Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo, says that proper interpretation of the Constitution would soon expose the hollowness in the reasons put forward by the five justices who threw out the Fast Track Courts.
The A-G claimed that he had found substantial errors of law made by the Majority after listening to them on Wednesday, explaining why they voted against the Fast Track Courts (FTC). Speaking to reporters after the inauguration of a nine-member Legal Service Board in Accra on Thursday, Nana Akufo-Addo lashed at those reading meaning of political motivation into the nomination of Justice Afreh to the Supreme Court, accusing them of naivity.
He pointed out that although majority of the judges on the bench were nominated by former President Rawlings, the NPP won some legal cases under his regime, adding that those on the bench are men and women of integrity. He asserted that one very critical point that people are failing to recognize about judges is that they swear oaths not to serve social, political or religious wishes of any individual.
In response to a question as to why some members of the minority do not approve of the FTC, he said their fears may stem from the fact that due to the malfeasance committed by some members of the previous government, the FTC would get to them too quickly.
On the issue of review, he said if the review sustains the decision of the Supreme Court then the FTC and all that it has done will belong to history. He added that he had always deplored a situation whereby anything is done which has the potential of being reversed, since that “would do serious damage to the stability and quality of the administration. – The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - Justice Acquah described the ‘Fast Track Court’ as a division of the High Court “by virtue of technology in contradiction from the ordinary High Court.” He quoted from a speech delivered by the President of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Wiredu, last year, in which he said it was merely “a normal High Court with innovation.”
Justice Acquah said the Fast Track is a division only “in its present experimental state,” and that once the whole High Court divisions are mechanised and reformed, the sobriquet will cease to exist. This did not, however, help much, as his reasons were positioned in the middle of long-winding historical arguments given by the majority, which compounded the confusion proceeding last Wednesday.
The substance of the case, which is now up for a review after the 4-5 split decision, is based on the interpretation of Article 139(3) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. This reads: “There shall be in the High Court such divisions constituting of such number of Justices respectively as the Chief Justice may determine.” The various interpretations put on this by the judges are mind-boggling.
The Supreme Court, according to Article 2(1) of the Constitution, has the sole authority to make a declaration on “ an enactment or anything contained in or done under the authority” of the Constitution. This implies that it is incumbent on the highest court of this land to give an interpretation to provisions of this almighty document in such erudite, cloudless, lucid, unambiguous and reasonably comprehensible manner to the ordinary man on the Kaneshie “trotro”. However, after twenty one days of pre-emptive commentaries which turned half of the nation into pro-tempore lawyers, Ghanaians have turned the other corner of 20th March and the consensus is that: We are none the wiser.
A typical example is the contradictions apparent in the majority’s own set of opinions. Mrs Justice Bamford Addo said, for example, that in “my considered opinion ‘division’ refer only to territorial or geographical” courts. This was after conceding that if the word ‘division’ in the context of branches of the courts has only one meaning there will be no ambiguity.”
Justice Ampiah, also with the majority, accepted that “division is not defined in the Constitution.” He, however, went on to say that whereas the idea behind the fast Track division of the High Court “is a laudable one, what is unconstitutional is the attempt to use it as a division of the High Court.”
In the face of crystalline evidence, he quite bravely argued that the name Fast Track “pre-supposed that the High Court is a slow track division.” Clearly, His Lordship is not aware that the Sunyani division of the High Court’ has been christened ‘Slow Track Court’ by its aggrieved users in the Brong Ahafo Region.
He also spoke against the guidelines of the Fast Track High Court which recommended that judgement should be given in seven days and not the six weeks allowed by the rules of the High Court.” What happens if a judge fails to give his reasons within seven days?” he posed.
The Supreme Court judge appeared to have interpreted the meaning of guidelines so liberally as to command strict adherence. The majority of the judges appeared to have forgotten that former Chief Justice Archer created district divisions of the High Court, including Tarkwa, without reference to any “legislative history” as argued forcefully by Justice Kpegah.
Kpegah, the apparent intellectual force behind the majority stated authoritatively that the “Constitution is not only the fundamental law of the land but also a code of conduct, as well.” Nowhere in the Constitution is there provisions for the establishment of a Fast Track Court. And that, “a court, properly so-called, is always created by status,” he said.
Twenty minutes inside his speech, he received an unwelcome call on his mobile phone, which he politely turned off. Disregarding the 1992 Constitution for a moment, he stated that our legislature history based absolute adherence to English” rules of procedure, quoting extensively from rules, most of them no longer of any precedent value. The Statesman
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - The “Ghana Palaver can authoritatively state
that the days of Nana Akufo-Addo as President Kufuor’s Attorney-General may be
numbered, as the beleaguered and embattled Attorney-General struggles for his
political survival in the Kufuor administration.
The first
indication of Nana Akufo-Addo’s dwindling political fortunes came when
President Kufuor, from far away Australia, caused Minister of State Elizabeth
Ohene to issue a statement directing Nana Akufo-Addo to use all constitutional
means” to ensure that the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the Tsatsu Tsikata
case was reviewed.
This was
after Nana Akufo-Addo had announced only hours after the Supreme Court’s
decision in a hastily arranged Press Conference that he, in his capacity as
Attorney-General, was going to seek a review of the Court’s decision. The
signal was clear – a decision of such fundamental significance is authorised by
the President, not the Attorney-General. It was the first sign that Kufuor was
in charge, even if he was out of the country. After all, was it not Prime
Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia himself who had broadcasted the 'no court' reaction
to the similar Sallah scenario in 1971?
The
successive embarrassing “faux pas” on the part of the Attorney-General and his
team must have caused the President extreme consternation.
To begin
with, whiles strangely asserting that his intention to apply for a review of
the Supreme Court decision amounted to a maintenance of the status quo ante, Nana
Akufo-Addo nevertheless went ahead and transferred Tsatsu’s case to what he
himself called a “normal” High Court, albeit presided over by the same Judge,
Justice Ansah.
At the
“normal” High Court, Tsatsu was charged under a law that did not exist at the
time the action complained took place. When Tsatsu’s counsel sought to explain
that the charge against his client was that the offence was committed in or
about February 1993” whiles the law under which he was charged was passed in
July 1993, the response of the Attorney-General as conveyed by the DPP, was
pure NPP “legalese” – “in or about February could mean July.
Of course,
the Presiding Judge, Justice Ansah, was both caustic and dismissive in his
ruling: “Our laws in Ghana are stable and in or about February can never mean
July.” Earlier, the Attorney-General had sought to arrest Justice Ansah’s
ruling in the case that he himself had brought before the learned Judge’s
“normal” High Court. Of course, he was roundly rebuffed by the Judge who went
ahead to rule that the charge against Tsatsu was unconstitutional, a ruling
that any First Year Law student could have predicted. Instead of
bowing down their heads in shame and running back, tail between their legs, to
lick their wounds, the Attorney-General and his team set out to harass Tsatsu
Tsikata and to seek to arrest him and put him before court on an as yet
unspecified charge or charges. On the
Friday afternoon on the day of the judgement, an attempt was made to arrest
Tsatsu in traffic around the Danquah Circle. It failed. In the evening, four
policemen went to the office of one of his counsels at Mobil House with a view
to effecting his arrest. He was not around. Late Friday night, they tried again
to arrest him at his mother’s residence at Madina. Tsatsu was not at home. On Sunday
morning, two policemen associated with the Deputy Attorney-General, Ms Gloria
Akufo, tried to effect his arrest in church. This attempt backfired so badly
that poor Sam Awortwi, Commissioner of Police, who was in charge of the Special
Investigations Task Force, the inter-agency Task Force set up by the
Attorney-General that investigated the case, as well as the two policemen who
obviously under instructions attempted to effect the arrest in church, were
sent on interdiction. These
“bumbling” antics of Attorney-General Akufo-Addo and his team must have greatly
embarrassed President Kufuor and his Government. According to “Ghana Palaver”
sources inside the Kufuor’s administration, several NPP internal “spins” were
put on Nana Akufo-Addo’s conduct and actions. On such
spin was that as the most credible competitor to President Kufuor’s
re-nomination ambitions, Nana Akufo-Addo was deliberately was deliberately
committing those blunders in order to show the Kufuor administration in the
worst of lights. Another spin was that Nana and Tsatsu are close buddies,
having successfully conducted some of the most famous constitutional cases
together in the Limann era, and that Nana was deliberately committing those
errors to protect and shield his friend and professional colleague.
A third
spin was that Nana was behaving in that manner to get Tsatsu off the hook out
of deference to Captain Kojo Tsikata, Tsatsu’s cousin and the PNDC/NDC security
capo, Nana’s very close friend and confidant during those administrations, who
allegedly helped launch Nana on his “business” as opposed to his professional
career during those eras. Be that as
it may, the “spins” were effective enough to compel President Kufuor to call an
emergency Cabinet meeting on the subject. The outcome was a Presidential order,
this time publicly issued through the Minister of Information (and Presidential
Affairs?) who is not known to have any educational or academic qualifications,
directing Nana Akufo-Addo to freeze all actions on the Tsatsu Tsikata Case
until after the Supreme Court had given the reasons for its decision in the
Fast Track High Court Case. The
Presidential directive was the most humiliating and devastating blow to both
the Office and the person of the Attorney-General, Nana Akufo-Addo. By publicly
directing the Attorney-General on what was essentially a legal matter, as
opposed to a political matter, and though the Cabinet colleague least qualified
to do so, the President was seen to be advertising his lack of confidence in
the performance and judgement of his Attorney-General. That
directive was not humiliating but also embarrassing to Nana Adufo-Addo, because
it effectively converted the Office of the Attorney-General into a Secretariat
of the Presidency, with the Attorney-General transformed into a Presidential
Staffer, contrary to Article 88 (3) of the Constitution, which states that “The
Attorney-General shall be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all
prosecutions of criminal offences.” NPP
insiders see this move by the President as a counter to Nana Akufo-Addo’s
suspected motive of using the Tsatsu Tsikata constitutional debacle to ridicule
the President in a bid to stake his own claim to the NPP’s 2004 nomination
ticket. According
to NPP insiders, that explains why Nana Akufo-Addo is having to fight back. In
a move, most uncharacteristic of him, Nana was reported last Monday to have
donated ¢15 million out of his share of the District Assemblies Common Fund to
support development projects in eleven communities in his Abuakwa Constituency.
It was announced at the presentation ceremony that Nana had, since January this
year, spent over ¢40 million of his share of the Common Fund, to support
development projects in the constituency. Significantly, this fact had not been
publicised until then. Equally
significantly, the Chairman of the Abuakwa Constituency of the NPP, Mr Douglas
Asare, was reported to have stated at the same ceremony that the people of the Abuakwa
Constituency support and have confidence in Nana not to be deterred by recent
attacks on his performance as Attorney-General over the Supreme Court decision.
Put in its
political context, it is obvious that Nana sees himself as a likely sacrificial
lamb over the matter of his government’s handling of the Tsatsu Tsikata Case.
He realizes that his political opponents within the NPP, possibly led by
President Kufuor himself, could very well use the incident to cut down to size
a formidable and troublesome political opponent. So he has done what all
political “Maradonas” do best in those kind of circumstances – bypass the
leadership, ignore the national structures, and get down to the base, organize
your grassroots support, and dare the leadership to mess with you.
These moves
and counter-moves are given sufficient credence by the stories that the NPP
rumour mill itself is churning out about the search for a replacement.
Attorney-General Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Deputy Attorney-General, is considered
“too young” in the profession to be promoted to the substantive position. So
also is Interior Minister Malik Alhassan, who is understood to have already
declined the offer. Dr Seth
Twum, widely tipped to take over the job, has also reportedly refused to take it.
He was very high on the list of possibles, for being an Akyem himself like Nana
Akufo-Addo, he would have squashed any rumours of Nana’s removal being a slap
in the face of the Akyem clique within the NPP oligarchy who are increasingly
seen as losing out to their Ashanti counterparts. As at now
therefore, Nana Akufo-Addo’s position as Attorney-General is very shaky indeed.
He appears to be “Going, Going, Going…” But he is not “Gone” yet. That appears
to depend on time…..and a replacement Attorney-General! – Ghana Palaver. Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - When ex-President Jerry Rawlings said
judgements are sometimes written for some judges, he knew what he was talking
about. There is at least one documented case of a judgement written for a judge
by another man. The judge is the late Mr Justice I.K. Abban and the man who
wrote the judgement for him was one Mr J.E.A.K. Appiah, a Rawlings appointee. Later, in
spite of the fact that the incident of judgement writing was in the public
domain and was dragging along in the courts, Rawlings went ahead to appoint
Justice Abban to the august office of Chief Justice. Interestingly, as late as
May 1997, aspects of the case in which judgement was written for Justice Abban,
was still playing out in the Supreme Court, at a time when Abban was the Chief
Justice of the Republic of Ghana. The Supreme
Court finally knocked the lid on the case on May 1997, when, in a landmark
decision, the court affirmed the conviction of Appiah. The majority judgement
was delivered by Mr Justice Kpegah. Others on the Supreme Court for that
judgement were Justices Charles Hayfron-Benjamin, George Acquah and Francis
Attubugah. Research
revealed these facts: In 1979, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC),
chaired by Flt. J.J. Rawlings, issued a decree (Special Tribunal and Other Matters),
Decree 1979 (AFRC D23). Through this decree, a Special Tribunal was formed, and
Justice Abban appointed as its chairman. The purpose of the Special Tribunal
was to cleanse Ghana of corruption. The AFRC
then appointed a special prosecutor in the person of Mr J.E.A.K. Appiah, by a
letter dated September 22, 1979, to see to the prosecution of suspected
corrupted officials. It was revealed that in his position of Special
Prosecutor, Appiah had a special influence on the Special Tribunal and often
signed documents in the name of the Special Tribunal, chaired by Abban and
without the knowledge of Abban. At one
time, Abban was shocked when documentary evidence of this was put to him. In
the course of time, cases were brought before the Special Tribunal against two
Ghanaian businessmen, Mr H.K. Djaba and Mr E.K. Owusu, of Kowus Motors.
While the
cases were pending, a dormant account at Barclays Bank International Limited,
London, belonging to the Special Prosecutor, Mr J.E.A.K. Appiah, which had only
110.41 pounds sterling in it, suddenly swelled by 11,000 pounds. The monies,
1,000 pounds and 10,000 pounds were transferred into the account by H.K. Djaba
and E.K. Owusu respectively, who had cases before the Special Tribunal.
Following the
payment of these monies into Appiah’s account, he (Appiah) wrote a judgement
favouring Djaba and Owusu, and managed to get Justice Abban and his panel
members to deliver that judgement, a point acknowledged by the Supreme Court of
Ghana on two occasions (ref: Appiah v Rep. 1987-88 GLRD and Appiah Vrs Rep.
SCGLR 1996-97). Known in
the legal arena as the Kowus Ruling, it has gone down in infamy. For instance,
on May 31, 1988, Mr Justice Francois, reading the majority opinion of the
Supreme Court, noted of the Kowus Ruling: “The person charged ostensibly to put
up a draft for the tribunal’s consideration was Mr Bossman, a member of the
tribunal. He made many drafts. The Special Prosecutor (J.E.A.K. Appiah) also
sent in his comments, exhibit ZQ aforementioned. The final ruling is exhibit
ZQ.” It does not
require much serious analytical discernment to conclude where the ruling
derived its prime source of inspiration. As our consideration of the Kowus
Ruling is fundamental to a determination of any ulterior notice in the
appellant (Appiah) in his advice in the Kowus matter, we are compelled to
embark on a tedious exercise to set down some excerpts demonstrating
similarities between the ruling of the tribunal, exhibit ZQ, and the
appellant’s comments, exhibit ZQ. The Supreme
Court then proceeded to enumerate several instances in which Appiah’s
‘comments’ exactly tallied with Justice Abban’s ruling. The Supreme Court also
noted that a stenographer, Sylvia Amoah, was the one who typed the ruling,
which was delivered. She swore that the ruling was in the handwriting of the
appellant (Appiah) who asked her to deliver it to Justice Abban. Abban later
delivered that judgement. The relationship between Justice Abban and Appiah was
discovered when the latter was arrested for extorting money from H.K. Djaba and
E.K. Owusu. Appiah was subsequently placed before the Circuit Court and
convicted. He was jailed for seven years. He appealed to the High Court and
won. The Attorney-General appealed to the Appeal Court and the sentence was
re-imposed. Appiah then appealed to the Supreme Court, which in 1987 affirmed
the Appeal Court jugdement. In 1997,
after serving his jail sentence, Appiah appealed to the Supreme Court to have
the sentence reviewed and quashed. The Supreme Court again refused this appeal
on May 21, 1997. Certain legal luminaries who played key role in the Appiah’s
prosecution include Mr Osafo Sampong, current Director of Public Prosecution
(DPP) and Mr Sam Baddoo, currently an Appeal Court judge. – The Ghanaian
Chronicle. Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Move to elect District Chief Executives - Government wills
constitutional changes Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - The government has begun top-level discussions
to effect the necessary constitutional changes that will enable people in the
districts to elect their chief executives. The Minister of Local Government and
Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, who disclosed this in London, said
this in line with the campaign promise made by President J.A. Kufuor, in the
run-up to the 2000 elections. A release
issued by the Ghana High Commission in London said Mr Baah-Wiredu made the
disclosure in an interview with the press after he attended the Commonwealth
Local Government Forum in London. It said the minister also announced plans by
the government to introduce a new disbursement formula to ensure fairness and
equity in the allocation of the District Assembly Common Fund. It
explained that the new formula has been necessitated by the over-concentration
of development projects in some district capitals and complaints that there is
lack of transparency in the disbursement of the Common Fund. He said the
agitations in recent times, for the creation of new districts in some regions
are also among the reasons. Mr
Baah-Wiredu, the release said, stressed the government’s commitment to ensure
good governance, beginning from the grassroots level. For this reason, he said,
the government would ensure transparency in the disbursement of the District
Assembly Common Fund and check corruption, too, particularly in the award of
contracts. It said in
pursuance of the government’s poverty alleviation programme, the Ministry of
Local Government is teaming up with other ministries to generate more jobs and
provide social amenities in the districts. The ministry is also collaborating
with other NGO’s such as Habitat for Humanity, to provide housing units at
affordable rates in the Aowin Suaman District. The release
said while in London, Mr Baah-Wiredu paid a familiarisation visit to a waste
disposal plant in Croydon, a Borough of London, to find out the possibility of using
a similar plant in Ghana. It said in his interaction with the officials of the
High Commission, Mr Baah-Wiredu urged them to take interest in the development
of their respective districts and communities. He
commended some retired civil servants for bringing their expertise to bear on
the development of their areas and urged the staff to emulate their example. It
said after a question and answer session, Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK,
Mr Isaac Osei, thanked the minister for interacting with them. – Daily Graphic.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - Ghana Telecom (GT) has stated that the Accra
Metropolitan Assembly Chief Executive, is not co-operating with its
investigations to unravel how his official duty post telephone was used to
incur debts to the tune of ¢18.5 million in two moths. According
to Mr E.G. Dziko, General Manager, Marketing and Customer Services of GT,
anytime the issue is raised with him (Mr Ofei Darko), the chief executive uses
the non-payment property rate on GT “phone booths” (pay phone) sited in various
parts of Accra of the Accra Metropolis as his basis for not co-operating and
paying for the amount owed to GT. He
disagreed with the AMA chief Executive that his lines were tapped, saying when
such a thing is done, there would be parallel and when my calls come in, the
tapped line and the original would receive the call at the same time. He noted
that after GT received the protest letter from the AMA chief executive claiming
that he never made foreign calls that he has been billed with, GT asked him to
furnish it with the names of the security men who were working there when the
calls were made. This, Mr
Dziko said the AMA chief executive could not say the calls were not made
“although he might say he did not do those calls, but they were done at his
residence.” Mr Dziko further told “The Evening News” that the AMA boss had his
telephone connected to a PABM system, which made it possible for people at his
(Mr Ofei-Darko) gate to get access to the IDD. The GT has
written to the company that installed the PABM system at chief executive’s
residence but they have also not responded to establish the truth of the
matter. Mr Dziko said until all these are done, the AMA chief executive could
not say that the Assembly was not going to pay for the amount it owed GT.
It is
recalled that the AMA chief executive in the month of November and December
alone is said to have made both foreign and local calls to the tune of ¢18.5
million. The telephone bill for the month of November alone amounted to ¢12.5
million, the result of about 49 calls made to the United Kingdom (UK).
When “the
Evening News” contacted the AMA, the acting Public Relations Officer, Mr Parker
Allotey, said the there was nothing like non- co-operation from the AMA boss.
Mr Parker Allotey also denied that there was no time that the AMA had raised
any property rate when the issue of the disputed telephone bill came up.
He said
when the GT asked for the names of the chief executive’s household, he provided
them including the security men who were at post within the period. He however
stated the chief executive suspects that his line was tapped and therefore has
written to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to cause investigations into
the disputed telephone bills. He said the IGP’s secretary also wrote back to
inform the AMA that they are conducting investigation into it. – The Evening
News. Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - A twenty-four year old woman who allegedly
suffered a series of cruel acts at the hands of her husband and his
accomplices, who finally doused her with acid, is on admission at the Ridge Hospital
in Accra. Doris Amponsah, who has part of her body burnt had previously been
subjected to merciless acts of indecent assault by her husband and his four
accomplices. According
to Mrs Gladys Asmah, the Minister of Women’s and Children’s Affairs, who was at
the hospital to visit Doris, sometime in January, Doris’ husband, whose name
was given as Albert, requested to have sex with his wife, who was nursing a
nine-month old baby. The minister said Doris, who was living with Albert in
Kumasi then, refused on the grounds that she was still suffering from the
trauma of childbirth. This,
according to Mrs Asmah, led to a quarrel between Albert and his wife, resulting
in separation. At dawn on February 10, this year, Doris was attacked by four
men one of whom was wearing a mask. They pushed nails and screws into her
private part. A medical report from the Komfo Anokye Hospital established that
four screws measuring about two inches each were retrieved from her private
part. She was
said to have had severe abrasion in her private part for which she was admitted
at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for four days. The minister said Albert,
who was identified by both Doris and their eldest child during the cruel act,
was arrested the following day and put before court. He was granted bail and
the case adjourned to March 14. However,
the minister said, on March 8, he and his gang again attacked Doris, and poured
acid all over her body apparently to prevent her from attending the court
session to give evidence in court. The minister, who was informed of the ordeal
of Doris, intervened and directed that she should be brought to the Ridge
Hospital in Accra for security reasons. The
minister appealed to the Inspector General of Police and the Judiciary to do
something about the spate of domestic violence in the country. She said it is
the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies to ensure that such
cruelties are curtailed and the perpetrators made to face the full rigours of
the law. Mrs Asmah
was of the view that the law enforcement agencies have failed the people of
this country. She said if the laws on domestic violence had been rigorously
enforced it would not have been on the ascendancy. She recalled a case in which
a 45-year old man who raped a nine-year old girl and made her paralysed was set
free because he was certified to be insane. Mrs Asmah
hinted that a letter of appeal has been sent to the Judiciary for it to do
something about crimes carried out against women. Meanwhile, she said, a
seminar scheduled for next month will be held in Accra for all religious
organisations in the country to find ways of curbing atrocities committed
against women. Mrs Asmah said women centres would also be established in all
district capitals to counsel women. – Daily Graphic. Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - Kwaku Omari, the man
who gunned down his wife and sister-in-law in a jealous rage at a house in the
Gaskia area of Sabon-Zongo last month, will be arraigned before court on
Monday. He has been provisionally charged with murder. Omari, 57, also shot a
third person, Kwame Asante, described by the police as an arbitrator and
afterwards shot himself in the cheek in a suicide attempt. Deputy Superintendent Helena Cobbina, Korle-Bu District
Police Commander, told the ‘Times’ in Accra on Thursday that Omari had been
discharged from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where he had been on admission
since the accident. Upon his discharge from hospital on Wednesday, Omari was
sent into police custody pending prosecution. Supt. Cobbina said that Omari had
become “fit for prosecution” and that everything was being done to prepare him
for court. It is recalled that on February 20, Omari shot and killed
his 35-year-old wife, Jane Abena Boatemaa and her 28-year-old sister, Obaa Yaa,
after accusing his wife of infidelity. A third person, Kwame Asante, who was
also shot, has been treated and discharged by the hospital. - The Ghanaian
Times Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com Accra
(Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - Bereaved family members of the 126 soccer fans
who lost their lives in the Accra Sport Stadium Disaster of May 9, 2001, will
soon be compensated. According to the Special Assistant to the Minister for
Information and Presidential Affairs, Ferdinand Ayim, deliberations are ongoing
to disburse the fund. As at last
October, the fund, established just after the disaster yielded ¢2.8 billion.
“Donations are still going on…Only last week, a group donated to the Fund,” he
said. The amount, to be administered by the Disaster Relief Fund Management
Committee chaired by Dr J.S. Addo, one-time Governor of the Bank of Ghana, is
currently lodged in a special account at the Central Bank. “Last
October the Committee embarked on a programme of registering the surviving
spouses and the children of the deceased with the view of working out
modalities to disburse the money,” Ayim told the Weekend Agenda. “There is the
need for a meticulous approach to the whole issue since it involves human
beings and money,” he said. According
to the special Assistant, the disbursement has delayed due to a number of
issues among them multiple claims of the family members. “There have been
instances where two women came forward with different stories of how they gave
birth or raised a child of the deceased,” he noted. He also said there have
been instances where two women have come to make claims on one deceased person
of the disaster. The issues
arising out of two women trying to prove who is the rightful wife or spouse of
the deceased needs sometime to resolve and that is why the claims are delaying,
Ayim explained. The Special Assistant said the government might not be in a
position to implement all the recommendations of the Okudzeto Commission
presented to President John Kufuor on November 30 because of financial
constraint. The
Commission recommended among others that children of the victims should be
supported through Senior Secondary School in addition to a daily wage for their
upkeep. “Children
of pre-school age be supported each with the minimum daily wage,” the report
said adding “to supplement the fund on a permanent basis and to commemorate the
occasion of the disaster each year, the two clubs, Accra Hearts of Oak and
Kumasi Asante Kotoko should play a charity soccer competition on a convenient
date near May 9, at the Accra Sports Stadium for a trophy donated by the fund.
Part of the
recommendations also stated that the “in case of the 54 victims who did not
have any children, a one-off ex-gratia payment of ¢10 million be made to the
victims’ parents or accredited legal representatives of their family.” The
report also asked government to contribute at least ¢2 billion in the first year
of the fund to supplement the capital of the fund and sustain the purpose
disbursement scheme. Ayim said
government will look at the amount, the number of the affected persons and then
pay out lump sums to the victims’ spouses and children or parents for them to
plan their own investments instead of going strictly according to the
committee’s recommendation. Meanwhile
construction work has begun at the North Wing of the Accra Sports Stadium to
repair the damage to stairwells and other things that got damaged as a result
of the tragedy. As soon as they are completed, The North Stand would be
re-opened, according to an official at the Ministry of Youth and Sports. - The
Weekend Agenda.
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comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Bawku (Northern Region) 22 March 2002 - Police on
operational duties at Bawku have so far retrieved 67 guns of various make. They
are 50 shotguns and 17 pistols each with capacity for seven rounds of
ammunition. Twenty-nine owners of the seized guns have already been
prosecuted and fines ranging from ¢100,000 to ¢1 million were imposed on them
while six others are still on trial. Mr Paul Quaye, (DCOP) Upper East Regional
Police Commander, and Mr F. Aboagye Nyarko, Regional crime Officer, have both
expressed dissatisfaction with the low levels of fines, which according to
them, were not deterrent enough. In an interview with the ‘Times’ at Bawku on Wednesday, the
officers particularly expressed concern over the ¢1 million fine imposed on
Emmanuel Winam, a farmer, arrested with four AK 47 assault rifles which he
attempted to smuggle into Bawku and appealed for stiffer penalties. They gave the assurance that the situation in Bawku was well
under control and that had resulted in the return to normalcy and the peace
currently prevailing in the area. Members of both factions were going about
their normal business they said, stressing that all the security services were
firmly on the ground, contrary to inflammatory statements that the situation
was volatile. To enhance their continued smooth operations, the police
administration has set up a clinic with a medical team to cater for not only
the police and security agencies but the public as well. In a related development, the vigilance of the police, the
Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and military personnel at the
Binduri checkpoint resulted in the interception of an Albion cargo truck with
10 teak electric poles valued at ¢20 million and suspected to have been stolen. The driver of the truck, according to the Regional Crime
officer, Mr Nyarko, jumped out of the vehicle and escaped. But two other
occupants, Evans Abaluk and Salifu Sibik were arrested and are helping the
police in their investigations. The truck, together with the poles, has been
impounded at the Bawku Police Station. The Assembly Member for Mognori
electoral area, in the Bawku East District, Mr Zukari Osman, had reported to
the police that 10 poles meant for extension of electricity to the area had been
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