Teacher jailed 18 years
‘Only 350 students offered admission at Legon’
Scandal to rock church
Confusion hits Ho central NPP
Mills in trouble
President jet for secret $5m re-fitting
Teacher jailed 18 years
The Daily Graphic says in a front-page story that a 38-year-old teacher of the Kyeremasu L/A Primary School near Dormaa Ahenkro, Yaw Tabiri, who defiled a 15-year-old Primary six pupil of the school and made her pregnant, has been sentenced to 18 years imprisonment with hard labour by a circuit court at Dormaa Ahenkro.
Tabiri, said to be also the assembly member for the area, was ordered, according to the paper, to pay ¢3million as compensation to the victim or serve another two years in default.
Tabiri is however reported to have pleaded not guilty to the charge of defilement, insisting that it was part of a smear campaign.
The story has it that, Tabiri had managed to convince the parents of the girl, who had refused to attend school, to send her to him for counselling but he took advantage of the opportunity to have sex with her several times until she became pregnant.
Mr. Victor Ayimeh, who presided over the court in passing sentence reportedly said evidence before the court indicated that Tabiri did have sex with the girl and that the defence he put up was all lies.
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‘Only 350 students offered admission at Legon’
In another front-page coverage, Graphic reports that out of 1,083 science students from Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) who qualified to enter the University of Ghana for the next academic year (2000-2001), only 350 have been offered admission.
According to the story, Prof. Ivan Addae Mensah, announcing this at a Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) scholarship award ceremony on Wednesday, said the situation has arisen due to lack of science infrastructural facilities at the University.
Prof. Addae Mensah, the story says, called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, help complete construction work on the Chemistry Block, which was started about 30 years ago.
The story contained that 10 brilliant but needy second year students of the University benefit from the GCAA scholarship valued at ¢10million cedis.
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Scandal to rock church
A plan to frame up the General-Secretary of Christ Apostolic Church International Rev. Dr. Augustine Annor-Yeboah, in a big drug and fake dollar scandal, was uncovered in Accra at the weekend, reports the Ghanaian Times in a lead story.
The paper says the plot, termed “retaliation”, for which donations of ¢49million are said to have been made for its success, was hatched by 47 detractors at closed-door meetings at Teshie, Accra, on June 21 and 22 and had won support from three Accra-based lawyers and three journalists.
According to the paper, it was to eliminate the entire executives of the church while a number of items, including some auditoriums were hit targets.
Reports, according to Times, indicate that a gang was to be provided with cocaine, Indian hemp, fake US dollars, a bunch of master keys and revolvers or pistols with rounds of ammunition for the operation on a date that was to be fixed.
It says, there had been a delay in the operation resulting from confusion over how much to pay the ‘guys’ as a demand of ¢5million cedis by them did not match the ¢500,000 offer by the plotters.
The story says an agreement was reached when the Operation Commander offered to pre-finance the exercise for later reclamation.
Members, the story says, were asked to ‘fast and pray’ for the well being of the breakaways. The story says however that it remains unclear what the detractors implied by retaliation.
It said a key point in the whole drama is the proposal that the “plot guys” liase with an unnamed narcotics team.
Times says by this, the indications are that the hard drugs and fake dollars were to be concealed at the residence of Rev. Dr Annor Yeboah, using the master keys to enter the house and the narcotics team would then effect his arrest.
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49 ‘witches’ found in camp
The Ghanaian Times in another story appearing on its front-page says Duabone, a small village about two kilometres from Atebubu in the Brong Ahafo Region, has been discovered as another witches’ camp in the country.
The story says the camp which was discovered by a team of officials from the Brong Ahafo Regional Secretariat of the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) which was on a fact-finding mission is at the moment inhabited by 49 elderly people from the Northern Region.
The story has it that 22 ‘witches’ and 27 ‘wizards’ between the ages of 55 and 75 who are mostly Kokombas, were forced to live in the camp after being banished from their homes. The story contained that they risk being lynched if they dare return home.
Miss Juliana Amponsah, acting Brong Ahafo Regional NCWD Coordinator is reported to have told the Times that the priest-in-charge who they had met during the tour said those who come to the camp do so on their volition to be exorcised of witchcraft.
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Confusion hits Ho central NPP
The Evening News says with only five months for the Presidential and parliamentary elections, the Ho Central Constituency of the New Patriotic Party is in turmoil.
According to the front-page story, a self-styled patron of the constituency, Togbe Atta-Kwaku III, has dismissed the constituency chairman, Mr. Van Seshie with immediate effect and appointed an interim committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Innocent K. Dey, former first vice chairman to steer the party.
The paper says Togbe Atta-Kwaku has in a press statement levelled series of allegations against Mr. Seshie, accusing him as a dictator whose voice need only be heard at all constituency meetings.
He is reported to have stated that the scheme of work and mode of operation of Mr. Seshie leave no doubt that he has an agenda different from the party’s and his loyalty is very much in doubt.
Togbe Kwaku, according to the story said Mr. Seshie has not shown any sign of his resignation from the Egle Party.
He is said to have alleged that Mr. Seshie has so far not accounted for bicycles that were allocated for the 1996 general elections and said since his rise through the ranks and later as chairman, he has never found it prudent to act in administratively acceptable manners.
The paper reports that Mr. Dan Botwe, general secretary of the party said the party has laid down constitutional procedures for addressing the grievances of its members.
He said if Togbe Atta-Kwaku has any grievances with members in the constituency, he must follow the laid down processes for redress and not to take the law into his own hands.
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Mills in trouble
The Accra Mail quotes certain comments that Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings made to the Association of Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDR) at Kumasi over the weekend and says it threatens the Ghanaian constitutional process regardless of who would be in power.
“It is a threat whose import can be interpreted in only one direction: Rawlings will not leave the scene quietly and will interfere with the free flow of Ghana’s constitutional processes after January 7, 2000, no matter who is in power. His threat holds good for his own protege, Professor Evans Atta-Mills as well as Kufuor or any of the other non-NDC presidential candidates who wins Election 2000,” implied the Accra Mail.
The paper says state-owned Daily Graphic, reporting on the Kumasi meeting carried the statement, “On his plans after he hands over, he said after the NDC has won the elections and he has handed over to Professor Mills, a feat he said the NDC can accomplish, he will join the cadres in the fight against ignorance and injustice.”
The paper says the Daily Graphic report missed out the determination and anger with which that threat or promise was uttered due to the inherent limitation of the print media in presenting live news.
The Accra Mail says many Ghanaians had seen and heard those threats and more, loud and clear on the state-owned GTV, even before the Graphic story.
According to the story, the threat becomes more ominous each time that Rawlings has the opportunity to talk to the citizenry, and that people’s apprehension stems from the fact that the power base of the NDC as a party is the Castle under Rawlings.
The paper implied in a statement that by the party conferring on him founding father, Rawlings will carry the executive power and wields over the party from the Castle to the party secretariat.
“It is left to conjecture what corruption Rawlings will be fighting with the ACDR from the grassroots when he could not do that in the two decades that he has been at the helm of affairs as Head of State,” Accra Mail said.
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President jet for secret $5m re-fitting
The Ghanaian Chronicle says in the face of mounting pressures on diminished foreign exchange with reserves down to a perilous one and half months of imports (instead of six months), cabinet on Thursday went through the motions, after an in-principle approval by the Office of the President and okayed a request to release millions of dollars to a tottering Dutch company for an extensive refitting and servicing of the President’s other jet.
The story says preliminary checks at Parliament show that there is nothing in the appropriations bill approving or requesting for funds for such a major expenditure against the background of competing demands on the national purse.
The paper however says that the very company that was recommended for this multi- million dollar retooling contract, Fokker of Holland, is under receivership, with more than one hundred creditors baying after its blood through the legal streets of Amsterdam.
Chronicle says its source revealed a shocking data, detailing the extent and scope of state of distress of N.V. Koninklijke Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek Fokker (the parent company) and its subsidiaries, thus putting into doubt the integrity of the Force’s due diligence/intelligence mechanisms.
The paper says Fokker will take the contrat and the money, but cannot guarantee execution of the job.
It said, in reality, whatever sums go into Fokker’s numerous accounts is held by a bankruptcy trustee, in this instance, one Mr. Knuppe, who took over as far back as 1997 when an Amsterdam District Court met with auditors and claimants over affairs of the tumbling aircraft manufacturer.
Chronicle has it that the recommendation for the usual servicing, technically described as ‘Check D’ came from the Air Force which houses the President’s jets, and usually involves checking for corrosion and the physical stability of the aircraft.
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