Revelations
on judge’s murder soon
Condemned
Densu’s lawyer faults court ruling
Tough water privatization war ahead
Limitation
in American democracy - Ghanaian hot for contesting for Mayor
Media Commission directs Anane to apologise to Legon
Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 February 2002 - One of the most explosive documents on the
kidnap and murder of the three High Court judges and retired army officer is
about to hit the newsstands. Information available to The Statement shows the
book-“Who killed the judges?”- authored by Chief Superintendent J.J. Yidana is
by far, the most authoritative on the issue. This book is to be launched soon.
Yidana, who
was in charge of the investigation into the dastardly act, was said to be so
meticulous in his approach to his assignment that he is alleged to have made
enemies as a result of stepping on some big toes. Consequently, not long after
the conclusion of investigations into the abductions and murder, he was in a
strange move, arrested and charged for harboring a criminal.
After his
trial and his wife and others by the National Public Tribunals, he was
sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment with hard labour. Strangely enough, even
though he served his full term on July 8, 1988, he was still kept in prison for
nearly four years till March 21, 1992, when he was let out of prison with
serious health problems.
After a
period in Ghana, during which he was constantly harassed by security agents of
the NDC government, he fled the country into exile in Holland.
Yidana,
whose return to Ghana was made possible by the advent of Positive Change in
January, 2001, is said to have made startling revelations in his yet to be
released book, which will add to growing calls for the re-opening of the case,
which has since 1982, become a blot on the conscience of the nation.
At the
heart of the new revelations are the trails of blood that allegedly led to the
doorsteps of former President Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu.
Names implicated in the heinous crime have all been those associated with the
PNDC whose curfew at the time facilitated the diabolic deed of the murderers.
PNDC
members Amartey Kwei, Sgt. Alogla Akata Pore and Capt. (rtd) Kojo Tsikata were
allegedly mentioned as brains behind the deed, even though it was only Amartey
Kwei who was sent to the stakes and executed.
Coming
after “The Treason Trial of 1986, Tortured and Revolutionary Injustice,”
authored by Tribunal Chairman, George Agyekum, “Who Killed the Judges?” is the
new book that is bound to open yet another can of worms of the Rawlings’ era
which has already become nightmarish for the former President and his wife.
Already, the nearly two decades of Rawlings’ rule has earned the notorious
label of the “most corrupt and brutish in the nation’s history.” – The
Statesman
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‘I will strip Rawlings naked’ - Kweku Baako
Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 February 2002 - Ex-President Rawlings and the people around
him have been warned to be cautious when they open their mouths to accuse
others to avoid embarrassment.
“If
ex-President J.J. Rawlings and the people around him do not know and they offer
me the necessary platform, thus provocation, I will strip Rawlings naked before
Ghanaians, Mr Kweku Baako Jnr, the outspoken Managing Editor of the Crusading
Guide, a tri-weekly newspaper, has cautioned.
Baako, who
fired the warning on a popular Joy FM’s weekly news file programme last
Saturday said Rawlings has taken Ghanaians for a ride for far too long. The
outspoken editor’s warning was a direct response to the fallout from the
ex-President Rawlings’ pronouncement when he hosted a section of media
practitioners at his residence last week.
At the said
meeting, ex-President Rawlings was reported to have told the gathered media
practitioners that in spite of countless times that Kwesi Pratt Jnr was
arrested by his regime it is only one that he is aware and he may have caused
it over some security matter. The ex-President, who used the opportunity to
laud Pratt for his objectivity in criticizing the government, also said a lot about
his almost 20 years regime.
The
impression created by the ex-President suggested that he was innocent of some
of the abuses meted out to Ghanaians under his regime. “It was very bad on the
part of Rawlings to claim that he did not recall or remember that he authorized
the arrest of Pratt all that number of times, apart from the one he is aware
of,” Baako underscored.
“We are not
small boys to accept theory from Rawlings; we are not kids; people should be
ready to accept collective or ultimate responsibility for the atrocities they
meted out to others,” Baako added. The Crusading Guide editor hinted that he
was going to expose Rawlings for people to know his other side if he was not
going to comport himself. “I have decided to do an exercise on Mr Rawlings from
the next two weeks, I am going to bring to Ghanaians other side of Rawlings.”
The
exercise, Baako said, would help Ghanaians to know who Rawlings is and the
deception that he represents. “There is the need for Ghanaians to know what he
is; things that he represents, for people to know the man who the destiny of
this nation was entrusted to.
Baako noted
that Rawlings must be made to know that he cannot have it easy all the time.
“He must be made to know that he can not touch all the people and get away with
it. Those who are dead are dead, but if he doesn’t know and he provokes me,
then that will be another thing altogether,” he reiterated.
He noted
that a lot of bad water had passed under the bridge during the Rawlings regime
and therefore cautions Rawlings and those around him not to provoke him to go
to town on Rawlings. Kweku Baako has personally said he has been very close to
Rawlings and it is widely believed he knows some of his secrets. – The Ghanaian
Chronicle.
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Koforidua
(Easter Region) 15 February 2002 - Defence counsel for Anim Densu, the
ex-District Chief Executive (DCE) who was on Tuesday this week sentenced to
death, has faulted the ruling of Justice Kobina Acquaye, accusing the judge of
not giving the jury the option to consider the verdict of manslaughter against the
accused.
“I clearly
intend to appeal against this. Because I believe there were enough
circumstances to merit a reduction of the offence of murder to manslaughter,”
Mr Shadrack Arhin, leading counsel for Densu said in an interview.
Asked to
point specifically to the flaw in the judge’s ruling, he argued that, “it was
imperative for him to have told the jury that if they were considering
manslaughter, the verdict should be a majority verdict – not unanimous. He
never mentioned it to the jury. He simply said ‘bring a unanimous verdict,”
which concerned only murder. Arhin’s contention then was that, the jury may not
even have addressed the option of manslaughter at all.
But, he
argued, there was enough evidence from the prosecution itself that it was not certain
that Densu intentionally killed. “There are statements in the custody of the
prosecution from witnesses who said that they saw him slip- two of them. The
accused person gave a statement to the effect that he slipped and there was one
person who came to the court and said, “I saw him slip’. Now that is sufficient
doubt,” Arhin asserted.
He then
quoted the law as providing that doubt should always be resolved in favour of
the accused. He stressed that once doubt had been raised as to whether he pointed
the gun and shot, it was necessary to inform the jury that they “carefully
consider those doubts and have them resolved in Densu’s favour.”
On the
other hand, Mrs Gertrude Gladys Aikens, the Chief State Attorney, said the
evidence was very clear and direct so the jury returned a proper verdict based
on the evidence.” Asked whether she did not believe that Densu must have
committed the crime unintentionally, the State Attorney answered, “on the
evidence, I have always been confident.”
Justice
Department sources explained that even though Densu has been sentenced to
death, it is unlikely that he will actually be hanged, executed or killed in
any other way. Rather, he will be marking time in a very restricted, narrow and
deplorable section of the prison called the condemned cells.
The Chief
Executive of the Republic tarries in giving assent to the killing of all the
others. It was also learnt that defence counsel has 30 clear days within which
to appeal against the sentence to, possibly re-initiate fresh hearings that
could mitigate the former East Akyem strongman’s sentence. – The Ghanaian
Chronicle.
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Tough water privatization war ahead
Accra (Greater
Accra) 15 February 2002 - The National Coalition Against Privatisation of Water
(NCAP) has yet signalled that the government is in for a big fight this year on
water privatization. A meeting to re-think through the resistance strategy held
on February 6 and attended by over 40 representatives from the various labour
unions, NGOs, student and women groups, debt relief campaigners and religious
organizations.
The
Coalition’s reorganization comes in the wake of government’s entrenched
position on the choice of multinational involvement, public protest
notwithstanding, as the only viable means of bringing water to the homes of
millions who are without it today.
At the
National People’s Assembly held in January at the Accra International
Conference Centre, the President, John Kufuor told the country that the
government will go ahead with the programme. As part of the Coalition’s
preparations for this battle, it has re-engineered its National Coordinating
Committee to map out a more effective strategy to engage the government in what
appears to be the NPP’s biggest encounter with civil society since January 7,
2001.
According
to the Coalition, water is a public good and not a commodity like milk and rice
as the government seeks to achieve. Back last year, the Coalition including
Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) launched a fierce campaign
against commodifying water.
The Water
Sector Restructuring Secretariat (WSRS) and Kwamena Bartels, then Minister of
Works and Housing labelled the campaign and the Coalition’s position as merely
“ideological” and “unpatriotic”. The forum led by National Coordinator of the
Coalition, Rudolph Amenga-Etego, agreed with the government on the gravity of
the problems confronting the water sector in Ghana and on the need for an
urgent remedy, but disagreed on the choice of privatization as the only way out
of the quagmire.
Kwasi Adu
Amankwah, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress in an address lamented
over government’s misinterpretation of the Coalition’s position as merely
“ideological” and “unpatriotic.” In the sense that the Coalition was up against
attempts to improve water production and delivery in the country.
On internal
matters, Amankwah expressed the need to shape up the Coalition’s communication
strategy in a way that sends out a clearer message. The Southern Sector
Coordinator of the Coalition, Gyekye Tano said it is inappropriate for public
institutions to suppress dissenting views on the policy. He explained that,
“The Coalition must seize the opportunity to change the misnomer of regarding
expenditure on public goods such as water, health, electricity and education as
a cost that must be shifted to the taxpayer through the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank imposed conditionality of full cost recovery in these
sectors.”
Tanoh
explained that expenditure on public goods constitute an investment that can
yield dividends in the form of a healthier and more productive population.
Restating
its position on the water privatization process, the Coalition denounced what
it described as the “narrowing of discussions on water sector restructuring to
cover only privatization, the fast-tracking of the process, the arm-twisting
tactics of the World Bank, IMF, the British government and other
multi-laterals, bilateral donors and the lease arrangement itself,” which it
described as a “financially bad arrangement,” designed to short-change the
Ghanaians.
Presently,
the multinational water companies are waiting on the sidelines to grab
lucrative projects. They are said to be awaiting proposed increases in utility
rates to “economic levels” to avoid public wrath as experienced by some of
these companies in countries such as Bolivia and South Africa. – Public Agenda.
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Bolgatanga
(Upper East Region) 15 February 2002 - A 70-year-old trader from Kenyasi in the
Bongo-Ahafo Region, has been arrested by the police at Bongo in the Upper East
Region for attempting to transport six school children down south to do menial
jobs. They are two girls and four boys.
According
to one of the children, Ema Abugre, 16, of the Anafo-Bisi Junior Secondary
School, the trader, Ama Menewo Ansah, promised that she would cater for all
their needs and pay them ¢450,000 yearly. She was arrested at about 7.00 pm on
a Kumasi bound bus with the children through the efforts of the Bongo District
Girl-child Education Officer, Madam Dominica Akanson, and the Headmaster of
Anafo-Bisi JSS, Mr Anamoo Martin Adah on February 12.
According
to the two officials, they had a hint that the children were locked up in a
room by a woman ready to be taken “down south” to help her in her chop-bar
operation. They reported the matter to the police who laid ambush and arrested
the suspect.
At the
Bolgatanga Circuit Court on Thursday, two of the girls, aged between 14 and 16,
testified that the accused met them on their way from school and told them that
she was taking them to Accra to work for her daughter who is a Medical Doctor.
The accused pleaded not guilty and was remanded in police custody until
February 20. – The Ghanaian Times.
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Los Angeles
(USA) 15 February 2002 - An appealed filed by a Ghanaian-American, Kwame
Boateng, against his conviction in a politically-motivated case, will be heard
by a Los Angeles Court of Appeal on March 21, 2002. Boateng was convicted on
trumped up charges brought up against him by a few Los Angeles Police Officers,
for daring to run for the position of a Mayor for the city about three years
ago.
In the
course of the earlier trial, a prosecutor, described Boateng as being arrogant
for merely sending his resume to former President Bill Clinton, seeking an
appointment as a Peace Envoy or an Ambassador to an African country. Didn’t you
ask the President of the United States to appoint you as an Ambassador to an
African country? The prosecutor asked the former Los Angeles Mayoral candidate.
Earlier, a
senior Los Angeles election official, Joseph Giles, had been quoted as saying
that he wanted Boateng convicted in order to prevent him from running for
public office in future. Alarmed at the revelations, Kwame Boateng wrote to the
former President, complaining about the plot against him for seeking to serve
the United States as a public officer. The Justice Department responded to
Boateng’s letter.
Meanwhile,
the trial has been described variously as being “ethnically-motivated,
vindictive, a sham and racist inclined.” Many see the trial as an example of
the limitations of American democracy, under which some must be the contestants
and the rest, the voters! – Ghana Palaver
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Dr Attafuah for Reconciliation Commission.
Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 February 2002 - Investigations carried out by The Statesman
indicate that Dr Ken Agyemang Attafuah, the Director of Promotion and
Anti-Corruption at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice is
slated to take charge of the most difficult section of the
soon-to-be-constituted National Reconciliation Commission, its secretariat. He
will be the only important member of the Commission who will be under 50 years.
Attafuah
who holds a doctorate philosophy in criminology has behind him an excellent
international experience on commissions of inquiry on human rights violations.
He is remembered for leaving his plum job in Canada to work for the woefully
cash-strapped CHRAJ, portraying a remarkable sense of patriotism.
Before any
case appears before the Reconciliation panel, to be chaired by retired Supreme
Court judge, K.E. Amua Sekyi, the secretariat has to weigh the merits of the
claim. This exercise requires excellent knowledge of human rights principles,
law and practice, and a discerning ability to sort out frivolities from cases
of substance.
Considering
the short statutory life span of the Reconciliation Commission, (one year,
extendable to an extra six months) the secretary of the Commission must be
highly versed in the intricacies of administrative law and the manner in which
public hearings into complaints of human rights abuses are dealt with. – The
Statesman.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 February 2002 - Forensic audit reports on 78 district chief executives of the former regime have been submitted to the Attorney-General’s office for advice. They are to answer charges relating to the execution of rural electrification projects in their respective districts, award of contracts and management of the District Assemblies Common Fund, among others.
However, the reports have exonerated 32 others and their service records have been forwarded to the office of the Chief of Staff to effect payment of their entitlements and other entitlements and other benefits.
This follows a thorough forensic audit of all the 110 assemblies by the Audit service, which began last year. It was undertaken to ascertain the true financial status of all the assemblies before the coming into office of the new DCEs under the current administration.
Throwing light on the forensic audit in an interview, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, made it clear that he could neither provide the names of those to be further investigated by the Attorney-General nor those who have been exonerated.
He quoted the Audit Service Act 2000, Act 584, which states in part that, “The Auditor-General shall specify to the appropriate head of department or institution the amount due for any person upon whom he has made a surcharge or disallowance and the reasons for the surcharge or disallowance.”
The Minister said, “any sum which is lawfully due under this section shall, on civil proceedings taken by the head of department in a court, be recoverable as a civil debt and where the person surcharged is in receipt of remuneration from government or any institution, the remuneration shall be attached to the extent of the sum lawfully due.”
He said the law as it stands does not allow the ministry or any authority to issue any directives to the Auditor-General’s as far as its audit is concerned. “We leave the rest to the appropriate authorities to handle,” he added.– Daily Graphic
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 February 2002 - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on
Tuesday said it had forgiven the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for subjecting them
to severe criticism when they were in power in the spirit of reconciliation and
the development of the nation.
The
Minority denied that they were lambasting President John Kufuor’s state of the
nation address as a retribution for the bashes the NPP had subjected the
addresses of ex-President Rawlings to in the past.
Mr Isaac
Adjei-Mensah, NDC Member for Techiman South and Deputy Minority Leader raised
the issue on a point of order to correct the contribution by Mr Alex Korankye,
NPP-Asante Akim South, that the Minority was paying back the NPP in its own
coins.
Mr Korankye
said; “ I am not surprised that the Minority has more than one week or so now
been describing President Kufuor’s address as an uninspiring, lacked bite,
hollow and etcetera. I must confess that it is not surprising to hear them do
so because when Rawlings delivered his 2000 address it received bashes from the
then Minority. They are paying us back”
Mr
Adjei-Mensah replied: “Don’t impute bad motive to our cause, we are
contributing to our nation’s development, it is not retribution. We are doing
it in the spirit of reconciliation. We have forgiven you.”
Mr
Korankye, continuing his contribution said the President’s address was premised
on the pursuit of vigorous infrastructure development, modernization of
agriculture and enhanced social services with special emphasis on education and
health, good governance and private sector development.
He said
President Kufuor has demonstrated that he had the political will to take
decisions and he has done that by stabilizing the cedi, taken the state out of
a state of hopelessness, fear, intimidation, poverty and indiscipline. Mr
Korankye said: “The address encompasses everything that Ghanaians needed to
develop. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Mr Mumuni
Seidu, NDC-Wa Central said criticism and tolerance were the beauties to
parliamentary democracy and urged the government to be tolerant of critical
views. – Ghana Palaver.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 15 February 2002 - Mr Emmanuel Nti-Fordjour, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has criticised the government for what, he said, was its policy of persistent targeting NDC sympathisers for victimisation and throwing them out of their jobs. He said by this, the government was setting a precedent that was both bad and unhealthy for the growth of the country’s democracy.
Mr Nti-Fordjour was reacting to the recent seizure of four vehicles belonging to Professor John Evans Atta-Mills, a former Vice President in a security operation and the subsequent apology and threat to deal with perceived “misfits in the security set up”.
He said, “all that was but a pretext to get at those they see as having sympathy for the NDC and send them packing home”. The NDC regional chairman said: “I do not want to believe that the government after a year in office has still not had the security apparatus under firm control”.
He said that the security operation was just in line with the New Patriotic Party’s grand design to embarrass and harass leading members of the NDC. Mr Nti-Fordjour said it was high time politicians in the country stopped seeing themselves as enemies, adding, “if we were, we would not be sitting together in the chamber of Parliament”.
He condemned the manner known NDC members who were former public service workers were being ejected from official bungalows they occupied. He mentioned the case of Mr Kofi Topen, the former Ashanti regional head of the National Mobilisation Programme (NMP) and the immediate past regional secretary of the party, who was given only three days by the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to quit his bungalow.
The time was extended to three months only after vehement protests by Mr Topen. He said the incumbent regional secretary, Mr Sly Akakpovie, was also facing ejection from the Kumasi Polytechnic where he was a lecturer, until recently. – The Evening News
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 November 2002 - The National Media Commission (NMC) has directed Dr Richard Anane, former Minister of Health, to render an unqualified apology to the University of Ghana, Legon for misleading the public that 17 per cent of the population of Legon have been infected with the HIV virus.
It further directed that the apology should be advertised in three consecutive issues of the Daily Graphic. The commission has also directed Mr S.O. Ankamah, a reporter of the Daily Guide and the newspaper to apologise to Dr Anane for stating that he mentioned the University of Ghana and the figure of 2,040 on the floor of Parliament.
“Mr S.O. Ankamah and the Daily Guide should render an unqualified apology to the University of Ghana, and publish it in three consecutive issues with equal prominence together with this statement,” it stressed.
The directives were contained in a complaint settlement statement signed by Mr Nutifafa Kuenyehia, Chairman of the commission following a complaint lodged by the University of Ghana asserting that the story in the July 16, 2001 edition of the Daily Guide which quoted the Dr Anane as stating that a survey on campus had revealed that 2000 Legon students have AIDS has basis and that it had caused the university considerable damage, both nationally internationally.
It said the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Ivan Addae-Mensah, strenuously denied the allegation and asserted that as far as the university was aware, no such survey had ever been carried out at the university. It said the Vice-Chancellor challenged the minister to make available to all the universities, copies of the report from which he quoted statistics in Parliament, so that the university could also critically examine the report and know who carried out the purported survey among others.
The statement said that Daily Guide, in its response, stated that Dr Anane did state publicly on the floor of the House that 17 per cent of the population of one of the country’s tertiary institutions have been infected with HIV/AIDS, according to reports available to him.
It said the newspaper stated that the minister specifically mentioned the University of Ghana when contacted for clarification. It said in his evidence before the commission, Dr Anane stated among others that there was a 17 per cent prevalence rate in one of the universities.
Dr Anane, who is now Minister of Roads and Transport, went further to mention Dr Steffan Lindbergh, a Swedish consultant with the Parliamentary caucus on population as the one who furnished him with the figures stated in his answer to Parliament.
It said Dr Anane did not mention any specific tertiary institution in the House and that it was after the session that some parliamentarians questioned him in the lobby of the House during which he mentioned the University of Ghana as the tertiary institution having the reported 17 per cent prevalence rate.
The statement said there was no copy of the report of Dr Lindbergh in the Ministry of Health or the National AIDS Centre or any national centre to the best of his (Dr Anane’s) information, although he had been informed that a copy could be obtained from Dr Kweku Yeboah, Programme Manager of the National AIDS Control Programme of the Ministry of Health.
It said after several adjournments to enable Dr Anane submit a copy of the report, he was unable to do so. It said Dr Yeboah in his submission to the to the commission, said Dr Abdulai Isaka Tinorgah, then Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, mentioned it to him in May 2001 that there was an allegation of 17 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate at the University of Ghana and asked whether he was aware of it.
Dr Yeboah said Dr Tinorgah gave his source as Dr Lindbergh. It said he as Programme Manager of National AIDS Control Programme was not aware that any such study had been carried out and that he would have been aware had such a study been conducted.
It said Dr Yeboah stated that the University of Ghana is not one of the national HIV/AIDS sites in respect of which they are carrying out any study and that for a study of such nature, there would be the need to examine a minimum of 250 persons and a maximum of 500 persons. The statement said Dr Yeboah pointed out that “no population-based study, which is based on blood samples, has ever been carried out in Ghana because of logistic and ethical constraints.”
It said Dr Yeboah expressed surprise at the figures given by Dr Anane and that he had never seen any copy of the purported report by Dr Lindergh. According to the commission, if found out that Dr Anane stated in the House that the University of Ghana had 17 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate and that he gave the figure of 2,040 to Parliament.
It said the figures as published in the Daily Guide are deductions made entirely by the newspaper with the statistics provided by Dr Anane. It said the reporter based his story on what Dr Anane said.
The statement said there is credible evidence that Dr Lindergh has never conducted any such survey at the University of Ghana. “It is beyond any measure of doubt that there has not been any study conducted by the University of Ghana or any other person or body in respect of HIV/AIDS prevalence rate,” it stated, adding that there is no report to support the claim by Dr Lindbergh. – Daily Graphic
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