Akuffo's
burial brings feuding chiefs together
Two brothers hold father at gunpoint
‘419’ gang battles cops
Boy brought back to life…after dying from snake bite, But…
The World Bank is to inject between $200 million and $250 million into the Ghanaian economy this year. The soft loan facility carries no interest and has a repayment period of 40 years with a 10-year grace period.
The Country Director of the World Bank, Mr Peter Harrold, disclosed this in an interview in Accra on Friday. He said last year, the bank disbursed $250 million for development activities in the country.
Out of this, he said $110 million was for budgetary support while the remainder went into education, health, poverty alleviation and other sectors of the economy. On the performance of the national economy last year, Mr Harrold described it as good.
He said the country made strides with regard to microeconomic stability. He said the drop in the exchange rate, inflation, reduction in debt, burden and other economic indicators point to positive results.
The Country Director, however, pointed out that “life is hard.” He said the intention of the bank this year is to help reduce poverty and to achieve growth. The Senior Minister, Mr J.H. Mensah, is reported to have said that the country will secure $250 million to support economic activities this year.
More…/
Akuffo's
burial brings feuding chiefs together
Even though
the re-interment of the mortal remains of the late General F.W.K. Akuffo at
Akropong recently was generally a sad and solemn event, it evoked some joy in
the horizon for the peace-loving citizens of Akuapem.
This is
because peace that has eluded the people since the ‘Akuapem War’ in 1994
appeared to be returning. For the first time since 1994, the feuding chiefs
rested their grievances and anger against each other and came together to
honour their illustrious citizen, the late General Akuffo, former Head of State
and Chairman of SMC II.
Sources
from Akropong said Chiefs of Dawu and Awukugua, Nana Akyea Afari and Nana Asare
Brempong respectively were present at the funeral while Adukrom was represented
by Krontihene, Nana Ako Asare and Nana Awo Adwoa Gyeko, the queenmother.
Our sources
said these chiefs and other delegations from Aburi and Larteh were seen
exchanging pleasantries with the Okuapehene, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Dankwa III.
The well
attended funeral and burial ceremonies brought together the cream of Akuapem
and Akropong dignitaries, including Professor Alex Kwapong, Chairman of the
Council of State; Nana Wereko Ampem II, Chief of Amonokrom and Chancellor of
the University of Ghana; General M.A. Otu, Chairman of the General’s re-burial
committee and members of his committee.
Mrs Emily
Akuffo, wife of the late General Akuffo, in an interview expressed her
gratitude to the NPP government for making it possible to get her husband’s
remains properly interred and honoured.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Two brothers hold father at gunpoint
An Accra-based trader, Mr Amankwa Adjei, 65, had the biggest scare of his life when two of his sons marched on him on Christmas eve with a club, knife and a pistol to demand ¢10 million and their portion of his properties, though he is still alive.
The sons Michael Adjei, 34, and Resmond Adjei, 32, have been arrested by the Nkawkaw police and put before court on charges of threat of harm and damage to property. They both pleaded not guilty and have been remanded in police custody to reappear on a later date.
Police Chief Inspector Samuel Asare told the Nkawkaw Community Tribunal, chaired by Mr William Boampong, that Mr Amankwa Adjei is a trader based in Accra and hails form Mpraeso in the Eastern Region.
He said Michael is a cobbler based at Kpando in the Volta region while Resmond is a welder in Accra. He said on Thursday, October 18, the two went to their father’s store at Adabraka in Accra and demanded from him ¢10 million for their upkeep and a portion of his properties.
“They were so furious that Mr Adjei had to take a sober stance and persuaded them to go and come back later. So the following day Friday October 19, they came to the shop bud did not meet him”, the prosecutor said.
According to the prosecutor, the two brothers followed up to Mpraeso to look for their father. They met him there and repeated their request and when he was not yielding to their demands they started destroying properties in the house, including a kiosk.
He said Mr Amankwa managed to cool them down and in the presence of one Pastor Effah, told them to go and come back to see him on December 24, for a final decision on the matter.
The prosecutor said Mr Amankwa gave them 50,000 cedis each for transport. Before leaving Mpraeso, Michael and Resmond told their father that they had reduced the amount they demanded earlier from 10 million cedis to 500,000 cedis each and that he should add 450,000 cedis each to the 50,000 cedis he had given to them separately to square up but he failed to give them the balance.
“On Monday, December 24 the two came to Mpraeso to see their father and brandishing a knife and a locally manufactured pistol they entered the house and started destroying properties”, Inspector Asare told the tribunal.
He said Michael took a club and attempted to smash the windscreen of his father’s private car. The prosecutor said Mr Amankwa sneaked out and reported the incident to the Mpraeso Police but the two policemen who accompanied him to the scene of the incident could not overpower the two young men.
A police reinforcement squad was therefore invited from the Nkawkaw Police Station before the two could be arrested. After investigations they were charged with threat of harm and causing damage to property.
The Mirror investigations revealed that Mr Amankwa Adjei has 10 children but the reasons for the actions of Michael and Resmond who are the fourth and fifth children are still unclear.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
‘419’ gang battles cops
Prince Kofi Yeboah, 26, a key member of the ‘419’ group, has been arraigned before a Kumasi Circuit Tribunal charged with attempted fraud. He was granted a ¢10 million bail and will appear again on February 6.
Yeboah was arrested last week Monday, after a gun-battle between the police and members of the group, numbering about 10. When the heat was too much for them, the other members jumped into their cars, an Opel salon and a Fiat taxi cab and fled leaving Yeboah behind. The group had attempted to dupe a Kumasi pastor of ¢72 million.
The ‘419’ is a group of fraudsters operating in the country and who have defrauded a number of people under the pretext of doing business with them.
Police sources said that Yeboah was arrested last week Monday in his attempt to defraud a popular Kumasi pastor, Reverend Isaac Opoku, founder and leader of In Him Is Life Church at Abrepo-Kuma, a suburb of Kumasi, of ¢72 million under the pretext of selling to him 24 bottles of “Decis Apple” chemical for the production of Apples.
The sources said that a man claiming to be calling from Germany introduced himself to Rev Opoku as a member of the church. The caller also claimed to be dealing in “Decis Apple” which is used in fighting pest infestation of apple trees.
Describing the “Decis Apple” chemical trade as expensive but highly lucrative, the caller claimed that a market boom existed in Saudi Arabia and tried to convince the pastor to take advantage of the situation and make some good money.
The caller told Rev Opoku that the chemical was in short supply in Europe, USA and Saudi Arabia because of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA and the subsequent America-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
The caller mentioned a man, Duah, in Takoradi, as the one offering a bottle of the chemical for sale at ¢3 million and asked the Pastor to contact Duah for the stock available because some foreign buyers were prepared to buy it at a higher price.
Suspicious because he had once fallen prey to the tricks of the group, Rev Opoku contacted Duah on telephone and asked him to deliver a consignment of 24 bottles valued at ¢72 million to him at his church premises last week Monday.
The pastor alerted the Kumasi police who arrested Yeboah after a gun-battle with his group. An examination of the chemical exposed the contents as a mixture of urine and acid.
More…/
Richard Abugri, 49, a storekeeper of the Kumasi Children’s Home, was arrested by the Police Buffalo Unit at Kumasi last Tuesday for allegedly diverting a quantity of food and other items meant of the upkeep of the inmates of the Home.
The items included eight bags of rice, three bags of granulated sugar, two cartoons of milk, a container of Dinor oil and four cartons of key soap. Estimated at about ¢10 million, the items were said to be gifts donated recently by philanthropists and charitable organizations towards the upkeep of the inmates.
Briefing the ‘Times’ on Friday, Mr N.R.A.L. Boye-Bi-Boye, Ashanti Regional Police Crime Officer, said that a team of the Buffalo Unit on patrol duties intercepted a taxi-cab loaded with the items at about 5.30 am last Tuesday.
The driver, Yusif Adam, was seen off-loading the goods in front of a kiosk at Oforikrom, a suburb of Kumasi. When confronted, the driver, named Abugri, the sole passenger, as the owner of the goods, adding that he was chartered to convey them from the Children’s Home.
The suspect, during preliminary interrogation, allegedly confessed stealing the items from the Home and said that they were part of a quantity of assorted goods donated by individuals, groups and bodies for the upkeep of the inmates.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Boy brought back to life…after dying from snake bite,
But…
When a 22-year-old approached mortuary attendants at the Suhum Government Hospital to allow him to apply his herbal concoction on a dead eight-year-old boy whose body was lying in their morgue, they thought the young man was downright mad.
In fact, they nearly attacked him, taking him for a lunatic. But Frank Otu, a native of Kodiabe and resident at Akorabo near Suhum, was confident in himself. He proved to the mortuary attendants that he could replicate some of the miracles of Jesus, and did just that.
Master Julius Nargah, a Class One pupil at Akorabo, had been bitten by a snake at about 11.00 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2002 and was rushed to the Suhum Government Hospital. He died at about 5.00 am on Thursday, January 10, and body was deposited in the mortuary.
Otu, a driver's apprentice, heard of the death of the boy. He knew he had the power to bring the boy back to life. He followed up to the hospital where the body was being kept.
At the hospital, Otu asked the mortuary attendants to allow him to apply his concoction on the body to bring him back to life. This request brought a heated argument between the mortuary attendants and Otu. Finally, he was permitted into the mortuary where he found Nargah lying on the slab.
He took along with him an earthenware pot (asanka), a teaspoon and some herbal drugs. He mashed the drug in the earthenware pot and administered it with the teaspoon through the nostrils. Immediately, the drug began to work; five minutes later, the boy urinated still lying on the slab with his face up. The stiff body started relaxing.
What they had seen convinced them that the medicine man was capable of proving his claim. So the mortuary attendants removed the body from the slab, brought it outside for Otu to fully work on the boy. There, the medicine man applied the drug once more. Again there was new evidence of the signs of the boy’s “resurrection”.
He urinated gain and his motionless eyes started rolling up and down. The boy began to sweat. Something unbelievable began to happen. He was visibly alive meaning that he had “resurrected” from the dead.
Curious residents were amazed and the crowd followed them and joined the vehicle that was taking the boy to Akorabo. The medicine man himself could not get space on the vehicle and had to find his way to Akorabo about 13 kilometres to Suhum.
On reaching there, he applied the drug again and invited the resident pastor of the Church of Pentecost to offer prayers for the boy. The medicine man then dispersed the crowd.
At 2 am of Friday, January 11, there was a big let down- an anticlimax- to the whole success story of death and “resurrection” of John Nargah. The relaxation of the body and the rolling of the eyes ceased signifying that he was dead. There and then family members and sympathizers began to wail. They had lost a beloved son.
The medicine man was called again but he could do nothing more. Family members prepared the body and buried the boy the same day. On the day of burial, personnel including some of the mortuary attendants attended the funeral to ascertain whether the boy was indeed dead.
Narrating the story to The Spectator at Akorabo 14 January, Mr Joshua Cobbina, father of the little boy said he and his son returned from farm about 11 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2002. Nargah then visited the toilet and decided to hide a small paper left inside a landcrete packed close to the toilet.
In the process he felt a sharp pain on his hand and rushed home to inform his father. The father realised it was a snakebite and rushed him to a nearby clinic. After administering first aid, he was rushed to the Suhum Government Hospital at about 5 pm.
The boy was detained. In the night of the same day, the boy, feeling better watched a television programme until 12 midnight.
At about 5 am on Thursday, the nurses saw that the boy was dead and informed the mother. At about 1 pm, the body was deposited at the mortuary. He said when Frank heard of news he came to the house of the deceased to inform the family members that he could bring the body back to life.
Based on his promise, they hurriedly accompanied Frank to the hospital where after a lenthy discussion Frank was allowed the application of his drug leading to the 'resurrection' of the boy.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com