Medical School has no curriculum – Dean
U.K. Branch of NPP angry
Students exchanged boots for gun
United Securities expelled from Ghana Stock Exchange
Bribes for Police College?
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation owes 700 million cedis
J.H. Mensah raided
Tema Oil Refinery explains fuel price increase
Medical School has no curriculum – Dean
In a front page story, the Ghanaian Chronicle reports that the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Development Studies at Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, has no curriculum.
The students have therefore warned that they would graduate as half-baked doctors and nutritionists if the government does not intervene.
The Dean of the School, Prof. Nii Amon-Kotei, who is quoted as confirming this said "there is only a report of a committee which cannot be called a curriculum.
The Chronicle says within three years of the inception of the School, the courses have changed twice. The students, the paper says, claimed that the Dean had told them verbally on several occasions that the School has no curriculum. "As a result the academic work has been irregular.
The courses offered by the current third-year students when they were in their second year, were different from those of the present second year students," the students are reported as saying.
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U.K. Branch of NPP angry
According to the Ghanaian Democrat, trouble is seriously brewing between the national headquarters of the NPP in Accra and the United Kingdom (UK) branch of the party in London.
As a result, the paper says, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP in Accra are running helter-skelter to find a solution to the problem and to appease the emotionally-charged executive members of the UK branch.
The Democrat says unless this is done quickly, there is the fear that a major source of funding for the NPP will be blocked. With disastrous consequences since the party is looking up to its members in the UK and elsewhere in Europe and America to fund the NPP for the year 2000 general elections.
Quoting what it says as a ‘very reliable’ London sources, the paper says the man at the centre of the storm is said to be Mr Dan Botwe, General Secretary of the party. According to the sources, if the NPP executive in the UK have their way they would sue Mr Botwe for deceit.
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Students exchanged boots for gun
In a front page screaming headline story, the Ghanaian Times reports that the pistol used by the two students of St Peter’s Secondary School at Kwahu-Nkwatia in the Eastern Region, who robbed a forex bureau in Kumasi, was acquired in a barter deal.
Giiving the facts as narrated by the Kumasi Railway Police who are in charge of the investigation, the Times says the students exchanged their canvas boots for the gun.
According to the Times, it has been established by the police that on the day of the robbery, the students, Frederick Kwadwo Tsinu Oteng, 18, and Obeng ~Amoako, 17, (now decease), contacted Yahaya Fuseini, a gun manufacturer at Suame Magazine in Kumasi, for a gun. Fuseini is said to have told them that he had none immediately available and that he would have to manufacture one for them.
However, after some pressure from the students, Fuseini took them to his agent, Theophilus Afriyie, who said that there was one gun left. Afriyie then gave them the gun for 20,000 cedis, but the students who did not have enough money, offered their canvas boots instead which the gun-makers accepted.
The Times says the students then returned to the Madusek Forex Bureau in Kumasi under the pretext of changing some money, but Amoako pulled out the pistol and ordered the operator to surrender all the monies in his Possession.
When the operator hesitated, Amoako is said to have hit the head of the operator with the gun butt, rendering him unconscious and bleeding profusely.
Amoako and his colleague then tied his hands and collected various currencies totalling 20 million cedis. Just as they were making their exit, a customer met them and seeing the operator in a pool of blood raised the alarm. The alarm attracted a mob who chased the students, arrested Amoako and lynched him.
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United Securities expelled from Ghana Stock Exchange
United Securities Trust Limited has been expelled from membership of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for gross violation of the regulations of the exchange, reports the Daily Graphic in a front page story.
The paper says the company was found to have misrepresented itself to Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) that it had a licence to deal in government securities and for investing in equities with EIC’s funds against the client’s express instructions to invest the funds in government treasury securities.
The Graphic quotes a statement issued by the GSE and signed by the managing director, Mr Yeboa Amoa, as saying the council of the GSE found the action of United Securities to be in gross violation of the code of business conduct for Licensed Dealing Members.
United Securities, the statement said, had also written letters to the EIC and taken certain actions, which deceived the GSE that investments in the treasury securities had been made.
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Bribes for Police College?
In a centre spread story, the Dispatch reports the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Peter Nanfuri as being called upon to institute an enquiry in to allegations that some members of the Ghana Police Service are demanding two million cedis as bribe from their colleagues who sat for promotion examinations for entry into the Police College.
The paper quotes a police source as alleging that candidates who could afford the bribe, have been assured success and entry to the prestigious college for commissioning officers.
The source, says the Dispatch noted that failure by the IGP to investigate the allegation would result in producing half-baked senior police officers.
According to the source, prior to the examinations about two months ago, there were rumours of leakage, especially in the Greater Accra and Volta Regions. The Dispatch says about 200 Police Chief Inspectors and Inspectors, drawn from all departments of the Service, took part in the promotion examinations.
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Ghana Broadcasting Corporation owes 700 million cedis
The Public Agenda, in its lead story says the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) threatens to cut the GBC off power supply tomorrow, unless the corporation settles at least, 200 million cedis of the more than 700 million cedis it owes the ECG.
The paper quoting the Director-General of the GBC, Dr Kofi Frimpong, says if the threat is carried out, it could turn out to be the gloomiest day in the history of the nation’s premier radio and television station.
The paper says already, viewers have been experiencing breaks in transmission because the ECG, in order to get the GBC pay up, subjects the corporation to frequent power cuts.
The Public Agenda quotes the Dr Frimpong as saying that the interruptions which started last February while he was on leave, have disrupted the recording and transmission of various programmes. According to him, negotiations for settling the debt somehow, got stalled because the ECG insisted on 200 million cedis down payment before normal power supply could be restored.
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J.H. Mensah raided
The Ghanaian Voice in a front page lead story reports that the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr J. H. Mensah returned from a trip to Cape Coast only to find his Teshie-Nungua apartment ransacked with several valuable items taken away.
The paper says a report made to the Nungua Police indicates that the stolen items included two leader brief cases, a plastic bag containing a complete dictaphone secretarial system, micro-cassette portable recorder.
According to the Ghanaian Voice, Police Inspector Anday Vortia, who confirmed the report, indicated that the brief cases contained working files from Parliament personal documents, numerous business cards, 100,000 cedis, $150 and $50 in traveller’s cheque, miscellaneous amounts in foreign currency and two sets of keys.
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Tema Oil Refinery explains fuel price increase
The High Street Journal says the Chief Executive of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Mr W.S. Parker, told the paper in an exclusive interview last week that the inability of the populace to understand the intricacies of the petroleum industry leads to public outcry whenever there is an increase in the price of fuel.
According to the paper, Mr Parker explained that there is a formula for at least, establishing the ex-refinery price of petroleum. This includes the cost of the product, which spans the raw material purchases, sales proceeds and operating expenses.
He is quoted as saying that every year the refinery has a budget in which TOR assumes a certain crude oil price. Based on an agreement with the government, any time the price of crude oil goes up by five dollars per tonne or there is an upward change in the exchange rate of the dollar by a certain amount, the price of fuel has to be reviewed.
The High Street Journal reports Mr Parker as saying that contrary to the perception of the public, oil prices have been going up, indicating that in February, this year, the Free On Board (FOB) price of crude oil was $12 per barrel.
This, he said, has risen to $17 per barrel and has dropped slightly of late to between $15 and $16 per barrel. Mr Parker said in the event of the refinery being unable to process crude oil due to breakdowns, finished products are imported, adding that the price of fuel from the refinery is based on what he described as import parity.
This includes payments for FOB prices, freight, letters of credit, inspection, losses and insurance, in addition to wharfage, harbour charges and the use of pipeline.
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