Minister gives government bungalow to her brother
Focus of budget to shift - Nduom
The people of Worawora, as Asantes, owe allegiance to the Golden Stool and
its occupant. It is therefore their customary duty to swear the oath of
allegiance to the occupant of the stool.
Daasebre Asare Baah III, Omanhene of the Worawora Traditional Area, said
this at a news conference in Accra on Tuesday. He said the mere geographical
position of the Worawora people did not, in anyway, change their being Asantes.
Daasebre was reacting to a ‘Times’ front-page story of January 9, under
the title, “Worawora can’t be under Asante-VR Chiefs react to Otumfuo’s visit.
He emphasized that he had not breached any custom or tradition by swearing the
oath of allegiance to “His Majesty, Otumfuo the Asantehene.”
To show the seriousness they attach to the issue, Daasebre and his
sub-chiefs and other citizens who attended the function all wore Kuntunkuni
(mourning cloths).
In his explanation for the wearing of the black cloth, Nana Owusu Afari,
the Nkosuohene said, “We are at war with anybody who wants to trample on our
rights.”
Daasebre Baah explained that historically, the Worawora people migrated
from Kuntanase in the Asante Kingdom during the reign of Otumfuo Opoku Ware I
in 1732 to settle at their present site around 1774. “From that date until now,
we have practised the custom and traditions of Asantes and speak only Asante
Twi,” he said.
The Woraworahene noted that the land they now occupy was acquired
through war, driving away the chokosi tribe they met when they arrived. He
noted that for the 300 years that they have lived at their present site, “we have
never been conquered or become subjects to any state in the region.”
To show that they were really Asantes, Daasebre said that they sent men
to help in the Yaa Asantewa War of 1900. Daasebre refuted the claim by Togbe
Gabusu that the Otumfuo was trying to entrench himself in the region. “We take
a very strong exception to that statement and call on Togbe to render an
unqualified apology to Otumfuo immediately, and an apology to us will also be
in the right direction,” he noted.
On the claim by Nana Aburam Akpanja, Buemhene, that the Worawora people
were his subjects, the Woraworahene said “the Buemhene does not own a square
metre of land in Worawora Traditional Area or for that matter any of Akan
areas.
He said that it was unfortunate for the Buemhene to claim hegemony over
the Akan states of the Volta Region (VR), calling them settlers. “History has
it that the Buem people migrated from Kolongbadze in present Togo to settle
where they are.
Daasebre advised his fellow Paramount chiefs of the region to resist
political manoeuvres by politicians to divide them.
It is recalled that Mr Kosi Kedem MP for Hohoe South asked the standing
committee of the VR House of Chiefs what the visit of Otumfuo to Worawora on
September 29 last year during the Akwantutenten festival of the Worawora people
signified.
This was during a meeting between the VR caucus in Parliament and the
Standing Committee to strategize on development plans. In answer, the chiefs
said they opposed the swearing of allegiance to the Asantehene by the
Woraworahene.
Togbe Gabusu, the President of the House, noted that there was no
paramount chief in the region who owed any allegiance to any other chief within
or outside the region.
Nana Akpandja, the story said, felt a strong resentment to the visit of
the Otumfuo to the Buem traditional area saying it was a violation of the norms
of the chieftaincy institution. He further said that Worawora lands did not
belong to the Akan settlers and for them to pay allegiance to the Asantehene
was an act of disrespect to the ancestors and chiefs of the Buem Traditional
Area.
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Ghana Airways, the national carrier is indebted to the tune of 139
million dollars. The debt is far more than the airline’s total assets. Mr Yaw
Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance, disclosed this at the People’s Assembly in
Tema on Monday.
He said that Ghana Airways needed the support of both the employees and
Ghanaians, as government alone could not shoulder the burden. Mr Osafo Maafo
said that last year, government had to bail out the airline by paying five
million dollars it owed the International Air Association in dues.
The Minister explained that if the government had failed to provide the
financial help, the airline would have been prevented from flying to Britain
and some parts of the world. He said that the airline had not been able to pay
back the five-million-dollar loan to government.
Mr Osafo Maafo added that Ghana Airways owed a lot of international
organizations it is affiliated to through non-payment of dues.
GRi…/
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Minister gives government bungalow to her
brother
After getting former Ministers and other functionaries forcibly ejected
from their state-allocated bungalows, which were renovated at a great cost,
some of the current Ministers who were allocated the bungalows are not
occupying them.
Instead, some of them have re-allocated their bungalows to others,
completely outside main government business.
Notable among the Ministers is the Deputy Minister of Works and Housing,
Madam Theresa Ameley Tagoe, whose former colleague, Kwamena Bartels, personally
supervised the ejection of the past occupants.
Madam Tagoe has given her bungalow to Reverend Dr Emmanuel Asante,
former Principal of the Trinity College whom she described as a brother.
Sources told ‘The Evening News’ that the Reverend Asante who is now out
of job was asked to leave his official Trinity College bungalow, had no
accommodation. He subsequently fell on the Deputy Minister for assistance.
When contacted by “The Evening News,” Madam Tagoe confirmed the story,
but explained that the man was out of job, so she decided to help him by
re-allocating her official bungalow to the Reverend and his family.
The Deputy Minister said she currently lives in her own house at
Dansoman and therefore decided to assist “a blood relation.” He has nowhere to
perch, therefore, I thought it worthy to give him my official residence, which
by that time I had not occupied,” she observed.
The Deputy Minister explained that she is now taking steps to acquire a
new residence for the Rev Minister since the official bungalow could not house
him much longer.
Soon after the January 7 inauguration of the new administration, several
members of the former government were given ultimatum to quit their bungalows
or face public embarrassment. Some of them were eventually thrown out of their
bungalows.
GRi…/
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Focus of budget to shift - Nduom
The focus of the national budget for 2002 will shift from one of stabilising
the economy to an aggressive pursuit of economic growth. In this regard,
government will boost spending in productive sectors of the economy, in order
to help raise national productivity and improve income levels and jobs to
attain the requisite economic growth.
Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional
Co-operation, dropped the hint in an interview in Accra on Tuesday. He was
shedding light on the impending budget and the role of planning in national
development.
According to Dr Nduom, achieving an appreciable level of economic growth
this year is of critical importance to government, because without such growth
targets being achieved, the quest to tackle and reduce poverty in the country
will fail to materialise.
“There can be no doubt about the steadfast commitment of the government
to fight and drastically reduce poverty, which is widespread in the country.
However, the success of such a fight depends, to a very large extent, on the
attainment of a significant percentage of economic growth from which the
requisite resources to improve upon the living standards of the people will be
drawn,” he stressed.
Dr Nduom disclosed that more effort will be devoted to the construction
industry, particularly the building of roads and bridges. “Government
expenditure in the building industry and improvement of educational
infrastructure and logistics as well as in the sphere of health infrastructure
and health care, will also be given a boost,” he added.
The Economic Planning Minister said that “a national identification
system will be initiated this year, which will, among other things, bring about
the issuance of a National Identification Card, which could be used to play a
multiplicity of roles, such as in the registration and computation of Social
Security claims, the issuance of driving licenses, opening and operating bank
accounts and other transactions, for the purpose of voting and other important
areas of national endeavour.”
He added that “government will also spend more money to open up the
rural areas by providing more roads and bridges, extend electric power and
telephone facilities as well as healthcare and other facilities to enhance
production and movement of goods and services.
Dr Nduom revealed that money accruing from the Highly Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) initiative will be channelled into social investment to boost
the poverty reduction effort of government.
He announced that a meeting of ministers of state to be presided over by
the President will be held on Wednesday 16 January 2002 in Accra to discuss key
points in the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and formulate an action plan for
the ministries and regions of the country for the period 2002-2004.
“The outcome of this meeting will help inform what will go into this
year’s budget. This will also help ensure that the budget is not divorced from
government’s overall developmental goals,” he stressed.
He emphasized that there was the need to tie the vision of government
for the nation with practical actions on the ground that can achieve targets
set, because to do otherwise will render the attainment of such vision
impossible.
Dr Nduom stated that the government will soon unveil a long-term
national development plan which will replace the Vision 2020 programme as the
development blueprint for ushering the nation into a middle income status
within the next two decades.
He pointed out that the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), which serves
as an anchor of government’s medium term development strategy, will function as
a key component of this long-term development plan of the nation.
Dr Nduom said careful planning had gone into the formulation of these
development strategies and that the government was determined to work to attain
targets set, so that its vision of improving upon the economy and ensuring a
better life for the people could be met. He called for hardwork from all
Ghanaians to help attain these objectives.
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Dr Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, the only surviving founding member of the United
Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the first political party in the Gold Coast, set
up in 1947 to liberate the country from British colonial rule, is dead.
Information available to the Graphic said he died at the Korle-Bu
Teaching Hospital in Accra on Monday after a short illness. He was 90.
The late Ako-Adjei, a veteran journalist and a lawyer, was among the
early trailblazers of the country’s anti-colonial politics. Together with
Obetsebi-Lamptey, William Ofori Atta (Paa Willie), Akuffo-Addo and J.B.
Danquah, they founded and launched the UGCC at Saltpond in 1947.
It was after this important and historic event that, the convention, at
the suggestion of the late Ako-Adjei, invited Kwame Nkrumah back to Ghana from
his studies in the United Kingdom to become the first full-time General
Secretary of the UGCC.
Soon after assuming office as the General Secretary of the UGCC, Nkrumah
embarked on a countrywide re-organisation of the party, given it a
revolutionary touch. That radical organization of the party and its perceived
role in the anti-colonial struggle, especially, in events like the 1948 riots,
incurred the suspicion and wrath of the colonial government.
The late Ako-Adjei and the other leading members of the UGCC, popularly
called the Big Six, were arrested and put in jail. Soon after this incident,
disputes emerged in the ranks of the Big Six and Kwame Nkrumah broke away to
form the Convention People’s Party (CPP), which later won elections, with the
late Ako-Adjei becoming Foreign Minister in the Kwame Nkrumah regime.
After the 1966 coup, he maintained a low profile in the country’s
political landscape. In 1999, on the occasion of a reception for Senior
Citizens on July 1, he was given a State honour by former President J.J.
Rawlings for his meritorious service to the State.
The late Ako-Adjei was awarded an honorary Doctorate in law in 1962 by
the Lincoln University in the United States. As a journalist, he also edited
the African National Times and The Star of Ghana in the 1940s.
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The Parliamentary Service Board has approved the appointment of Mr
Kenneth Enos Kofi Tachie as the Clerk of Parliament. His appointment took effect
from January 1, 2002.
Mr Tachie, 55, has been acting as the Clerk of the House since the
retirement of the former Clerk, Mr Rex Owusu-Ansah, on November 4, last year.
He will, however, go through a one-year probation period, after which, if he
proves equal to the task, he will be confirmed.
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, made this known before
the last adjournment of the House last year. Mr Ala Adjetey said Mr Tachie’s
appointment follows a successful interview and recommendation made by the
panel, which included the Director-General of GIMPA and a representative of the
Public Services Commission.
Mr Tachie, who is a product of Achimota School and the University of
Ghana, served as the Clerk-at-the-Table of the National Assembly from 1969 to
1972. Between February and May, 1971, he trained in Parliamentary Procedures,
Rules and Practice in the British Houses of Parliament.
He undertook an Internship in Administration and Management at the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome from November 1977 to
September 1978.
Mr Tachie obtained a Certificate of Achievement for successfully
completing a professional placement in the field of Public Administration and
Legislative Management. He also trained at the National Conference of State
Legislature at Denver, Colorado, United States.
He has attended a number of international conferences, including the
World Food Council meeting in New York, 1983; FAO Regional Conference for
Africa in Mauritius and Morocco in 1988 1990; Session of FAO Council, Rome 1991
and 1992; Union of African Parliaments in Tunisia, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso,
Libya and Angola.
Others are the Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference, Parliamentary Seminar
on Relations Between Minority and Majority Parties in African Parliaments, and
Conference of Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers.
GRi…/
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The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs,
Hon. Paapa Owusu Ankomah, has stated that the indemnity clauses in the 1992
Constitution which immune architects of the military regimes that the country
has experienced from prosecution compelled the NPP government to come out with
the National Reconciliation Bill to enable those who were wronged during the
reign of those regimes to have their voices heard.
According to him, the bill, which has already been passed by
Parliament and has also received presidential assent is not meant to witch-hunt
architects of these regimes but to reconcile the country by giving compensation
where necessary to those who were badly hurt.
Speaking at a public forum organised by the Regional
Co-ordinating Council (RCC) at Sekondi last Sunday, Owusu Ankomah said
Parliament decided not to extend the period to 1957 because they believe those
regimes were legitimate ones and that if anybody was hurt there are
constitutional avenues to seek redress.
This notwithstanding, continued the minister who is MP for
Sekondi, those who have genuine cases could still approach the commission which
would be set up to receive the petitions. This, he noted, neutralises the perception
that Parliament did not listen to public views that the time frame should start
from 1957.
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The controversial former National Campaign Manager of the
New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alhaji Issaka Inusah, has described the first year
of NPP as a period of foundation-laying that will herald an unprecedented
period of prosperity and economic growth in this country.
Appraising the performance of NPP’s first year in office in
an interview with the Chronicle on Monday, he said contrary to the wishes of
detractors, the NPP’s records so far have been exceptionally wonderful in view
of the mess they came to meet.
“There has been peace, tensions have been lowered, security
has been very good, freedom of expression has been enhanced and the government
is pursuing the Golden Age of Business,” he pointed out.
He hailed the President for coming out with the Emergency
Social Relief Fund (ESRF), which according to him will relieve the poor from
the effects of the shock therapy prescribed by the Bretton Woods Institutions.
The ex-NPP executive whose name is awashed in an avalanche
of controversies added that people should not begrudge the government for
ensuring full cost recovery and removal of subsidy full cost recovery and
removal of subsidy on social services, noting that they are part of the
capitalist’s ideology, which they all espoused to.
The People’s Assembly, according to him lent credence to the
NPP’s open door policy, which gives the downtrodden an unimpeded access to the
President and his ministers, adding that it should be continued.
He justified the President’s extensive foreign trips, saying
they were necessary to attract investors and to mend fences with our
neighbours. This, according to him, has culminated in the appointment of Dr
Chambas as the Executive Secretary of the ECOWAS.
Alhaji Issaka stated that he has a direct contact with the
top-hierarchy of the NPP, noting that the Vice-President on his visit to their
mosque used a chunk of his time to talk about him and his importance to the
NPP.
He is optimistic that the NPP will fulfil all its promises
before the end of its four-year mandate because he has confidence in them. “I
know the President intimately, I know he has a vision, and I know he is a man
of integrity, … he means what he says … he will perform … his team is a
performing team he has no reason to lie or deceive Ghanaians”.
Debunking ex-President Rawlings’ claim that he has re-joined the NPP because of his lack of courage to withstand the perceived harassment and intimidation that were meted out to the NDC members, he contended that the NPP has always been his mother party and he will continue to be loyal to it.
He made a passionate appeal to both NPP and NDC to work in
tandem and do away with animosity in order to consolidate the country’s
fledging democracy. “Politics has nothing to do with enmity, lies, bitterness,
rancour and vain promises,” he pointed out.
Touching on the Reconciliation Act, he affirmed his support
for it to be focussed on the military regimes because most of the atrocities in
the Ghanaian political history were perpetrated in those eras.
According to him, the window of opportunity opened for cases
outside those eras serves as a testimony that the NPP has no hidden agenda in
the reconciliation process.
The Fast Track Court, according to him, is not fast enough
in the administering justice, saying any public officer of the past regime who
causes financial loss to the state should be dealt with according to the law.
On whether he will accept any position in the NPP
government, he gave assurance of his preparedness to serve in any capacity if
he is invited but quickly added that he has no power to arrogate to himself any
ministerial position.
GRi…/
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For the NPP government to sustain the encouraging gains in
macroeconomics, bagged in its first year in office and to be able to push
forward its policy of Golden Age of Business, there must be a radical shift,
which puts government at the fore front of wealth creation rather than the
stated policy direction which envisages the private sector serving as the main
engine of growth.
This calls for the establishment of government-promoted
limited liability public companies, where the government identifies venture
opportunities, undertakes the responsibility to setting it up, with ordinary
Ghanaians giving the opportunity to own shares, because the local private
sector is not matured enough to bear such a weighty responsibility on its own
and without direct state input the engine of growth may never be able to make
any great forward strides as expected.
This according to Dr Bondzi-Simpson, a leading expert in
Company law and Senior Lecturer at the Ghana School of Law is the sure-fire way
of ensuring macroeconomic stability through the tried and tested method of a
productive vibrancy, for without the ability to locally generate enough food
products and manufactured goods the cedi will continue to depreciate and the
struggle against high inflation will attain perpetual proportions.
This may seem at odds with Kufuor’s right-wing government
and its philosophy of Capitalism. Laissez-faire Capitalism means the complete
separation of economy and state, just like the separation of church and the
state. Capitalism is the social system based on the private ownership of the
means of production, which entails a completely uncontrolled and unregulated
economy. Capitalist sees the protection of citizens from force or fraud as the
only purpose of government. But is such a system at all feasible and, if so,
conducive to of our developing economy?
To this, the academic argues that whereas socialism should
not be at all countenanced, Capitalism today is largely defined by the ability
to compete in the global market and Africa’s unique problem of lack of
inadequate equity capacity in the hands of individuals can mainly be corrected
with more or less either substantive financial support from the state or
foreign investors.
He proposes what he describes as a shift away from
state-ownership, reliance on the foreign investor and multinational lenders to
a new regime, which will result in “greater accumulation of capital, which,
once having been locally amassed, will lead to greater employment of local
personnel and the financial returns of business made will remain substantially within
the system, with its consequent attendance of multiplying re-investment
effect,” instead of the situation where the gains of foreign investments are
usually wiped out by the eventual flight of capital.
His magic formula can be simply put as this: Government
undertakes the task of identifying relevant ventures, sponsor the feasibility
studies thereof, provide the initial capitalisation and then, float the company
on the stock market for Ghanaians to acquire ownership of it.
He cautions that government’s share should not exceed 30 per
cent, even so, with the disciplined intention to free the limited liability
public company of all state assets in not more than five years after
floatation.
Looking at the nation of 18.5 million people, he says whilst
the majority of Ghanaians may not have a million dollar or so to set up a
commercial agricultural farm or a textile factory, “about five million of us
can be encouraged to form a core base of human resource with a little of
savings each to own a bit of a successful company.” It will be the state’s
responsibility to then promote the culture of stockholding.
Whiles this may seem radical, he sees it as not too much of
a cultural shift. He cites the situation, for instance, where government sells
bonds but have never considered “company generated bonds and ventures.
“When the government recognises an area of opportunity it
should take the initiative, not to promote the venture as the government
enterprise, but rather, as a private one with the sole purpose of flotation as
a limited liability public company.”
This he urges the government not to see as against the HIPC
initiative, “It is not against the Bretton Woods Institutions. They claim they
are interested in promoting efficiency and vibrant economic activities in the
developing world, so this cannot be incompatible with their objectives. The
idea is to seek effective, practical and geo-economic-specific means of
ensuring a strong capitalist culture.”
Dr Bondzi-Simpson recalls former Head of State, I.K.
Acheampong’s observation that “there was local control of commanding heights’
of the economy”. He points out this inadequacy as the bane of every
government’s struggle to tackle the macroeconomic temperament of depreciating
currency, high inflation and high interest rates inherent in our system.
The government should be looking at what he calls, “capital
indigenisation policy,” as the only means of reversing the trend of universal
indigence in society. Dr Bondzi-Simpson supports the capitalist notion that
governments should be limited in their ability to control individual rights and
economic activity, but in order to achieve and secure the freedoms and
liberties that capitalism brings, which include raising productivity, and thus
the real wages of manual labour by means of creating, co-ordinating and
improving the efficiency of the division of labour, we first need to establish
a capital base. This involves the capital-intensive funding of research and
capital investment.
Thus, in his estimation the government, in the realm of
economic activity, must be seen as an entrepreneur with more capital resource
than the average businessman, who is willing to invest, make his money and pull
out as quickly as possible but with the long term vision of enhancing general
economic activity and more investment opportunities.
Dr Bondzi-Simpson abhors statism, which involves the
concentration of power in the state at the expense of individual freedom. He observes
that over the last four decades, “except, perhaps, for Nkrumah who attempted
appreciable industrialisation programme, no government had set consciously to
put in place the infrastructure needed for economic growth.
“Even for Nkrumah,” the leading academic *added with some
qualification, “the vehicle which he employed basically was flawed.” Our
culture of bad political governance filtered through to bad corporate
governance especially in the case of statutory corporations. “Systematic abuse
of managerial position, inefficiency, political patronage, siphoning of revenue
into either party or personal funds, lack of proper auditing and lack of
accountability led to important industries, such as the Nsawam Cannery (GIHOC)
becoming white elephants.”
Whiles strongly discounting a return to state-ownership or
nationalism, he believes state-promoted limited liability public companies,
which inherently takes into consideration the peculiar African situation of
inadequate home-grown equity is the way forward to wealth creation.
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The Ghana News Agency (GNA) has found itself embroiled in controversy after firing a senior officer who petitioned the sector Minister on allegation of gross malfeasance with the state-owned establishment. He claimed the dismissal followed his refusal to heed to the GNA Disciplinary Committee’s request to apologise and withdraw his petition to the Information Minister. This he claims did not go down well with the Chairman of the Committee, Issifu Ali.
The official, Abraham Samuel Adjei, 41, a former branch chairman of the Public Service Workers’ Union (PSWU), got his appointment terminated last Friday with no express reasons assigned for the action. This brings to an end ten years of service with the GNA for the printer who rose to become Chief Technical Superintendent.
Curiously, the termination letter, which ought to have been signed by the General Manager who is an Executive Officer of the organisation, was rather signed by Georgina Baiden, Chairperson of the GNA Board of Directors.
Mrs Baiden, The Statesman learnt, is a non-executive director and has been on the board for the third consecutive term when fraudulent practices are said to have been carried out by GNA management.
But, unable to further tolerate the “corruption” at the GNA, Adjei in September, 2001 sent a four-page petition to the then Minister for Media Relations, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, alleging corruption against the General Manager (GM), Kafui Johnson.
In April last year, Kafui was said to have spent over 200 million cedis to renovate and furnish the GM’s Cantoment official residence at the time when the organisation was in need of cash to purchase operational tools such as a computer server, photo camera, photo studio equipment, among others, “when I raised the matter, the General Manager claimed he spent only 100 million cedis,” Adjei said in the petition.
Kafui Johnson who was appointed by the National Media Commission in 2000 is also alleged to have engaged in over-invoicing and under-invoicing. Adjei said in spite of the unhealthy financial position of the GNA, the General Manager in August refurbished a new office even though previous Chief Executives had used his current office.
He called for a thorough investigation into the activities of the Agency but obviously to the great displeasure of the Board members. Before Adjei’s petition could be attended to, the Cabinet reshuffles came, causing the letter to gather dust at the Ministry.
The 41-year-old father of six cannot understand why his appointment was terminated and moreover since no accusation has been made against him. According to Adjei, the only meaning he can read into his dismissal was that his presence would be a stumbling block to the normal practice of misappropriation of GNA funds and equipment.
He indicated his desires to pursue the matter to court if that is the only way to stem the corrupt practices, which were rising to unacceptable heights. But before he will resort to court, Adjei has called for the intervention of the Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey for his job to be restored.
“Order an independent investigation to ensure that justice is done and that I am not intimidated and victimised just for trying to ensure good and open management for GNA which would also enhance a sustainable Agency for the benefit of the State and the workers at large,” he pleaded.
GRi…/
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