NDC claims collective responsibility for Quality Grains Affair
I heard of my appointment in traffic - Army Commander
Another expatriate assaults Ghanaian worker
President Kufuor calls for more assistance for informal sector
Accra
(Greater Accra) 08 May 2001
President
John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday appealed to donor agencies and Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGO's) for more assistance for the informal sector to contribute
its quota to national development.
He said
the sector is huge and made up mostly of the unemployed, the
youth
and women who are enterprising and hard-working, and who with a little
financial assistance could have good prospects.
President
Kufuor made the appeal when Mr Charles L. Dokmo, President of
Opportunity
International (US) led a delegation to pay a courtesy call on him in Accra.
Opportunity
International is a subsidiary of Opportunity International
Network
(OIN), a global micro-financing institution working in partnership with Sinapi
Aba Trust in Ghana to assist small and micro enterprises in urban, sub-urban
and rural communities.
President
Kufuor said: "Ghana at this stage needs more assistance from
such
organisations because there is so much we can do together at the micro level
for the youth who are adventurous enough to be able create the 100,000 jobs we
promised during the first year."
Mr
Dokmo said the OIN, established about 30 years ago by Christian
businessmen
has branches in 25 countries with an annual turn over of about 63 million
dollars. It has created 400,000 jobs for over 250,000 people.
He
pledged support for the Ghanaian business community and Christian institutions
to create more employment avenues.
The
Reverend Kwabena Darko, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sinapi Aba Trust
said OIN has planned to raise about 10 million dollars to assist the poor in
micro financing.
He said
the Trust, which began operations in Ghana about six years ago has granted
loans to the tune of over 12 billion cedis to 22,617 needy and poor people in
addition to one million dollars financial assistance from the USAID for
disbursement to the poor to reduce poverty.
Rev.
Darko who is also an industrialist said the Trust is the leading
micro-credit
partner in Africa with the talents and know-how to assist poor people to fend
for themselves.
GRi.../
New-Tadzewu
(Volta Region) 08 May 2001
The Headmaster
of Denu Three-Town Secondary School, Mr David Melody Dotsey, on Saturday urged
the Judiciary to ensure that justice is fairly dispensed to ensure freedom and
justice in the country.
He said, in a
situation where the judiciary is unduly influenced and disrespected by people
in authority, it could result in discontent and breach of law and order.
Mr Dotsey was
presenting a paper on "The Constitution and You," at a durbar of
chiefs and people of the Ketu district at New-Tadzewu, to climax the
Constitutional Week Celebration.
Judiciary He
noted that the only avenue for Ghanaians to seek redress is the and all efforts
should be made to ensure its efficiency.
He urged
Ghanaians to protect the 1992 Constitution, adding, this responsibility should
not be left in the hands of only people wielding political authority.
Mr Dotsey
urged Ghanaians to be alive to their responsibilities and said rights and
duties are synonymous.
He advised
them to exercise their rights of choosing representatives to parliament and
other key positions positively, and to ensure that they are constantly kept on
their toes.
The District
Co-ordinating Director Mr Ernest Nyagbe appealed to the NCCE to make available
copies of the 1992 Constitution to the public and to also translate it in
vernacular as many people are ignorant of their rights.
He urged
religious leaders to consolidate the country's democracy by being conversant
with the constitution and to educate their followers on rights.
Miss Joyce
Kulevo of the Department of Social Welfare, advised divorced parents to ensure
that the welfare of their children is enhanced and to protect them against
discrimination, violence, abuse, that affects their development.
She said the
Children's Act should be respected to ensure the protection of their rights.
Prior to the
durbar, the District Director of NCCE, Madam Modesta Anne
Sapaty,
stressed the need for women to involve themselves in decision making and to
contribute their quota to national development and also urged them not to limit
their responsibilities to the home.
He urged
Ghanaians to co-operate with the ministry of health to prevent the spread of
HIV/AIDS, which has assumed an alarming proportion.
GRi…/
Zebilla (Upper
East) 08 May 2001
Members of the
Bawku West District Assembly on Monday voted unanimously at Zebilla to confirm
Mr. Moses Abaare Appiah, who has been nominated by President J.A. Kufuor, as
District Chief Executive (DCE).
Out of a total
of 45 assembly members, all 37, who were present, endorsed Mr. Appiah's
nomination.
In an
acceptance speech, the new DCE thanked the President for nominating him for the
post.
He expressed
gratitude to members of the assembly for their support and
pledged to tap
the expertise of all, irrespective of their political affiliations, for the
development of the district.
The Upper East
Regional Minister, Mr. Mahami Salifu, commended the assembly members for their demonstration
of a unified purpose.
Mr. Salifu
said the government has an open door policy for all Ghanaians, no matter their
political affiliations.
He said the
DCE is a representative of all residents of the district and not for his
electoral area alone.
The Regional
Minister,therefore, advised Mr Appiah to be "tolerant and accommodating,
to enable you to steer the affairs of the area to the satisfaction of
all."
He also urged
assembly members to assist the DCE to fight poverty and disease through education.
Officials of
the district office of the Electoral Commission (EC) supervised the election.
GRi…/
Accra (Greater
Accra) 08 May 2001
The National
Democratic Congress (NDC) on Monday expressed solidarity with three senior
officials of the former government and two civil servants charged for their
various roles in the 20-million dollar
Quality Grains
project at Aveyime in the Volta Region.
The party said
the affected officials were carrying out government policy and implementing
government decisions, adding that it is unfair to charge them with criminal
offences when no evidence of wilfulness or culpability has been adduced.
"The
former NDC government holds itself responsible for the Aveyime rice project. We
take collective responsibility and we will stand by our comrades, who are being
made scapegoats and objects of political persecution," Mr John Mahama, MP
for Bole/Bamboi and former Minister of Communications, told a press conference
in Accra.
At a press
conference a couple of weeks ago, Nana Addo-Dankwah
Akuffo-Addo,
Attorney - General and Minister of Justice, said certain former government officials
were to be blamed for the project.
Subsequently,
five officials have been charged on various counts of allegedly causing
financial loss to the state for their various roles in granting guarantees and
loans to an American company undertaking the project.
They are
former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah, former Chief of Staff, Nana Ato Dadzie,
Mr Ibrahim Adam, one time Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr George
Sikpah-Yankee, formerly of the Finance Ministry and Dr Samuel Dapaah, Chief
Director of MOFA.
Mr Mahama, who
was said to be presenting the views of the former Cabinet, said that there was
no basis for charging the ex-ministers and officials with wilfully causing
financial loss to the state.
He said assets
and equipment of the company, valued by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) at over
11 million dollars, are in Ghana and the government could take them over.
The floating
charge, which was part of the agreement worked out by the
former
government, also covers both present and future assets of the company.
This includes
a 7.2 million-dollar fine imposed by an Atlanta Court against the woman at the
centre of the affair, Renee Cotton, in favour of Quality Grains Company.
He said the
Aveyime land has been prepared, the people have been
resettled, electricity,
water and telephone have been extended to the site and the equipment is
available and ready for rice production.
Mr Mahama said
the NPP government itself is convinced that the project is still viable.
He referred to
assertions made by Major Courage Quashigah, Minister of Food and Agriculture,
who is reported to have expressed optimism about the project and had shown
video slides of the state of the art equipment at the site to confirm his
assertion.
Mr Mahama also
quoted this year's budget statement in which Finance
Minister, Yaw
Osafo-Maafo stated that government was drawing up a programme to fully utilise
the 100,000 metric tons per year world class rice mill at the project site to
its fullest capacity.
He said the
NPP government subsequently granted a further loan of 25
million cedis
to the company from the Farmers' Day account.
On the
reported frivolous expenditure on houses, expensive cars, jewellery, church
donations and payment of US taxes, the former cabinet spokesman said documents
have shown that they had nothing to do with Ghana or Ghanaian officials charged
by the Attorney-General.
He admitted,
however, that the project at a point was confronted with a lot of obstacles,
"not the least of which was the cantankerous attitude of Mrs Renee Cotton,
the Chief Executive of the company."
He said at a
point when the problems surfaced, the former Vice President John Atta Mills
convened a meeting of all sectors including the SFO to look into the affair.
In answer to a
question, Mr Mahama said the former cabinet guaranteed the loans for Mrs Cotton
based on convincing written and oral presentations from the company.
He said the
former government would have done so for any Ghanaian investor.
Mr Mahama said
once the overall project and the original guarantee had been approved by
Parliament, it was not necessary for the subsequent supplementary loans to go
through fresh approval by the House.
At the Press
conference were Mr Kwaku Baah, Vice-Chairman of the NDC,
Alhaji Huudu
Yahaya, General Secretary and some former ministers.
GRi…/
Accra
(Greater Accra) 08 May 2001
The
casket containing the ashes of Mr Kow Nkensen Arkaah, former Vice President,
who died in the US on April 26 and was cremated last Friday was flown home on
Monday.
At the
airport to receive the ashes were family members, including two
of his
daughters, Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister for Presidential Affairs, Sheikh
I. C. Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, Service Commanders and well
wishers.
The
casket draped in the national colours and carried by Warrant Officer
Class
One Ankomah of the Airforce Base was accompanied by his widow Mrs Marian Arkaah
and his son, Kofi Arkaah.
The
casket was met at the foot of the gangway by a detachment from the
Ghana
Air Force, made up 10 officers and 60 men who performed a special military
format as a sign of respect to the late former Vice President.
The ashes
were then handed over to family members after which, the Rt.
Rev.
Asante Antwi, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, said a prayer.
The
ashes of Arkaah, 73, will be buried on Saturday at Winneba.
GRi.../
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Kumasi
(Ashanti Region) 08 May 2001
Nana Akwasi
Agyeman, former Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive has pledged to support
President John Agyekum Kufuor and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The former
Special Envoy to former President J. J. Rawlings said, "I am ever ready to
offer any form of assistance to the President, the new mayor of Kumasi and the
party".
Nana Agyeman
said he has served under several governments and worked with many Presidents,
who were not related to him in any way so he does not see why he should not
support President Kufuor, who is a relative.
He was
speaking at a reception organised by the Ashanti Region branch of NPP to welcome
the new Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Maxwell Jumah in Kumasi at the
weekend.
The Ashanti
Regional Minister, Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, who chaired the
function,
called for reconciliation in the region and the country in general.
He said it is
indisputable that Kumasi is in a deplorable state, but there should not be any
time wasting by pointing accusing fingers at people, noting that no one would
be victimised because of political affiliation.
He called for
all hands to be on the deck to forge ahead in restoring Kumasi to its glory as
the "Garden City of West Africa".
Mr Jumah
expressed gratitude to the people for their support and
co-operation,
saying Kumasi needs to be reconstructed and commended the former mayors of the
city for their advice and promised to contact them whenever the occasion
demands.
Present at the
reception were six former mayors of Kumasi, Ministers of
State,
Personal Assistants to President Kufuor, Members of Parliament and functionaries of the NPP.
GRi…/
Kumasi
(Ashanti Region) 08 May 2001
Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu,
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Monday expressed concern
about the poor performance in the property rate collection by, the Accra,
Kumasi and Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan and Tema Municipal Assemblies.
Mr Baah-Wiredu
observed that if the four were to significantly improve their performance in
property rate collection, they would not need to be allocated the District
Assemblies' Common Fund.
He said these
when he joined the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo and
members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to introduce the new Kumasi
Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, to the Asantehene, Otumfuo
Osei Tutu II at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.
The Minister
said if these assemblies were able to generate enough revenue much more money
could be given to less endowed districts like Sene, Jomoro and Asutifi.
Mr Baah-Wiredu
said four Sub-Metropolitan Councils in Kumasi would be reconstituted within the
next one month and made more functional to lessen the workload on the
Metropolitan Chief Executive.
The Minister
said the government has a clear sense of development direction for the country
and would achieve targets set within the first four-year term.
Otumfuo Osei
Tutu told the new Metropolitan Chief Executive to be firm and fair in the
performance of his duties.
He said under
no circumstance should he bend the rules to favour anyone or group, pointing
out that it was by doing this that he would justify the trust and confidence
the President has in him.
The Asantehene
asked Mr Jumah to take a critical look at ways of addressing the indiscipline
and leakage in the KMA's revenue collection system.
Otumfuo Osei
Tutu said it was also important for the KMA, the Town and
Country
Planning, Lands Commission and the chiefs to ensure effective collaboration to remove indiscipline in the
land administration of Kumasi.
Mr Boafo
called on the chiefs to give the KMA boss every necessary
co-operation
and support.
Mr Jumah
pledged to render honest, transparent and dedicated service to improve on the
living conditions in the Metropolis.
GRi…/
Accra (Greater
Accra) 08 May 2001
The US
government is to assist and support the Ghana Armed Forces to be more
resourceful and effective in peacekeeping operations, both within and outside
the country.
It would also
help with logistics, make it more competitive and help
create more
income generating ventures.
Dr Kwame
Addo-Kufuor, Minister for Defence, said this at the airport on
Monday on his
return from the US, where he held discussions with officials of the US National
Security Council, the Pentagon and the African Centre for Strategic Studies.
Dr Addo-Kufuor
said the US Department of Transport and the US Coast
Guards have
agreed to transfer four naval vessels to help protect marine resource and
prevent poaching of fish in Ghanaian water by foreign vessels.
He said the first
of such vessels would arrive in the country by next
week with the
rest arriving within the next three months.
The Defence
Minister said a helicopter for an aerial surveillance would also be included.
Dr Addo-Kufuor
said that currently the US Navy is negotiating with the
Nogouchi
Centre for Medical Research to intensify the search for a malaria vaccine.
He said
research into malaria has not received enough attention and a top US doctor
would soon arrive in the country to collaborate with the Nogouchi Centre.
He said the
interest in malaria stems from the fact that some of the
operations of
the US military are in the tropics.
Dr
Addo-Kufuor, who described Ghana-US relations as very good, said
Ghana now
enjoys a lot of goodwill in the US as a result of the peaceful elections and
transition and government's effort to entrench democracy.
GRi…/
Accra (Greater
Accra) 08 May 2001
Sheikh Ibrahim
Codjoe Quaye, Greater Accra Regional Minister, on Monday urged Ga Chiefs to
instil moral discipline and traditional values in the youth in spite of the
region assuming a cosmopolitan status.
He said:
"The region being the seat of government has attracted people from across
the spectrum of the nation with different social and cultural backgrounds which
have impacted heavily on the traditions of the Gas."
Sheikh Quaye
said this during a call on him by a delegation of the Ga Rural Chiefs
Association to render an unqualified apology to the minister and dissociate
itself from confusion at a Ga District Assembly meeting recently.
Nii Samuel A.
Mohenu, Chief of Abokobi and Naa Dede Oblea I, Queenmother of Amasaman, led the
five-member delegation.
The regional
minister was confronted by Mr Kwao Sackey, District
Co-ordinator
of the National Commission for Civic Education, and accused him of interfering
in the affairs of the assembly.
According to
Mr Sackey, former ministers dictated to the assembly to the detriment of the
community and he would, therefore, not allow such dictatorship again.
Sheikh Quaye
said he stands for unity and total development of the
region and
would not allow any negative distractions.
He called on
the chiefs to unite and mobilise their people for development.
The Minister
noted with appreciation the initiative of the chiefs and urged them to foster
unity at all times, irrespective of tribe, affiliation to political parties or
religion.
GRi…/
Obuasi
(Western Region) 08 May 2001
Journalists
have been called upon to spearhead the education of the public on fire safety
and general principles of fire fighting.
Mr Albert
Brown Gaisie, Ashanti Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service
(GNFS), who made the call noted that journalists represent the public and,
therefore, they should assist the GNFS to educate them on what they should know
about fire.
Mr Gaisie, who
was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Obuasi at the
weekend, said fire safety is very important to everyone since fire do not
respect any group of people.
He stressed
the need for journalists to avail themselves of opportunities that would enable
them to know the principles of fire safety as well as basic fire fighting
skills to help them inform the public better.
Mr Gaisie, who
is also Deputy Chief Fire Officer, observed that by regularly using their
writings to educate the public on fire, journalists would be contributing to
the protection of individual and national assets.
The Deputy
Chief Officer, who later closed a week's workshop on fire safety and basic fire
fighting skills for 15 participants drawn from the estates department of the
Obuasi mine of the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), noted, "we should all
contribute to make zero tolerance in fire disasters".
He urged the
participants to organise themselves into fire volunteers on the mine and in the
community.
Mr Alan Dods,
managing Director of Obuasi and Ayanfuri mines, emphasised that AGC and GNFS
would forge closer collaborations to sustain the training programme.
Mr Y. B.
Amponsah, Human Resources Manager of Obuasi mines, said the mine had been
graded three-star on safety, adding that the training programme would be
expanded to cover the entire workforce of the mines.
GRi…/
Offinso
(Ashanti Region) 08 May 2001
The Offinso
Traditional Council will not only offer sponsorship to brilliant and needy students
but also give recognition, respect and honour to distinguished and renowned
citizens, who have contributed in diverse ways to the district's development.
In a statement
signed by Nana Kwasi Kumah, Gyaasehene of Offinso, outlining a series of programmes
drawn-up to honour some citizens, the Council stressed its commitment to
reconcile and unite all the people of Offinso to promote healthy and peaceful
co-existence for accelerated development and progress.
The Council
has scheduled a grand durbar for Saturday, May 19 to honour Dr Kofi Konadu
Apraku, MP for Offinso North and Minister of Trade and Industry and Mr Albert
Kan Dapaah, MP for Afigya-Sekyere and Minister of Energy on their appointment
and elevation to the high office of Cabinet Ministers.
The durbar,
the statement said, would also be used to honour citizens, who have contributed
immensely towards the development of the district and those who ensured
peaceful elections in the area last year.
It said
candidates, who contested for last year's and the previous parliamentary
elections irrespective of their political divide would also be honoured as well
as former District Chief Executives, who performed creditably.
GRi…/
Tamale
(Northern Region) 08 May 2001
The Acting
Army Commander, Brigadier Clayton Yaache on Monday said he heard of his
appointment while in traffic and expressed the hope that he would be confirmed.
"I never
had a foreknowledge of my appointment. I was in traffic when I heard of my
appointment," Brigadier Yaache told newsmen in Tamale in answer to a
question on the circumstances surrounding his appointment.
Brigadier
Yaache, who is in Tamale on a familiarisation tour of the Sixth Battalion of
Infantry and the Airborne Force, said he knew what is at stake and has resolved
to live up to expectation.
He inspected
the two barracks and military installations.
GRi…/
Another expatriate assaults Ghanaian worker
Sunyani
(Brong Ahafo) 08 May 2001
James
Slavery, an expatriate worker of Ellis Mechanical Services, a sub-contracting firm
working on the new regional hospital in Sunyani was on Saturday arrested by the
Police for an unprovoked assault on one of his security men.
Holding
a stone in his hand, he was alleged to have punched and slapped Mr Raphael
Ayamba, the security man, a number of times causing him to bleed profusely from
the nose.
Mr
Ayamba's crime was that he had behaved insolently towards Slavery's
Ghanaian
girlfriend by refusing her entry into his house, even though, the standing
drill is that no unauthorised or unaccompanied guest is to be allowed inside
the house.
A
reliable source told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani at the weekend that
Mr Ayamba together with another Security man was on duty in the house at the
airport residential area of Sunyani, where the expatriate staffs of the company
live.
He said
on Friday night, Slavery repeated the standing drill to the Security men before
he left the house.
Just a
few minutes after his departure, Juliana Awuah, a girlfriend of
Slavery,
came around and insisted that she should be allowed to wait for him inside the
house but the Security men refused.
The
source said Juliana ignored them and attempted to force her way into
the
house but Mr Ayamba pulled her out.
Two
hours after the encounter Slavery returned with Juliana and when Mr
Ayamba
opened the gate for them, his boss came out of the car and punched and slapped
him.
"With
a bloodied face, Mr Ayamba left for the house of his brother Paul
Zangina,
who accompanied him to the hospital for treatment and later to the Police
station to lodge a complaint".
When
the GNA contacted the Sunyani Police Station at about 14:00 hours on Saturday,
Slavery in a pair of shorts, bathroom sandals and a T-shirt, was still being
detained.
The
Police said the expatriate staffs of the company, together with the
family
of Mr Ayamba have requested that the case be withdrawn for amicable settlement.
Mr
Ayamba also confirmed that efforts were being made by his superiors and family
members to settle the case out of the court.
GR.../