GRi Press Review
Ghana 08 - 05 - 2001
Mallam Isa
in court
NDC objects
to charges against Peprah, others
Ex-KMA boss
pledges support for Kufuor
Asantehene's
Palace raided
Pastor
before court for armed robbery
'Govt will
create conducive atmosphere for NGOs'
Criminal
libel law before Parliament
Elmina
Police search for fetish priest
No room for
coup plotters
Govt loses
over 40 bn cedis
Mallam Isa
in court
The Daily
Graphic reports that the ex-Minister of Youth and Sports, Mallam Ali Yusuf Isa,
who is at the centre of the saga surrounding the missing $46,000 belonging to
the Ghana Football Association (GFA), on Monday made his first appearance at an
Accra High Court.
Mallam Isa,
who stands accused of stealing and fraudulently causing financial loss to the
state, pleaded not guilty to both charges and was granted bail in the sum of
500 million cedis with a surety to be justified. He would re-appear on May 14.
The court
ordered the surety to deposit the title deed of a landed property with the
registry of the court as part of the bail bond.
The former
Minister would also report to the head office of the police Criminal
Investigations Department (CID) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week,
until the determination of the case.
More…/
NDC objects
to charges against Peprah, others
The
National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described charges brought against
certain high ranking functionaries of the former government as representing the
first step in the long-stated objective of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to
find scapegoats to rationalise the call for vengeance from a section of the
party.
"It is
also part of the grand design to cause disenchantment among NDC faithfuls in
the hope that it would dismember the party," it said.
Mr John
Mahama, former Minister of Communications, stated this on behalf of the NDC at
a news conference in Accra on Monday in reaction to charges preferred against
Nana Ato Dadzie, ex-Chief of Staff; Mr Kwame Peprah, ex-Finance Minister; Mr
Ibrahim Adam, onetime Minister of Food and Agriculture, and others in
connection with the Quality Grain Company Limited at Aveyime.
He
explained that the charges brought against the leading members of the party
have nothing to do with alleged acts of corruption, embezzlement or financial
malfeasance but rather an attack on the exercise of judgment and discretion on
the part of the affected officials.
"If
that is to be the subject of criminal charges, then all the NPP officials who
have supported the project and actually caused monies to be paid to the project
since they came to power must be similarly charged," Mr Mahama said,
according to Graphic.
More…/
Ex-KMA boss
pledges support for Kufuor
Okumkom
Nana Akwasi Aguyemang, immediate past Chief Executive of the Kumasi
Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), has pledged his unflinching support for President
J.A. Kufuor and his government.
Nana
Akwasi, a pillar of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), stated
that he would support policies and make personal contributions towards
programmes initiated by the Kufuor administration to promote national
development, integration and reconciliation.
Nana
Akwasi, who until the defeat of the NDC in last December's general elections in
Kumasi was the Special Envoy to former President J.J. Rawlings, was speaking at
a reception organized by friends of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and
the Ashanti Regional NPP in honour of the new KMA Chief Executive, Mr. Maxwell
Dwumah, alias Kofi Ghana.
"I am
ever ready to offer any form of assistance to the President, the new mayor and
the NPP," Okumkom told the gathering.
GRi…/
Send your
comments to news@ghanareview.com
Asantehene's
Palace raided
The Kumasi
Police have mounted an intensive search for a gang of robbers who raided the
Asantehene's Secretariat at Manhyia in Kumasi on Friday, reports 'The Ghanaian
Times'.
They made
away with 45 pieces of assorted wax prints, four pieces of men's kente cloth, a
piece of ladies' kente cloth and other items worth millions of cedis.
Chief
Inspector Kwasi Ofori of the Ashanti Region Police Public Relations Unit told
the 'Times' on Monday that the early Friday burglary had been reported to the
police by Nana Adu, Adwarehene of the Asantehene.
In another
development, the timely intervention of policemen from the Buffalo Unit on
night patrol duty foiled an attempt by a gang of armed robbers to break into a
textiles shop at Adum, the nerve-centre of commercial activity in the Kumasi
Metropolis, in the early hours of Monday.
The
robbers, who engaged in a gun-battle with the policemen, eventually fled
leaving behind their Toyota Commuter bus.
More…/
Pastor
before court for armed robbery
A Pastor,
believed to be one of five armed robbers, who attacked and robbed the Reverend
Father Marek Dabrowski, a Dutch expatriate Father-in-charge of the Kwahu Tafo
Roman Catholic Church, appeared before a circuit court, at Mpraeso on Friday.
The plea of
Emmanuel Amuzu, of Prophet Revival Church in Accra, was not taken and he was
remanded in prison custody until May 16.
Prosecuting,
Police inspector Alex Gyamera Acheampong told the court that Amuzu and four
others now on the run, stormed the Catholic parish on April 23, armed with a
gun, cutlasses and a hammer. They tied the hands of the watchman of the parish
and broke into Rev. Father Dabrowski's room.
The
suspects took away 10 million cedis, 5,000 Deutsch marks, a video and cameras.
They
assaulted Rev. Father Dabrowski, using cutlasses, as a result of which he
sustained injuries.
The armed
robbers also took the ignition keys of two vehicles at the parish.
Inspector
Acheampong said that Father Dabrowski raised an alarm and Amuzu and his
colleagues bolted.
He reported
the matter to the police at Kwahu Tafo and Amuzu was arrested.
The police,
Inspector Acheampong said were making efforts to arrest the other four
suspects.
GRi…/
Send your
comments to news@ghanareview.com
'Govt will
create conducive atmosphere for NGOs'
The Evening
News quotes Mr Mogtari Sahanun, Upper West Regional Minister, as saying that
the NPP government is committed to ensuring that a free and conducive
environment is created to facilitate the activities of Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) and community initiatives in the development of the
country.
He said
provided the operations and activities of an NGO do not infringe the laws of
the land, they would enjoy the fullest co-operation and support of the
government to function effectively.
"It is
against this background that government is supporting and protecting the rights
of every individual in his or her bid to brighten the corner that he or she
finds himself or herself", he added.
Mr Sahanun
was speaking at the launch of the celebration of the World Red Cross Society
Week at Wa.
He
commended the Red Cross Society for its humanitarian services to mankind and
urged it to go beyond distribution of relief items to resource mobilizations.
GRi…/
Send your
comments to news@ghanareview.com
Criminal
libel law before Parliament
The
Statesman says Parliament resumes on Tuesday from the Easter recess, with the
much-awaited National Reconciliation Commission Bill and the Criminal Code
(Criminal Libel and Sedition Repeal Amendment) Bill slated for enactment during
its 12-week sitting.
According
to the agenda for the Second Session of the Third Parliament, issued by the
Clerk's office last Friday, three Papers, one Legislative Instrument (LI) and
60 Questions will be tabled for discussion and approval during this meeting.
The Papers
are the Report of the Auditor-General, 1998 Consolidated Fund, Annual Report of
the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for 1999 and
report on Constitution Act of the African Union.
The
Legislative Instrument is the Fire-Precaution Regulation.
GRi…/
Send your
comments to news@ghanareview.com
Elmina
Police search for fetish priest
The Elmina
Police in the Central Region, according to the Public Agenda, are searching for
a self-styled fetish priest who allegedly subjected two women to
trial-by-ordeal that resulted in the death of one of the victims.
This
development follows formal complaints by the Central Regional secretariat of
the Commission on Human and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), after initial
investigation when this paper published the story in February this year.
Upon the
report, the police invited the surviving victims, Efua Awortwe, and the man
behind the two women's ordeal, Satikudjo, for interrogation.
The police
after investigations gave Satikudjo ultimatum to produce the priest but he them
during the interrogations that the he (the priest) had vacated the area.
In a rather
bizarre incident the two women, Aba Assifuaba 70, and Efua Awortwe 65, both
from Abeye, a village in the Elmina District in the Central Region, were early
this year falsely accused as witches by their nephew, Satikudjo, a farmer in
the same village.
With the
help of the self-styled fetish priest, the two women were taken through a
trial-by-ordeal till one of them collapsed.
Sensing danger the other falsely agreed and confessed that she was a
witch in order to escape further punishment.
They were
paraded through the main street of the village amidst gong-gong beating and
horn blowing led by the priest.
Barely two
weeks later, the elder of the two, Aba Assifuaba, died under circumstances believed
to be connected to the torture and humiliation she suffered during the trial.
GRi…/
Send your
comments to news@ghanareview.com
No room for
coup plotters
The
President of the Ghana Bar Association, (GBA) Mr Ebow Quarshie has called on
Ghanaians to defend the Constitution and to resist any coup d'etats in the
country, writes The Daily Guide.
He said,
"to consolidate our democracy coup d'etats or violent overthrow of
constitutional regimes should be an anathema and Ghanaians must rise against it
if it should occur".
According
to him, the nation we will succeed against coup d'etats, "if all of us sit
at home and don't send congratulatory messages to the coup plotters, and not
accept positions in that government".
Speaking on
the topic, "The Dynamics of Democratic Consolidation in Shaping State
Institutions" in Accra as part of activities lined up by the National
Commission on Civic Education for the maiden constitutional Week celebration,
Mr Quarshie said no one should be permitted to disturb the orderly progress of
the nation by resorting to force as a means of rising to political office.
He observed
that the duty of the armed forces is not to rule but to defend the nation in
terms of emergency situations adding that they are not to subvert the will of
the people through a military putsch.
Mr Quarshie stressed that if the nation wants to consolidate democracy, then it
must part ways with coup makers.
GRi…/
Send your
comments to news@ghanareview.com
Govt loses
over 40 bn cedis
The
Crusading Guide says while President J.A. Kufuor and his team of experts, among
them Finance Minister Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, are spending sleepless nights to find
a panacea for the economic woes that they had come to inherit, some companies
seem to have gotten away with billions of cedis they owe one of the Government's
revenue collecting institutions.
Findings by
the paper have established that Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS)
has virtually halted the collection of duties certain companies owe it.
Some of the
companies are said to be linked with the NDC and the former First Lady, Nana
Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.
The duties
according to sources at CEPS, total over 40 billion cedis computed at the 1999
exchange rate.
Some of the
companies with the highest tax liability include GODKA GROUP LTD (over 28
billion cedis), COCOPALM HOTEL (14 billion cedis), INTERBETON GH. LTD (7730
million cedis), LAVIVA (over 50 million cedis) and TONDI GH LTD. (309 million
cedis).
Others also
mentioned are KWATSONS IMPEX, SOMOTEX GHANA and PREMIX GH LTD.
GRi…/
Send your comments
to news@ghanareview.com