Private sector urges increased role in renewable energy
Seven-year-old girl dies in fire incident
Northern region
journalists asks for fair coverage of events
Strike viable
partnership with varsities -VC tells industries
DCE prevails on nine communities to participate in registration exercise
MP criticises manner voters ID cards are replaced
Accra (Greater Accra) 09 May 2000.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) on
Monday urged the Electoral Commission to ensure that all polling stations
receive sufficient registration forms and other relevant materials to ensure a successful
revision of the voters' register.
A statement issued by the party said
reports coming from their offices across the country indicate that the 20 forms
supplied to the registration centres is grossly inadequate.
The NPP said: "it is a well
known fact that even in 1995, the big cities and towns recorded higher
registration numbers. It is indeed surprising to learn that the Electoral
Commission distributed forms without regard to population density and without
due reference to the 1996 figures.
"The NPP does not want to be
pushed into concluding that the shortage of registration forms is a ploy to
frustrate the youth who have turned 18 and are desirous in registering to vote
for a positive change in the country in the December elections."
The statement said the party would
not accept the usual excuse of "technical problems," especially when
the Voters' register was not opened in 1998 and 1999 which implies that many
young people are eligible for registration.
In another development five NPP Members of Parliament (MPs) within the Kumasi Metropolis have threatened to take court action to restrain the Electoral Commission (EC) from carrying on with the revision of the voters' registration if it fails to rectify anomalies detected by Wednesday, May 10.
A statement they issued in Kumasi on Monday said with the anomalies in the exercise "they would not be able to restrain the danger of the obviously frustrated youth from taking to the streets to express their anger and disenchantment".
Mr Sampson K. Boafo, MP for Subin, Mr Edward Osei Kwaku, Asokwa West, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, Old Tafo/Suame, Dr Winfred Anane, Bantama and Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Manhyia, said the EC grossly under estimated the number of eligible voters and provided only 20 registration forms at the registration centres.
It said after discussions with Mr I. K. Boateng, Ashanti Regional Director of the EC, on the exercise, there was no doubt that the Commission was not well prepared for the exercise.
It, therefore, expressed dismay at the assertion by Dr K. Afari-Djan, Chairman of the EC that "he is satisfied with the exercise so far".
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Accra, (Greater Accra) 09 May 2000.
Participants at a two-day capacity building workshop for NGO's and entrepreneurs on renewable energy for rural communities have asked the government to increase the role of the private sector in the provision of renewable sources of energy to rural communities.
They also called on commercial banks to ease restrictions that make their participation in energy provision difficult and sometimes impossible.
The workshop, organised by the African Rural Energy Enterprise Development (AREED) is being attended by more than 50 participants from Ghana, Europe, Nigeria and Senegal. It is a United Nations Environment initiative supported by the UN Foundation.
The participants, mainly experts in renewable energy and banking, described the workshop as timely, saying it would create a plain field for both entrepreneurs and financiers to locate their interests and investment priorities.
Professor Francis K. A Allotey, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission said the idea to involve the private sector in rural energy provision is a laudable one, but indicated that grass-roots involvement must be the way forward.
He referred to the 1998 energy crises and said events seeking to create avenues to boost the strength of stakeholders in the distribution of energy is relevant adding: "The main problem here has always been accessing funds for investment, especially as banks are not ready to part with money easily".
Mr Isaac Mintah, Director of Energy at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said the government had taken a number of initiatives in renewable energy sources "and this workshop is a logical follow up to these activities".
He said it is necessary for the government to come out to say if the national grid should be extended to every nook and cranny of the country or another source of energy found that purpose. "Soon a decision should be taken if all communities should be on the national grid, solar energy or some form of other alternative".
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Koforidua, (Eastern Region) 09 May
2000.
A seven-year-old girl was burnt
beyond recognition at Koforidua Old Estates when their mud-thatched house was
razed by fire last Friday. Property, including personal effects, and a cash of
120,000 cedis were also burnt to ashes. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Madam Yaa Agbo, 25, mother of
five, including the deceased, said the family retired to bed at about 9.30 pm
on that evening in the absence of the her husband, Kwesi Awo and her eldest
daughter who were at a wake keeping.
"While sleeping l heard a
loud explosion, which was followed by smoke from the roof. I started shouting
and crying for help but no one came to our rescue," she said.
Madam Agbo said she began rescuing
her children in turns but the smoke became so thick that she managed to rescue
three of them leaving behind the fourth child.
"When I tried rescuing the
victim, the room had become totally dark and the fire was raging so I was
helpless. "I listened as my child cried aloud 'Mama, Mama, Mama',"
said Madam Agbo, as she sobbed uncontrollably.
Briefing the Eastern Regional
Minister, Miss Patience Adow, who visited the scene, the Regional Fire Officer,
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Solomon Osei said his outfit received a distress
call around 10 p.m. that day and dispatched an attendant to the scene.
Based on assessment, an additional
tender was sent, but before they could bring the fire under control, the child
had been burnt to death.
Her body has been deposited at the
Koforidua Central hospital. The grieving family is now living with a relative.
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Northern region
journalists ask for fair coverage of events
Tamale (Northern Region) 09 May
2000
The Northern Regional Branch of
the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), at the weekend appealed to news
editors at the various media houses to give fair coverage to events in the
northern parts of the country.
In a statement to mark World Press
Freedom day at Tamale, Mr Alhassan Imoru, Regional Chairman of GJA, said that
less than 15 per cent of news items filed by correspondents of the various
media houses in the northern sector get published, a situation which has created
a credibility gap between the correspondents and the public, who accuse them of
marginalising the North by refusing to give adequate coverage to events there.
The statement appealed to the
various media houses to equip their representatives with tape recorders,
computers and other modern communication gadgets to enable them to carry out
their duties more efficiently.
It called on heads of media houses
to create an enabling environment for free, fair and peaceful elections by ensuring
equal coverage of events throughout the country.
The statement called on
journalists in the region to be non-partisan before, during and after the 2000
presidential and parliamentary elections.
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Strike viable
partnership with varsities -VC tells industries
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 09 May
2000
Professor J. S. K. Ayim,
vice-chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST), Kumasi, on Monday said it was time for industry and individuals to
strike a viable partnership with the universities in order to move the country
forward.
This way the universities could
help industry to find solutions to their manpower as well as research and
development problems, he said a the presentation of awards to five KNUST
students who were beneficiaries of the Poku Transport Endowment Fund, in
Kumasi.
The beneficiaries who received
500,000 cedis each, are Kwame Amponsah Akyianu of the Department of Medicine,
School of Medical Sciences (SMS), Michael Nii Noi Odonkor, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Alfred Kwadwo Frimpong, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Emelia Damoah Agyei, Institute of Renewable Natural Resources and Rebecca
Ankrah, Department of Paediatrics, SMS.
The vice-chancellor said the
university is convinced that individuals and industry could provide resources
and equipment to enhance the quality of teaching and learning process. They
could also provide resources for the conduct of research into specific problems
of their respective industries or of society at large.
"And when this has been done,
industry and individuals could also provide resources for the transfer of
technology or research results to the people to help them modernise their lives
and thereby move positively towards poverty alleviation and development".
The fund was created in memory of
Mr Poku Transport, a Kumasi industrialist.
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DCE prevails on nine communities to
participate in registration exercise
Accra (Greater Accra Region) 09 May 2000
The District Chief Executive for Awutu-Effutu-Senya, Lieutenant William Osardu, on Monday asked the chiefs and people of Bontrase and surrounding villages to rescind their decision to boycott the ongoing voters' registration and review exercise to enable them to correct any anomalies.
Addressing an emergency meeting of the chiefs and queenmothers of nine communities, following their threat to boycott the exercise because the Electoral Commission had changed their registration centre from the Effutu-Awutu-Senya district to the Agona district, Lt. Osardu said the exercise is so crucial that the people will be adversely affected if they failed to register.
A spokesman for the communities, Nana Kobina Adu V, who is Chief of Bontrase, said since Bontrase and surrounding villages fall directly under the jurisdiction of the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Assembly, they did not understand the reason why registration officials should be recruited from Agona District to conduct the exercise in the Bontrase area.
Nana Adu said investigations conducted by chiefs and opinion leaders in the area revealed that the Agona District Assembly, which shares a common boundary with Effutu-Awutu-Senya, was behind the posting of registration officials to the area, adding: "we won't succumb to this unexpected change".
In the previous registration exercises, officials from the Awutu-Effutu Senya District registered the people in the nine communities.
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MP criticises manner voters ID cards are
replaced
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 09 May 2000
Mr Anthony Boakye-Yiadom, Member of Parliament (MP) for Amansie West, on Monday called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to arrange for the replacement of lost voters' identity (ID) cards to be done at registration centres instead of the office of the EC where they could be manipulated.
He told the GNA in Kumasi that in his constituency, where accessibility and transportation is a problem, asking those who have lost their ID cards to travel to the district capital to obtain new ones, is another way of telling them to completely forget about voting in the coming elections.
This, he said, could seriously undermine the fairness and transparency of the on-going voters' registration exercise and adversely impact on the outcome of the 2000 general election and asked the EC to act quickly to make replacement of the ID cards more convenient to the electorate.
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