Headmaster defends new fees
Police uncover modus operandi of fraudsters
Mills will be a disaster
Arkaah surfaces in public…Justice Annan hugs him
Ex-PNDC top man wants six-year interim govt.
The millennium crisis begins…Kufuor's running mate for highest bidder
Headmaster defends new fees
The Ghanaian Times reports in a front-page story that the headmaster of St Augustine's College at Cape Coast in the Central Region, Mr J.B. Koomson, has maintained that the high school fees being charged by some public senior secondary schools within the Cape Coast municipality, is in the interest of parents and also to ensure uniformity among the students.
Mr Koomson is said to have defended the new fees in an interview after he had inaugurated a committee to organise the school's 70th anniversary in Accra. The Times says that the headmaster explained that the fees cover the supply of uniforms and all other essential items needed by the students.
In the case of the school, the headmaster is reported as saying that the items included blankets, bedsheets, buckets, anniversary cloth and mattresses, among others. Mr Koomson was reacting last Wednesday's "Ghanaian Times" front-page story headlined: "Oguaa schools demand one million cedis deposit," in which the Cape Coast Municipal Assembly described as 'outrageous and unacceptable' the increase in fees being charged by the schools.
Meanwhile the assembly has set up a committee chaired by Mr George Christian, chairman of its Social Services Committee, to investigate and advise the assembly on the high school fees being charges.
The Times quotes the headmaster as saying that the items cost more on the open market than the amount listed by the schools in the municipality. "We have not cheated any parent, therefore, we are not frightened by the publication", he is reported as saying.
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Police uncover modus operandi of fraudsters
In a front-page story, the Daily Graphic reports that investigations by security agencies have established the modus operandi of some foreigners, who have been duping investors under the pretext of facilitating their investment in Ghana.
The Graphic says that a computer seized from three Nigerians and one Lebanese who were arrested for duping a Tunisian woman of $120,000 exposed correspondence between them and prospective investors. According to the paper, these 'conmen' go about fleecing their prospective business partners by picking e-mail addresses of business tycoons.
They use these addresses to write letters to them saying that Ghana is a peaceful and safe country for their investment. According to the paper, the conmen then proceed by concocting stories of huge amounts of foreign monies and precious minerals belonging to prominent people in their countries, which they have chanced upon or have been bequeathed to them and being kept in security vaults in Ghana.
The fraudsters, the Graphic says, then tell the investors the value of the minerals or monies, which run into several millions of dollars, and indicate their preparedness to enter joint business ventures. The paper says that several of the correspondence mentioned the names of various financial security companies with branches in the United Kingdom and South Africa, where the monies or precious minerals are kept. It adds that investigations have shown that none of the security companies exists ..
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Mills will be a disaster
The Ghanaian Chronicle writes in its top story that for all the period that the Vice-President, Prof. J.E.A. Mills has been in politics, he is yet to exhibit the much-needed maturity to qualify him for the high office of the President of Ghana.
The paper, attributing this observation to Mr Kenwood Nuworsu, Volta Regional secretary of the NPP, quotes him as saying "Prof. Mills will be a disaster. He will plunge this country into what Dr Hilla Limann did, and his will e worse.
He will not be able to control his NBC, let alone Ghana". The Chronicle says that Mr Nuworsu, who was speaking in an interview at Ho, stated that those who knew Prof. Mills to be a gentleman were disappointed at his recent misguided utterances at the NDC rally at 'Kawokudu' Junction in Accra. "The man himself is a disappointment, he has never been consistent", the paper quotes Mr Nuworsu as saying
He is said to have regretted that a 'fine gentleman' like Vice-President Mills should adopt the foul language of the NDC "to satisfy his master's whims and caprices".
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Arkaah surfaces in public…Justice Annan hugs him
In a front-page screaming headline story, the Free Press reports that the former Vice-President, Mr Kow Nkensen Arkaah, last week made a dramatic appearance in public where he was 'caught live' by television cameras.
The paper says it was Mr Arkaah's first media encounter and the occasion was the proclamation service at the Wesley Chapel of the Methodist Church in Accra. Last Sunday. According to the Free Press, the whole atmosphere was charged with cheers and applause when the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Justice D.F. Annan, left his seat to hug Mr Arkaah, Mr J.A. Kufuor, NPP flagbearer, Mr S.A. Odoi-Sykes, NPP national chairman and Prof. Albert Adu Boahen, NPP 1992 presidential candidate, who were sitting on the same pew.
The paper says that Vice-President John Atta Mills and his wife, Mrs Naadu Mills, were sitting beside Mr Justice Annan. The Free Press notes that Mr Arkaah suddenly disappeared from the political scene immediately after the 1996 general elections, in which he featured as the running mate to Mr Kufuor, then presidential candidate of the Great Alliance, comprising the NPP and the People's Convention Party (PCP.
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Weekend Statesman
Ex-PNDC top man wants six-year interim govt.
In its lead story, the Weekend Statesman reports that a former chairman of the erstwhile national appellate tribunal of the PNDC, Nana Addo Aikins, has called for the formation of an interim national government as from 2001. He is said to believe that this will enable Ghana to face squarely, the challenges of the third millennium without the current functional and structural hindrances to national development.
Nana Addo Aikins, according to the story, said a six-year interim national government was sorely needed to offer the "most credible formula for a functional and viable process of national reconciliation capable of uniting the people to meet the challenges of the third millennium".
Nana Addo Aikins, now a private legal practitioner, is reported as saying that the interim national government is the machinery, which can hold "in check certain inevitable negative fall-outs of the PNDC/NDC rule, and underestimating them will e very dangerous for the nation".
He is said to have criticised the current political and constitutional system as concentrating 'too much power and authority in the President, while the winner-takes-al syndrome creates greedy politicians, and vindictive and divisive politics exclusion. "It breeds a system of political paternalism by which an executive President and his ruling government exact questionable obedience from the ruled, abuse parliamentary majority to undue advantage and deny, with utmost impunity, development and facilities to areas that do not support the leader and party in power", the Weekend Statesman quotes him as saying.
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The millennium crisis begins…Kufuor's running mate for highest bidder
The Ghana Palaver in a front-page screamer, says that snippets of information gathered points to the fact that the running mate of the NPP will go to the highest bidder. The paper says that cash-strapped J.A. Kufuor has been advised by his close aides and some leading members of the party to select someone with a sound financial background to run with him.
According to the Palaver, the NPP flagbearer is being pressurised to nominate a wealthy personality who could bankroll the party's electioneering campaign for at least one and a half months without hiccups. In addition, says the paper the running mate would be expected to provide between 20 and 30 vehicles for the campaign. The Palaver says that on the thorny issue of regional balance, the Kufuor aides are alleged to have advised him to give strong consideration for would-be back-rollers from the Northern and Volta Regions.
According to the paper, this information is said to have sent Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), national organiser of the NPP, into a state of restlessness to mobilise the needed resources from both internal and external sources. The paper says that the Northern Regions are, however, working around the clock to throw their weight behind one person with a moderate financial base.
They are said to be prepared to pool resources to support the person, who is said to be Alhaji Mustapha Iddris, NPP MP for Gukpegu-Sabongida.
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