AGC ordered to convene extraordinary general meeting
Standards Board impounds 10mC expired goods
Kwame Pianim as Finance Minister?
A doctor’s magic
Teen mum tries to sell kid?
AGC ordered to convene extraordinary general meeting
The Daily Graphic reports in a front-page story that the bid by five shareholders of the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) Limited to unseat the company’s board of directors, received a boost yesterday, when an Accra High Court granted them all but one of the reliefs they sought.
The Graphic says that topmost among the relief granted was an order by the court that the AGC convenes an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders within 21 days to propose resolutions for the election of new board for the company.
The court presided over by Mr Justice R.K. Apaloo, also restrained the current board of directors or any officer of the company from contracting any loan or executing any instrument that would impose any financial constraints on the company until the extraordinary general meeting is convened.
The story says that the court, however, refused an application to permit the sale of all, any or part of the company’s interest in its mining assets. The Graphic says that the applicants, led by Adryx Mining and Metals Limited, had expressed their disappointment with the performance of the directors, whom they blame for the current crisis confronting the company.
According to them, the collective acts of the AGC board have reduced the company’s initial market capitalisation of $2 billion to $374 million.
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Standards Board impounds 10mC expired goods
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) has impounded over 10 million cedis worth of expired and poorly labelled goods from various supermarkets and shops in the Ashanti Region. In an inside page story, the Times says that the goods were mainly imported and locally manufactured foods, drinkables and pharmaceutical products.
The paper quotes Mr Yakubu Alhassan, Ashanti Regional Officer of the GSB as disclosing this in Kumasi yesterday. He said that the goods were seized in a market surveillance exercise within the past two months. He said the goods would be destroyed this week under the supervision of a number or organisation including the press and police.
The Times says that Mr Alhassan spoke of the health hazard posed by expired and poorly labelled food items and drugs and gave the assurance that the GSB would vigorously pursue its market surveillance exercises to rid supermarkets and shops in Ghana of such goods. He is reported to have urged operators of supermarkets and shops not to be blinded by the craze for profits to the extent of selling spurious goods to unsuspecting consumers.
He is said to have advised consumers to make it a duty to check expiry dates on all goods, especially food item and drugs that they buy.
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Kwame Pianim as Finance Minister?
In its top story, the Guide says that speculations abound in official circles of the ruling NDC that Mr Kwame Pianim, an economic consultant is being considered to take over from Mr Kwame Peprah as the Finance Minister.
The paper says that Mr Pianim, however, laughed over it and said "do you think the government will appoint me as a Minister?" The Guide says that when it suggested that it was possible in the name of national reconciliation, Mr Pianim still rebuffed it saying that he is not qualified to be a Minister.
He is said to have explained that as a Minister, he should qualify to be a Member of Parliament, which the Supreme Court by its ruling, has barred him from. According to Mr Pianim, those who are considering him as a Minister of Finance, must be reminded of the legal and constitutional implications involved in such a proposition.
But the Guide says its sources on the issue affirm that following the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC)/government saga, vis-a-vis the role of Mr Peprah, as chairman of the board of directors of AGC, there has been what they describe as "bad blood" between the President and the Finance Minister. The sources say that this coupled with the poor state of the economy, has led to a situation where the government is scouting for a replacement.
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A doctor’s magic
The Accra Mail in a front-page news feature says that if it is hard to imagine your skull being cut open and your brain invaded, it is even harder to imagine that this can now be done with minimum fuss, less blood, hardly any pain and a very short recovery period.
The paper says Dr Nii Bonney Andrews is one of the three or so neurosurgeons serving Ghana’s population of about 20 million people. A statistical detail that works out to a potential six million patient to one doctor! The Mail says that neurosurgery is a branch of medicine that is not as arcane as is normally thought of because even a common headache could be the onset of an ailment that could end up in neurosurgery.
The paper recalls that a well-known Ghanaian neurosurgeon, the late Prof. Mustafa, who died in penury and misery, was ignored by society and forgotten by Ghana’s health authorities after a long and dedicated service to the nation. According to the Mail, of the three neurosurgeons currently serving in Ghana, only one is at post at Ghana’s premier hospital, Korle-Bu, with the other two in private practice.
The paper says that one of these two, Dr Nii Bonney Andrews, was virtually shooed out of the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, last year where he had been more or less a volunteer. According to the Mail the hospital authorities told him that they had no use for his services.
The hospital is still without a neurosurgeon. Dr Andrews is said to have since moved on and he is now the Chief of Neurosurgery and Vice-President of NeuroGhana, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research into causes of neurosurgical ailments in Ghana…
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Teen mum tries to sell kid?
In an inside page story, the P & P says that an Agbogbloshie based ‘kayayoo’ (female porter), who thought she could sell her one-year-old baby girl to raise funds to trade, has found herself in the firm grips of the law while trying to consummate the deal.
The story says that the 17-year-old mother (name withheld), together with a friend, thought they had succeeded when they conveyed the innocent child to Dome, a suburb of Accra for sale. They were arrested by the police.
The paper says that although the child’s mother has denied the allegation, she and her friend are being investigated for slave dealing According to the mother, a native of Sokode in Togo, the father of the child denied paternity of it so she had to bear all the responsibilities.
She said she came to Ghana to live with her grandmother till she delivered, but had to move to Agbogbloshie with her baby some months later as the old lady could not support them financially. "I ended up at the Agbogblloshie Market to work as a porter, but I earned very little money because of my baby. As a result, I decided to give the baby to someone and collect an amount of 15 million cedis to trade with, so that after repaying the money, I could collect back my baby", she is quoted as telling the police…
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