Police grab fake lawyer
The Asylum Down thuggery… Armed Forces begin full-scale investigations
240 more cars to be crushed
1.37m new names on voters register
We won't seek vengeance - NPP
Konadu falls out with Naadu
Kufuor promises a revolution
Rawlings has hidden agenda - CPP
NDC vetoes re-registration
After Ato Ahwoi's 150 million cedis suit Kwamena Awhoi also sues Guide
Police grab fake lawyer
A 37-year-old man who has been posing as a lawyer for the past four years and defending people at the various tribunals in Accra and Kumasi has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the police, reports the Daily Graphic, in its lead story Eric Asiedu Buampong, known to his numerous clients as Ramseyer Hayford Awuku, was arrested at the Police headquarters in Accra where he had gone to request bail for seven people who were being held on stealing charges.
Luck is said to have run out for him when he was spotted by someone who knows him and raised an alarm, which led to his arrest.
A police source, briefing the Graphic, said the seven people were being held to assist in investigations into a burglary which occurred at the Egyptian Ambassador's residence in Accra.
According to the source, Buampong and two other lawyers followed up to the Police Headquarters and introduced themselves as attorneys and requested for bail for the suspects.
The source said as they were pleading for bail for the suspects, a man who wants to remain unanimous, saw Buampong and raised an alarm that he is an impostor and does not even have secondary education.
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The Asylum Down thuggery… Armed Forces begin full-scale investigations
Another front-page story of the 'Daily Graphic' says the Ghana Armed Forces have started investigations into the attack on some residents of Asylum Down in Accra last Wednesday by a group of uniformed persons suspected to be military personnel.
Speaking to the 'Graphic' in Accra yesterday, Major Comfort Ankomah Danso of the Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate said the investigations are being conducted by the Military Police.
Major Ankomah Danso is said to have given the assurance that as soon as investigations are completed, the Armed Forces will make their findings known to the public irrespective of whether the allegations are true or false
It would be recalled that a group of armed persons, numbering about 25, attacked some residents of Asylum Down in Accra at dawn on Wednesday injuring over 20 of them.
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240 more cars to be crushed
The Ghanaian Times reports in its banner headline story that two hundred and forty over-aged vehicles are awaiting crushing at the Tema Steel Mills.
Nii Adjei Okine, Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), who disclosed this to the 'Times' said the crushing of the vehicles is being delayed because of the non availability of funds from the Government.
He said there is currently no budget allocation for the crushing of the vehicles, even though a request had been made for one.
Asked why the CEPS would not abandon the idea because of the huge cost involved vis a viz the lack of funds, the commissioner said that it was up to lawmakers to decide. "We only implement policies and the law", he added.
Vehicles aged ten years and above are termed 'over-aged' and are not supposed to be imported into the country.
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1.37m new names on voters register
In another front page headline, the 'Times' says provisional figures released by the Electoral Commission (EC) on last month's voter registration revision exercise shows that 1,376,638 new voters were registered throughout the country.
This, the paper says, brings the total of registered votes in the country to 10,839,410 and shows an increase of 14.55 percent, which according to a Deputy Commissioner of the EC, Mr David Kanga, is alarming.
He said the ideal situation should have been a six- percent increase.
Ashanti Region is said to have recorded the highest number of newly registered voters of 376,050 followed by Greater Accra region with 279,291 and the Brong Ahafo Region with 138,065. Eastern Region recorded 124,254, Western Region 114,169, Northern Region 107,111.
The rest are Central Region, 86,422, Volta Region 80,235, Upper East Region 38,016 and Upper West 38,004.
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We won't seek vengeance - NPP
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said it will not seek vengeance, neither will it pursue a vendetta when it is voted into power, writes the Evening News in its lead story.
Mr S. A. Odoi-Sykes, National Chairman of the NPP, commenting on President Rawlings' June 4 address at a news conference in Accra said, "Mr J.A. Kufuor and the NPP will be too busy rebuilding this country to look backwards."
"Our attitude has been to work for peace and stability for our nation. We have endured the provocations, the threats and the intimidation of President Rawlings for the last two decades," he added.
He noted that Ghana is peaceful because the nation is blessed with an opposition that sees no merit in destroying the country.
Mr Odoi-Sykes said government makes choices according to its priorities, but the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has had the wrong priorities and so made the wrong choices.
He said the time has come to give the people of this country the government they deserve. "One that will allow each to strive for success and applaud the success", he added.
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Konadu falls out with Naadu
The Ghanaian Chronicle says it is certain that a serious rift has developed in the relation between the two leading wives although there are varying accounts on the cause.
According to the paper, the camaraderie between the First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemaan Rawlings and Naadu Mills, whom the paper describes as extroverted and introverted respectively, hit a chill nearly four weeks ago and there appeared to be no sign of a patch up when the two appeared at the El Wak stadium for last Saturday's June fourth memorial activities.
According to the paper, the most credible of the mixed accounts is that the two ladies went to a function at Prampram where Mrs Rawlings was allowed to drive her car right inside the circle where the function was taking place, but Mrs mills was stopped - some say on orders - a good distance from the function grounds, and had to trudge along to her seat.
The paper says, Mrs Mills, known by those close to her as a 'no-nonsense ' woman with a volcanic temper of her own, shot up from her seat some minutes later, apparently reminiscing the humiliation, walked back to her car and off to Accra even before the event had gone half way through.
Disturbed by the development, the paper says, President Rawlings ordered the Bureaux of National Investigations to find out the true cause of the friction as he was receiving mixed accounts.
The paper says there are indications that the investigation has been concluded and reports that Naadu was physically shoved by security handlers are being discounted.
According to the paper, Mr E.T. Mensah is expected to feature prominently in the cause of the problem.
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Kufuor promises a revolution
The 'Free Press' says in its lead story that contrary to threats of upheavals and yet another political revolution from some political parties, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, is rather calling for an agricultural revolution in the country.
Mr Kufuor who was on an eight-day tour of the Upper West Region is said to have stated that an NPP government would introduce a new type of revolution that would modernise Ghana's Agriculture with agro-proccesing to bring hunger and poverty to a halt in the country.
He is also said to have hinted that an NPP government would set up farm institutes in the various agro-eclogical zones in the country to train farmers in modern farming techniques as well as construct additional dams to provide water for irrigation in addition to highly subsidised credit facilities for farmers.
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Rawlings has hidden agenda - CPP
The Dispatch reports in a front-page story that the Convention People's Party's parliamentary caucus has stated that President Rawlings' recent June 4 speech has exposed his hidden agenda, which they consider a threat to the nation's fledging democracy.
In a statement issued to the media on Wednesday and signed by the Chief Whip and Mmember of Parliament for Moin, Hon, Alhaji Alabira Ibrahim, the caucus noted that the celebrations should have stopped at the awards to themselves and their wives. But President Rawlings went beyond that to make pronouncements that betrayed his real intentions and revealed the fragility of our young constitutional democracy."
They described his language as "highly intemperate, bordered on the treasonable and an attempt to incite the military."
The statement said the peace and stability the country enjoys is the result of the opposition's commitment to pursuing a path of constitutionality, peace and dialogue and not to any "so-called government restrain".
The statement concluded by advising the President to desist from making provocative statements and rather encourage constructive dialogue, which will bring all stakeholders together to solve the nation's economic problem.
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NDC vetoes re-registration
The Weekend Statesman in a front-page story reports that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has kicked against moves to re-open the voters' register.
The report quotes sources at the Electoral Commission (EC) as disclosing to the Ppaer that the NDC clearly stated its position at a meeting of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) last Wednesday.
According to the report, the NDC, represented by Dr Tony Aidoo and Kwaku Baah, claimed that figures on the register shows that it is already bloated and to add more names would worsen the situation. They therefore called, instead, for the clean up of the register.
The Minority parties on the other hand are insisting on the re-opening of the register.
The latest revision of the voters' register was undertaken between 6th and 15th May 2000.
There have since been calls on the EC to re-open the register owing to reports of widespread deficiencies in the arrangements made by the EC for the last revision exercise.
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After Ato Ahwoi's 150 million cedis suit Kwamena Awhoi also sues Guide
One of the three front-page stories carried by the Ghana Palaver says The Guide, an Accra bi-weekly newspaper, its owner, Mr Freddie Blay, Member of Parliament for Ellembele and Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and the Editor of the news paper have been sued again at an Accra High Court.
The suit, according to the report, is in connection with a series of stories they have published in connection with a so-called 'Willowbrook bribery case', in which the complainants are alleged to have received bribe for their involvement in an illegal transfer of monies out of the country during the PNDC era.
The first suit which is for a claim of 150 million cedis, being damages including aggravated damages was filled against the defendants on May 5, was filed by Mr Ato Awhoi, Chief Executive of CASHPRO Ltd; a leading commodities company.
The paper says a second salvo has been fired in the form of a writ against Western Publication (publishers of The Guide), and Mr Kwesi Biney, the Editor of 'The Guide' by Mr Kwamana Awhoi, Minister of planning, Regional Co-operation and integration for libel.
According to the paper, the writ, which was filed on May 25 is for general damages for libel, in relation with a story published about him in the April 4 - April 10, and April 11 - April 17, 2000 edition of 'The Guide' newspaper. In addition, the paper says, Mr Awhoi is also claiming relief for "injunction restraining the publishers and the editor for continuing with publications on this matter until the matter is disposed off.
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