Financial crisis hits NPP
Public AgendaUniversity fees…The poor to drop out
The High Street JournalProspects for sizeable oil find in Ghana brightens
The Ghanaian ChronicleEx-Warrant Officer guns down top civil servant
Rawlings’ 4m cedis to Asanteman for charity
Daily GraphicTwo arrested with pistols
Ghanaian TimesAhwoi on MPs Common Fund
Financial crisis hits NPP
The Ghanaian Democrat in a screaming headline story, says members of the National Executive Committee of the NPP are on their knees pleading with a car renting company to give them respite to settle a 7 million-cedi debt the party incurred during the Lambussie bye-election.
The paper quotes a source close to the NPP headquarters as saying that during the run-up to the bye-election, Mr Dan Botwe, NPP General Secretary, in an attempt to ensure victory for his party, rented two Nissan Patrol cars to the tune of 7 million cedis on behalf of the NPP for the Llambussie campaign.
Mr Botwe is said to have entered into an agreement with the company pledging that the NPP would pay the money two weeks after the bye-election since the party was not in a position to settle the debt before then.
The Ghanaian Democrat says to the disappointment of the rental company, the NPP failed to honour its obligation, even four week after the bye-election.
According to the source, several telephone calls to the NPP headquarters went unanswered. The company therefore had no alternative than to approach the NPP top men, threatening court action if the party failed to honour its promise. According to the paper, the NPP has been given two weeks to settle the debt or face court action.
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University fees…The poor to drop out
The Public Agenda says the fear that fees for tertiary education may rise beyond the reach of most students, has become a reality sooner than expected.
In a front page story, the paper reports that the new fees being considered by the University of Ghana, Legon, is only part of the actual costs students have to pay from next academic year.
The Public Agenda says the figures leaked to students by the university’s registry last week, represent only costs directly linked to their academic work and not the total cost of training a university student. Tuition, cost of utilities such as water, electricity and telephone, as well as maintenance of other infrastructure, are yet to be added to the proposed fees.
According to the proposed fees, student would pay fees ranging from 1.05 million cedis to 2.9 million cedis for freshmen and women. Continuing students would pay between 890,000 cedis and 1.8 million cedis.
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Prospects for sizeable oil find in Ghana brightens
In a front page story, the High Street Journal reports that the efforts of the Ghana national Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) at unearthing the nation’s hydrocarbon potentials, appear to be deepening with buoyancy, going by perceptions of foreign private oil companies collaborating with the GNPC.
The foreign private oil companies are said to be sounding optimistic with their exploration discoveries. The paper says Sante Fe Energy Resource, a world giant among the five foreign oil companies which have entered into prospecting deals with the GNPC, has indicated that its 2,500,000-acre concession located at Keta in the Volta Region, runs deep with oil reserves. Sante Fe, the High Street Journal says, is currently shooting 3-dimension seismic survey on the Keta bloc.
The company is reported as saying the Keta bloc is particularly exciting with several significant prospects identified in shallow water. According to Sante Fe, the bloc is high risk but the prospects offshore are ‘juicy’.
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Ex-Warrant Officer guns down top civil servant
The Ghanaian Chronicle in its lead story reports the killing of a top civil servant by a retired Warrant Officer. The paper says Warrant Officer Ebenezer Quaynor (rtd) of the National Security Council, Castle Annex, allegedly fired seven shots from his pistol at the head of Mr Morrison Kpienbaari, a 45-year-old District Director of Agriculture in charge of Bole in the Northern Region, killing him instantly.
The ex-soldier is reported as saying to the dying agricultural officer: "You were making mouth, mouth, now ibi you dey lie down there. I kill you".
The Chronicle says the incident happened at the Abelemkpe Junction through Dzorwulu to the Motorway Extension in Accra, when the vehicle on which the deceased was, was rammed into by another vehicle being driven by the ex-Warrant Officer.
The paper says Mr Kpienbaari’s driver pulled to a halt and enquired from Quaynor why he had run into his vehicle. Quaynor is reported to have retorted that the driver should have driven faster than snailing on the road. According to the Chronicle, after some exchanges between Mr Kpienbaari’s driver and Quaynor, Mr Kpienbaari’s driver asked that they call in the police, but the ex-Warrant Officer would not agree and attempted to leave the scene.
Mr Kpienbaari’s driver is reported as saying he held Quaynor by the trousers to prevent him from leaving. Quaynor, he said, then pulled a pistol but he wrestled it from him and walked off into a taxi he had flagged down to be taken to the police station for him to make a report. Quaynor, is alleged to have entered his vehicle, pulled another pistol and made towards Mr Kienbaari.
He aimed the pistol at Mr kpienbaari’s head at close range and fired seven times. The driver of the deceased made for the taxi. The Chronicle says moments later, personnel from the Police Action Unit, who had been sounded by passers-by arrived at the scene and retrieved the gun from Quaynor.
They deposited the deceased at the Police hospital mortuary and handed over the ex-Warrant Officer to the Police Quarters.
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Rawlings’ 4m cedis to Asanteman for charity
The Ghanaian Voice in a banner headline story, quotes sources close to Asanteman as saying that the 4 million cedis the paramount chiefs, who
Visited the Castle grudgingly accepted from President Jerry Rawlings, will be given to charity.
The paper says as at now the chiefs are debating what sort of charitable institution the money e given to. According to the paper, this twist of events had been occasioned by the ‘insults the President and his staffers heaped on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and his ‘Amanhene’ who called at the Castle on Friday June 18, to express their gratitude to the government for its assistance during the death and burial of the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II.
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Two arrested with pistols
The Daily Graphic reports that a combined team of military and policemen on night patrol in the Kumasi metropolis on Thursday night,
Arrested two men with locally-made pistols, knife and ammunition, at Asem and Moshie Zongo. The two, named as Atango Tongo and Iddrisu Bukari, are said to be in police custody pending further investigations.
The paper says Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Richard Baduweh, in charge of Police Public Relations in the Ashanti Region, disclosed this in an interview and said Tongo was arrested near the Anglican School at Asem while he was waiting, obviously to attack and rob unsuspecting people. Mr Baduweh said when Tongo was searched, a local-made pistol and an ‘Okapi’ knife were found on him. Bukari, he said, was picked up near some parked vehicles at Moshie Zongo in the night, and when interrogated, he told the police he was a watchman but nobody in the vicinity knew him. Bukari is said to have claimed that a man called "Together", who is currently out of Ghana, provided him with the pistol and the ammunition to guard his property for him.
The Graphic meanwhile says pubic response to the military-cum-police operations to flush out armed robbers and other criminals from the metropolis, has been very encouraging so far.
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Ahwoi on MPs Common Fund
The Ghanaian Times in an inside page story reports that the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, has explained that the MPs Constituency Development Fund is not a political fund meant for supporters of a particular parliamentarian.
The paper says Mr Ahwoi regretted that some MPs were treating the fund as "if it were their personal monies, using it to grant personal loans, awarding private scholarships and lavishing it on entertainment". Mr Ahwoi who was addressing the Ahafo-Ano North District Assembly at Tepa in Ashanti, is reported as explaining that the fund belongs to the district assemblies.
According to the paper, the Minister urged the communities not to put undue pressure on MPs by making excessive demands on them, thereby tempting them to use the fund in otherwise unauthorised manner. "The fund was meant for the Member of Parliament to identify projects within the approved district development plan on which it may be spent", he is quoted as telling the assembly.
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