GRi Press Review 29-06-99

The Independent in a front page story says the battle for the removal of Nana Akwasi Agyeman, alias ‘Okumkom’, the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, is raging on with the 46 elected Assembly Members sticking to their guns.

The paper says the 46 Assembly Members who are calling for the removal of Nana Akwasi Agyeman, have ruled out any intervention no matter where it is coming from, not even from President Jerry Rawlings.

The Assembly Members are also reported to have cautioned that no amount of machinations from either the President or NDC gurus would save Nana Akwasi Agyeman from being removed from office.

The Independent says the members have therefore advised the Metropolitan Chief Executive to resign honourably.

The Ghana Police Service has passionately appealed to every individual in the Ghanaian society to volunteer information about criminals and criminal activities throughout the country, says the Crusading Guide in a back page story.

The paper says Mr Johnson Iddisah Abudu, Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of Operations, who made the appeal at a news conference in Accra, last Thursday, lamented the current spate of violent crime in Ghana in general and the Ashanti Region in particular.

"While we are fighting this menace, I am appealing to the general public to inform the police about any incidence of crime anywhere", he is reported as saying. Mr Abudu assured any prospective informant of anonymity, saying that the particular information could be by telephone or "whatever means".

In a front page story, the Ghana Palaver says the power play as to who should contest the Ayawaso West Wuogon parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NPP appears to have eventually weighed in favour of Alhaji Issaka Inusah,, leaving the 1996 candidate, George Isaac Amoo, bewildered and bemused. Alhaji Inusah is said to have received his endorsement from NPP gurus to prepare for the 2000 battle for a possible wrestling of the constituency from the NDC.

The paper says as a consolation, the NPP gurus have promised to assist Amoo financially to go into a more lucrative private business.

The Palaver says the unbending Amoo, whose political career is grinding to a premature end, is fighting against the decision and has already threatened to abandon the youth organisation in the Greater Accra Region and Dzorwulu in particular.

In a centre spread story, the Statesman reports that the Eastern Region recorded 93 cases of AIDS between January and March, this year, with the Koforidua municipality alone accounting for 32 of the cases.

The paper says Dr Sampson Ofori, the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the HIV/AIDS programme speaking at a seminar on: "The preventing HIV/AIDS, the role of the youth" at Koforidua, said last year’s total for the region was 402, with New Juaben alone accounting for 144.

He is said to have denied claims that the AIDS virus was intentionally developed to wipe out the Black race from the earth, but explained that the disease affects both blacks and non-Africans alike.

"The problem confronting the world now is not how the HIV virus or the AIDS disease originated, but how to prevent it from affecting more people, since it has no cure yet", he is quoted as saying.

The Daily Graphic reports that the African Development Bank (AfDB) is contributing $15 million to the Social Investment Fund for poverty reduction programmes in Ghana.

In a centre spread story, the Paper says the World Bank , as an additional support, will contribute $5 million to the fund to aid community-based health programmes.

The Graphic says the fund will make small credits available to communities for capacity-building and income-generating activities. Dr Kobena Erbynn, Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), i1s said to have announced this at a workshop for 40 participants drawn from government agencies, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations.

In a front page story, the Times reports that the Concerned Parents’ Association yesterday reiterated its position that corporal punishment be prohibited by law in lined with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Association, the paper says, quoted extensively from the Convention and suggested that until a well-defined set of regulations and guidelines for punishment are released by the Ministry of Education, the cane should be removed from the classroom and placed in the head teachers’ office.

According to the Association, this would prevent the tendency for teachers to readily fall on the cane as a tool for punishment. The Association said instead, teachers should be made to get to the head teacher’s office and justify the reason for the use of the cane. "The issue of corporal punishment has been favourable to some parents and unfavourable to others.

Since there has been no pronouncement on this, we suggest that if and when corporal punishment is administered, it should be confined to prescribed areas", the Association is quoted as saying.