Togo honours Kufuor / Togo honours Kufuor with highest award
I will be impartial
Rawlings not yet settled
Petrol to sell at 9,000
Togo refugees build arms cache in Ghana?
Mayhem at NDC Press Conference
Togo honours Kufuor / Togo honours Kufuor with highest award
President John Agyekum Kufuor was on Saturday decorated with one of the highest awards of the Republic of Togo the “Great Cross of Mono”, by President Gnassingbe Eyadema as one of the high points in activities marking the 34th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power, the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times report.
The visit, the first outside the country by Mir Kufuor since his inauguration on January 7, as Ghana’s fifth President was at the invitation of President Eyadema.
Mr Kufuor’s delegation included Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, Minister designate for Foreign Affairs, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Chief of Staff, Elizabeth Ohene, Advisor on Public and Media-related Affairs, B.A. Mensah and Asuma Banda, businessmen.
The two leaders held a brief meeting at the airport on the arrival of Mr Kufuor and his entourage, re-affirming their resolve to raise bilateral ties.
Both Heads of State received thunderous cheers from excited and curious Togolese as they rode into and out of the parade grounds in an open limousine.
An overwhelming Kufuor later told the press that he had decided to make Togo his first official port of call barely six days after he had been sworn into office, to show his gratitude to the Togolese people and President Eyadema for the wonderful expression of support and solidarity during his swearing-in ceremony in Accra.
“I am barely one week into the presidency of Ghana and it is only right that the sister state of Togo should be the first nation to host me,” President Kufuor said.
He expressed profound gratitude to the Togolese Head of State for having found time to attend his inaugural ceremony in Accra at such a short notice adding, “I could not believe it.”
On Cote d’Ivoire, President Kufuor expressed regrets that that the country, which was a model for stability and development, appears to have been trapped into another complex political drama.
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I will be impartial
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey is reported by The Graphic as pledging to make impartiality his guiding principle in the discharge of his duties to make Parliamentary democracy flourish.
Speaking to a four-man delegation from the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) that called on him to congratulate him, Mr Adjetey said, “impartiality stands for principles of fairness and I will be fair and being human the element of mistakes could, however, not be ruled out”, he said.
He said he considers the position of the Speaker as an embodiment of the House and that he would do everything possible to ensure that each member is able to contribute freely on issues for the two divides to bring out their best in the interest of the nation.
Mr Adjetey asked the Bar to research into existing laws that needed change and to present them to Parliament through private motions.
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Rawlings not yet settled
The Times says the State is yet to provide permanent accommodation for ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and his family as stipulated under the Greenstreet Report, which was approved by Parliament.
“He is currently putting up with his family at Ridge,” it said.
But according to Professor F.T. Sai, Head of the NPP side of the Joint Transitional Team, in a reaction to speculations that ex-President Rawlings is to occupy a multi-billion cedi mansion at Cantonments in Accra, the former President would be resettled and provided with other facilities such as an office.
“As far as I know as leader of the NPP on the Joint Transitional Team, no permanent residence has yet been allocated for the resettlement of the ex-President”, he told a news conference at the Castle, Osu in Accra.
He said a special committee would implement details of the package with the President.
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Petrol to sell at 9,000
The Dispatch says it can reveal that in June 2000, a memorandum to the Ministry of Mines and Energy recommended a 46.3 per cent increase in the price of a gallon of premium to a 2,077.16 per litre (4.5 litres a gallon), about 9,347.22.
It said it has information also that there are nine different levies on the ex-refinery price. One is the exploration levy (supposed to be for Ghana National Petroleum Corporation) of 1.50 per litre and the Bulk Oil and Storage Transport (BOST) margin of 26 cedis per litre.
At the current consumption rate of 44 million litres of premium a month, GNPC rakes in 66 million cedis; BOST gets about 1.4 billion and the Road Fund (levy of 150 cedis per litre) get a tidy sum of 6.6 billion cedis a month.
Sources close to the Ministry of Mines and Energy confirmed to the paper that the June 2000 memo, signed by the then Chief Executive of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Limited, Mr W.S. Parker, revealed that TOR was losing 81 billion cedis a month because of the low prices of petroleum prices and recommended an increase of 91.75 per cent (premium); 47.48 per cent (kerosene) and 53.83 per cent (gas oil).
The Dispatch says as per the memo, a gallon of kerosene should have been sold at 8,134.65 cedis and a gallon of gas oil would have sold at 8,117,77.
Analysts believe that the least the NPP government can sell premium will be 9,000 cedis a gallon but could be as high as 12,000 cedis.
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Togo refugees build arms cache in Ghana?
The Free Press writes that at a time that Ghanaians are praying for peace after a historic election, Togolese refugees are reportedly stockpiling weapons and building arms cache on Ghanaian soil at their refugee camp at Klikor, near Agbozume, in the Volta Region.
A Free Press undercover reporter sited a troop deployment in the Ketu District of the region when he visited the area from January 5 to 10, 2001.
Residents of Klikor told the paper that Ghanaian soldiers patrolling the site 24-hours a day entered the area about two weeks ago and swooped on the camp, which is housing about 500 Togolese at dawn, seizing automatic weapons and grenades from the inmates and also recovering arms from nearby houses.
The camp reportedly, had for a long time been used as a breeding ground for Togolese dissidents who had allegedly been preparing to launch cross-border anti-government insurgency in Togo.
Meanwhile, mounted military vehicles, manned by combat-ready soldiers continue to patrol the area stretching to Aflao border and has apparently abated treasonable activities of some young men who idle about and refuse questions from strangers.
The Deputy Director of the Public Relations Directorate of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lt. Col. Awuah, in an interview denied any invasion from the Ghanaian soldiers on their neighbours but said although soldiers were sent to the area, they were there as part of the security cover for the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Mr Kufuor is on record as saying in his day’s visit to the Togolese capital, Lome, on Saturday that Ghana would not allow dissidents to use Ghanaian territory to launch attacks against their home governments.
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Mayhem at NDC Press Conference
The Independent says a press conference called by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) last Friday ended abruptly at the Ghana International Press Centre after an interjection from a Free Press reporter nearly got him beaten up by supporters of the party.
The re-scheduled conference had taken off at about 1.00 pm with pressmen competing for seats with the party supporters who had earlier been dropped off in pick-ups.
The end of the conference came about when a reporter from the Free Press, incurred the displeasure of the NDC supporters present, when he claimed that he had evidence that some public officials had been able to register four-wheel drive vehicles in their names instead of the saloon cars agreed upon by the Joint Transitional Team.
The reporter had to be smuggled into one of the offices at the press centre by concerned colleagues to escape the wrath of the irate NDC supporters.
The incident brought back memories of the ordeal of the TV 3 crew that was attacked by NDC supporters days after the party had lost the first round of the General Elections.
The conference had been arranged to throw light on a number of issues, which have cropped up since the inauguration of the new president, including allegations of the outgoing government sabotaging the takeover ceremonies and the allocation of cars to outgoing ministers perceived by the public to have been valued at outrageously low prices.
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