IMC to steer affairs of Egle party
Help safeguard lives and property, Minister urges chiefs
Revamp lands tribunal - Professor
IMC to steer affairs of Egle party
Accra (Greater Accra), 18 February 2000
The Egle Party has appointed a15-member interim management committee (IMC) to steer its affairs.
The committee has replaced Owuraku Amofa, National Chairman and Deputy Minister of Communications, and other members of the national executive of the party.
A ruling by an Accra High Court on January 18, 2000, granted an order for interim injunction restraining Mr. Amofa, Mr. Sam Pee Yalley and eight other executive members from holding themselves out as officers of the Egle Party.
A statement signed and issued by Mr. Stanley Owuraku Kudolo, Interim Spokesman explained that the formation of the committee "is in conformity with the ruling of the court, and to ensure that the Party does not suffer unduly as a result of the vacuum created by the court injunction."
Nana Kwame Ofori-Atta is the chairman of the IMC with Dr Alex Quartey and Frank Osei Mensah as Vice Chairmen.
Mr. Henry Gidi is the Deputy General Secretary, with Mr. Cornelius Adablah and Alhaji Alhassan Benneh as Deputy General Secretaries.
Professor H. B. Martinson and Madam Alice Manuel are the Press Secretary and Women's Organiser respectively.
The statement named Dr Justice Hoffman, Mr. Cyril Manu and Mr. Michael Shiamatey as treasurers.
It said the IMC, which has representatives in all the regions, would run the party's activities and organise it for an immediate convention.
The release appealed to supporters to co-operate with members of the IMC.
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Help safeguard lives and property, Minister urges chiefs
Kokodibon (Ashanti), 18 February 2000
Mr. Samuel Nuamah-Donkor, Ashanti Regional Minister, has called on traditional rulers to help law enforcement agencies to safeguard the lives and properties of their people.
He also asked parliament to enact a law that would impose stiffer punishment on people who set bushfires.
Mr. Nuamah-Donkor made the call when he presented relief items to the Kokodibon community in the Offinso district, after their houses and property were completely destroyed by fire last Tuesday.
A 90-year-old man, Opanin Kwaku Grushie died in the blaze.
Items destroyed included 1.3 million cedis cash, large quantities of maize, groundnuts and yams.
The relief items, part of a 28.2 million cedi consignment to be distributed to two other communities struck by rainstorm last year, include 25 mattresses and 18 plastic buckets.
Others are 36 plastic cups, 36 plastic plates, a box of lantern shades and a large quantity of used clothes donated by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the 31st December Women's Movement.
Mr. Nuamah-Donkor asked the people to help curb the incidence of bushfires by reporting those who cause them to the law enforcement agencies.
He presented bags of cement, mattresses, packets of roofing sheets, used clothes and other items to communities in Abofour and Dumasua, where rainstorm destroyed some houses.
Nana Fobri II, Abofourhene, who received the items on behalf of the communities, appealed to the Offinso district assembly for a day-care centre in the town.
He introduced Captain Kwaku Adakwa (rtd) as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate for Offinso South in this year's elections and called on the people to vote for him.
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Revamp lands tribunal - Professor
Kumasi (Ashanti), 18 February 2000
Professor Kasim Kasanga, Director of Land Management and Development, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, has stressed the need to reconstitute land tribunals with permanent members.
They should be decentralised to the regional and district levels to handle claims, technical and factual matters.
Professor Kasanga was delivering a paper on "Changes in land tenure: Strengthening land tenure systems to protect the poor" at a three-day final workshop of experts on the Natural Resource Management Project in Kumasi Peri-Urban Area, in Kumasi.
The theme for the workshop attended by experts from the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and Ghana, was "Developing sustainable livelihoods and natural resource use in Peri-urban Kumasi".
It was organised by the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of UK in collaboration with the KNUST and sponsored by the Department for International Development (DFID) of Great Britain.
Professor Kasanga said mechanisms must be established to resolve land conflicts out of court including chieftaincy secretariats, local arbitration and non-governmental organisations.
Many other initiatives, unrelated to land tenure are called for to rid rural and Peri-urban communities of poverty and to improve their management of land.
The Director stressed that well-targeted workshop and the dissemination of relevant land laws and tenurial rights in local languages would bridge the wide communications gap between the modern state, the traditional authorities, communities and the general public.
"Awareness of the land laws and tenurial rights would enable all stakeholders to assert their rights without fear. If people do not know their rights, it would be difficult to assert or enforce them", he said.
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Tema (Greater Accra), 18 February 2000
Five heavily armed robbers on Monday night attacked an American and two Swiss nationals at Tema Community Six and snatched a Hyundai Galloper registered GT. 7690 N from one of them.
The victims were Mr Mike Connors, an American Maintenance Manager of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and Mr Rolf Chretien, a Swiss Plant Engineer of Nestle Ghana Limited and his wife, Doris.
Miss Suzy Teye, a househelp of Mr Connors, who witnessed the attack on her boss said the incident took place at about 2130 hours, when Mr Connors returned home from dinner at a restaurant only to find out that he had been trailed by a taxi cab.
She said as soon Mr Connors entered the house, the robbers numbering five with two of them armed with an AK 47 assault riffle rushed on him and asked him to surrender his hand bag, all cash on him and the keys to the house.
Amidst firing of several warning shots the armed robbers, who had two of their colleagues manning the gates to the house warned neighbours, who had heard the noise not to get near.
Miss Teye said with a pistol pointing at her master's head, he complied with the orders of the robbers but they assaulted him and took his automatic Ford pick-up.
When they realised that they could not drive the vehicle they ordered Mr Connors, who was made to lie on the floor, to teach them to drive it and they left with the taxi following them.
The robbers, who had difficulty in driving the vehicle, attacked Mr and Mrs Chretien in the same neighbourhood, where they seized their Hyundai Galloper and abandoned the VALCO Ford pick-up.
Mrs Chretien told the GNA that as soon as they entered their driveway to the house, they saw the pick-up following slowly but they assumed it was one of the pick-ups from Nestle.
She said when the vehicle closed-up on them, the armed men came out and ordered her husband to surrender all moneys on him, the keys to their residence and the vehicle.
The robbers also took all jewellery on her, assaulted her husband until blood oozed out of his nose and fired about five warning shots before they escaped with the vehicle.
Neighbours said both robberies were so fast that soldiers, who arrived about twenty minutes later, missed the thieves.
The Community Two Police confirmed the incident and said it was investigating the cases.
Meanwhile, Mr Dan Acheampong, Personnel and Community Relations Manager of VALCO said the company is putting in place adequate security measures not only to protect their employees but also the entire residents of the area.
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