Sekondi (Western Region) 16 January
2003- The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has put contingency
measures in place to mitigate problems of displaced persons from Cote d'Ivoire
in events of fresh outbreak of hostilities in that country.
Nyankopa Attah,
Western Regional Co-ordinator of NADMO told the Ghana New Agency (GNA) in an
interview in Sekondi on Wednesday that its regional
office is been in constant touch some international organisations to transport
displaced persons from Cote d'Ivoire in transit to neighbouring countries.
Attah said the organisations include
the United Nation's High Commission on Refugee (UNHCR), United Nation's
Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), World Food Programme
(WFP) and Oxfam.
He said some displaced people
from
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Begoro (Eastern Region)
He was addressing a People's
Assembly at Begoro in the Fanteakwa
District on Monday as part of activities to mark a decade of
Nana Ntow
said the government had licensed indigenous Ghanaians to engage in the petrol
trade along side foreign businessmen. "The government cannot drive away
foreign businessmen in the petrol trade" he said.
Nana Ntow
said for the government to supply sufficient water to the urban dwellers, there
was the need to implement the water privatisation policy. The Eastern Regional
Minister, Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah, said the government intended to construct 64
school blocks every year with a percentage of the HIPC fund.
The Fanteakwa
District Chief Executive, Ebenezer Ofoe Caesar, said
the district had chalked some successes within the two years of the NPP
administration. Speakers at the forum complained of deplorable state of roads,
lack of good drinking water, electricity, sanitation, health and deplorable
school buildings in the district.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 January
2003- Philip Baffour Awuah,
a Chartered Accountant on Monday told an Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) that he
was not aware that United States Information Department (USAID) had already
audited the accounts of the Trade and Investment Project (TIP) Fund.
Awuah said this during
cross-examination in a case in which two former Ministers of State have been
charged with causing financial loss to the state. Daniel Kwasi
Abodakpi, former Minister of Trade and Industries and
Victor Selormey, former Deputy Minister of Finance
are being tried on seven counts of conspiracy to commit crime, defrauding by
false pretences and wilfully causing a loss of 2.73bn cedis to the State.
They have denied all the charges
and are currently on self-recognizance bail in the sum of 3bn cedis each. Awuah who was
being cross-examined by Barima Manu, counsel for Selormey also dismissed counsel's suggestion that his auditing
was meant to investigate rather than to audit the account of TIP.
He said the report had cited
malfeasance, fraud among other things. Awuah
explained that by international standards an audit should actively search or
look out for fraud among others.
He disagreed with counsel that
his report was "no report" and it did not have any audited opinion.
Counsel suggested to the prosecution witness that he should have been the third
accused.
But Anthony Gyambiby,
Principal State Attorney however drew the attention of the court that Counsel's
question was unfair and should be withdrawn. The court, subsequently,
disallowed the question.
The court discharged Awuah and when it called for the next witness Gyambiby asked for a day's adjournment to produce the
witness. The court therefore adjourned the matter to Monday, 20 January.
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The new plate shall be embossed
by the Authority and sold to the licence holders, which according to Joseph
Osei-Wusu, the Chief Executive, is expected to
correct and check the abuses.
The prefix on the plate begins
with the letter 'D' followed by 'V' and the numbers in that order. Additional
inscriptions are the initials of the DVLA and a date such as 01:2003, which are
expected to help the police to identify fake ones readily while the date
signifies that the plate is valid to be used only in the year of embossment.
At a public forum to outdoor the
plate and interact with partners, Osei-Wusu said the
Authority came up with the new trade licence plate system after a careful study
of what he described as a "messy situation".
He said regulations 11 and 12 of
the Road Traffic Regulations of 1974 are the legal basis for use of trade
plates and log books on unlicensed vehicles or vehicles under repairs at a
workshop.
However, "whereas operators
know about the procedure for obtaining trade licences and have often applied
for them, nobody appears to have taken note of the regulations governing their
use."
Osei-Wusu
said consequently, the trade licences and trade plates have been so grossly
abused that "it is probably the most visible evidence of indiscipline in
the road transport sector.
He said: "Indeed, it is not
uncommon to see a fleet of vehicles trooping from the Tema harbour or elsewhere
through the streets of
"The fleet dealer however,
has applied and obtained a trade licence from us ostensibly for the
purpose." The Chief Executive noted that the problem with second-hand car
dealers' is even worse.
Because of the gross abuse in
the use of the trade licence plate, the police have also developed a penchant
of stopping and questioning every vehicle driver with a trade plate to
ascertain the genuineness of it, he said, and added that as a result of that,
drivers would rather avoid driving through town with trade plate.
The drivers therefore, prefer to
register their vehicles in
The introduction of the new
system is expected to check all the lapses, Osei-Wusu
aid. He explained that as part of the process, the DVLA has set all the
regulations governing all the use of the licence in one document to help
operators on how to go about the trade plate.
Osei-Wusu
said the DVLA has also appointed an agent to make the plates available at all
entry points of the country for the benefit of individual vehicles importers
and clearing agents to enable them take cleared vehicles out of the ports.
Osei-Wusu
said the DVLA has developed a mechanism to enable it withdraw all trade plates
at the end of each year to avoid duplication. Garage owners, clearing agents
and car importers who attended the forum sought explanation on why they cannot
move cleared vehicles after
Osei-Wusu
explained that the non-movement of such vehicles after
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The Most Reverend Peter K.A.Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast and the Chancellor of
the university, who announced this at a press conference said the main campus
will be moved to Fiapre near Sunyani in the Brong
Ahafo region when work is completed.
The University, which attained
its accreditation in December, last year, will start a four-year degree
programmes leading to a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in three
faculties.
The university, which would
initially be affiliated with the
He said authorities were
exploring linkages with prominent Catholic Universities in
Successful applicants, he said,
would be
He said the curricula and the
courses as developed in the three Faculties combine training in theory and
provide the skills to meet the needs of a changing employment scene.
He was grateful to dioceses,
parishes and families in
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Bogoso (Western Region)
The other factors are a
protracted chieftaincy disputes, unsolved two-year murder case, operations of
mining companies in the area and frustration of illegal "galamsey" operators who find their livelihood
threatened by the operations of the major mining companies.
Albert K. Obbin,
MP for the area, the police, the Assemblyman of the area, Osei Kuffuor Omooyey and opinion
leaders confirmed to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in separate interviews on
Monday and Tuesday saying that if the tension was allowed to explode, it would
be worse than conflicts that have hit other parts of the country.
Obbin said the chieftaincy dispute in
the town was tense and that was why he was not involving any of the disputing
chiefs in his political and social activities because "as a politician I
don't want to be accused by any of the factions for taking sides with any
other".
"There is even a big
problem over some of the 'chiefs' collecting and misusing royalties paid by
mining companies in the area." He said he was checking up from the
Administrator of Stool Lands to find out which of chiefs, have been involved in
the collection of the royalties.
Police Inspector Mathias Okrofu, in-charge of Bogoso
Police Station and Detective Chief Inspector Francis Gborgla
agreed that there was tension in the town and that they the police were
monitoring the situation.
Detective Inspector Gborgla said they were being careful of not being accused
by the people of taking sides in the case adding "it is even painful that
in our duty we are being accused by some people of taking money from some of
the factions when we are seen with them and more so when there are some
chieftaincy cases are before the courts."
He said the docket on a case in
which one of the litigating chiefs was accused of beheading one Adjei Manu, 56,
at Kookoase in October 2000, was before the Homicide
Police and the Attorney-General's office in
The police said that incident
took place before they were even transferred to the area. The Assemblyman, Omooyey said the unsolved murder problem was a great worry
to the people in the area because they felt justice was being delayed.
He also confirmed that some of
the chiefs had collected between 53 and 123 million cedis in royalties and yet
the town was without good school buildings, lack of drainage systems and poor
water situation. Omooyey said because of the
chieftaincy disputes the mining companies have not being paying the royalties
while the town needed money to develop.
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Supporting the increase though,
the
Edward Kofi Omane
Boamah, President of the
Touching on education, he said the
Central Committee has called for an astronomical increase in final year
student's grants, adding that, "We deem the current 5,000 cedis
inappropriate and absolutely unrealistic."
The Committee also said it
recognised the importance of continued education of teachers, hence demanded
the abolition of all "unorthodox measures that discourage Teacher Training
graduates from pursuing further education.
"NUGS, he said, is opposed
to any increase with respect to the Value Added Tax, saying, "VAT is a
regressive tax that over-burdens the poor and downtrodden in society hence
siphoning disproportionately greater chunk of their meagre income."
Boamah said whether government is
talking about water privatisation or private participation of water, both,
according to NUGS', would lead to rate increases, undermine water quality,
foster corruption and reduce public rights and local control therefore, oppose
it.
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Ho (Greater Accra)
A statement signed by Steve Selormey, Secretary to the Council, said military and
Police personnel had been deployed in the area to ensure compliance by both
sides. It said the security personnel had cordoned off the area "to
prevent entry into and exit from the disputed area by both parties to the
conflict."
The REGSEC said its directive
was "in view of the outbreak of violence in the disputed area resulting in
wanton killings." It said henceforth and until further notice, anybody
found in the disputed area would be arrested and prosecuted.
The statement said anybody in
possession of weapons in the area without lawful authority would also be
prosecuted. Mawutor Goh, Ho
District Chief Executive (DCE), told newsmen that the statement had been served
on the Paramount Chiefs of the two traditional areas who were advised to
educate their subjects.
He said Information Service
Department vans had also gone to the two areas to resound the message. Four
people have, in the past week, been killed and two others injured in attacks by
unknown assailants in renewed hostilities.
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New Abirem
(Eastern Region)
Nana Ohene
Ntow, a Deputy Government Spokesman on Finance and
Economic Affairs, who gave the assurance, warned against the harassment of
suspected aliens, if the exercise commenced next year.
He was speaking at a Peoples
Assembly at New Abirem in the Birim
North District of the Eastern Region on Tuesday. Nana Ntow
said it would be imprudent for the government to use the Highly Indebted Poor
Country (HIPC) Fund to defray the more than three trillion-cedi Tema Oil
Refinery debt.
He said, instead, the amount
would be used in providing health, education and social infrastructure among
other projects for national development. Nana Ntow
said the Ministry of Finance had approved funds for the Ghana Broadcasting
Corporation for the procurement of equipment including transmission machines to
improve television reception and telecommunication system in the region.
He also said a new agreement had
been signed with the Telenor Company of
Nana Ntow
gave the assurance that the Ghana Standards Board and the Ghana Cocoa Board
would be mandated to undertake regular inspection of weighing scales in order
to check fraudulent cocoa purchasing clerks from cheating cocoa farmers.
The Deputy Minister of Interior,
Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, said
the government would employ qualified football coaches and provide logistics
and incentives towards the development of soccer in the country.
The Eastern Regional Chairman of
the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Adi Ankamah, said women engaged in agricultural would be
considered for loans to enable them improve the work.
He warned that party members who
would dabble in chieftaincy dispute would be sanctioned. The District Chief
Executive, Victor Owusu-Ahenkorah, the Oda-Abirem-Nkawkaw and Abrirem-Kade
roads among others have been awarded on contract while 80 million cedis have
been disbursed to farmers as loans.
The chiefs and people, who
contributed to the assembly called on the government to build a district
hospital, rehabilitate roads, and provide potable water and to fulfil its
promise to offer tax relief to workers.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 January
2003- Ghana has been selected to host programmes to build the capacity of
various stakeholders in the Sub-Region to implement the recommendations made at
last year's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
Robert Whitfield, Programme
Coordinator of the Stakeholders Forum, an international organisation, announced
this when he led a delegation to call on Vice President Aliu Mahama, at the
Castle, Osu.
Whitfield said other projects,
which would be identified through consultation and positive collaboration,
would be implemented in Ghana in line with Africa's needs captured in of
recommendations of the Summit's report.
Priority areas to be considered
include fresh water, energy, health and food and security. As part of the
consultation process, he said, a conference to be attended by about 500
stakeholders would he held in November in
The stakeholders, who include
farmers, business people, scientists, representatives of NGOs would draw up
action plans for implementation. Vice President Mahama welcomed the opportunity
and urged the organisation to share its experiences in research, fund raising
and training to facilitate
He said the capacity building
programme should cover many African countries. Prof Dominic Fobih,
Minister of Environment and Science, said
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16
December 2003- Ex-Corporal James Zoogah, a former
military officer has suggested to junior officers in the military and Para
military organizations to act on orders from their superiors with
circumspection.
He said though it was a military
norm not to question orders from superiors, junior officers would do best to
treat people they were asked to discipline humanely to avoid infringing on the
personal freedoms and human rights.
Zoogah made the suggestion on
Wednesday when he appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC)
on the second day of the Commission's public hearing in
Zoogah said torture, detention,
beatings and other human rights abuses the military committed during
unconstitutional regimes could have been avoided if junior officers had acted
with circumspection on the orders they received from the superiors.
Answering a question from Uborr Dalafu Labal
II, a member of the Commission, on what could be done to avoid torture as a
form of punishment in the service, Zoogah said senior
officers must also consider the kind of instructions they give, for anybody,
whether an officer, could also be a victim of circumstances.
He also called for institutional
reforms within the prisons and said the practice of keeping glittering lights
on for prisoners to watch needed to be reconsidered. Ex-corporal Zoogah told the Commission that he was picked up by
operatives of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) on
He said he was taken to the
Counter Espionage Service (CES) in the BNI and was interrogated by a panel
including Peter Nanfuri, the former Director of the
BNI and Inspector General of Police (IGP) of conspiring with Major (rtd) Courage Quashigah and others
to plot a coup to overthrow the then government of the Provisional National
Defence Council (PNDC).
Ex Corporal Zoogah
said when he told the panel of his innocence, he was whipped and sent to Cell
One of the CES. "I was blindfolded, totally beaten and my manhood was
pulled. I was hit in the left eye."
He said he was asked if he had
heard of the death of Flt Lt Dormi, and he said yes.
Ex-corporal Zoogah said he was threatened with death
if he failed to tell the truth. He said he told the panel that he would rather
die alone than commit other people in crimes they are innocent of.
Ex-Corporal Zoogah
said he was sent back again to the CES, and for four times he was picked out at
midnight, blindfolded and sent out to unknown places and beaten up along with
others.
From the BNI, Ex Corporal Zoogah said he was sent to Usher Fort Prison and was made
to eat, bath and go to toilet in the same cell at the Akuse
cells for three months. "I felt sick, and when I was under an armed escort
to the hospital, a relative was surprised to see me at the hospital. He
approached me and whispered to me that my little daughter was dead. I pleaded
with the escort to let me see the corpse of my dead daughter, but I was
refused."
Ex Corporal Zoogah
said he was transferred to Ho Prisons, and one of his wives, now deceased was
never told that he had been transferred to Ho Prison when she came on a visit
at the Usher Fort Prison.
He said when his wife got to
know of the transfer and took a cheque for him to sign to withdraw some money,
the prison officer stamped the cheque with the stamp of the Prison Service,
making the cheque, which he tendered in evidence to the Commission, invalid.
He said fortunately the wife was
having other blank cheques and after insisting that the officer gave the wife a
lorry fare for her return to
"I underwent an operation
during my detention, and despite the operation, I was chained to the bed on
which I laid." Ex Corporal Zoogah said, in all
he spent a total of more than two years in detention without any specific
charge apart from the interrogation.
He said when he was released, he
stayed in the barracks, without any official assignment, but was paid until his
release from the Service, which under normal circumstances should have been
discussed thoroughly with him, was published, and was given 500,000 cedis
release money.
Ex Corporal Zoogah
said he was subjected to watching a glittering light, which was on for one
month day and night when he was in the BNI cells, and as a result, he now
suffers blurred vision. He cannot also hear well in his left ear.
"I have forgiven everybody.
I give everything to Almighty God, but I can never forget." "I was
discharged wrongly, and my mates and junior far below me are all now ahead of
me. I will be happy, if I will be allowed to serve for just one day to get my
pension to take good care of my five children.
General Emmanuel Erskine, expressed sympathy with Ex-Corporal Zoogah, and stressed that one of the roles of the
Commission was to see how best it could restructure certain institutions to
prevent recurrence of human rights violations by certain institutions.
He said such reforms would keep
institutions like the military and people in authority within their constitutional
duties. Earlier Samuel Dwira, 71, now an estate
agent, and a former executive member of the Ashaiman
Branch of the Progress Party in Accra, told the Commission of his arrest by one
policeman and two civilians and subsequent brutalisation and detention in 1972,
following the arrest of Bruce Konuah, the then
Minister of Housing.
Dwira said for one year at the Nsawam Prison, along with one Iddi,
and Issaka Frafra, who
became blind before his death, he was exposed to constant light and what he
called "poor diet" of kenkey and as result
developed a defect in the left eye. He prayed the Commission to help him
restore his sight and provide him with a form of compensation before his death.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 January
2003- Robert T. Baaba, Assistant Director of the Ghana
Prisons Service, on Tuesday denied allegations of brutality and hostility
brought against him by one Rexford Ohemeng before the
National Reconciliation Commission (NRC).
He also denied another
allegation of corruption brought against him by one Thomas Benefo,
witness for Ohemeng. Ohemeng,
40, a former military staff and currently a security officer at the Castle,
told the Commission that Mr Baaba, then the Director
of Nsawam Prisons, oversaw acts of brutality and
hostility against him and his colleague inmates for the nine years he was
unlawfully detained in that prison.
In his statement to the
Commission, Ohemeng said on
He said on
Ohemeng alleged that during his stay in
prison he had an encounter with Baaba, during which
he (Baaba) pulled a pistol on him and threatened to
kill him. "He told me point blank that he had the authority to kill me if
I misbehaved so I had to keep cool."
Ohemeng said following that incident Baaba barred all his visitors from getting to him. He said
he got to know from his father that Baaba had told
his parents that he was dealing in
Ohemeng said he later heard there was
some theft that night and he and one Attipoe who were
suspects were stripped naked and later transferred to another cell. Ohemeng said some of his colleagues at the time were moved
from the regular cells to the segregation cells where mentally retarded
prisoners were kept for no apparent reason.
He added that such treatment,
among others, led to some amount of rioting by some of the prisoners, "but
none of us from the military took part in the rioting". The rioting
occurred in the absence of Baaba and when he
returned, he mounted an operation for revenge on those who took part in the
rioting, he said.
Ohemng said extra prisons officers,
including Adama Mensah, former Ghanaian heavyweight
boxer, were brought in from
"It was during this brutality
that I was mercilessly beaten with batons by prisons officers till my leg was
broken and my whole body was covered with blood." He said because of those
beatings, he was admitted to the infirmary, where he was washed, treated and
condemned to a wheel chair. However, he alleged that Baaba
seized it from him and asked him to crawl, which he did.
"Later when the rioters
were discovered and they confessed that I was not part of them, Baaba told me that as a military man I was familiar with
suffering as an innocent person so I should just take it as one of those
things.
"I had to use crutches for
a period of two and half years after those brutalities, until I could walk
properly," he said. Ohemeng said when he was
released in 1992, he returned to the Burma Camp where he found out that he had
been dismissed from the Military since 1983 and yet his father received his
monthly salary of 600 cedis on his behalf until 1985.
In his statement to the
Commission, Benefo, a witness for Ohemeng
said the cause of the riot for which Ohemeng was
wrongfully brutalized was some 287,000 cedis received from foreign prisoners to
be granted amnesty.
He said it was alleged at the time
that Baaba kept the money for himself and the
prisoners felt that was a corrupt practice, which should have attracted stiff
punishment from the prisons headquarter.
He alleged that Baaba was apparently asked to pay back the money. Baaba, through his counsel, Emmanuel Effah
Anan, denied his involvement in any act of brutality, hostility and corruption
as alleged.
Anan did not deny that Ohemeng was brutalized, but said that those who carried out
the brutality on the rioting prisoners were brought in from
He said even so, the prison
officers who carried out the alleged brutalities, did so as by law required for
them to avert such situations through the use of any means, including force.
Effah Anan said Baaba
was never in charge of money at the Nsawam prisons
and was therefore, not privy to any money collected from prisoners. Neither was
he ever made to refund any such money at anytime.
The victim had five witnesses,
out of which only two were called for want of time.
Seating was adjourned to 0930 on
Thursday, when the other three witnesses would be called.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 January
2003- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday said the ECOWAS Parliament
bore testimony to the sub-regional grouping being a unifying force for West Africa.
He said the Parliament was not
only a forum for member States but the people as well. President Kufuor made
the observation when an 11-member delegation from the ECOWAS Parliament on a
six-day visit to
The delegation, which arrived in
Osei Kyei
Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Chief Whip of
He said although the Parliament
had been briefed on the crisis by some experts,
Mensah-Bonsu,
who delivered a message from the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, thanked
President Kufuor for the enormous efforts he made to host the first Meeting of
Heads of State and Governments on the crisis in
"But for the involvement of
your government and personal involvement things might have turned out
differently on the impact of the crisis on the socio-economic development of
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He said the task of ensuring
effective development management and control was by nature very difficult and
varied. However, the Regional Co-ordinating Council had taken steps to regulate
and speed up the issue of building permits to help solve the problem, he said.
Sheikh Quaye was addressing the
Greater Accra Regional People's Assembly in
The assemblies are being held
nation-wide on the theme: "Consolidating Ghana's Democracy through Peace,
Unity and Development." He told the gathering that the perennial problem
of flooding had become synonymous with
"Therefore in the area of
drainage, more than 50 kilometres of drains and several box culverts as well as
a number of pipe culverts are being constructed in the region.
"At the same time, routine cleansing and de-silting of existing
drains are also taking place especially in flood-prone areas."
Sheikh Quaye said through these
interventions, the region had recorded some progress in reducing flooding last
year and expressed the hope that the problem would soon be a thing of the past.
Touching on the environment, he
said a new landfill site at Oblogo, near Weija, had been acquired to serve
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 16
January 2003- S.K. Boafo, Ashanti Region Minister, on
Wednesday assured residents of Kumasi that the mass transport system would be
operational in the city by the end of January.
Boafo, who gave the assurance in
answer to a question at the Ashanti Regional Peoples Assembly, said the buses
would mitigate difficulties workers had to go through daily.
The People's Assembly formed
part of activities marking a decade of
Responding to concerns raised
about the imminent price hikes of petroleum products, the Minister said if
there was a way out the government would avoid it but unfortunately there was
no other option other than increase the price.
Boafo said the debt accumulated at
the Tema Oil Refinery was so huge that until Ghanaians were ready to pay
economic rates for fuel it would be difficult to offset the debt.
"Either we accept to pay
realistic prices or we face acute shortage in the delivery and supply of fuel
in the system," Boafo said. Boafo
said it was the policy of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) not to allow
the construction of KVIPs to serve any community
again.
The RCC is encouraging the
various District Assemblies to construct water closets and household toilets,
he said.
Boafo said the Kumasi Shoe Factory
would start production by the end of January and would create employment for
about 800 people. He said a Bangladeshi company to whom the Kumasi Jute factory
had been divested would also start operations soon.
All these interventions, he
said, were positive indicators of the government's commitment to improving the
economy and creating employment for the numerous unemployed youth in the
country.
Maxwell Kofi Jumah,
the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, said work on a 28-billion cedi Land
Fill Site at Oti near Dompoase
would be completed by October. He said when completed it would take care of the
1,000 tons of solid waste and refuse generated in the metropolis.
Jumah said the government, in
collaboration with the KMA, had pumped over six billion cedis into new and
routine maintenance of streetlights in the Kumasi Metropolis.
Answering a question on the poor
nature of roads in the metropolis, Jumah said 40
roads were awarded on contract for grading and rehabilitation in
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In a 4-1 decision at its
sitting, the Court, presided over by Justice E.K. Wirewdu,
Chief Justice ruled that it "has no jurisdiction to entertain an appeal in
a petition case under Article 99 of the Constitution, after an appeal to the
Court of Appeal."
"The respondent is held to
be disqualified to stand as a candidate for election in the Wulensi
Constituency." The Court said the Attorney-General was to be formally
notified to inform the Speaker of Parliament.
No costs were awarded. The MP
for Wulensi had filed an appeal against an earlier
decision by the Tamale High Court challenging his eligibility. The Tamale High
Court had ruled in favour of Fuseini Zakari in a petition filed to unseat Mr Nyimakan
for allegedly flouting the residency clause in the electoral law.
The petitioner alleged that Nyimakan neither hailed from any part of the constituency
nor had any record of residency in the area, as required by law. The petitioner
alleged that the MP's records indicated that he was born at Saboba,
had his secondary school education at
The Court of Appeal dealt a
second blow to Nyamakan, when in a unanimous decision
it upheld the ruling of the High Court and, therefore, dismissed his appeal
brought before the court on 12 April this year.
Before the
The seat had become the subject
of litigation, since the Electoral Commission declared the 2000 election
results in the constituency.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 January
2003- The Most Rev Charles Palmer-Buckle, Catholic Bishop of Koforidua, and a
member of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Wednesday said belief
in God was what had strengthened most Ghanaians to forgive perpetrators of
human right violations during periods of Unconstitutional rule being examined
by the Commission.
“As an Anglican, it is your
faith in God which has sustained you in those hard times. It is the same faith
in God that has made you decide to forgive; please, keep the faith and the Good
Lord himself will show the way”, Rev Palmer-Buckle told Madam Mary Adukwei Allotey, 78, when she
appeared and told her story to the Commission on its second day of public
hearing in Accra.
According to Madam Allotey, some soldiers picked her on
"The messenger said the
people looking for me were not properly dressed, and I should meet them at the
gate. At the gate I saw a certain Northerner; a tailor had been beaten with his
face swollen. When tried to express sympathy, the men at the gate asked me to
shut up. Are you Madam Allotey? They asked. And when I said yes, they remarked, “We are
looking for you.”
Madam Allotey
said the people, including one Baba ordered them to enter into a long vehicle,
and she was also prevented to go and inform the other mourners at the funeral
grounds on what was happening.
'The people provided a ladder,
and I climbed into the vehicle. They took us to the then Makola
No. 1, where I had a store and ordered me to open the store, but I told them I was not having a key. They
forced open the store with sticks, guns and cudgels, and then asked, 'are all
these for you?'" Madam Allotey said she
responded yes, and explained to the people that she ordered goods from merchant
companies of Leventis, GNTC and Okoamah
Sons, and she was not hoarding goods.
"They beat me up, and I had
one eye swollen, and started taking the goods. Commission: How many goods did
they take away? Madam Allotey: They took 150 bags of
sugar, 75 bags of rice, more than 60 bags of flour and 25 cartons of NIDO milk
powder. I could not count the quantity of tins of sardine they took away. Commission:
In all how much did the things they took away cost? Madam Allotey:
It was about 55m cedis.
According to Madam Allotey the soldiers, who were in civilian clothes forced
open a chop box, which was containing money and took all the money and made her
sit in a waiting smaller military vehicle, and drove her home in Dansoman.
While in the vehicle, Madam Allotey said the soldiers asked her if she sold cloth and
she said no. When they got to her house, she said they followed her to her
bedroom and forced open her wardrobe and made away with 25 pieces of cloth
after they had asked her why she had so much and she replied all her children
were girls and she had bought the cloth for them.
She said she was threatened with
death if she dared tell the truth about the things they had taken to a senior
officer to whom they were sending. "They tied up the things and marched me
to the vehicle. When we got to
"They made us sit on the
green grass in the scorching sun. If one dared questioned the soldiers, he was
slapped." Madam Allotey said they were later put
in another vehicle and taken to an office near Cantonments and they were
detained three for three weeks without their relatives knowing where they were.
She said during their three-week
detention, they were made to go to some bungalows in Cantonments; they were
also made to pull their ears and hop up and down, in addition to with beatings.
Madam Allotey
said she felt sick and was taken to the 37 Military Hospital,
and when she was brought back to the detention, she developed asthma,
hypertension and her left ear was operated on and she had not been able to hear
properly since the surgery.
Commission: So how were you finally released?"
Madam Allotey:
We were in detention one day when I was sitting quietly and I had cupped my
chin, when one senior officer by the name Tackie, approached me and asked me how I was brought there and I
told him and he arranged for my release.'
After the release I was informed
that our things had been sent to the Central Police Station. I kept going there
but never had my things back, until I gave up. This is my story. Madam Allotey said her children are now her benefactors. She
pleaded with the Commission to provide her with capital and to resettle her.
GRi…/
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They were led by Brigadier
George Ayi-Bonte. Speaking to Journalists at the
airport, Major Lawrence Attache of the Ghana Armed
Forces (GAF) Public Relations Department said with the prevailing peace
currently being enjoyed in that country, the UN had decided to down size the
number of troops on that operation.
He said the 60 peacekeeping
force is the first batch prior to winding up the UN operations in that country,
adding that other countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, Ukraine and Bangladesh have
also started reducing their troops in that country.
According to Major Attache, by the year 2006, the 17,500 UNAMSIL force would
have been reduced to less than 2,000. At the airport to welcome the troops were
Brigadier D. Kattah, Brigade Commander for Support
Services Brigade who later addressed the troops and Colonel A. Apenga Yella, Director in-Charge
of Peacekeeping Operations.
GRi…/
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