of the most dangerous and inimical decisions taken at a recent NDC meeting is a design to lure Togolese to vote in Ghana for 10,000 CFA and free transport.
Tribal sentiments, according to the paper, are to be whipped up where Ewes and Northerners will be pitted against Asantes, using the lie that the latter hated the former and in the event of a Kufuor victory, they (Northerners) will be sacked from Southern Ghana.
The Crusading Guide quotes Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, National Campaign Manager of the NPP as saying in a statement that "people from the target tribes are to be put on television to narrate false stories of persecution and harassment by Asantes, simply because of where they hail from and their support for the NDC."
Armed soldiers are also to be roped into the diabolic destabilizing plan where they will be deployed in NPP strongholds to scare voters from voting.
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Kufuor to win by landslide
A political analyst, Mr Victor Newman, is reported by The Statesman as saying in an interview with the paper that Presidential front-runner, J.A. Kufuor will win the December 28 run-off by a landslide victory.
Appearing upbeat about his assertion, Mr Newman said an "emphatic" Kufuor victory may shock even die-hard opposition supporters.
He said a wind of change has been blowing across the globe with the new millennium and countries like Senegal, Taiwan, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Peru, Zimbabwe and recently, the US have all gone through the process of political change, and Ghana, being an integral part of the global village, cannot escape the trend.
He referred to the vindication of scientific polls before the election which showed a vote for change while spuriously conducted ones merely based their conclusions of victory for the NDC on conjectures and political allegiance.
He stated that even when many Ghanaians were not certain of Kufuor's chances, over 55 per cent voted for positive change on December 7.
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