Disaster… Six die in air crash at Kotoka
UTAG on strike again
7 billion BOG fraud case adjourned to June 19
Strikes, Demos won't deter us - NDC
$30,000 stolen from CEPS office
Ghana produces 2.5m ounces of gold
The Wollowbrook sham deal
J.J. is Ghana's problem
J.H. Mensah Exposes Nana Konadu's lies!
Colour, pomp mark June 4
Bui dam project to begin by 2001
Disaster… Six die in air crash at Kotoka
The Daily Graphic gives front-page prominence to the disaster in which a Foker 27 aircraft on a normal domestic flight with 52 passengers and crew from Tamale to Accra crashed yesterday morning at the threshold of the Kotoka International Airport on landing, killing six of the passengers instantly.
The dead, whose names and identities were not immediately known, are three males and three females, including two expatriates, the paper said.
The cause of the crash has not been established, however, aviation authorities have given the assurance that investigations have been set in motion to establish the cause of the accident.
The aircraft, the paper says, was seriously damaged as the cockpit and part of the passenger compartment were detached from the rest of the body. The two pilots on board the aircraft survived the crash, which occurred at 11:15 a.m.
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UTAG on strike again
In another front-page story, the Daily Graphic reports that the University Teacher's Association of Ghana (UTAG) yesterday began an indefinite strike action throughout the country to back their demand for increase in salaries and improved conditions of service.
According to the report, the UTAG Executives last Friday held a news conference to announce the intention of members to embark on an indefinite strike, if the government failed to act on their demands by Sunday, June 4, 2000.
The report says lectures on the University of Ghana campus officially came to a close last Friday.
Meanwhile, the report says, the government has set up a negotiating team under the chairmanship of Agyewodin Adu Gyamfi Ampem, Chairman of the University of Science and Technology Council to negotiate on UTAG's demands.
It is recalled that the striking lecturers threatened to extend their strike action embarked upon on May 15, which they dubbed "Operation Storm Clouds", beyond the scheduled one-week, if the government refused to pay them undisclosed salaries they had proposed at a meeting with the National Council for Tertiary Education.
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7 billion BOG fraud case adjourned to June 19
In yet another front page story, the Daily Graphic reports that an Accra Regional Tribunal hearing the case in which three persons, including two top officials of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), are alleged to been involved in a fake $1.5 million cheque transaction, has adjourned the case to June 19.
The three, Sebastian Dick Kobla Nukpui Gavor, Director, Budget and Accounts Department, Justice Ofosu Larbi, Deputy Director, Banking Department and Alhaji Sadiq Gimala, a businessman and chief of the Wangara community in Accra, have pleaded not guilty to the charge of stealing.
Each of the accused is on a $500,000 bail or its equivalent in cedis with one or two sureties each to be justified.
According to the report, the tribunal, chaired by Mr. Justice Isaac Duose, adjourned the case at the instance of the prosecution when Mrs. Merley Wood, Senior State attorney, told the tribunal at its sitting yesterday that the prosecution has not completed its investigation.
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Strikes, Demos won't deter us - NDC
The lead story of the Evening News quotes Nii Adjei Boye Sekan, Presidential Staffer for the Progressive Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) as saying "strike actions and demonstrations would not deter the government from pursuing its policies and programmes.
Nii Boye Sekan, who was addressing the Ashanti Regional delegates conference of the June 4 Movement over the weekend is said to have maintained that such negative actions by detractors of the government was to sway the minds of the people against it.
He stated that strike actions and demonstrations would not make the country ungovernable because the government had put in place machinery to control the effects of such negative actions.
He said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government did not give a definite date when it would leave office, insisting that it was only through the ballot that the government could be changed.
The Presidential Staffer is said to have advise cadres not to lose sight of the events of the June 4 Uprising and cautioned that if they forgot themselves and lost their guard, it would amount to a betrayal of the sacrifices of the gallant patriots.
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$30,000 stolen from CEPS office
The Ghanaian Times in its front page reports that more than 30,000 dollars and exhibits worth 6 million cedis have been stolen from a safe at the office of the head of Investigations Unit, Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) in Accra.
Subsequently, the story says, Mrs Cecilia Sowah, head of the unit, has been invited by the police for questioning. This brings to five, the number of senior CEPS officials invited by the police so far in connection with the theft.
According to the story, a report by Joy FM, Accra based radio station yesterday quoted a police source as saying that the arrest followed a break into the office of the Investigator, during which the moneys (exhibits) were stolen from a safe.
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Ghana produces 2.5m ounces of gold
The Ghanaian Times in it business page quotes Mr James Kwabena Anaman, acting president of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, as saying Ghana produced 2.5 million ounces of gold last year making it the tenth largest producer in the world and second to South Africa on the African continent. The figure is seven percent more than the 2.3 million ounces recorded in 1998.
Mr Anaman who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday said Ghana's position as a gold producer is quite pronounced and efforts should be made to maintain the gains so far made.
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The Wollowbrook sham deal
In its banner headline, 'The Guide' says in 1982 when the National Investigations Committee (NIC) and Citizens Vetting Committee headed by Mr Kwamena Awhoi were chasing Ghanaians up and down, three prominent members of the PNDC were engaging themselves in a sham transfer of £3.2m for a bribe of almost £480,000.
This, the paper says, was six months after the staging of the 31st December Revolution led by Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings.
The paper says in furtherance to its earlier reports on this alleged corruption by three leading members of the PNDC, which appeared in its March 7-13 and May 4-10 issues, it can today say, after reading court papers from the Queen's Court in England, that the three persons having taking an advance bribe of £50,000, facilitated the first transfer of £669,282.50 on or about July 27, 1982 from Ghana on behalf of Willowbrook International.
The paper says on August 20, 1982, another £1,175,648 was transferred out of this country whiles the final transfer of £1,318,248 was made on or about September 29, 1982.
It says they were all paid into an account of Willowbrook International with Standard Chartered Bank in England at Leicester.
The paper says it is reliably informed that President Rawlings and the Serious Fraud Office have copies of the recorded tape of the investigations and the report itself, which implicates some top ranking personalities like Ato Awhoi, but have done nothing about it.
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J.J. is Ghana's problem
'The Independent', in a commentary on the celebration of June 4 featured in its front page, says Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings is Ghana's main problem as we struggle to institutionalise democracy in our beloved fatherland and motherland.
The paper says he was Dr Hilla Liman's problem and will be Vice President Atta Mills Albatross. Similarly, he will be Kufour's problem if he makes it to the Castle.
The paper suggests that Rawlings' speeches especially the one delivered on June 4, which was full of insults and threats to the media and the opposition, has created so much tension among the populace.
The paper says President Rawlings, referring to examples like Russia, China and South Africa where revolutions have taken place in what he said were struggles for independence or rejection of the gross abuse of power and exploitation at the hands of a privileged minority, justified his actions saying, "every nation on earth has, at one time or another, had to go through the cleansing experience that we undertook on June 4, 1979."
Meanwhile, the paper says, political observers and even NDC circles say this year's celebration could be the last official celebration of June 4. It quotes a Mills confidant as saying June 4 and December 31 will be "low key" if the Prof. Wins the December Elections.
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J.H. Mensah Exposes Nana Konadu's lies!
The 'Crusading Guide' says Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of the President, Mr J.J. Rawlings, and President of the 31st December Women's Movement (31st DWM), a supposed Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), using the latter as a smokescreen, has hit the 2000 general elections campaign trail, leaving behind her a catalogue of lies.
At a recent commissioning of two 31st DWM day-care centres at Tema and Sasaabi near Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region, the paper says the First Lady threw a salvo at the minority, saying it should stop politicising the country's economic problem by peddling lies to Ghanaians in order to score cheap political points.
Singling out the leader of the Minority in Parliament, Mr J.H. Mensah, Nana Konadu is said to have stated that the man who opposes the acquisition of the presidential jet, as the Minister of Finance in the Second Republic, signed a cheque of 10 million dollars for the purchase of the old presidential jet now known as the 'flying coffin'.
In reaction to the First Lady's utterances, Mr J.H. Mensah said she was telling lies and that in the first place, Ministers of Finance do not sign cheques for such issues. He said he never signed any cheque for the purchase of the jet in question and that it was acquired in Gen. Kutu Acheampong's time - after the overthrow of the Second Republic.
Mr Mensah said his opposition to the acquisition of the new presidential jet is within the context that times are really hard for the average Ghanaian to make ends meet. The Minority leader noted that Mrs Rawlings' refusal to understand him on the jet issue "shows her ignorance of and insensitivity to the suffering of the people in the country because she is living in comfort today."
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Colour, pomp mark June 4
The Ghanaian Democrat reports in a banner story that a richly deserved colour and pomp were added to the celebration of June 4 anniversary for its special appeal this year, emanating from a number of reasons.
The paper says June 4 has now come of age and Ghanaians can now look back to the occasion and judge whether the risk the soldiers took was worthwhile.
Democrat says this year’s celebration also marked the first in the 21st century and was therefore a millennium celebration that could as well be the last time that its leader, Flt. Lt. Rawlings was addressing the security agencies on the event as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The paper says there was a unique addition to the occasion right from the route march, through the laying of the wreath at the Flag Staff Square to the address at the El-Wak Stadium.
President Rawlings who was described as ‘resplendent in his Commander-in-Chief uniform’ is reported to have warned in an address that no amount of intimidation from saboteurs and evildoer will turn back the hand of progress made since June 4, 1979.
He lamented that there are persons whose only stock-in-trade is to create confusion so as to be able to come to power through the back door, adding that the government has remained tolerant for almost 20 years in the face of down right provocation, insults, lies and fabrications from the opposition.
“I will entreat our noble elders, chiefs, queenmothers and religious leaders to advise those involved on the need for sobriety for the sake of our common future”, President Rawlings was quoted as saying.
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Bui dam project to begin by 2001
Construction work is expected to commence on the Bui Dam by December 2001, the High Street Journal (HSJ) reported in a front-page coverage.
The story says the project is expected to be completed by 2007 when all technical and environmental issues should have been adequately assessed and addressed.
HSJ reports that when completed, 400 megawatts of hydroelectric power would be generated to supplement the capacity of Akosombo and Kpong dams which currently are the nation’s major sources.
The paper recalls that during the power crises of 1983 and 1998, the government and the Volta River Authority (VRA) came under pressure for delaying the development of other hydro-based power such as the Bui Dam.
The story says VRA began a review study of the project in a bid to diversify the country’s power supply base to cater for growing demand for power supply.
“The outcome of the review indicated that the Bui project would be ideal and viable in all respects in the medium term”, HSJ said.
Bui is said to have won over seven selected sites as the most economic hydro-electric potential in study conducted by VRA.
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