The Daily Graphic / The Ghanaian Times
Revoke dismissal of Gavor / “Independent” to help locate Baby Ocansey
User fees go up at Legon
We are in temporary crisis
Bishops set tone for peace
Atta Mills’ Veep to be named
NDC vindicated
Tony Aidoo on ‘rampage’
Hunt for the killers used for extortion
TUC to protest against National minimum wage
Revoke dismissal of Gavor / “Independent” to help locate Baby Ocansey
The Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times carry front-page reports on proceedings of the $1.5m Bank of Ghana (BOG) fraud at an Accra Regional Tribunal, in which Hajia Amina B. Abubakar Sadiq, a.k.a. Hajia Baby Ocansey and two staffs, S.K.N. Gavor and J. O. Larbi are standing accused. The fourth accused person is Alhaji Sadiq Gimala, a businessman.
The two papers say that the court on Monday ordered BOG to reverse its decision of dismissing the two bank officials stating that they should remain interdicted until the determination of the case.
The tribunal is further reported to have ordered counsel for the accused persons to negotiate with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which has frozen the assets of the accused persons, to defreeze some to enable them make a living.
Gavor is reported to have been ordered to swear an affidavit after which his counsel should serve the affidavit on the Director of the BNI in connection with 1,200 dollars and 600 pounds sterling seized from Gavor’s premises during a search.
The stories also contained that the tribunal ordered the Editor of the Independent, an Accra bi-weekly that published a recent story on the movements made by Hajia Baby Ocansey in Accra, to provide the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) with concrete information that could lead to her arrest. The Times’ story says all the orders are to be carried out before the next adjourned date, Monday, July 24, 2000.
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User fees go up at Legon
The Graphic also captured another front-page story, which says fees to be paid by various categories of students of the University of Ghana, Legon, for the next academic year have gone up following the withdrawal of government’s 30 per cent rebate and increases in charges on certain approved services.
The paper names the services as matriculation, issuance of student identity cards, and medical examination for fresh students, and examinations and toiletries.
The Graphic says a notice posted on the student notice boards on July 1, 2000 and advertised in the dailies announced that the academic facilities User Fees and Residential Facilities User Fees remain the same as those for the previous year.
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We are in temporary crisis
The Evening News reports the President, Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings as saying that the opposition’s claim that the economy is in crisis is a fact, except that the issue is being extremely politicised.
“The Opposition is telling the truth about the state of the economy but they are playing politics with it. They alleged that the crisis emanates from internal mismanagement.” The Evening News quotes the President as stating.
According to the paper, at the opening of the 3rd national delegates conference of the Tertiary Education Institutions Networks (TEIN) of the NDC, he admitted that the government is facing temporary difficulties.
He reportedly explained that the crisis had arisen because of the fall in the prices cocoa and gold, coupled with the sharp rise in the price of petroleum products.
President Rawlings, according to the paper said in spite of the current difficulties, Ghana is far ahead of many Third World countries in terms of standard of living.
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Bishops set tone for peace
The Independent writes that a special service of the Catholic church in Cape Coast last Saturday became the scene of reconciliation and peace when leaders of the major parties join the church to celebrate the Great Jubilee of the Holy Year 2000.
The Independent, in the front-page story, says the scene at the Saint Augustines sports field was initially devoid of the rancour and strong words that have marked the early stages of this year’s campaign.
The story however said that the overture of peace was undermined by the President, when he took his turn to speak.
President Rawlings, according to the paper, said that the presence of the opposition was not genuine, adding that their facial expression when they came to shake his hands did not have a commitment for peace at heart.
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Atta Mills’ Veep to be named
The Guide in a back-page says it has gathered from three top members of the party, two of whom are Northern leaders, that the issue of who pairs with Prof. John Evans Atta Mills for the December elections is to be resolved by the end of this month.
The paper says this is to be done to “nip in the bud” the panic that has engulfed a group of NDC activists who see their preferred candidate losing to Dr Obed Asamoah.
The Guide says the party insiders told it that last week’s organised protest, against the newspaper report which said Obed was the sealed candidate to go with Prof. Mills, was a panic decision by those who have been confronted by the reality that Obed is the obvious choice.
The paper however quotes its source explaining that the issue of a Northern candidate has more to do with religion than personality, adding that “one of the contenders who is an Ahmadi, is not even preferred by the Muslims who are dominant.”
According to its Northern sources, if they (the Northerners) do not take care “some people will hide behind this and create religious crisis not for the NDC but for the North in particular and Ghana in general.”
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NDC vindicated
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, has described last Thursday’s defection of Alhaji Issaka Inusah from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the NDC as a vindication of the ruling party’s politics, policies and practice, reports the Ghanaian Democrat.
The paper, in its banner coverage quotes Alhaji Huudu Yahaya as saying that the former NPP stalwart’s press conference is more or less the self-confession of an insider who has become fed up with the arbitrariness of a party he has followed doggedly for almost half a century.
The NDC scribe is reported as saying that anybody who cares to make analysis can now compare the openness of the NDC with what goes on in the NPP which can be described as “a secret cult where a few determine the fate of many without any human feeling”.
“It is the openness of the NDC against the veiled character of the NPP. Nothing more, nothing less,” he is reported o have stated.
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Tony Aidoo on ‘rampage’
The Crusading Guide writes in a front-page story that the Deputy Minister of Defence, Dr Tony Aidoo, has accused the media of facilitating the increasing incidence of lawlessness, corruption and civil disobedience in the country.
The paper quotes him as saying that about 75 per cent of the output of the private media especially are only political pamphlets used as weapons for the character assassination of political opponents.
He reportedly told a group of soldiers of the Tamale Sixth Garrison during a Civic Education Seminar that the time has therefore come for the nation to be very particular about the media practice in this country.
Dr Aidoo is reported to have described Editors and Publishers of the Ghanaian Chronicle, Statesman, Accra Mail, Guide, Crusading Guide, Independent and Weekly Insight as members of political parties who are promoting the anarchy and terrorism, which have characterised the practice of Journalism in the country.
The Defence Minister is reported as saying that, “these papers have incorporated the moral responsibilities of Judges to publish only their opinions and parochial views against the President and people in authority while at the same time demanding unfettered licence or the freedom to practise their profession.”
“They must be ready to take the moral responsibility to be judged one day in the interest of National Stability and Unity,” he was quoted.
He reportedly called on the soldiers not to allow the anti-revolutionary elements who are trying to erode the gains of the June Four and 31st December revolutions to have their way, stating that these people were hiding behind democracy to subvert National interests.
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Hunt for the killers used for extortion
“A number of policemen have, in characteristic fashion, taken advantage of the clumsily handled operation to catch Accra’s serial-like killers to fleece poor and innocent people of their money,” reports the Statesman.
The paper writes that a typical example of the corruption of these night patrols was enacted at the Awudome roundabout last Saturday, when some policemen extorted ¢30,000 from four young women.
The Statesman says it all happened when the appropriately dressed women, returning from a party in a chartered taxi got down at a round-about around 11.30 pm and were stopped by the policemen for questioning as to their movement late in the night.
The story contained further that on their way home, they were stopped again, by the Police Panthers and sent to the Panthers base where hot exchanges between the two led to the disclosure of the extortion.
A follow up led to the culprit being identified who confessed the deed and pleaded he could only refund ¢26,000 since he had already used ¢4,000. The Panthers effected the arrest of the unnamed officer.
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TUC to protest against National minimum wage
The High Street Journal reports in its lead story that the Trades Union Congress, TUC, is contemplating a demonstration, slated for Tuesday July 25, to call attention to the need to increase the current minimum wage.
The planned demonstration, which is expected to include all the various trade unions will not be accompanied by a strike.
HSJ says a senior official of TUC told the paper that the current minimum wage of ¢2,900 per day is “quite insufficient” for the Ghanaian worker.
The official is said to have indicated that when the minimum wage was set, it was equivalent to well over one US dollar, but now “is worth barely half of a dollar.”
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