The Daily Graphic / The Ghanaian Times
Georgido, others to refund $784,802 / Axe falls on Butler, Coker
Coach Quattara in armed robbery case
GCPP proposes an Upper Chamber
We'll halt use of foul language - NCCE
Boakye Djan writes to J.J. Rawlings
Media practitioners are partners of population issues.
Peaceful polls a joke ...unless
The Daily Graphic / The Ghanaian Times
Georgido, others to refund $784,802 / Axe falls on Butler, Coker
The 'Daily Graphic' and 'The Ghanaian Times' carry front-page stories on a government White Paper issued on Wednesday on the international player transfer probe.
According to the Graphic, a staggering amount of about four billion cedis is to be coughed up by some individuals and clubs in respect of acts of impropriety they committed in the transfer of Ghanaian players outside.
The Graphic says the inquiry, headed by Justice Sule Gbadegbe, an Appeal Court Judge, revealed in many cases, that contract sums for the transfer of players were under-declared and the payments now being required represent the balances and fines on those monies.
The story mentions former Ghana Football Association (GFA) and Cape Coast Dwarfs Chairman, Nana Sam Brew Butler, GFA Vice Chairman and Chairman of Accra Great Olympics, Mr. Joseph Ade Coker and former Kumasi Asante Kotoko boss, Mr. George Aduse Poku, alias Georgido as key personalities who had condoned in the shady deals.
Also mentioned were former Accra representative of Asante Kotoko, Mr. Kwabena Agyapong and Accra representative of Real Tamale United, Mr. Jones Abu Alhassan who are both GFA Executive Council members.
Georgido, according to the story, in a fraudulent deal declared $250,000 to the GFA instead of $600,000 as the transfer sum for former Kotoko player, Robert Boateng, while serving as club chairman.
Mr Aduse Poku and Nana Butler, found to have abetted him in the commission of the offence, are to refund the balance of $350,000 and Mr. Agyapong who is said to have accepted a gift of $26,000 concerning Boateng's transfer is to be removed from the GFA's Executive Council.
Accra Great Olympics and Cape Coast Dwarfs are reported to have similarly under-declared the transfer sums involving Richard Kingston, John Richard Ackon and Michael Coffie. They are to pay a total penalty of $70,750,00.
Mr. Jones Abu Alhassan and Georgido opted not to cash the $300,000 cheque involving Baba Armando Adams’ transfer in the country and returned it for a cash prize of $250,000, which they flew to Dubai to collect personally, and concealed the contract sum from All Blacks. Georgido, Chairman of the club at the time and Jones are to refund the amount.
The said nine clubs including Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko, found to be in arrears of payments regarding transfers are to pay a total of $200,252.00 including a 10 per cent penalty and demanded either the resignation or removal of persons involved in the fraudulent deals, from their positions.
Featured prominently in the Times story are the issues of resignation addressed to Nana Butler and Mr. Ade Coker.
Times says that the government has directed that the two should resign from the Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association for the roles that they have played in the transfer fraud.
More../
Coach Quattara in armed robbery case
Abubakar Quattara, the former Head Coach of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, already saddled with fraud charges was on Tuesday arraigned before the Ashanti Regional Tribunal charged with armed robbery, the Times says in a front-page story.
Times says Quattara and Justice Otuo Serebuo, a taxi-driver who was charged with dishonestly receiving, did not have their pleas taken, and the coach has been remanded in custody to reappear on Friday, while Siribuor was granted a 50million cedis bail with two sureties to be justified.
The paper says the owner of a Mercedes Benz saloon car, GR 9259D, who visited a friend at a Kumasi suburb in
the evening of May 23 was attacked by three men led by Quattara, ordering him to 'freeze' and fled in the Benz taking along 3,000 dollars and 425,000 cedis. The vehicle was later found packed in Sirebuor's house.
The car, according to the story, was recovered upon a tip-off. Quattara and his accomplices are reported to have been arrested after they returned to Sirebuo's house and attacked him, when they could not trace the whereabouts of the car.
GRi../
GCPP proposes an Upper Chamber
A front-page story of the Evening News reports the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) as saying that it will replace the present Council of State with an Upper Chamber of Parliament comprising chiefs and experts to advise on the economy, when it assumes the reins of government next year.
General Secretary, Mr. John Ameka, said in an interview that the changes would be effected after the party had moved an amendment to the 1992 Constitution.
According to the party's scribe, chiefs have on many occasions been cheated in the process of land acquisition and distribution, as well as royalties from land and expressed the hope that the formation of the Upper House would stop the cheating.
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We'll halt use of foul language - NCCE
The Evening News in another front-page story says the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has disclosed that it will come out with a strategy within two weeks to halt the increasing use of foul language and insults by political parties in the country.
The story says Mr. Laary Bimi, Chairman of the Commission who talked to the paper, failed to elaborate on the strategies that his outfit will adopt.
He is reported as saying that inflammatory statements, insults and foul language do not augur well for peaceful elections.
" The kind of political atmosphere we have in this country now, particularly in the run-up to the general election, does not augur well for smooth and peaceful elections", Mr. Bimi was quoted as saying.
GRi../
Boakye Djan writes to J.J. Rawlings
The Crusading Guide reveals that Major (rtd) Boakye Djan, Deputy Chairman and Official Spokesman of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council has written a 6-page 'Open Letter' to President Jerry John Rawlings, as preparations are underway for the celebration of the 21st anniversary of the 1979 revolution that the council launched.
The 'Open Letter, an outcome of recent interactions and deliberations in London with majority of former AFRC members and associates exiled in the United States and Europe, seeks "to draw the line between the AFRC and the PNDC for two reasons" articulated by Boakye Djan.
He is reported as stating that since they parted in September 1979, President Rawlings may have got so used to the lie he and his agents have propagated that the AFRC and the PNDC are the same to the extant that he and the unwary now believe it.
Boakye Djan said the letter was a timely reminder that the "fight for public reversal of all proven cases of miscarriage of justice under AFRC on the one hand and the fight for the enforcement of the existing criminal conviction of High Treason against the PNDC and by extension against you (Rawlings) and your associates of the PNDC and all their transgressions, will continue for as long as it is necessary".
Boakye Djan is said to have indicated that the personal second entry of President Rawlings into Ghanaian politics in 1981 was wholly done without the involvement of any AFRC member other than himself and accuses President Rawlings and his propagandists of seeking to create and sustain the false linkage between June 4 and December 31 through numerous activities that were organised in the hope of getting the irreversible distinction blurred.
GRi../
The Ashanti Regional
Minister, Mr. Samuel Nuamah Donkor, has warned that he would not hesitate to
recommend the dismissal of any District Chief Executive (DCE) in the region
whose attitude and conduct could bring the government into public ridicule,
reports the Ghanaian Democrat.
The Minister said, DCEs as representatives of the government at the district level, have the onerous responsibility to mobilize all people in the district for effective socio-economic development instead of using their positions to create conflicts and erode the confidence the people have in the government.
According to the paper, the Minister gave the warning when he addressed the opening session of the seminar on “Capacity Building” organised for media practitioners drown from various media houses, representatives of political parties, commanding officers of the security services and a cross section of the public.
The paper states that Mr. Donkor pointed out that the peace and stability enjoyed by the nation is the result of planned and sustainable socio-economic measures put in place by the government and called on media practitioners to be guided by the ethics of their profession and nurture the peace and democracy to fruition for the benefit of the entire nation.
GRi../
The Accra Mail reports that, Ghanaians in the United States of America are being called upon to pay US $ 100 each towards the resuscitation of the Ghanaian economy.
According to the paper when Ghana’s Ambassador to the US, Kobby Koomson called a meeting of Ghanaian associations to brief them on the state of the country’s economy, it was more of a funeral dirge than a briefing.
The Ambassador told the hushed assembly to donate money to the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to bail out the government. So determined was the Ambassador that he followed up the meeting with another one with the Council of Ghanaian Associations in Washington DC where he gave the same message.
The paper states that the Ambassador is suggesting that all Ghanaians in America should contribute a minimum of US $ 100 for a target of US $ 4 million.
GRi../
Media practitioners are partners of population issues.
The
Independent reports that Nana Akwasi Agyeman, the Metropolitan Chief Executive of
Kumasi has only 28 days more to leave office.
According
to the paper, a letter singed by the Minister of Local Government and Rural
Development, and handed over to the Metropolitan Chief Executive, on May 12, asked
Nana Agyeman to leave office on 29th June 2000.
The letter also
asked Nana Agyeman also known as “Okumkom” to use the remaining days to prepare
his final statement of accounts and an update of his audited account during his
tenure as the boss of KMA.
The letter
however failed to touch on Nana’s next assignment, the paper said, adding that
it was equally silent on why Nana Agyeman should be removed at this crucial
electioneering year.
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Media practitioners are partners of population issues.
The Independent, writing on a one-day joint workshop for Mass Media Practitioners and the Regional Population Advisory Committee (RPAC) members held in Kumasi on Wednesday, reports, Mr. S A Manu, chairman of the RPAC as indicating that an effective mass media partnership is very necessary if the National Population Council’s advocacy programmes are to be successful.
He is said to have observed that the role of Mass Media Practitioners is indispensable since they do not only provide the major channels for sensitisation and dialogue but also highlight issues and trends of interest to the community.
GRi../
Peaceful polls a joke ...unless
The Guide reports that the general secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Dan Botwe has noted that peaceful elections are possible only when conditions that make for peace exist.
“One can’t discuss peaceful elections when the conditions for it are not conducive”, he was quoted as saying when contributing to a round table discussion organized by the Institute of Economic Affaires (IEA) on the topic “Targeting peaceful and violence-free Elections Through Co- Operation and Dialogue”
He called on civil society to prevail on all political parties to ensure that the political game is played within the limits of the constitution so that there will be level ground for all the parties.
Dan Botwe suggested that to reduce suspicions and mistrust among the political parties, each time any political party goes to hold a rally in any town or village, the leadership of that party should do well to visit the executives of the other parties to exchange greetings.
Kyerewie Poku of the National Reform Party on his part said, instead of the call for a peaceful election the “levelling of the playing field should be of greater concern to all peace loving Ghanaians”.
“The issue of incumbency, and abuse of state machinery to the detriment of other political party competitors, cannot be acts that create peace”, he is quoted as saying.
From the National Democratic Congress, Mr Vincent Assiseh, the Press Secretary of the NDC called for restraint from all the political parties.
Hon Kojo Armah who represented the CPP said his party is worried about the creeping ethnicism in Ghana’s politics.
GRi../