Let’s not politicise tragedy – President tells Ghanaians
Govt sets up Trust Fund for victims
Minister: I will resign if….
E.T. Mendah detained
Church return ‘fire’ in drums war
Shock tears, anger
AFC calls for probe into Kume Preko deaths
Rawlings bodyguards to be withdrawn
9 Top NDC men to refund 77 billion cedis
Agyenim Boateng is dead
Inflation Declines in April But Pressures Remain
Where were the Emergency Services?
Let’s not politicise tragedy – President tells Ghanaians
The President, Mr. J. Kufuor, has asked Ghanains to ensure that they resist attempts by “fringe elements” who would want to politicies the tragedy that has befallen the nation.
In an address at the inter-faith service held on Sunday at the forecourt of the State House in remembrance of the 126 people who died at the Accra Sports Stadium last Wednesday, the President said Ghanaians should rather be united and ensure that the nation triumphs in its moment of grief and pain.
“This nation has come through many trying episodes and when we have triumphed, it has been because we have stood together as one people.
“What we need most at this time, is to foster a sense of unity, of fellowship and human solidarity and thereby overcome our predicament. That is our tradition, that is our way of doing things. And there is no reason to abandon such a virtue,” the President stressed.
President Kufuor reiterated his appeal to all Ghanaians to exercise maximum restraint during this trying moments and allow the proper procedures for the identification and punishment of all those found to be responsible for the unfortunate tragedy.
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Govt sets up Trust Fund for victims
The government has announced the establishment of a National Trust Fund for victims of last Wednesday’s Accra Stadium disaster.
Mr J.H. Mensah, Minister of Government Busines and Chairman of the Stadium Disaster Funeral Committee, announced this on Sunday at the inter-faith service in memory of the deceased, which was held a the forecourt of the State House in Accra.
He said the incident has left in its trail, widows and orphans and other dependants whose source of livelihood have been affected by the death of their loved ones as well as the trauma the survivors are going to experience and explained that the fund is intended to help support such people.
He, therefore, appealed to all well-meaning Ghanaians who want to contribute to the fund to send their donations to the various banks nationwide, where accounts for the fund would be open today.
In response to the appeal, Ghana Telecom presented a cheque for 40 million cedis while the African diplomatic Corp is expected to make a donation today. Guinness Ghana Limited and other institutions have made donations.
Mr Mensah also disclosed that the government will bear full responsibility of all the expenses incurred since the tragedy occurred.
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Minister: I will resign if….
The Minister of the interior, Alhaji Alhassan Malik Yakubu, at the weekend expressed his readiness to resign his post if it was found that the Accra Stadium tragedy was due to the inaction or otherwise of his Ministry.
“We of the NPP are not crazy about our jobs and I am ready to resign if anything can be attributed to me,” he said.
Speaking to the ‘Times’ last Friday in a telephone interview, the Minister said that the government had been in office for only three months and that if the police had been there all these years without the necessary equipment, the government could not be blamed.
Alhaji Yakubu described the mob action at Nima as very unfortunate since the government had instituted various measures to mitigate the effects of the tragedy.
He agreed that the traumatic way in which the people died was very touching but said that Ghana’s greatest assets of gentility and peacefulness should no be sacrificed.
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E.T. Mendah detained
Mr Enock . Mensadh, former Minister of Youth and Sports, was at the weekend detained by he Greater Accra Regional Office of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), for security reasons.
This was contained in a Joy FM news bulletin on Sunday.
Mr Mensah, in protest against his arrest, was said to have embarked on a hunger strike and said that he was a prisoner of conscience.
The bulletin said that Mr Mensah’s detention was based on allegations that he was responsible for organizing some youth of Nima to go on rampage, following the stadium disaster which claimed many lives.
According to the bulletin, the bulletin, the former Minister was questioned for less than 15 minutes, after which the BNI boss, Mr Jones Ofori, ordered his detention.
Mr Mensah, the report said denied the allegations and explained that he was hailed b the youth when he visited the 37 Military Hospital as a member of the Parliaemntary delegation.
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Church return ‘fire’ in drums war
Christ Apostolic Church, the oldest and possibly the biggest Pentecostal church and another Charismatic church, El-Shaddai, on Sunday became the first victims of the recurring problem of the ban on drumming by traditional groups in Accra.
Militant youth stormed the CAC church building while service was going on and resorted to smashing up the place, destroying glass windows in the just re-habilitated multi million cedi Osu headquarters branch of the church.
Eye witness accounts noted the absence of enthusiasm from policemen at the site, already under pressure for their role in the ill-fated stadium disaster. They were alleged to have failed to restrain the youth from entering the church premises.
Dramatically, the assailants met with fierce resistance from church members who refused to lie down and be trampled on. They returned the violent confrontation with equal zeal and a number of people sustained injuries.
The General Secretary of the church Rev. Annor-Yeboah later appealed for a long lasting solution to what has now become an annual ritual of tensions and anxieties over the right to worship in peace in Accra.
Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, Overseer of the International Bible Worship Centre (IBWC) had earlier cautioned that the authorities should be particularly vigilant and proactive this month since the period of agitation for ban on ‘noisemaking’ (drumming and singing) had dawned again.
Some of the Christian groups are growing restless and the mood to adopt a more militant resistance stance is gaining ground and they constitute a huge force with superior numerical advantage.
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Shock tears, anger
As the nation sheds tears, grieving and counting its loss following he carnage a the Accra Spots Stadium last Wednesday, rampaging youths a Nima, a suburb of Accra, have given a whole new dimension to this incalculable trauma and national disaster in which several spectators lost their lives.
About 127 spectators lost their lives out o which about 50 are said to come from Nima.
In protest against the loss of their brothers and sisters, tear gassed to death by the police as they tried to get out of the stadium last Wednesday, the Nima youth last Friday went on the rampage destroying everything in sight.
Burning the effigy of President J.A. Kufuor, they chanted was songs such as “We want J.J. Down J.A. Kufuor, No more police but 64 Battalion (Commandos)”. They broke down lotto Kiosks, sign boards, tables and attacked the Pan African Hotel located at the Nima Round-about.
The hotel belongs to Mr. S.T. Kwame the campaign manager of Mr Charles Kofi Wayo the defeated NPP parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso East.
Bearing NDC flags, they charged into the hotel premises and pillaged the hotel’s stock of drinks and an amount of money, being sales at the time.
After vandalising the hotel they marched to the Nima police station to attack it.
The situation was so uncontrollable that re-inforcement had to be sought from the military who responded promptly by sending a detachment of the Recce Rregiment to come and maintain ode at the police station.
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AFC calls for probe into Kume Preko deaths
The leaders of the 1995 Kume Preko march have called on the government to institute a proper investigation into the death of four of the demonstrators.
The group which organised the demonstration under the name Alliance for Change (AFC), made the call at a news conference in Accra last Friday to mark the 6th anniversary of the demonstration.
The conference which was attended by Kweku Baako Junior and Kwesi Prott Junior, leading members of the AFC stated that functionaries of the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) government were responsible for the death of the demonstrators.
The Kume Preko demonstrations was in protest against the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the poor living conditions of people.
The AFC called on the new administration to open enquiries into the killings because according to them the previous government deliberately shielded those behind the killings.
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Rawlings bodyguards to be withdrawn
Hours before ex-president J.J. Rawlings enplaned for his U.S. and Japan trip last Tuesday evening, he was faced with a traumatic confrontation which reminded him that with his departure as president of the country, the neceties and the privileges he enjoyed during the past 20 years were gone for good.
He was visited by the IGP, Mr. Owusu Poku, Col. Gbena, the acting Chief of Defence Staff and some personnel who told him straight in the face that they had been instructed to take away his military bodyguards and replace them with policemen.
According to sources, the information caught the ex-president flatfooted. He did a quick thinking and reacted instantly and said he trusts his bodyguards who have guarded him for years. He further told the “messengers” that he would have none of the police guards and that if the NPP persists, he would like to be his own bodyguard. The source went on and said he further told his unpleasant visitors that he was travelling that very day and that they could rest the matter until he comes back from his trip.
Meanwhile, a press release from the ex-president office said Fl. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings was travelling to Washington D.C. on Tuesday May 8, 2001 at the invitation of the Bethune-DuBois Institute to receive the BDI International Award, in recognition of his spectacular record of public service to Africa and specifically o Ghana.
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9 Top NDC men to refund 77 billion cedis
Evidence gathered by The Dispatch has revealed that nine top members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are prepared to refund as much as $11 million, about 77 billion cedis.
The only sang, sources have hinted, is how to refund the monies without being tried in the law courts. What they are also worried about is where their colleagues in the party won’t feel betrayed.
There are indications that some members of the NDC are trying to push through suggestions that any former member of members put on trial in the law courts should have collective defence. This idea, it is said, is being fiercely resisted by some party members.
Sources close to some security agencies confirmed that some professionals who acted as agents of overseas companies managed, with political influence, to have contracts skewed in their favour after payment of kickbacks, have been very forthcoming with information. Although such people have not been granted what they asked for, there are indications that the government will have to come to some form of agreement if they are to get enough information for successful prosecution.
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Agyenim Boateng is dead
The sudden death is reported on Saturday of Mr Joseph Agyenim Boateng, a veteran politician and former General Secretary of the NPP.
According to a family spokesman, Mr Agyenim Boateng who complained of difficulty in breathing on Saturday morning, was pronounced dead when he was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
An energetic stalwart of the Danquah-Busia tradition, the late Mr Agyenim Boateng, who trained as a Trade Unionist, was an Organiser of the erstwhile Progress Party and Deputy General Secretary in the Popular Front Party.
A live-wire of he Danquah-Busia club he was instrumental in the formation of the NPP and became its General Secretary, a position he held until August 1998.
He was 63 and left behind a wife and six children.
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Inflation Declines in April But Pressures Remain
The latest figures emanating from the statistical services indicate that inflation may finally be on the decline.
According to the Consumer Price Index computed by the Statistical Services, prices across Ghana rose by only 2.5% in April.
This amounts to on annualised 30%, well below the 40.5% inflation rate recorded for 2000.
Indeed, 12 month, year-on-year inflation for period up to April 2001 was 39.5%, marginally lower than the 12 month inflation figure for last year.
April’s inflation is more or less consistent with the 2.46% average rate of general price increases recorded in March indicating that inflation possibly has stabilised.
Instructively, April’s price increases were propelled primarily by the transport and communications sector, an indication that the 60% fuel increases implemented in January are still having a ripple effect on transport cost, which rose by 8.4% in April alone.
Food and beverages which account for half of the entire basket used in computing the CPI, rose by 2.4% in April.
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Where were the Emergency Services?
When disaster struck at the Accra Sports Stadium last Wednesday, the government acted expeditiously, but lacked the vital resources of emergency services. Where were the emergency services then? After 44 years of independence, we have not been able to create structures to handle emergencies. Indeed, the National Fire Service was no where to be seen and since we do not have a National Ambulance Service, no one expected ambulances at all. It was left for individuals, with no training in emergencies to handle victims as best as they would.
After 44 years of independence, the state has failed its people. That’s why the call for positive change is as relevant as it is vital. We all have to brace overselves to change this country. It is no business as usual. Yes, there were peaceful elections, but the war will still have to be fought, and that is the war to change our attitudes to achieve positive change. That means going back to the drawing board of independence and viturally starting room the scratch.
Are we as a people prepared intellectually? Do we have the physical stamina? Well, if we want positive change, we MUST get intellectually and creatively active and hone our stamiana as well, for, how could we have used our post independence period to destroy all vestiges of civilization, like emergency services?
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