Carpenter held over mother's death.
Regional
Minister urges media practitioners to explain government policies
Rawlings
invited for mini-ECOWAS Summit in Abuja
Voltarians
asked to actively participate in funeral
President
Rawlings leaves for Brunei
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2000
Mr John
Mahama, Minister of Communications, has predicted a first round victory for the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) in this year's presidential elections,
saying the scenario where the incumbent government in Senegal lost will not
happen in Ghana.
Mr Mahama,
who is MP for Bole, said in a chat with the Ghana News Agency on recent
political developments in Senegal that there are differences between events in
Ghana and Senegal.
Senegalese President Abdou Diouf lost to
the Senegalese opposition coalition in a presidential run-off held on Sunday
and conceded defeat to his political rival Abdoulaye Wade, whom he pronounced
the next president to be inaugurated on 3 April.
Mr Mahama said that whereas the incumbent
President Diouf was making the fourth consecutive bid for the presidency, the
NDC would be presenting a rejuvenated team acceptable to the electorate.
"In the case of Ghana, we are on
the brink of renewal with a fresh face, probably Professsor Mills, who is
poised to win the election in view of his general acceptability and appeal to
the electorate."
Mr Mahama
said, "Senegal will not happen in Ghana," adding that besides the
acceptability of the new candidate, the NDC has kept faith with the people and
brought to them tremendous development.
"NDC's
track record in terms of restoring developmental growth is well recognised and
appreciated by the people," and that there has been a massive restoration
of facilities that had fallen into disrepair.
He said following the successful
restoration of the infrastructure base and economic growth, the government is
poised to move ahead with the development process by accelerating agricultural
and industrial growth, while concentrating on human development in terms of
employment generation and improving income levels.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2000
The
Government is in the process of resolving the nagging problems in the GSM band
to enable Ghana Telecom and Western Telecommunications commence their mobile
cellular services, Mr John Mahama, Minister of Communications has said.
"This is to ensure a level playing
field so that all stakeholders, big or small, will be able to carry out their
business in an atmosphere of fair competition".
Opening the
''Second African Telecom Summit 2000'' in Accra, he conceded that the telecom
sector still faced daunting problems such as unresolved disputes between
operators, a weak regulatory environment and lack of human expertise.
"These are still holding down the rapid
growth of the industry," he added.
Mr Mahama noted that Africa is entering an
era in which terms and conditions set out in the licences of telecommunication
operators are going to be enforced rigidly.
Under the
theme ''Convergence and Globalisation -the impact on African
Telecommunications.'' , the summit is hosting 15 African Telecommunications
Minister and partners from all over the world.
The
Minister said the delayed appointment of a board for the National
Communications Authority (NCA) would be done shortly, while a substantive
Director General will also be named soon.
Mr Mahama
said even though, this has delayed for too long, " (the) government is
committed to resolving these shortcomings as early as possible. I feel
embarrassed to say it, but I mean it with my heart when I say the board of the
NCA will be named shortly".
Giving an
overview of the developments in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector, Mr
Mahama said the country took an early lead in creating the right environment
for investment in the communications sector.
This relieved the government of enormous
financial burden required in ensuring effective telecommunications systems.
Mr Mahama said in taking this lead Ghana
enjoyed several advantages, including an increase in telephone line
availability to close to 300 per cent over the last three years.
He said the most significant is the
improvement in the services as evidenced in the almost 500 per cent increase in
traffic over the last three years.
"Our experiences have been made
available to other countries, who need not make the same mistakes that we
made".
He noted that Ghana received much less in
sales of licences compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars that other
countries are receiving today for similar franchises.
Mr Mahama said African leaders face a
great challenge in meeting these needs considering the disparity between the
north and the south in terms of communications density, saying, "it is
also sad and unfortunate".
Mr Shola Taylor, Chief Executive Officer
of Kemilinks International said the high cost of telecommunication
infrastructure is a great disincentive for growth of the industry on the
continent.
He welcomed the privatisation of the
industry all over the continent saying it is a lifeline for growth.
Mr Taylor however, mentioned impediments
such as import duties and inadequate preparations for international seminars by
experts on the continent as some of the things that are pulling back the clock
of development.
He called for infrastructure sharing to
help boost growth of the industry.
Mr Taylor proposed a five-point agenda for
the ministers.
These are
that issues of information technology must be brought to the attention of
African Heads of State.
They should also work at ensuring an
enhanced network between African countries; review line and regulatory regimes,
saying it should be transparent and reasonably independent.
"Another area that must be brought to
the attention of the Heads of State is the issue of content, which must see to
achieving a greater local or indigenous productions on the various
networks".
GRi../
Koforidua
(Eastern Region) 22 March 2000
The
Supervising High Court Judge for Koforidua, Mr Justice George E. Twum, has
sworn-in Enumerators and Supervisors who would be engaged in the National
Population and Housing Census in the New Juaben Municipality.
He called
on them to uphold the confidentiality of information obtained during the
exercise and cautioned that anyone brought before the courts for divulging such
information would be dealt with according to law.
The 173
Enumerators and 25 Supervisors took the oath at Koforidua, after a nine-day
training on Monday.
GRi../
Carpenter held over mother's death.
Navrongo
(Upper East) 22 March 2000
A
twenty-nine year-old carpenter, Charles Srem-Sai, is helping the Navrongo
police in their investigations into the circumstances leading to the death of
his mother.
Madam Janet
Adda, a 53-year-old nurse, is said to have died as a result of a kick in the
chest by Srem-Sai.
The Upper
East Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Thomas Agbanyo, told
GNA at Navrongo that, the suspect and his mother had a confrontation on 17
March over water charges for a standpipe in their house.
As a
result, Madam Adda ordered Srem-Sai out of the house because she said she was
fed up with him and his problems.
The mother
who was said to be furious went into the son's room and allegedly smashed his
radio-cassette player and attempted to collect his television set when a
struggle ensued.
Srem-Sai is
alleged to have kicked his mother in the chest, leading to her fall.
Madam Adda died when she was sent to the
Navrongo hospital and an autopsy report said she died from "head
injury."
The body has been released to the family
for burial while Srem-Sai is in police custody.
GRi../
Nankese (Eastern Region) 22 March
2000
Nankese is
the latest town in the Eastern Region to be hit by a rainstorm which has blown
off the roofs of about 100 houses and rendering more than 500 people homeless.
The cocoa
and plantain -producing town in the Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar District had a
downpour accompanied by a severe windstorm last Friday, which destroyed
buildings including schools.
Personal
effects running into several millions of cedis were destroyed in addition to
farm produce, especially plantain.
Residents
told the Eastern Regional Minister, Miss Patience Adow, when she visited the
town on Monday to access the extent of damage that a number of buildings
collapsed during the one hour storm.
According
to Mr Samuel Akuffo, an assemblyman of the town, the storm destroyed both new
and old structures.
Miss Adow
consoled the people and promised assistance, especially to those whose houses
were destroyed.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2000
The New
Patriotic Party (NPP) on Tuesday congratulated Senegal's President-elect
Abdoulaye Wade and the opposition for their "glorious victory" in
last Sunday's election.
In a
message signed by Mr S. A. Odoi-Sykes, National Chairman, the NPP said Mr
Wade's victory "is a triumph for democracy in Senegal and Africa as a
whole."
It is also
"a fitting reward for his long and arduous struggle for change of
leadership in his country.", the NPP said.
"The
NPP salutes the people of Senegal for their decision to give the opposition an
opportunity to demonstrate what they can also offer after 40 years".
The party also commended President Abdou
Diouf "for his courage, selflessness and patriotism" in making sure
that the elections were organised in an atmosphere free of intimidation and
rigging and then conceding defeat.
"The Senegalese example will inspire
and fortify the NPP in its campaign for change in Ghana in the coming
elections."
GRi../
Kumasi (Greater Accra) 22 March 2000
Three
people received gun shot wounds during musketry on the second day of the
funeral rites of Otumfuo Opoku Ware II and the departed Royalty of the Asante
Oyoko clan since 1978.
One of the
victims known only by the second name, Asamoah, who had perforation of the
inner ear, was referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) for
surgical operation.
The two others were treated at the health
stands mounted on the funeral grounds.
Mrs Mercy Bonsu, Principal Nursing
Officer in-charge of the Manhyia Polyclinic, who made this known to newsmen in
Kumasi on Tuesday, said eight people have so far collapsed since the
celebrations begun.
Two are on admission at the polyclinic while
the remaining were revived and discharged.
She said some of them collapsed because
they were hypertensive, hungry or out of fatigue.
Mrs Bonsu said over 600 minor first aid
cases were also treated.
Meanwhile, Paramount chiefs from different
parts of the country continue to stream to the funeral grounds to take part in
the celebrations.
Among those who were at the funeral were
Paramount chiefs from the Northern, Upper East, Greater Accra, and Brong-Ahafo
regions.
Paramount chiefs from Asante (Amanhene)
wore talisman studded traditional battle attire, rode in palanquins amidst
musketry, throbbing of 'Fontomfrom' and 'Atumpan' drums and blowing of
traditional horns (Ntahra).
Commercial activities within the Kumasi
Metropolis returned to normal on Tuesday after Monday's lull.
Most stores were opened and business was
brisk.
GRi../
Regional
Minister urges media practitioners to explain government policies
Cape Coast,
(Central Region) 22 March 2000
The
Central Regional Minister, Mr Jacob Arthur has called on media practitioners to
endeavour to explain government policies to the people to enable them to be
abreast with national issues.
He said it
is only through this that the public would have a clear understanding of what
the government is doing for them.
Mr Arthur
made the call when he hosted a reception for media practitioners and programme
presenters of 'FM' radio stations in the Cape Coast Municipality at the
Residency.
The
Regional Minister, referred in particular to rumours being circulated that the
forthcoming National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) was for the purposes
of taxation.
There is
the need for media practitioners to help in getting the people to discard the
notion by intensifying public education about the actual objectives for
undertaking the exercise.
He asked
them to be objective in their reportage and to refrain from publications that
may inflame issues.
There is
also the need for them to help to educate the people to discard the notion that
"politics is a dirty game", and to help to enhance the nation's
democratic process.
Mr Arthur
called on journalists to assist the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) in its
efforts to accelerate the development of the region by offering constructive
suggestions and criticising objectively, stressing that "criticism should
be aimed at helping to build not to destroy".
He told the
journalists that the RCC would be particularly happy if it could be said at the
end of the elections that their publications helped to ensure that they were
free of violence.
Replying,
the Vice-Chairman of the regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association,
Ms Hilda Abban assured the Minister of the preparedness of journalists to work
with the RCC in projecting the region.
She urged
the minister to make such interactions a regular affair to enable newsmen and
officials of the RCC to meet to share ideas.
GRi
Accra,
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2000
President
Jerry John Rawlings on Sunday reaffirmed Ghana's commitment to the economic
integration of West Africa and pledged the government's desire to work with
other countries to realise the ideals of ECOWAS but said the menace of
cross-border crime should be taken seriously.
He said the
efforts West African countries are making to integrate their economies would be
undermined seriously if criminals, who operate across the borders are not dealt
with.
''Our moves
to integrate our economies should move alongside efforts at tackling
cross-border crimes''.
President
Rawlings said this when an envoy from President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria
delivered a special message to him in Accra.
In the
message was an invitation from President Obasanjo for President Rawlings to
attend a mini-ECOWAS summit scheduled for Abuja on March 27 to discuss the
economic integration of West Africa, which Ghana and Nigeria are spearheading.
President
Rawlings labelled President Obasanjo's ideas about sub-regional integration as
''revolutionary and we are prepared to support him. Integration may not be
achieved today or tomorrow but it is important we start it now''.
He said
Nigeria has a greater role to play in sub-regional integration, because of its
size, abundant resources and its population, which is the largest in Africa.
President
Rawlings, however, asked, ''have we put in place the necessary machinery to
curb cross-border crimes?" and said it would not be right to put on hold
economic integration until crimes across borders are dealt with. Both could be
tackled at the same time.
President
Rawlings expressed regret that although a number of countries in West Africa
won their independence before those in southern Africa, they have made
significant strides at integration. "They have learnt from our mistakes''.
Mr Victor
Gbeho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said integration is dear to the hearts of
Ghanaians taking into account President Kwame Nkrumah's advocacy for continental
unity in the 1960s, which most countries on the continent were not ready for.
He spoke
about decisions taken at the last ECOWAS Summit in Lome and said although it
might not be realistic to achieve a West Africa without borders by April as
demanded by the 16-nation sub-regional economic grouping, there should not be
disappointments.
Mr Gbeho
said that dream could be realised in the ''shortest possible time'' and that if
Ghana and Nigeria show the way others would follow, because the two constitute
about 50 per cent of the West African market.
GRi
Kumasi,
(Ashanti Region) 22 March 2000,
People from
the Volta Region resident in the Ashanti Region, have been called upon to
demonstrate their "appreciation for the fatherly love and care" the
late Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, had for them by actively participating
in activities in connection with his final funeral rites this week.
Torgbui
Mawufeame Fugah, Chairman of the Voltarian Co-ordinating Council (VCC),
observed that the late Asantehene was not only a great King but also a
passionate father whose care and guidance made it possible for people of other
ethnic groups to settle and work peacefully in the region.
He made the
call at a meeting of VCC at Anloga in Kumasi on Saturday.
Wednesday,
March 22, has been set aside for people from Volta Region to proceed to Manhyia
Palace where they would perform various traditional dances, drumming and others
activities at the funeral.
He
commended Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene for his immense care, support and
concern for members of the Volta Region community in Kumasi and assured him of
their support.
Mr J.S.
Amegah Torsu, an adviser of VCC, said all people residing in Ashanti
irrespective of their ethnic background or religion should be part of the
funeral.
GRi.
President
Rawlings leaves for Brunei
Accra,
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2000
President
Jerry John Rawlings left Accra on Monday for Brunei, on a three-day official
visit at the invitation of His Majesty Sultan Hajji Hassmal Bolkiah.
He was
accompanied by Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the First Lady, Hajia Fati Jawula,
Member of the Council of State, Mr Victor Gbeho, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
and Dr. John Abu, Minister of Mines and Energy.
Other
members of the delegation include Mr Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Minister of
Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Dan Abodakpi, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Dr.
Tony Aidoo, Deputy Minister of Defence.
Mr F.A.
Danso, Ghana's Ambassador to Malaysia, will join the delegation in Brunei.
The two
presidents will hold discussions on bilateral issues as well as regional and
international issues of mutual concern.
President
Rawlings and his entourage will tour some industrial centres in Brunei.
At the
airport to see off President Rawlings and his entourage were
Professor
John Evans Atta Mills, Vice-president, some ministers of state, the Inspector General
of Police, Mr Peter Nanfuri, and the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant-General
Ben Akafia.
GRi.