Angry mob blocks Accra-Nsawam Road
Banks asked to reduce interest rates
‘Harassment’
of NDC officials - Ahwoi hints of
revenge
NDC Youth
charge on Obed
Angry mob blocks Accra-Nsawam Road
Traffic on the Accra-Nsawam Road was brought to a standstill for over two hours on Tuesday, following the blockade of the road at the John Teye Memorial School by an irate mob numbering more than 100.
The mob were alleged to have mounted the blockage after a policeman had allegedly shot at the front tyre of a DAF container truck with registration number, GR 2246 A, resulting in an accident. The truck, which was carrying sawn timber, ran into two other vehicles in the process.
The mob were said to have chased out police personnel at the Ofankor barrier for allegedly helping their colleague who shot at the truck to escape. The action of the mob resulted in a traffic jam on the road from St John’s Grammar school to the barrier and from Pokuase to the barrier.
According to an eyewitness, Mr Michael Akoto, the policeman shot at the tyre, after the driver of the truck refused to pay an amount of ¢2 million he allegedly demanded.
Akoto, who was on board one of the vehicles, which were involved in the accident, said their vehicle was closely following the truck, with another vehicle in front of the truck.
He said as they were descending the Ofankor overhead bridge, a policeman who had earlier stopped the truck at a mounted barrier near John Teye and demanded the amount from the driver overtook them in a Nissan Pick-up and shot at the front tyre of the truck.
The driver apparently lost control of the steering and ran into an Opel Kadet in front of him while another vehicle, a VW Jetta, which was following went under the truck.
Mr Akoto said while the passengers got down from their vehicles to rescue other passengers, he held the policeman in his bid to take him to the Ofankor barrier but another policeman, who was using a Suzuki motorbike with registration number, GP 999, arrived at the scene, pushed him down and took the policeman away on a motorbike.
He said he personally went to the Ofankor police barrier to report the incident but a policeman on duty told him to go and look for the policeman who caused the accident since they were not responsible for the incident.
He said later onlookers, at the scene of the accident, aggrieved by the action of the policemen, blocked the road with the sawn timber to register their displeasure.
A source at the police barrier said in an interview that when the incident happened, he was dispatched with another constable by the Inspector in-charge at the barrier to find out what was happening but on their way to the scene, the angry mob started running after them, compelling them to flee for their lives.
A police reinforcement from Accra later managed to disperse the mob, clear the blockage and restore peace, law and order. At the time of the Graphic’s visit, no arrests had been made.
A number of people interviewed expressed concern about the incident, especially the inconvenience caused to the travelling public as the hold-up led to traffic jam on the already busy Achimota Nsawam portion of the main Accra-Kumasi road.
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Banks asked to reduce interest rates
Nana Krampah Dadzie III, the Gomoa District best farmer has called on banks to reduce the high interest rates on loans to the agricultural sector.
Nana Dadzie who is also the chief of Gomoa Adam in the Central Region, said the high interest rate is a disincentive to high agricultural productivity.
He was speaking at a durbar of farmers at Apam at which he was rewarded for being the Best Agro-Forestry-Farmer in the area. He said, for instance, that it takes about five years for anybody involved in agro-forestry to reap anything from his or her sweat.
Nana Dadzie noted that in view of the huge cost of agro-chemicals, spraying machines and other inputs farmers have to fall on banks for credit and pay high interest rates, thereby making it difficult for them to increase productivity.
The chief, therefore, appealed to the government to come to the farmers’ rescue by impressing upon the banks to consider granting them long-term loans with low interest rates.
He said if this is done, cashew, mango, cola and other agro-forestry farmers could produce more for export and for local consumption.
Nana Dadzie also asked the government to take steps to make available machines for processing cashew fruits in the country and also address the farmers’ problem of getting ready markets for their produce to encourage them to produce more.
The chief is the owner of an 80-acre cashew farm at Gomoa Lome known as Leobenda (Gh) Ltd.
On land acquisition, he appealed to this colleague chiefs and other land owners in the district to release lands to their subjects for them to grow more cashew and other crops.
The Gomoa District Chief Executive, Ms Joyce Aidoo, in an earlier address, announced that President J.A. Kuffour has signed an agreement in Spain for the construction of a fishery school at Mumford in the Gomoa District.
She added: “Let us rally behind the NPP Government and support its good policies for a real qualitative change in life”.
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The General Secretary of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr John Amekah, has said the party’s concept of domestication holds the key to addressing what he termed the country’s manifold problems.
“If Ghana, as a country, continues to eat in the kitchen of the developed nations; without using her local resources to build her own kitchen, then the efforts of government to find solutions to the problems of deprivation and poverty will always hit the rocks,” he said.
Mr Amekah said this at the Greater Accra Regional delegates’ congress of the party in Accra at the weekend. The GCPP General Secretary explained to the delegates that the dependency syndrome that has affected the psyche of the nation has prevented both individuals and governments, since independence, from developing creative abilities to solve their own problems.
He further explained that the issue of dependency among Ghanaians has created apathy and, to a considerable extent, laziness since the perception held among them is that there will be somebody who will come to their aid in times of need and crises.
Mr Amekah described as disgraceful the failure of Ghanaians to produce enough food to feed themselves and wondered what “Ghanaians are doing with the large tracts of fallow land endowed to the nation by nature”.
He cautioned the Kufuor administration to be cautious in its dealings with the international financial institutions whose policies, since the last two decades, have led to marked deterioration in the well-being of the people.
The leader of the party, Mr Dan Lartey restated that the domestication concept, if implemented by the Kufuor administration, will turn around the economy and ensure the material prosperity of the nation.
Mr Lartey said foreign economic prescriptions are not the best solutions to the nation’s complex problems, which he said, have defied such prescriptions since independence.
The GCPP leader urged the executive to work hard to increase the membership of the party to ensure its victory in the 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Officers elected include Mr Harry Mettle, Chairman; George Mensah, Vice-Chairman; Freddie Malm, Organiser, and George Anobah, Treasurer. The rest are Ms Linda Brown, Women’s Organiser, and Mr Robert Ago Mensah, Education Secretary.
The Regional Chairman, Mr Mettle, on behalf of the executive, expressed their preparedness to encourage more people to register for the party in preparation for the next elections.
GRi…/
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‘Harassment’
of NDC officials - Ahwoi hints of
revenge
The former
Minister for Economic Planning and Regional Integration, Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, has
said that NDC former ministers and others who sympathise with the NDC are being
psychologically tortured by the NPP government, and warned that it would be
very difficult for NDC or any future government to refuse to look at the past
as NPP is doing.
“People are
being psychologically tortured day in and day out by the NPP government, so I
think it would be very difficult for you people (NDC supporters) to say we
should not look back when we win the 2004 elections”, Ahwoi said with the crowd
responding “yes, yes.”
Speaking at
the NDC regional congress at Sekondi last Saturday, Mr Ahwoi said whatever the
NPP government is doing to the ex-NDC ministers is a precedent they are setting
for others to follow in future.
According
to him, the new NPP government is using the rule of law to suppress its opponent,
especially the NDC members, by subjecting every policy and projects initiated
by the former NDC government to criminal investigation through the security
agencies.
He noted
that though so far the government has not been able to charge any ex-NDC Minister
with corruption except causing financial loss to the state, among others, the
former NDC ministers are being hunted day in by the security agencies like the
BNI, SFO, among others, to appear before one form of probe or the other.
He said
even businessmen and consultants who identify themselves with the NDC have also
been roped into this probe hunt.
Kwamena
Ahwoi further said the NPP government was expecting the NDC ex-ministers to
have fled the country so that their propaganda could work to perfection but
they are still around and would not leave for any place.
He told the
congress that though some NDC programmes are being subjected to criminal
investigations, the government without giving them any credit. He gave the
assurance that at the appropriate time all these 155 projects would be
published in the daily papers for everybody to know.
Touching on
the accusations and counter-accusations going on in the NDC, Ahwoi said when
the NPP were in opposition they suffered similar fate but it was not considered
as confusion, but when it happened in the NDC it is seen as confusion.
“We say we
want to practise internal democracy and this alleged confusion is part of it.
I, however, wish to assure you that we shall go to our congress this month and
come out in flying colours,” he said.
“The
resolution we shall adopt in the midst of the alleged confusion is what we
shall use to topple NPP in 2004,” he assured his ever enthusiastic supporters,
clad in the party’s colours.
A former
deputy minister, Mr Lee Ocran, on his part, said people are already waiting at
the gate to take over Ghana Telecom, therefore, the government’s claim that
Telecom Malaysia has not been performing satisfactorily did not come to him as
a surprise.
“Formerly,
did we have telephone booths around all corners of the country,” he asked, with
the supporters responding “no-o-o”.
According
to him, through the good work of Ghana Telecom, being managed by the
Malaysians, those in our villages can even make calls to everywhere in the
world, yet the government claims they have done nothing to merit the renewal of
their licence.
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The State
Insurance Company (SIC) Ltd, at one time the showpiece in the nation’s
insurance industry, is making positive strides to recapture the company’s past
glory and image.
As a move
to ensure that the company recaptured its image and glory, Mr Peter Osei-Duah,
since his appointment as Managing Director (MD) of the company five months ago,
has not relented in his efforts to bring the company back to where it actually
belongs.
To ensure
that the company achieves its goals the Board of Directors of the company under
the chairmanship of Prof Ofori has appointed two deputies to fill the vacuum
created when the government sent the executive of the previous management team
crashing.
The few
months that Duah has been in office, he has been able to unearth a lot of fishy
deals with the help of some managers of the company to the admiration of those
who have been following the operations of the company.
“In fact,
with the appointment of his two deputies and other hardworking guys around they
would be able to turn the company’s fortune around,” observed an insurance
expert. Some of us are surprised that within the short time that Duah took over
some of our outstanding bills which had swelled for some months have been
cleared, giving us a lot of relief”, Mr Jacobs Mensah, a transport owner who
used to complain about delays in the payment of claims told this reporter on
Tuesday.
He noted
that if the current trend of affairs in the company is maintained SIC would be
a major force to reckon with in all spheres where the company would be
transacting business and it would be able to play its role as expect by the
good people of this nation.
GRi…/
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NDC
Youth charge on Obed
The NDC
Youth Wing of Central Ayawaso is not happy about the way the party's activists
and those who want to contest for executive positions in the forthcoming NDC
congress are conducting themselves.
According
to them, party members who have the welfare of the NDC at heart should refrain
from wrangling and acts that do not make effective party organization.
The youth
wing was reacting to recent bickering and confusion among prominent
personalities within the NDC, which was gradually tearing the party apart.
They made
it clear that nothing must be done "to undermine the founder of the party,
Flt-Lt J.J. Rawlings, who has made all, including Dr Obed Yaw Asamoah, what
they are today, since without the 31st December revolution, most of
them could not have become Ministers in their life time".
The youth
asked Dr Obed Asamoah who is the party's chairman of the re-organisation
committee not to contest the post of the national chairman of the NDC.
Such a
situation, according to them, might lead to serious consequences. "If this
situation persists, it will not only undermine our party, but could damage the
integrity and the very spiritual soul of the party."
The youth
stated that what the party needs now is internal peace and harmony, so as to be
able to plan well for 2004 elections and win it. "Without absolute peace,
the party will be torn apart and cannot therefore, win the 2004 election,"
the youth stated.
According
to them, having been in politics for a long time, it would not be difficult for
the opponents of the NDC to find many negative things against Obed, which could
damage the image of the party. They appealed to Dr Asamoah not to allow his
personal interest to take precedence over the overall interest of the party.
The party,
they noted, was in a serious battle for survival, which demands the concerted
action of all.
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The
Ministry of Finance on Tuesday morning started a nationwide head count of all
the 350,000 workers whose named are on its payroll. The exercise is aimed at
ensuring that the many ghost names on government payrolls are totally
eliminated.
When our
team visited the offices of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, the staff were
busily completing forms which had been specially designed for the exercise.
The sector
Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, told 'The Evening News' that the exercise, which
would cover all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would end before
next year's budget comes out.
He said his
outfit held a meeting with heads and staff of the auditor-General's Department,
Controller and Accountant-General Department and the Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) to strategise and find solutions to the problem of ghost
names.
According
to him, it has been decided that copies of payrolls of the various regions
would be made available to Regional Ministers after the exercise whilst those
for the districts would be given to the District Chief Executives (DCEs).
After the
head count, Mr Osafo Maafo said, his outfit in conjunction with the
Auditor-General's Department would then begin to check on ghost vehicles in the
MDAs as well as those for people on pension.
If any
adverse revelations are established against any individual at the end of the
exercise, he said the Ministry would not hesitate to hand over the person to
law enforcement agencies.
On his
part, Nana Opoku Agyemang, Head of the External Audit at the Finance Ministry,
said staff who might not be available during the two-day exercise would be made
to answer. Such people, he said, would be made to complete a special form to be
sent to the Auditor-General's office for the issuance of an exceptional report.
He said
names, which would remain uncleared on the exceptional report would be
eliminated from the government payroll.
GRi…/
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The Tema
General Hospital is to convert part of its Out Patient Department (OPD) into an
Accident and Emergency Unit.
This is to allow the hospital to effectively handle the numerous accident cases that are brought from the Tema-Akosombo Road, Accra-Aflao Road and the Tema Motorway.
Dr. Mrs. Charity Brako, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, who disclosed this said that accident cases had reduced to 5,454 this year from 8,275 recorded last year. She said this on Tuesday when the Tema Lube Oil Company presented items worth 200 million cedis to the hospital.
The items included instrument trays and trolleys, gallipots, oxygen cylinders with flow meters, suction machines and examination beds. The donation was under the company’s social responsibility policy.
Mrs Brako noted that the accident and emergency cases were creating overcrowding
at the OPD leaving the staff with little or no privacy to carry out resuscitation and
other treatments. She said that as the creation of the Emergency was a temporary
measure, the hospital needed financial support to set up a permanent unit.
She said that the time has come for the upgrading of the hospital to “meet the
ever-increasing patients load on it.” Mrs Brako appealed for private sector support to
complement the government’s contribution to health care delivery.
The Chairman of the Tema Lube Oil Company, Mr Thomas Agawu, said that the was
obliged to support the hospital since it was also a beneficiary of its services. He
expressed the hope that the hospital would ensure that the items were used for
intended purposes.
Mr Agawu advised the health-workers not to see the items as the only necessary tool
for healing but to give their love and patience to all who seek their services.
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The Institute of Accountancy Training (IAT) at the weekend awarded 58 students
with diplomats at a graduation ceremony in Accra.
The Institute, which was set up by the Ministry of Finance offers courses in
accountancy and auditing, financial and general management as well as public
finance and public Administration.
The Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance, Mr S.B. Nyantakyi, who was the
guest of honour said, government was concerned about the qualitative improvement
in education at all levels. “It was imperative that we manage our slender resources
judiciously in order to achieve this goal” he said.
Mr Nyantakyi therefore urged parents, students and other stakeholders to
complement government’s effort in this direction by applying all means to source
non-governmental finance that will make it possible for us to achieve an enhanced
human resource base for the nation.
He explained that notwithstanding the severe financial pressures on the budget and the
unfriendly international macroeconomic condition, government had continued to
demonstrate its goodwill and support by providing some of the institute’s most
pressing needs. He assured the IAT of its fair share of the Ministry’s job allocation.
Commenting on the government’s policy of “Golden Age of Business” and the
private sector as the engine of growth, he noted that - there was the need for the
integration of the public and private sector financial management by extending such
training facilities and expertise to the private sector.
He assured the management and board of IAT of the Ministry’s preparedness to
complete the Adenta Campus of the Institute and urged graduands to help delete the
pile of ghost names on government payroll.
In his address, the Principal of the Institute, Mr Theophilus Hanson, said graduands
by their education and training were equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills
to take challenging positions in the civil, public, and private sectors of the economy
for the promotion of the golden age of business.
Adding that in a country with vibrant state sector, these public accountants were not
only important but indispensable partners in development.
The Principal outlined some of the problems of the institute as accommodation,
accreditation by the National Accreditation Board, and transport facilities, and
appealed for some assistance from the GET fund.
He announced the institute’s plans to as from next year become the sole
Representative of the CIPEA qualification in Ghana since the first professional exams
for the CIPEA qualification would be taken in the country.
Two of the graduands were adjudged best overall students with 3 distinctions at a sitting. While Mr Charles Offei emerged best overall in Public Administration and Accountancy Part 1 Mrs Benedicta Carl emerged Best overall in Public Sector Administration Part 2.
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The Government has contracted a World Bank loan of $25 million to stem the tide of the HIV/AIDS menace in the country. The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, announced this on Tuesday, when he performed the opening ceremony of an advocacy seminar on the disease in Accra.
He said also that the government would set aside 15 per cent of the National Health Budget for HIV/AIDS related activities.
The seminar, which was used to launch the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work for Tripartite Partners, was intended to secure a clear understanding of the partners on the current changing state of the epidemic in Ghana.
It was also to enable government introduce its policy and programmes on HIV/AIDS to the private sector as well as consider the legal and moral issues and provisions with regards to employees living with the disease.
Alhaji Mahama called on the private sector to emulate government’s efforts by providing financial and material support in order to scale up the fight against AIDS.
He observed that there was the urgent need for collaboration between government and the private sector, if the epidemic would be brought under control.
He advised the manufacturing sector to label their products with HIV/AIDS messages so that the national response to the disease would be enhanced.
GRi…/
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