GRi Newsreel Ghana 30 - 01 - 2001
ECOWAS heads accused of encouraging
conflicts
Farmer appeals for
investigation
Don't perm children's hair with chemicals
Taskforce denies kerosene price hike
ICU expresses fear of misapplication of
right to demonstrate
First Independent
daily newspaper to be launched
NDC youth call for
"critical assessment"
Drivers appeal for
Asantehene's intervention
Kufuor receives Japanese envoy
Police deny that Kufuor's bodyguard has been
shot and killed
Reform - We will not join Kufuor's
government
ECOWAS heads accused of encouraging
conflicts
Ada (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
A political science professor on Monday said the Lome and Coutonou accords signed by ECOWAS heads of states are a recipe for increased and sustained violent conflicts in the sub-region.
Prof. Emmanuel K. Aning, Director of Governance, Peace and Security Unit of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) made the remark at the opening of a five-day annual general meeting (AGM) of the West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP) and civil society consultation on the crisis in the Mono river basin.
He said: "Article 19 of the Coutonou accord signed by African heads of state gave a blanket amnesty to all the warlords in the Liberia conflicts and the Lome accord did almost the same thing by offering Sierra Leone rebel leader Forday Sankoh a choice of a ministry."
Prof. Aning said the two protocols were nothing more than approval of violent conflicts and crime by people who seek to enrich themselves with the wealth of the African states.
"What it means is that anybody who has access to arms can gather some young aggrieved persons, get into the bush and hold an entire state to ransom and believe that his action would be rationalised by supposed heads of democratic governments," he said.
"No wonder there is high arms proliferation in African countries today simply because people now think rebel activity is the best way to become rich," he said. "It is on record that over 700,000 AK 47 riffles have been imported into Burkina Faso from China recently."
He said there is evidence of increased arms smuggle and illegal trade between Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso and Cote d' Ivoire, adding; "I am willing to give a full reflection of the situation on contract to the government."
Prof. Aning described ECOWAS heads of state as "a club of old greying men who have lost touch with what is expected in this sub-region", saying that they have demonstrated gross naivety towards conflict prevention, resolution and peace-building in the sub-region.
"Our own new president J. A. Kufuor met a delegation from Guinea and in talking to them he wondered why a country that was so rich was in war," he said. "This simply reflects middle age approach to conflicts that it should be classical that if you are rich you don't go to war."
"But it is precisely because of the wealth of mineral resources in Guinea and other conflict zones that there is war in those areas," he argued. "Nothing is not the reason for the violent conflicts as our leaders want us to believe, otherwise every country in the sub-region would be at war."
He said research has proved that the selfish crave after national wealth rather than the search for political power is the cause of the new form of violent conflicts in Africa, adding that African leaders seem to have no idea of this fact.
He said so far ECOWAS has not reflected the aspirations of the people in the sub-region, adding that there is the need to entrench ECOWAS and its protocols within society and to make these protocols known by translating them into local languages for people to know what ECOWAS is all about.
Prof. Aning criticised president Kufuor's recent visit to Togo for the celebration of President Eyadema's Coup d'état anniversary saying "it was even wrong for President Eyadema to have been invited to the inaugural ceremony of Mr. Kufuor..."
"There is no reason why President Eyadema should have been made the chairman of the OAU," he said.
He said people like Charles Taylor and Forday Sankoh who committed atrocities and looted the mineral resources of their countries do not deserve the kind of reception they get from certain ECOWAS heads.
Prof. Aning attributed that situation to the undemocratic background of most ECOWAS heads, saying that most of them assumed power undemocratically whilst others run very exclusive and non-transparent governments in their own countries.
"The so-called advisors of heads of state and our African scholars who are supposed to ensure good governance have turned themselves into political sycophants, seeking jobs with every government in power instead of giving fair comments on the shameful activities of African leaders."
About 30 participants from Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Sierra Leone are attending the conference.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
The CID headquarters on Monday announced the arrest of the leader of a group of armed robbers operating in Accra.
A statement signed for the Commissioner of Police (CID) by Chief Superintendent V.K. Dzakpata said Bavedam Apah, 35, was arrested with a pistol and rounds of ammunition.
It said the group had robbed two foreign lodgers at Golden Leon Hotel, Accra, last Saturday.
The group also robbed a customer of SSB Industrial Area of 7.5 million cedis, which he withdrew on Monday morning.
The statement said parts of the travellers' cheques and cedis belonging to the victims have been recovered. It said investigations are in progress to arrest Apah's accomplices.
In another development, Policemen from Kaneshie on Sunday shot dead a suspected robber who tried to slash one of them with a knife to avoid arrest.
The robber, Kofi Attoh Atram, 36, driver, and two accomplices were reported to have robbed a trader, Safia Wahabu, of her bag containing 800,000 cedis, police sources told the GNA on Monday.
The sources said the robbers attempted to strangle the woman at knifepoint near the ELF filling station at the Kaneshie overhead bridge in the early hours of Sunday and managed to snatch her bag.
She reported the incident to the Kaneshie police who led her to the site of the robbery where bystanders gave them a tip-off about where the robbers had gone to share their booty.
The police, together with the victim, went to the Kaneshie West Junior Secondary School where they saw the three men with the money.
On the approach of the police, two of the robbers took to their heels whilst Atram charged on one of the policemen with a cutlass. The policeman then fired at him and he was taken to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, news from the police in Ashanti region at the weekend clamped down on suspected armed robbers in some towns in the Sekyere West District and arrested two of them.
A statement issued on Monday and signed by Dr Kofi Kesse Manfo, Deputy Commissioner of Police for Ashanti, named the suspects as Kwaku Agyemang, 23, and Osei Kwabena, 27.
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Farmer appeals
for investigation
Suhum (Eastern Region) 30 January
2001
A 72-year old farmer, Opanin
Emmanuel Akrong Forson has appealed to the Ministry of Health and the Inspector
General of Police to investigate the death of his 27- year old son, Samuel
Ekuban Forson who was on admission at the Suhum Government Hospital but was
later found drowned in a river at Suhum.
According to the farmer, the
deceased, who is a sign-writer and a barber lived in the same house with him at
Suhum in the Eastern Region.
Opanin Forson said on December 28,
last year, the deceased fell sick and was rushed to the Suhum Government
Hospital at 9.30 a.m. where he was admitted.
He said at the hospital, he was
asked to deposit 200,000 cedis before admission, which he did.
At 4.30 p.m. a younger brother of
the deceased, Isaac Adu Akonnor was sent to the hospital to give him food but the
he was not in the ward. He therefore enquired from the nurse on duty but the
nurse could not tell the where about of the brother.
He therefore returned to the house
to inform their father about the situation and at 7.00 p.m., Akonnor again went
to the hospital but he was told by a friend that the brother was found drowned
in a nearby river and had been deposited at the Suhum mortuary.
He therefore reported the case to
the father who made a report to the police. When the police was contacted a
spokesman confirmed the story.
Meanwhile, the father has
threatened to take legal action against the authorities for negligence of duty.
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Don't perm children's hair with chemicals
Tema (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
Mrs Margaret Blavo, Managing Director of J. M. ISOPLUS Hair Products Manufacturing Company at Tema, on Monday advised hairdressers and mothers against perming children's hair with chemicals.
She said children have a very delicate scalp that cannot withstand the perming creams which are made of chemicals and advised that only creams prescribed for children must be applied.
Preferably, she said, mothers should braid their children's hair.
Mrs Blavo was presenting awards made up of television sets, wall clocks, sound systems, ceiling fans and certificates to 16 distributors of ISOPLUS hair products from all over the country at Tema.
ISOPLUS, she said, is sold widely on both local and international markets and called on the distributors to always educate their retailers to impress on users to read inscriptions on the products before their usage to promote market.
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Taskforce denies kerosene price hike
Wa (Upper West) 30 January 2001
The Upper West regional task force on petroleum products on Monday said there has been a glut of kerosene in the region since the beginning of the year.
It said all the filling stations in the Wa township, together, now have a stock of more than 60,000 litres of the product waiting to be sold.
Mr Francis Tour, Secretary of the taskforce, said this at a meeting jointly organised with fuel dealers at Wa to react to a story in last Friday's issue of the "Ghanaian Times" which said that a gallon of kerosene was selling for 18,000 cedis in the region due to an acute shortage.
The taskforce, which was formed in September last year to check fuel smuggling in the region, expressed dismay about the report, saying the reporter should have contacted them before filing the story.
Mr Tour said the region has for some time never experienced any severe shortage of kerosene to justify the price shooting up from 6,000 cedis to 18,000 cedis as stipulated in the story.
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ICU expresses fear of misapplication of
right to demonstrate
Tema (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
A group of workers of the Ghana Textile Manufacturing Company (GTMC) on Monday accused the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) of a possible misapplication of the right to demonstration to the detriment of workers' welfare.
The group, which forms part of the Textile, Garment and Leather Employees Union (TEGLEU), made the accusation following information it received that the ICU had slated a demonstration for Tuesday, January 30.
A press statement issued and signed on Monday by Mr John Akapko, spokesman for the group, at Tema, said such an action would undermine amicable negotiations under way with the GTMC management for the re-opening of the factory.
Two weeks ago, the ICU called off an industrial strike it planned in solidarity with workers of the GTMC, which was closed down on November 28, last year, following workers agitation for higher wages and Christmas bonuses.
TEGLEU and ICU have been at each other's throat over the unionisation of the GTMC workers, who used to belong to ICU but have now joined TEGLEU and are now seeking to revert to the ICU.
TEGLEU, which has the workers Collective Bargaining Certificate, is resisting the move.
The statement said while, as workers, they believe in a well organised demonstration to press home their grievances to achieve positive results, the ICU leadership is rather abusing the opportunity to the detriment of workers welfare.
It criticises the ICU for destroying local industries, adding that the two months closure of the GTMC had negatively affected the workers and expressed fear of the possibility of a permanent shutdown of the factory.
The TEGLEU therefore called on the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to advise Mr Napoleon Kpoh, General Secretary of the ICU, to concentrate on solving its numerous internal crisis, which have prevented them from organising the ICU delegates' conference since 1999.
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First Independent
daily newspaper to be launched
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January
2001
Ghana's first independent national
daily newspaper since independence will be launched in Accra early this year, a
press release issued in Accra on Monday said.
It would be published by a consortium
of Ghanaian professionals and businessmen, some of whom are resident in the US
and United Kingdom.
It said Mr Kofi Badu, former
Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Ltd., would be the Chief
Executive of the paper's publishing company.
"The paper is intended to
break the monopoly of the state-owned media in the daily newspaper sector and
offer readers and advertisers a product of high professional quality, both in
content and technical presentation," it said. The name and other details
of the paper would be announced later.
The statement said since leaving
Graphic, following a Supreme Court ruling that chief executives of state-owned
media must be appointed by the National Media Commission, Mr Badu has had
"extensive talks" with a number of professionals and businessmen in
Ghana, the US and United Kingdom.
These talks have been "on the
need for a quality independent daily newspaper in Ghana," it said adding
that considerable support has been generated in the new media company.
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NDC youth call
for "critical assessment"
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January
2001
The National Democratic Congress
(NDC) Youth on Monday called for a "critical assessment and stock
taking" to pave way for the reorganisation and rebuilding of the party.
"We cannot repeat the
mistakes of the past, we will not allow this and we will not accept it,"
they said in a statement read by their spokesman, Iddrisu Haruna, at a press
conference held in Accra.
"The party must be made a
party of opportunity for all, based on the principles of internal
democracy," Mr Haruna added.
He said the party would have to
re-focus on the core objective of winning back power from the NPP.
"This is the time for us to
unite in purpose devoid of division and power blocs." Mr Haruna urged the
leadership to take immediate steps to reorganise the party.
"We do not pray for an early
national congress to elect a flag-bearer because it will be counter productive
to the party's reorganisation.
"The party must be built from
the bottom to the top and not from top to bottom. The selection of officers at
all levels must be based on known and established democratic norms."
Mr Haruna noted that the party's
relationship with the media was not "too healthy" saying on some
occasions, journalists were abused and prevented from discharging their duties.
"We regret this. We wish to
express our faith in the media. We continue to respect your right to expose the
wrongdoing of public functionaries and demand accountability."
Mr Haruna said a section of the
media has been unfair to the party, but the NDC must put this behind them.
"Let us have a new beginning
based on the principles of mutual respect and tolerance. We need to collaborate
to keep the ruling party in check," he said.
Mr Haruna assured supporters that
the party would remain a solid political force to be reckoned with in
contemporary Ghanaian politics.
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Drivers appeal
for Asantehene's intervention
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 30 January
2001
The Dichemso, OKESS and Old Tafo
taxi drivers union of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in Kumasi
have appealed to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu 11, to intervene and stop
the development of the Subin Valley into stores by one Auntie Mary.
This, they said, had become
necessary to head off an imminent violent confrontation.
The appeal was made jointly by Mr
Stephen Opoku, Nana Kwaku Duah and Alhaji
Mohammed Bashir, local chairmen of the three branches of the union
respectively.
They contended that Auntie Mary
has contemptuously ignored a directive from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly
(KMA) to stop the implementation of the project and engaged labourers to work
on it.
"We are convinced that she
wants to take advantage of the absence of a substantive Metropolitan Chief
Executive to take over the Valley.
"We also suspect that this is
being done with the connivance of some officials at the KMA. Otherwise, it is
baffling that this woman could flout an order of the assembly with such
impunity."
The drivers claimed that more than
2,000 taxis and tro-tros operate at the Valley and held the view that any
attempt to dislodge them without alternative arrangements could worsen
vehicular traffic congestion in Kumasi.
They have been operating at the
Valley under the KMA's authorisation since 1980.
It may be recalled that the KMA
about 10 days ago directed Auntie Mary, who claims the valley was given to her
late grandfather by Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1962, to stop developing the area into
stores.
She is said to have brushed aside
the order and is now going ahead with the development.
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Kufuor receives Japanese envoy
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday received a special envoy from Japan who called at the State House with a goodwill message of co-operation between Ghana and the Asian country.
Mr Kazuyoushi Urabe, Assistant Deputy Cabinet Secretary, said Prime Minister Youshiro Mori is eager to co-operate with government through development assistance and also support Ghana's role in resolving conflicts in Africa.
The envoy expressed Tokyo's appreciation of Ghana's concern over the years to see peace return to most parts of the continent.
"We recognise that without peace there can be no stability and development," Mr Urabe told President Kufuor and top officials including Vice President Aliu Mahama.
Mr Urabe referred to Prime Minister Mori's recent trip to Africa and said it was a true commitment to the continent and created the opportunity for him to outline his plan for the people.
He spoke about Mr Mori's proposal for a conference of Asian-African eminent persons to discuss crucial issues bordering on peace.
President Kufuor expressed appreciation to Japan, one of the largest donors to Ghana, for listing the country among her six priority states.
He said he views Japan's effort to help Africa develop as good news for humanity.
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Police deny that Kufuor's bodyguard has
been shot and killed
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
The Police Administration on Monday denied a story circulating on the Internet that President John Kufuor's bodyguard has been shot and killed.
In a statement issued in Accra by Mr W.K Aboah, Commissioner of Police (CID), the police said effective security measures have been put in place for the safety of the President.
"The public is being assured that the Police are conducting investigations, with the assistance of Interpol, to trace the source of the false information," it said.
The story, which was quoted in full by the Police, said there is "more to come as this coup d'etat story unfolds."
The story reads: "A gunman who barricaded himself at the State House after a shooting incident in which President John Agyekum Kufuor's bodyguard was killed and another wounded, surrendered without incident early today after a stand-off of more than six hours.
"The Inspector-general of Police, Mr Owusu-Poku, said Salifu Budumbra, 28, was killed and Daniel Agyeman, 38, was critically wounded.
"'Both bodyguards were shot multiple times," he said. “One of his wounds was in the private area (penis). Both were wearing 20 year-old bulletproof vests.
Daniel Agyeman was in critical but stable condition after surgery at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital early today.
Cpl. Adjetey of 5th Battalion, 30, surrendered without incident after police got his attention with a bullhorn."
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Reform - We will not join Kufuor's
government
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 January 2001
The National Reform Party (NRP) said on Monday that although it supported the candidacy of President John Agyekum Kufuor in the second round of the presidential election last December 28, it will not join his government as a matter of principle.
"Reform and the NPP represent different social interests, policies and priorities," Mr Kyeretwie Opoku, General Secretary of the party said in a statement.
"We will not abandon our own vision and politics to implement that of the NPP," he said.
The statement was in reaction to press reports that Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, minister-designate of Manpower and Development, is a member of the NRP.
According to the party, Mrs Bannerman is a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and not the NRP.
"We (NRP) will not surrender our independence as a party. This will not further the cause of democracy or good governance in Ghana," Mr Opoku said.
He added that the task of the NRP is to correct its political and organisational weaknesses and build a strong party that can offer day-to-day leadership in "the struggles of ordinary Ghanaians for development and democracy."
He said the NRP believes that President Kufuor's proposal of an all-inclusive government is sincere and it hopes to "retain constructive and open working relationships with the new administration."
NRP, CPP, PNC, GCPP and UGM supported the Mr Kufuor in the second round of the elections against Prof. John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Two members of the CPP and PNC have been named in Mr Kufuor's government.
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