Let’s resettle Rawlings – Wereko-Brobby
The Crusading GuideNDC sabotages Reform member’s consultancy!
The GuideNDC shoots back at NPP…Over Assembly’s ‘con job’
P & PMan claims to be Dansoman killer
Graphic ShowbizFelix Bell poisoned
Daily GraphicRow over land…Tension mounts between Bortianor and Weija
Ghanaian TimesRich students trade in drugs…Narcotics Board survey reveals
Let’s resettle Rawlings – Wereko-Brobby
The Independent in a front page story, reports Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, leader and presidential candidate of the United Ghana Movement as suggesting that President Jerry Rawlings should be resettled after his tenure of office in January 2001.
Dr Wereko-Brobby told the paper that he is for ‘adequate rehabilitation of President Rawlings’, conceding, however, that the President has not been that charitable to Ghana’s past heads of state.
"He must be settled properly. If he want a house, that is fine, if he does not want a house, there must be a package that he will be comfortable with", Dr Wereko-Brobbey, pleaded for President Rawlings.
According to Dr Wereko-Brobbey, the resettlement package should take place irrespective of the manner in which the President chose to come to power and the fact that he himself had not done the same for others like Dr Hilla Limann, whom President Rawlings overthrew in 1981.
GRi../
NDC sabotages Reform member’s consultancy!
In a front page splash, the Crusading Guide says the British High Commission in Ghana, has broken a contract it had with ‘United News Service’ a Public Relations company, because of the political view of its managing director, Mr Mije Barnor, who is in charge of press affairs of the Reform Movement, a group that broke away from the ruling NDC.
According to the paper, Mr Graham Mackenzie, Second Secretary at the British High Commission, has confirmed the abrogation of the contract. The Reform Movement is said to have alleged institutional corruption within the NDC and advocated internal democracy in the party.
It is also reported to have criticised what it viewed as vindictive behaviour of party and state officials and urged tolerance towards NDC activists with dissenting views.
GRi../
NDC shoots back at NPP…Over Assembly’s ‘con job’
The Guide in a lead story says the NDC government has sharply criticised what the NPP recently described as the ‘big con job’ over the purchase of sanitation equipment under a Ghana government guaranteed Canadian loan close to $15 million.
The paper says the NPP, led by Mr Kwamena Bartels and Mrs Gladys Asmah, both MPs, threatened at a news conference recently that they would drag the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to court for going into an agreement of 22.54 billion cedis per year, which the party thinks the Assembly cannot honour, describing the pact as ‘a dubious contract’.
The Guide says Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, however, said on Monday that under the national environmental sanitation policy approved recently by Cabinet, sanitation is now to be given national budgetary support.
The Minister is said to have defended the loan agreement and the Assembly when he commissioned vehicles, machinery and equipment in Accra. According to the paper, Mr Ahwoi said emphatically that the agreement between the AMA and City and Country Limited is not a ‘con job’ but is based on the fact that "sanitation problems in the cities and especially in Accra, are too enormous to be left to the assemblies’’.
GRi../
Man claims to be Dansoman killer
In an inside page story, the P & P reports that a man in his late 70s claiming to be responsible for the recent murders at Dansoman and Russia in Accra, has been remanded in police custody pending a report from the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region.
The paper says the man, who identified himself as Adongo Apana, told the Odorkor Police in Accra that he was responsible for the killing of the woman whose body was found at Dansoman recently.
He is said to have even gone further by proclaiming that he had accomplices who live in the bush.
The P & P says Adongo’s confession has sent shock waves through women living in the Mataheko and Dansoman areas, which have been plagued by a series of killings for the past 11 months. According to the paper, there has been jubilation at the prospect of the end of the killings, assuming that the main culprit has been nabbed.
GRi../
Felix Bell poisoned
The Graphic Showbiz report in a front page story that Felix Bell, the Ghanaian international reggae star, has confirmed that he nearly died after a colleague had poisoned him.
In a chat with the paper at his Korle-Bu flat in Accra, Felix Bell, who has not been heard of on the music scene for over six years now, is said to have indicated that he would rather like to quickly forget about the incident instead of brooding over it. According to him, after eating a meal brought to him by a colleague, he suddenly felt sick and wanted to vomit. "I don’t know what happened, all I can remember is that I couldn’t do anything.
I couldn’t shout. I couldn’t move my limbs and I was alone in the room", he is quoted as saying. He said it was then that he prayed to God, who brought him to the field of music in the first place.
According to Felix Bell, his return to the music scene is due to the encouragement of his good friend, Zapp Mallet, ‘’the all round music man who has helped many budding Ghanaian musicians to stardom.
GRi../
Row over land…Tension mounts between Bortianor and Weija
In a front page headline story, the Daily Graphic reports that tension is mounting between Bortianor and Weija, both suburbs in Accra, following reports that a group of about 55 people, believed to be land guards, are guarding a disputed piece of land lying along the Accra-Kasoa road, and which is being claimed by both villages.
The paper says the piece of land known as ‘Brigade’, was initially acquired for the state by Ghana first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, to be used for farming by the defunct Workers’ Brigade and to house offices of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.
The Graphic says when information about the presence of the land guards got to the Ga District Assembly, the Chief Executive, Mr Jerry Acquaye Thompson informed the Greater Accra Regional Police Command about the development. A police detachment was sent to the area but no arrests were made.
The land guards who got wind of the police operation, allegedly vacated the area before the police arrived.
GRi../
Rich students trade in drugs…Narcotics Board survey reveals
In a banner headline story, the Ghanaian Times reports that a recent study by the Narcotics Control Board in some second-cycle educational institutions in Ghana, has revealed that drug dealers now use students from rich backgrounds in their distribution chain.
According to the study, initially, the dealers entice the students with free supply of some of the drugs for use.
When in the long run the students become addicted, the dealers then ask them to help widen the distribution network by acting as sub-dealers. In some cases, the study showed that when the students become addicted, the alleged suppliers cease to supply them with the stuff, compelling them to steal from other sources to buy the drug.
The Times quotes a source at the Narcotics Control Board as saying that the survey was conducted from February 15 to 22 at the instance of President Jerry Rawlings. The paper says even though the source would not reveal which schools were involved in the study, it said that the schools were randomly selected from the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Eastern and Western Regions.
GRi../