The Daily Graphic / The Ghanaian Times
300m cedis reward for informants / Security Council goes into action
Angry women heckle Minister
Minister's sneaky corrupt deal uncovered
NDC plans to destroy Kufour
Mass dismissals in Armed Forces, Police
NPP plots media campaign against Owusu-Acheampong
Private Press is anti-Rawlings
300m cedis reward for informants / Security Council goes into action
The Daily Graphic and 'The Ghanaian Times' devoted their front-pages to stories on the serial killings of women in Accra for some time now.
The two papers report that the National Security Council has set aside 300million cedis to reward people who will provide information that would lead to the arrest and prosecution of suspected criminals involved in the killings.
The stories say a statement signed by Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, Minister responsible for National Security said the new incentive that was struck at Tuesday's meeting of the National Security Council, is an addition to the 50million cedis and $10,000 that the council previously offered.
The statement, according to the two papers, said the meeting reviewed the general crime situation in the country with particular reference to the unexplained murders.
It said, as a result there has been an expansion in the membership of the Inter-agency Task Force headed by Mr. Kofi B. Quantson, National Security Coordinator, which was set up in the wake of the killings to co-ordinate the investigations.
In another story captured by both the Graphic and Times, the papers say representatives of women, human rights groups and civil society on Tuesday converged at Parliament House to protest against the apparent inability of the security agencies to deal with the spate of killings of women, particularly in Accra.
"Women groups seek support of legislators" and "Women march to Parliament" goes the captions for Graphic and Times stories.
The stories said the women, numbering about 50 and drawn from groups including the Trades Union Congress, Federation of International Women Lawyers, Bakers Association and Soroptimist International club of Ghana besieged Parliament at about 10.00am to protest against the gruesome murders.
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Angry women heckle Minister
The Guide in its banner story says the Majority Leader in Parliament, Dr Kwbena Adjei, did not size his audience of women protestors well when he told them that the advent of democratic governance and the call for the removal of internal police check points, is what has resulted in the murders of women.
According to the story, the NDC Member of Parliament for Biakoye was heckled and forced to eat back what was considered an insensitive statement from the leader of the House of Representatives.
The story contains that following the two latest murders of defenceless women in Accra, women's groups on Tuesday marched to Parliament to express their disgust about the killings to the leadership of the House and to implore their speedy reactions. It said, however, that Dr Adjei underrating the gathering tried to play politics with the issue.
"However, the women did not take Dr. Adjei's attribution lightly and descended heavily on him. The women would not accept Dr Adjei's theory that democratic governance necessarily leads to the killing of women," the Guide said.
The story has it that with heavy beads of sweat all over his forehead, the NDC Majority leader tried to make a quick retreat and explain away his goof, but the highly educated women would not take any of his belated explanation.
"Instead of allowing Dr. Adjei to end his speech, the visibly angry women who were heckling the majority leader from all corners took the floor demanding better explanations and assurances," Guide said.
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Minister's sneaky corrupt deal uncovered
The Ghanaian Chronicle writes in its lead story that its sources have uncovered a carefully spun web of deals in a 3billion computerisation racket that involves conflict of interest and complex layer of fronts and pass-off masterminded by one of the President's men, Naval Commander P.M.G. Griffiths (rtd), a current Minister of State.
Cdr. Griffiths, according to the Chronicle, while he was Deputy Minister of Communications and in charge of Ghana's Y2K Project last year, hijacked the Y2K computer rationalising contract which was not even put on tender by the Central Government.
Chronicle continues that Cdr. Griffiths secretly obtained an agency in the United States in his name, 'won' the contract to supply and fix Centurion Cards and paid for the hardware solutions of the Millennium Bug.
The story says though there were muted protests from the local computer industry about the conduct of the project, nothing stuck on him then.
"The Commander's response to the apparent lack of transparency and conflict of interest was that prices quoted by the companies to do the project, were extremely high and would have cost the nation a fortune, a grim reminder of another dodgy caper by CEPS Boss Nii Okine", the paper said.
Chronicle submits that in a similar fashion, the price list of the cards that some of the officers on the project presented to the Ministry was much higher than the one that he actually procured.
The paper says investigations it conducted suggest that Cdr. Griffiths actually benefited financially from the project at the time he was proclaiming that he was saving the nation money.
Chronicle it further says the Minister of State used the name of his nephew, Osei Kwame, 27, to form OSKOG Enterprise, translating as Osei Kwame Griffiths, and used a communications centre at North Kaneshie and its facsimile and telephone services as his secret drop and contact point.
"OSKOG had the contract to supply the centurion cards," the paper said, adding that MESOB, a company that he asked his nephew to form with some students did the fixing besides winning other contracts.
Chronicle says Cdr. Griffiths, while refusing to admit any wrong doing during an interview on Friday, insisted that the company belonged to his nephew, an alumnus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Asked about the whereabouts of his nephew so we could contact him, he said “Kwame is pursuing a Masters Programme in one of the Universities in America," Chronicle said.
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NDC plans to destroy Kufour
Mr. J.A. Kufour, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has become the target of a smear campaign aimed at reducing his public stature and ensuring that his party does not win the up coming presidential and parliamentary elections, the Weekly Insight said.
According to the paper, the exercise seeks to cast Kufour in the mould of a tribal politician without a national agenda and to also attack his business record as a presidential aspirant who has never done anything right.
Insight says its sources indicate that the NDC hopes to reduce the NPP's influence substantially by limiting its support base to Ashanti and parts of the Eastern Region.
"It is for this reason that the NDC propaganda machine has spared no effort in highlighting the allegation that Mr. Kufour has made derogatory remarks about Fantis," the paper said.
According to the story the intelligence network of the NDC has built an impressive store of information about what they refer to as the failed business efforts of Mr. Kufour, including a brick and tile factory and a transport business, which has been in dire need of recapitalisation.
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Mass dismissals in Armed Forces, Police
The Ghana Palaver reports that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) intended to embark on mass dismissals in the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service if the party wins power in the December 8 general elections.
The paper reports however that this has however been averted as a result of the vigilance of the majority Members in Parliament who countered Honourable Agyare Koi Larbi's motion that would have given the party the green light to pursue this diabolical plan.
The paper says a source close to it hinted that under the pretext of some regions and districts exceeding their quotas, Army personnel and Police officers from those regions, were to be sacked as soon as the NPP comes to power.
The paper recalls that in 1969, the Progress Party, to which the NPP is an offshoot, in its bid to dismiss Dr. Nkrumah's CPP supporters from the civil service, instituted what is today known as the Apollo 568, which paved the way for the dismissal of thousands of civil servants.
"This time around the NPP has turned its attention to the Ghana Armed Forces and the Police service and had Koi-Larbi's motion been carried by the majority in Parliament, the party would not have hesitated in dismissing all they think are undesirables as soon as they stepped into the Castle," writes the Palaver.
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NPP plots media campaign against Owusu-Acheampong
In another front-page coverage, the Palaver says signals that it intercepted showed a grand plot by some opposition elements to tarnish the image of Mr. J.H. Owusu Acheampong, the Minister of Food and Agriculture and Member of Parliament for Berekum.
The story says the information revealed that the plot aims at fabricating stories about the Minister and getting it published in tabloids, which would be carried to Berekum and its environs in their bid to poison the minds of the electorate and sway them to vote for the candidate.
The paper says, as part of the plot, FM stations in Sunyani are to be contacted to broadcast the story while a GTV Breakfast Show presenter would be romped in to ignite discussions into the matter.
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Private Press is anti-Rawlings
The Dispatch says the view of the United States government about relationship between the ruling NDC and especially, President Jerry John Rawlings, and the private press is one of an anti-government stance by the private media.
The paper says the view is part of the US government's Country Commercial Guides on Ghana for the 2000 financial year, part of which it quoted.
The paper quotes from the US source that "while the state media is generally staid, and only echoes official voice and propaganda, the independent media is largely anti-government, or to be more accurate, anti-Rawlings.
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