The Statesman
Price Waterhouse creates crisis
Electoral Commission to revise voters’ register
J.H. Mensah blames government…For lawless use of arms
Ghanaian Times Drug baron loses 2.9 billion cedis buildingsDaily Graphic
Pastor grabbed…Over death of 50-year-old woman
NDC angry over Kojo Yankah’s apology
The Dispatch in a banner headline story, says the controversy that erupted over the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu’s ‘’thank you’’ call on President Jerry Rawlings on June 18, seems to have been rekindled by reports that some senior members of the ruling NDC are very annoyed with the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Kojo Yankah, for reportedly apologising on behalf of the President on a Kumasi FM station.
The paper says against this, is another group who think the Regional Minister acted in good faith. The Dispatch says the group within the NDC who are angry over Mr Yankah’s remarks are claiming that the apology he reportedly offered over the FM station, pre-supposes that the President’s bahaviour towards Otumfuo and his retinue of chiefs, was wrong. According to the paper, the group prepared to ask President Rawlings to recall Mr Yankah from his post in Kumasi.
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Price Waterhouse creates crisis
In its lead headline story, the Statesman cautions that the Price Waterhouse report, which is supposed to give relief to Ghanaian workers in higher salaries and wages, is about to throw the nation into a constitutional crisis as workers have threatened to drag the government to the Supreme Court.
The story says the staff of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), arming themselves with a copy of the Fourth Republican Constitution, have criticised the report as unworkable and a threat to the survival of the Service. According to the staff, the Price Waterhouse consultants, who were paid $3 million to fashion out a salary structure for the government workers, erred in law.
They said the consultants had used the IRS and other revenue collecting institutions such as the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service as a yardstick in fixing the new wages and salaries. Citing the Bank of Ghana, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Ghana Telecom, among other parastatals, as where the searchlight should have been in arriving at
An equitable salary structure, the IRS workers said that this is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution. The Statesman says the consultants, in determining the new salary structure, whose implementation started this month, were instructed to use the constitutional provision which provides for equal pay for workers who perform the same duties in government services.
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Electoral Commission to revise voters’ register
The Free Press says the much-suspected voters’ register is to be revised this year, in anticipation of the next general elections in the year 2000. The revision, the paper says, is intended to give Ghanaians who have attained the voting age of 18, to be registered. The revision is also to prune of the names of the deceased.
The paper reports Mr David Kanga, Deputy Electoral Commissioner in charge of Operations, as announcing this after supervising the approval of Major Caesar Acheampong (rtd) as the substantive District Chief Executive for Ejura-Sekyedumasi in the Ashanti Region. Mr Kanga, the paper says, disclosed that negotiations are under way between the Commission and the government for funds to finance the issue of photo identity cards to all eligible voters in subsequent elections in Ghana.
Mr Kanga said during the first phase of the transition exercise, the Electoral Commission would replace all voters’ identity cards, adding, "this will enable the Commission to know the correct number of all eligible voters in Ghana".
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J.H. Mensah blames government…For lawless use of arms
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr J.H. Mensah, is quoted as blaming the proliferation of arms in Ghana and their recent abuse by armed robbers, juvenile adventurers and land guards on the NDC government. Mr Mensah, the paper says, noted with dismay that the Rawlings phenomenon has bequeathed to the hitherto peace-loving Ghanaian society, a "gun totting and trigger-happy culture".
"It is not just the students, it is not just the land guards, it is not just the armed robbers, it a whole new culture that has descended on Ghana", he quoted as saying. The Crusading Guide says citing instances of government’s abuse of might and power, and open and reckless use of arms on innocent and unarmed civilians, Mr Mensah recalled the indiscriminate shooting of students of the University of Ghana, Legon and the Institute of Professional Studies which ended in a lady being sprayed with bullets, some of which lodged in her body for a long time.
He also mentioned the gunning down of four people by the government’s security agencies and members of the Association for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDR), during the ‘Kume Me Preko’ peaceful march and the shooting of a boy at Nima in Accra. Mr Mensah is said to have regretted that "these excesses have been carried over from a revolutionary era into a democratic dispensation".
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Drug baron loses 2.9 billion cedis buildings
In a screaming front-page headline story, the Ghanaian Times reports that the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal has ordered the confiscation to the state of two buildings, one at the Airport residential area in Accra and the other on the Accra-Tema Motorway, both valued at 2.9 billion cedis.
The paper says the houses belong to Raymond Amankwaah, a Ghanaian convicted in 1996 in France for narcotic drug trafficking and money laundering.
The Times says Amankwaah, also called ‘Chanda Keita’, absconded from France during his trial but was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in absentia by a Paris court. According to the paper, the confiscation followed an application to that effect an d which was endorsed by the Attorney-General’s Office. The Times says the tribunal, chaired by Mr Justice Isaac Douse, said that after hearing the application, it was satisfied that the two buildings were illegally acquired by Amankwaah.
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Pastor grabbed…Over death of 50-year-old woman
The Daily Graphic reports that a pastor of the Saviour Christian Church at Twedie in the Ashanti Region, has been arrested for allegedly causing the death of a 50-year-old woman after giving her a herbal substance to inhale.
The paper, in a front-page banner headline story, says the pastor, Kofi Noah, is alleged to have given the herbal preparation to the deceased, Afua Mansah, when she complained of headache.
The Graphic reports the Police Public Relations Officer in charge of Ashanti, Mr Richard Baduweh, as saying that the deceased started bleeding profusely from the mouth and nose shortly after she was given the herbal preparation to inhale by the suspect, who is believed to be a self-styled spiritualist. Mr Baduweh said Afua Mansah subsequently became unconscious and died a day after being admitted at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital inn Kumasi.
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