Nana Kunadu speaks out… "My husband is honest"
NDC cheated Arkaah's NCP!.. And ridiculed & humiliated 'Nkrumahist in Progressive Alliance'!
Forest plantation development… Govt raises 35 billion cedis as seed money
3 Nigerians jailed for drug trafficking
Soldiers battle robbers at Kumasi Railway Station.
180 Ghanaian girls stranded in Lebanon… Govt approves of their repatriation
NDC swerves Said Sinare and others
Govt to revive rice production in the north
Tamara strikes back
Dance Champion now 'shoeshine'… Alex Ofori's story
Nana Kunadu speaks out… "My husband is honest"
The First Lady and President of the 31st December Women's Movement, Nana Kunadu Agyemang Rawlings, has observed that people vilify and denigrate President Rawlings because they have a difficulty in attaining the standard he has set for the country's political leadership, reports the Evening News in its lead story.
"The problem as I analyse it to be is because he has set a certain standard that people are going to have a problem equalising and to be able to move to that position, they have to bring him down to their level" she is quoted as saying on Vibe FM, an Accra-based private radio station, in one of her rare media interviews.
She dilated on topics from women empowerment, the pre and post Beijing era through her family life to her future political plans.
She said it was often painful to hear people insulting the president and saying things about him that she knows are not to be true and wondered what those engaged in such acts hoped to achieve. "Sometimes I think it comes from sick minds", she said.
"Apart from putting himself to a certain level, he is a very honest person. Very, very honest. I live with him, and his level of transparency has not been equalled by any government, be it military or civilian in this country or in many parts of the world, especially in Africa," she said.
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NDC cheated Arkaah's NCP!.. And ridiculed & humiliated 'Nkrumahist in Progressive Alliance'!
The Crusading Guide says in a front-page story that its investigations have unearthed solid evidence that the National Democratic Congress of President Rawlings did played tricks with the electoral process during the ill-fated 1992 Parliamentary election, which was boycotted by the main opposition parties.
It says a scrutiny of official records of the Rawlings-inspired "Progressive Alliance" then made up of the NDC, the NCP and Egle, has revealed that NCP leaders had bitterly complained to the leadership of the NDC about the latter's covert manipulation of the Parliamentary polls in favour of NDC candidates.
The paper goes on to say that it can authoritatively reveal that at a joint NDC/NCP Leaders' meeting held at the NDC Headquarters on July 27, 1993, Dr Owusu Agyekum, the then Minority Leader in parliament for the NCP, recalled some of the irregularities and malpractices indulged in by the NDC during the 1992 Parliamentary elections.
Dr Agyekum is said to have angrily referred, among others, to cases where large quantities of ballot papers were found folded in ballot boxes even before people had started casting their votes.
According to the paper, the Progressive Alliance document in its possession quoted Dr Agyekum as having said that "the NCP had to tolerate these (irregularities and malpractices) without making them known to the public, all for the sake of the alliance".
The paper quotes an electoral analyst as saying that "Dr Agyakum's accusations at the joint meeting are proof that the 1992 elections were manipulated in favour of the NDC.
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Forest plantation development… Govt raises 35 billion cedis as seed money
The Daily Graphic reports in its lead story that the government has raised an initial capital of 35 billion cedis as seed money to set up a forest plantation development fund. The amount was derived from proceeds of export levies on air-dried lumber.
The purpose of the fund is to provide financial assistance for the development of private commercial forest plantations that will supplement the supply of industrial timber from the country's forests.
Dr Christina Amoako-Nuama, Minister of Lands and Forestry, announced this when she inaugurated the interim management board of the Forest Plantations Development Fund in Accra yesterday.
She said the ministry intends to use the fund in a way that will help sustain an annual plantation programme in line with the objective for which the fund was set up.
The minister said the fund will provide financial assistance in the form of grants, subsidies or loans to growers who participate in the approved schemes that target commercial production of timber in the country.
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3 Nigerians jailed for drug trafficking
The Daily Graphic in another story says three Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking, have been sentenced to a total of 30 years imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra Regional Tribunal.
The convicts, Elvis Ndubuisi Tasie, Vining Rex Ekomeme and Ibrahim Yomi Mohamed, all traders, were arrested at the Kotoka International Airport for possessing 70, 55 and 30 capsules of heroin.
They all pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful importation and unlawful possession of narcotic drugs and the tribunal convicted them on their own plea.
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Soldiers battle robbers at Kumasi Railway Station.
The Ghanaian Times says in a lead story that a group of people, suspected to be criminals, on Tuesday engaged soldiers in a fierce battle at the precincts of the Kumasi Railway Station
According to the report, the soldiers were pursuing a gang, which robbed an Australian female tourist at the Kejetia lorry park. It says Stephanie Akuri, the Australian who had just arrived in Kumasi on holiday was attacked at the lorry station by members of the gang.
They snatched her purse containing an unspecified amount of money in dollars, deutche marks, pound sterling and cedis.
The report says soldiers, acting upon a tip off, stormed a nearby camp believed to be the hide out of the robbers and succeeded in arresting many suspects including their leader, Daniel Adjei.
The suspects are currently being screened after which they will be handed over to the police for prosecution. The report quotes a military spokesman as saying, all efforts would be made to fish out the criminals who snatched Stephanie's purse.
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180 Ghanaian girls stranded in Lebanon… Govt approves of their repatriation
The Ghanaian Times reports in another front-page story that the Government will be repatriating 180 Ghanaians, mostly girls, who are stranded in Lebanon.
This, the report says follows approval by Cabinet of a request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to repatriate the stranded Ghanaians. This was made known at a post Cabinet press briefing at the Castle, Osu, on Tuesday.
According to the paper, most of the girls went to that country on contract as househelps to Lebanese families only to be subjected to various forms of abuse. He explained that most Ghanaian girls who go to Lebanon find themselves in this predicament because after entering into the contract to serve as househelps for a period, their passports and work permits are collected and kept by their masters.
They are then subjected to inhuman treatments such as beatings, and other forms of maltreatment, which finally sends them unto the streets.
According to the report, it is believed that their appeals through the Ghanaian soldiers on peackeeping mission in Southern Lebanon and through other diplomatic channels, was what had influenced the decision of Cabinet to give approval for their repatriation.
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NDC swerves Said Sinare and others
The Accra Mail says in its lead story that the appearance of new faces vying to unseat sitting MPs or taking the places of those who could not make it in 1996, especially in the Greater Accra Region, is likely to cost the National Democratic Congress (NDC) dearly than any opposition onslaught in the 2000 elections.
According to the paper, the NDC, in its bid to ensure that only marketable individuals are presented, has had to step on the toes of party supporters who feel that their choices are being sidelined in favour of impositions from the top hierarchy of the party.
The paper makes reference, among others, to the ousting of Said Sinare from the Central Ayawaso seat. It says some party supporters are so peeved that they have resorted to the use of placards to register their anger at the whole procedure of selection but more particularly at Ms Sherry Ayitey who chairs the special ad hoc committee responsible for guiding the selection of parliamentary candidates.
According to the paper, this has been the reason for the delay in announcing the names of parliamentary candidates for some key constituencies. It however says it is reliably informed that the NDC is set to release the list of its approved parliamentary candidates sometime next week.
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Govt to revive rice production in the north
The Ghanaian Democrat reports under its main headline that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has indicated its preparedness to boost rice production in the North in order to minimise or completely eliminate the importation of foreign rice into the country.
In furtherance of this objective, the report says, the government has secured a grant of $10 million from the French Government to enable the production of quality rice seed to be made available to rice growers.
This was made known by Hon. Ibrahim Adam, Minister of Food and Agriculture at a one-day seminar organised by the NDC at Tamale.
To achieve this objective, rice mills, which have hitherto been unoperational or are operating under capacity will be rehabilitated and new state of the art machines installed to ensure constant and good quality rice milling which will be appealing and acceptable to consumers taste and for export within the ECOWAS sub region.
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Tamara strikes back
The Weekend Chronicle says Tamara Esi Bostio, a.k.a. Lady Tamara has reacted angrily to its last week's edition in which it was touted that she was running for parliament.
Speaking last Friday on Radio Gold, an Accra FM private radio station, Tamara confirmed that she was indeed running for parliament in the Larteh Akuapem Constituency, but denied that she was ever a strip dancer. Rather, she said, she had been a belly dancer and had danced in quite a few classy establishments.
According to the paper, “Tamara described pictures of herself dancing sexily in little more than her birthday suit”, which were published by the Weekend Chronicle as photographs of herself snapped by her boyfriend at home.
She said she did not know how Chronicle came to lay hands on the pictures, but said she had referred the matter to her lawyers.
The paper says pundits have predicted that her history (of whatever nature) aside, Tamara was sure to give the other political parties a run for their money at the constituency.
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Dance Champion now 'shoeshine'… Alex Ofori's story
The Graphic Showbiz says in its main story that the 30 year old national dance champion , Alex Ofori, who after winning the title in 1988, represented Ghana at the World Dance Championship series at the London Hippodrome, now sits from eight to six in a small makeshift stall at Asylum Down welcoming passer-bys who for 300 cedis and a short wait, walk away with wax-clean shoes.
The story says Alex Ofori's predecessors, Slim Buster (1986) and Ebenezer Ako Nai (1987) and those who came after him such as Terry Ofosu Bright (1989) and Nana Yaw Wiredu (1990) sometimes drop in at Alex's shop for a chat and "they dash me something", he said.
He agrees that he may not be doing as well as his colleagues but he is also very definite that being a "shoeshine boy" is what keeps him away from drugs and trouble.
Alex Ofori may not return to dancing or modelling but he has an interesting ambition of becoming a music recording engineer.
He claims he has found a company, which he thinks might help him realise his ambition.
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