GRi Press Review
Ghana 26 - 03 - 2001
Refugees on
rampage
President’s
call timely - Asare
Danida
Assists 'witches'
Allocate
more HIPC funds to education sector
4bn cedis
to be spent on old MPs
Atta Mills
is not our leader
Who and who
were there
"Proceed
on Leave" is dangerous - Atta Mills
Is Mills
serious?
Over-aged
cars Law costs State 15bn cedis
More seats
on offer for 2004 elections
Who
replaces Nii Okine at CEPS?
Swearing-In
of NPP Gov't Appointees - near blows at Akuapem Dist. Assembly
Legon
students remove roadblocks
Refugees on
rampage
The
state-owned Daily Graphic reports that a mob, made up of Liberian refugees at
the Budumburam camp in the Central Region, last Saturday vandalised the UNHCR
offices which houses the Police and Fire Service stations, destroying and
looting property worth millions of cedis.
The mob,
armed with sticks and stones, was said to have attacked the office in anger and
in the process, freed a number of suspects being held in police cells at the
time, because of the alleged refusal of the police to release a Ghanaian who,
they claimed, had stabbed one of their kinsmen.
They did
not spare the living quarters of the police and firemen stationed at the camp
to ensure their safety and also extended their supposed vengeance to vehicles
travelling on the Accra/Winneba road as they blocked the Budumburam portion of
the road and pelted approaching vehicles with stones.
This
created panic among passengers and their drivers and held up traffic for a considerable
length of time.
Police
reinforcement with anti-riot gadgets from Accra and Winneba had a tough time
holding the angry mob in check initially.
They later
arrested 24 people, all Liberians, alleged to be involved in the attack and are
expected to appear in court on Monday.
More…/
President’s
call timely - Asare
Bishop
Charles Agyin Asare, General Overseer of the World Miracle Church
International, has described as timely the call by President John Agyekum
Kufuor for national reconciliation as a necessary means of healing wounds and
bringing all hands on deck to carry on the national agenda for peace and
development.
However, he
cautioned that any programme for reconciliation should be rid of partisan
political interest.
“People
have been deeply hurt, many more bear grudges. Such grudges and hurts require a
reconciliation process in which the victims and aggrieved persons would be made
to feel that an entire nation is weeping with them.”
Speaking to
the press on his arrival from a one-week official visit to Abidjan at the
invitation of the Ivorian Head of State, President Laurent Gbagbo, Bishop Agyin
Asare said that the reconciliation Committee or Commission envisaged by
President Kufuor should be seen as transparently a-political.
He
suggested a Committee made up of heads of religious bodies, since nearly all
the aggrieved persons and victims of past injustices would belong to one
religion or another – be they Christian, Muslim or Traditional.
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Danida
Assists 'witches'
The Danish
International Development Assistance, (DANIDA) has provided five thousand U.S.
dollars as a revolving medical fund for 400 alleged witches and the aged at
Tindang in the Yendi District of the Northern Region, reports the state-owned 'The
Ghanaian Times'.
The aim is
to integrate the "witches" into their communities in the area.
Mr Mahama
Asibi Azogo, Yendi District Co-ordinator, made this known when he commissioned
two KVIPs and two boreholes at separate functions at Gnani and Tindang.
He said
that DANIDA had also provided 600 million cedis worth of assorted items
including school uniforms, 300 blankets and 200 mats, to the people of Gnani
and Tindang and rehabilitated their "witch-camps."
The
District Co-ordinator said DANIDA's efforts at providing shelter, good drinking
water, health; education and credit assistance would no doubt help reduce
poverty and disease in the area.
More…/
Allocate
more HIPC funds to education sector
The
Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) has urged the government to allocate a
substantial portion of benefits accruing from the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) initiative to the education sector.
The Council
said that illiteracy has been the cause of poverty in the country and called
for a reversal of the trend.
Speaking at
a workshop in Accra on Friday, on the Assessment of Ghana's Commitment to the
Education for All policy", Dr. Robert Aboagye-Mensah General-Secretary of
the CCG pointed out that if the majority of Ghanaians were well-educated their
potentials and talents could be tapped for the development of society.
Rev. Dr.
Aboagye-Mensah advised that now that the nation had opted for the HIPC
initiative critics of the initiative should concern themselves with ensuring
that the benefits were used for the intended purpose of addressing poverty
reduction.
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4bn cedis
to be spent on old MPs
The
Independent, a private owned bi-weekly, says Parliament is to spend four
billion cedis (4 billion) as ex-gratia award to members of the second
Parliament of the fourth republic. Beneficiaries of the ex-gratia award include
those who were deselected by their parties, those who lost their seats as well
as those that had retained their seats.
A highly
placed source who disclosed this to the paper said that each of the 200
beneficiaries would take home about 20 million cedis.
The monies
have already been paid into their various accounts and Members could as from
Monday cash or withdraw if they so wish.
The source
said that the move is in accordance with an administrative proposal put up by
the ex-government that former MPs must be given ex-gratia award for the
four-year term of office, which has been accepted and has subsequently been
implemented.
Asked
whether former Ministers and Deputy Ministers who collected the ex-gratia paid
by the erstwhile NDC regime will also benefit from this facility, the source
said by virtue of their position as Members of Parliament they automatically
qualify to enjoy the facility.
He however
expressed some reservation and urged parliament to look into this since the
state cannot continue to double pay people who almost performed the same
functions.
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Atta Mills
is not our leader
Prof. John
Evans Atta Mills, the former Vice-President and the flagbearer of the NDC will
have a hard task ahead of him in maintaining himself as the leader of the party
in the 2004 election, The Daily Guide, a private daily.
It says
despite the fact that his press conference was a move to project himself in the
forefront of the nomination for the presidential candidate, political observers
believe that the NDC would want to radically change their mode for the
selections of the flagbearer of the party.
A hint of a
change in choosing the flagbearer and the choice of Prof. Mills, that he would
not be an automatic leader was dropped last Friday March 23, by Hon. Cletus
Avorka, former Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, and Member of
Parliament for Bawku West on Joy FM, an Accra radio station.
In his
interaction during the programme, Hon. Avorka pointed out that at the
appropriate time the party will come out to determine "who shall be our
flagbearer for the year 2004."
The hint
drooped by the Hon. Avorka has not been the first of such statements since the
NDC was whipped by the NPP in the December 2000 elections.
Some youth
leaders of the party talked to after the elections indicated that they were
hurt by the hard-hearted approach taken by the executive in selecting MPs for
the December 2000 elections.
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Who and who
were there
Last
Thursday's press conference by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Accra
will go down as one of the best attended in living memory, reports the NDC mouth-piece,
'The Ghanaian Democrat'.
"Never
has the International Press Centre at Kokomlemle witness such a crowd, clearly
anxious to know if the NDC was still a force to reckon with. If anything, it
was clear to all and sundry that the NDC family is intact and as united as ever
and ready to bounced back in 2004."
Professor
Mills was flanked by his former running mate, Mr Martin Amidu and a vice
chairman of the party, Mr Kwaku Baah. Also on the front row of the high table
were Dr Obed Asamoah, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice and
Chairman of the reorganization committee of the pary, the General Secretary of
the party, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya and Mr. Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader in
Parliament.
Others were
Mr Adjei Mensah, former Minister of Works and Housing and MP for Techiman West
and Mr Kwame Peprah, the former Finance Minister who was there to give
explanations to many intriguing economic question from the press who was
supported by his former deputy by his former deputy, Mr Victor Selormey.
Conspicuously
present were Mr John Mahama, MP for Bole and former Communications Minister,
Mrs Cecilia Johnson, Mr Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Mr Mohammed Mumuni, Dr Ibn
Chambas, Mr E.T. Mensah, Mr Victor Gbeho, Mr Dan Abodakpi and a host of others.
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"Proceed
on Leave" is dangerous - Atta Mills
The
Ghanaian Voice, an Accra-based private paper, reports the condemnation by the
former Vice President, Professor John Atta Mills, of the practice whereby the
Kufuor administration has cultivated the habit of asking senior public servants
to proceed on leave.
Prof. Mills
said this at his first meeting with the media at the international Press Centre
in Accra last week. The former Veep said that the NPP government has formed the
habit of asking people who, in the performance of their duties, came in contact
with people holding political office to go on leave when their time was not
due.
He said
some of those who were affected by such directives were heads of limited
liability companies whose boards were sidestepped by President Kufuor's
directives, adding that this practice could set precedents for successive
governments to cause dismissals or re-appointments.
He was of
the view that consultations and national consensus were essential for solution
of the country's economic problems.
The former
Veep condemned the illegality in the appointment of certain people whose
appointments were supposed, by Constitution provisions, to be appointed in
consultation with the Council of State, a body yet to be constituted by the NPP
government.
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Is Mills
serious?
An Accra
private paper, 'The Accra Mail' says barely a week after widows of the murdered
military Heads of State appealed to President Kufuor for decent burials for
their slain husbands, Prof. J.E.A. Mills, the defeated NDC Presidential
Candidate in Election 2000, was at the head of a number of party malcontents,
bleating for public sympathy, claiming bad treatment at the hands of the new
government.
Professor
Mills, at the time he was bleating his complaints, was, thanks to the good
graces of President Kufuor's government, still comfortably ensconced in the
official resident of Ghana's Vice Presidents, thereby denying the incumbent the
right to his official abode.
The new
Vice-President was still living in his private residence as at the time of this
publication with the state frantically trying to cobble up something for him.
"That
in summary is the legacy of the Rawings/Mills years, and that alone must be
enough to shut Mills up," the paper said.
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Over-aged
cars Law costs State 15bn cedis
The New
Patriotic Party's mouthpiece, 'The NPPNews' says the NDC's law prohibiting the
importation of ten years old plus vehicles have cost the state at least 15
billion cedis.
"Targeted
for repeal by the NPP government which has already signaled this intention in
the 2001 budget, the law, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (Management)
(Amendment) Act 1998 was a typical example of a bad law."
It stated
mainly that, "no motor-car or commercial vehicle of more than ten years
old shall be imported into the country."
Ships or carriers who violated this law were liable to a fine of 25
million cedis while the importer was also subject to a fine.
Currently
parked at different places in the country are over 600 such vehicles, which
according to information available to the paper could have fetched at least 12
billion cedis in duties and fines if the law were not in place.
The
Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) currently overseeing operations of
Ghana Publishing Corporation is demanding from CEPS fees totaling 300 million
cedis for the use of GPC compound in Tema as parking grounds for the
confiscated vehicles.
The most
preposterous aspect of the process is the debt incurred by the state in
destroying these vehicles. While it costs a minimum of 500,000 cedis to
dismantle one confiscated vehicle and crush it, money realized from the sale of
the crushed body to steel companies is a mere 85,000 cedis, thus a whooping
415,000 cedis is lost on each vehicle through that alone.
The NPP has
since the enactment of the law, criticized it as unrealistic, and promised to
repeal it.
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More seats
on offer for 2004 elections
'The
Dispatch', an independent bi-weekly says one event which is likely to raise
political temperatures in Ghana will be the Electoral Commission's (EC)
constitutionally mandated duty to create more constituencies for the 2004
Parliamentary elections.
In an
exclusive interview, the Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, told the
privately owned paper that he does not know the exact number of new
constituencies to be created but indicated that there will definitely be more
than 200 seats to be contested for the 2004 Parliamentary elections.
He said EC
in getting ready for this assignment will have to get the final census figures
before it can do the demarcations and once they are obtained they will then
determine the quantum of the increase in the population and consequently, the
appropriate number of increases in constituencies.
The formula
has already been laid down in the Constitution."
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Who
replaces Nii Okine at CEPS?
Officers of
the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) are eagerly awaiting the
nomination of the person who will assume the hot seat of Commissioner of CEPS
weeks after controversial Nii Okine Adjei was sent home on leave, reports 'The
Ghanaian Chronicle', an independent newspaper.
As
anticipated, the race for the job of Commissioner of the organization that
generates over 70 per cent of national revenue has been characterized by the
routine lobbying such positions.
One
well-placed source, who confirmed this to the Chronicle has likened it to a
musical chair's scenario.
The paper
said it can reveal that when the dust settles over the apparent jostling and
jockeying, the Kufuor administration would appoint an insider to be
Commissioner.
It said it
has learnt that the Kufuor administration intends to break away from the
traditional practice in terms of the mode of appointment by choosing a
Commissioner from the rank and file of the organization.
The position
of Special Advisor to the Commissioner would also be scrapped.
Names
making the rounds according to the paper include Paul Adubofuor, deputy
Commissioner, Operations, Opoku Ntiamoah, assistant Commissioner and Mrs
Comfort Boohene-Osafo, deputy Commissioner, research.
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Swearing-in
of NPP Gov't Appointees - near blows at Akuapem Dist. Assembly
The 'Free
Press', an independent newspaper reports that tempers flared high among the
Akuapem South District Assembly members when the NDC faction objected to the
positioning of the 18 appointees for the swearing-in ceremony.
When the
District Co-ordinating Director, Ms Modesta Buckman asked that the appointees
stand in line facing the Chairman of the Community Tribunal, Mrs Georgina
Mensah Datsa to conduct the swearing-in ceremony, the NDC faction raised hell
that the appointees rather face the crowd without which they (the NDC members)
would not recognise the ceremony as valid.
Confusion
broke out as the NPP faction, joined by the appointees, countered that the NDC
had sinister motives for making issues out of such trivialities, resulting in
near exchange of blows.
The Member
of Parliament for the area, Hon Seth Dankwa Wiafe and Ms Datsa tried to cool
down tempers and the swearing-in ceremony commenced after both sides agreed
that the appointees could be sworn-in at where each stood in the hall.
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Legon
students remove roadblocks
Some
students of the university of Ghana on Thursday removed the barricades on the University's
main avenue, reports the 'Public Agenda' a private newspaper.
The
students spontaneously demolished the barriers, after they had failed to
present a petition the University's Vice Chancellor, imploring the authorities
to remove the barriers.
They had
marched to the residence of the Vice Chancellor to present the petition, but on
being told he was at a meeting decided to present it to the Dean of students of
the University. The students spontaneously destroyed the blocks before the
presentation of the petition.
Things were
calm and lectures were going on as normal when the paper visited the campus.
Prior to
the march, most students had at a forum, expressed disgust at the authorities
installation of the roadblocks on campus in January this year.
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