GRi Press Review
Ghana 23 - 05 - 2001
Joe Aggrey,
27 others get nod
Boy, 13
commits suicide
67 families
collect ¢170m of disaster money
AMA cautions
media against comments on ban on noise
We will
uncover all NDC misdeeds
Plans to
revive Komenda Sugar Factory
Documents
on plastic seats can't be traced
Doctors
call for medical emergency teams
Former MP
and Assemblyman arrested
Ghana to
pay Sahara $16 million
Ex-Ministers
ripped off furnishings - Bartels
Joe Aggrey,
27 others get nod
Parliament
on Tuesday unanimously approved 28 people, including five women, nominated by the
President for deputy ministerial appointments, reports the Daily Graphic.
The
approval followed seven sittings by the Appointments Committee to consider the
nominations made by the President, in accordance with Article 79 of the
Constitution, after which the Chairman of the Committee laid the report on the
vetting of the nominees.
The deputy
ministers designate include Mr Joseph Aggrey, Youth and Sports; Papa
Owusu-Ankomah, Government Business; Mr Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, Local Government
and Rural Development; Mr John Setuni Achuliwor, Transport and Communications;
Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Trade and industries; Nana Akomeah, Tourism; and Mr Edward
Osei-Kwaku, Presidential Affairs.
Others are
Alhaji Mustapha Iddris, Foreign Affairs; Mr Yaw Barimah, Interior Ministry; Mrs
Grace Coleman, Finance; Dr G. Adombila Agambila, also for Finance; Mr Edward
Martey Akita, Defence; Madam Theresa Tagoe, Works and Housing; Mr Clement L.N.
Eldi, Lands, Forestry and Mines and Mr Rashid Bawa, Education.
The rest
include Dr Abdel-Majeed Haroun, Agriculture; Ms Alima Mahama, Local Government
and Rural Development; Mr Issah Ketekewu, Northern Region; Mr Yaw
Adjei-Duffuor, Brong-Ahafo; Mr. Gustav Jonathan Narh-Dometey, Eastern Region;
Mr Samuel Kofi Ahiave Dzamesi, Volta region; Mr Joe Donkor, Manpower
Development and Employment; Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, Energy Ministry; Mrs Anna
Nyamekye, Environment, Science and Technology; Mr Moses Dani Baah, Trade and
Industries; Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Sadique, also for Trade and Industries, and
Ms Gloria Afua Akuffo, Deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice.
The
committee's report said a few petitions were received in respect of some
nominees but were all considered trivial.
More…/
Boy, 13
commits suicide
The body of
a 13-year-old primary six pupil, Joshua Kunya, of the Military Hospital Basic
School in Accra, was on Tuesday morning found hanging on a tree on the school
premises.
The
deceased was in his school uniform neatly tucked in, and was wearing a pair of
white canvas shoes.
According
to a source at the school, Joshua was at the morning assembly, but when the
pupils marched off to their various classrooms, he went outside, ostensibly to
urinate and that was the last time anyone saw him.
The source
said when the class teacher was marking the class attendance register, it was
realized that Joshua was not in class.
It said,
later a plumber who was repairing a burst pipe at the back of the school block
and some pupils who had been asked to tidy up their plots found the deceased
hanging on the tree and they notified the school authorities, who called in the
police and the military police.
What Joshua
probably used to hang himself was the strap of a school bag, black in colour.
Some women
who chanced upon the body could not control their emotions, as they wept
uncontrollably.
Unconfirmed
reports said Joshua's mother collapsed upon hearing the death of her son and
has since been hospitalized at the 37 Military Hospital.
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67 families
collect ¢170m of disaster money
The
Ghanaian Times says 69 bereaved families of the May 9, Accra Stadium disaster have
so far received over ¢170 million being their share of the relief package the
government promised as compensation for them.
Fifteen of
the packages have been transferred to the Ashanti Region, where 14 out of the
118 identified victims lived. The remaining package is for contingency use.
Mr Stephen
Ekow Graves, accountant of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council,
told the 'Times' on Tuesday that they had not encountered any problems with the
disbursement so far.
According
to him, on the average about 10 affected families receive their packages daily
after satisfying the necessary requirements.
The
disbursement, which commenced on Tuesday May 15, was to assist bereaved
families in meeting their funeral expenses. The families are required to
produce a death certificate, a witness and fill a form.
More…/
AMA
cautions media against comments on ban on noise
The Accra
Metropolitan Assembly on Tuesday cautioned radio stations to be circumspect in
their programmes in connection with the ban on drumming and noisemaking in the
Ga Traditional Area, saying that the issue is a "very sensitive one".
A press
release issued on Tuesday and signed by Mr Anthony Obeng, the public Relations
Officer, said that the assembly had noticed that some members of the public who
called radio stations, made statements that tended to inflame passions, while
others accused its bye-laws on noise-making.
It drew the
public's attention to Section 8 of the AMA Abatement of Noise Bye-law 1995,
which states that "a person conducting a religious service shall not cause
music to be played so loudly so as to cause a nuisance to the public and
residents in the area".
It further
states that, "a person may play music in a religious institution or in an
entertainment hall or make address through a public address system so as to be
heard only within the confines of the institution or entertainment hall.
He urged
radio stations to make reference to those sections of the bye-law whenever
there was the need for any programme concerning the ban on noisemaking in the
metropolis.
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We will
uncover all NDC misdeeds
The New
Patriotic Party has accused the NDC of appropriating the term democracy and
human rights as a cloak to cover their dubious desire to sabotage the Kufuor
administration, according to The Evening News.
The party
has therefore reminded Ghanaians that what the NDC calls collective responsibility,
human rights and democracy is a sham and an attempt to stop all ongoing
investigations into their evil regime.
A statement
signed by the Party's Press Secretary, Mr Kwadwo Afari said the policy of non-cooperation
and obstructionism being pursued by the leadership of the NDC would backfire.
"Their
hopes of turning Ghanaians away from the fight against corruption and sabotage
the government will fail because the NPP is really determined to offer nothing
but good leadership to the people of this country", the statement said.
More…/
Plans to
revive Komenda Sugar Factory
The Central
Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) is feverishly planning to resuscitate the
Komenda Sugar Factory.
Mr Isaac
Edumadze, the Regional Minister in an interview with The Evening News said this
is being done to offer job avenues for the teaming unemployed youth in the
Central and Western Regions.
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Documents
on plastic seats can't be traced
The
Ghanaian Chronicle carries that documents covering the acquisition of plastic
seats fixed at the Accra and Kumasi Sports Stadiums, for which the nation
forked out ¢1,731,840,000 cannot be traced by the managers of the stadium
property, the National Sports Council (NSC), months after its purchase.
"Similar
documents on the acquisition of the electronic scoreboard, the floodlight and
the public address system, also bought in the region of several billions of
cedis are also not in our possession," Mr Daniel Otchere Nyanor, Estate
Officer of the National Sports Council (NSC) has disclosed. "There is also
no record of these items in the asset register of the National Sports
Council," he emphasised.
The
bombshell was dropped by Nyanor, at Tuesday's sitting of the Presidential
Commission investigating the May 9th Accra Sports Stadium disaster
when he appeared before it.
"I don't
have the documents on the plastic chairs that were bought for the 2000 African
Cup of Nations tournament. By the nature of my work as Estate Officer of the
National Sports Council (NSC) I must be able to know how many seats were
bought, the number of seats not supplied," he underscored.
The seats
were supplied by Compo Praha, a Czech based company through Mr. Joseph Kobina
Ade Coker, a former Chairman of Accra Great Olympics and Vice-Chairman of the
Ghana Football Association (GFA).
Asked if he
(Nyanor) had made any effort to locate the whereabouts of these document he
said all efforts in this respect hit snafus. According to him, his immediate
boss, Mr James Aggrey, had told him he had no knowledge and similarly, his
overall boss, Brigadier Brock, Chief Executive of the National Sports Council.
He said
Brigadier Brock later told him that he would contact the Ministry of Youth and
Sports to find out if they had the documents but added that he had not told him
anything yet.
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Doctors
call for medical emergency teams
The Ghana
Medical Association said on Monday that the country needs to put together medical
emergency teams in all regions and districts "to respond immediately and
appropriately" to disasters, writes The Accra Mail.
A statement
issued by the Executive Council of the GMA on the May 9 Accra Sports Stadium
tragedy noted that most of the victims died because of the lack of first aid
skill of members of the public who came to their aid and the absence of medical
emergency services.
Dr J.
Plange-Rhule, Vice President, and Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso, Honorary Secretary
signed the statement that said the GMA, together with other health professional
groups, pledges its readiness to put its skills and knowledge at the disposal
of the government in the preparation of a National Disaster/Emergency Blueprint
to enhance the nation's preparedness in future.
One hundred
and twenty six people died in a stampede at the stadium when police fired
teargas into a section of the stands to control unruly fans that were throwing
plastic chairs and bottles onto the field.
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Former MP
and Assemblyman arrested
The Bureau
of National Investigations (BNI) has struck again in connection with the riots,
which occurred at Nima and its environs in the aftermath of the recent Accra
Stadium disaster, says the Free Press.
This time
round the BNI has arrested a former Member of Parliament of the Ayawaso East
Constituency, Alhaji Yahaya Seidu, and Stephen Kobla, a former assembly member
for the Nima area.
Informed
sources revealed that Alhaji Seidu, NDC MP for 1993-96 who is an employee of
the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) was picked up at his
offices on Monday afternoon whilst Stephen Kobla was also picked up at Ghana Broadcasting
Corporation (GBC) where he works.
Informed
sources further intimated that the BNI has mounted a search for other NDC
activists in the Nima area popularly known as the "Sir, Sir boys".
The arrests
come in the wake of the much publicized arrest and detention last weekend of
the Member of Parliament for Prampram Ningo and the National Youth Organiser of
the NDC, Mr. E.T. Mensah.
Also
arrested within that period for the disturbances was Alhaji Bature, an NDC
activist and an opinion leader in the Maamobi-Nima area.
It will be
recalled that on May 11 this year, two days after the Stadium tragedy, a group
of youth from the Nima area, after burying 20 of the victims attacked the Nima
Police Station apparently to revenge for the death of their kinsmen, since the
police was widely suspected to be the cause of the disaster.
This
spontaneous attack on the Nima Police Station however culminated in a
fully-fledged riot in which the rampaging youth destroyed kiosks, telephone
booths and vandalized some shops and a hotel.
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Ghana to
pay Sahara $16 million
The Dispatch
carries that the government's decision to appoint a Nigerian company, Sahara
Energy, to lift Ghana's supply of crude oil from Nigeria is likely to cost the
Ghanaian taxpayer $16 million, about ¢112 billion, a year. The fact that
Sahara's appointment was not completely transparent seems to have angered some
high-ranking members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, according to
the paper.
At the
close of work last Monday, the government had not told the public how much the
deal with Sahara was going to cost the nation but what some officials have done
is to compare Sahara's terms with those of Vitrol, which had been questioned in
certain quarters.
In
interviews with experts in the oil industry, including members of the Kufuor
administration, one thing became clear - that in terms of lifting crude oil
from Nigeria, Ghana can do without Vitrol or Sahara.
The Tema
Oil Refinery (TOR) has its own problems, but lifting oil from Nigeria is
something it would have done without much sweat.
There are
credible indications that President Kufuor might open up the carting of crude
oil to either competitive bidding or TOR, to find a way out of the issue and it
is also likely he might travel to Libya in an effort to get better oil deals.
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Ex-Ministers
ripped off furnishings - Bartels
Former
Ministers of State in the out-gone National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been
accused of having taken official furniture and other state property along with
them, before leaving office, reports The Daily Guide.
Some of the
Ministers are also said to have dirtied and desecrated their official living
accommodation, which has not made it possible for the new Ministers of State to
move into their allocated official bungalows.
Mr Kwamena
Bartels, Minister of Works and Housing made these disclosures during a
telephone interview on an Accra FM station on Monday.
The
Minister who was reacting to an earlier report by an NDC mouthpiece denied ever
putting an amount of ¢4 billion meant for the renovation works on official
bungalows, into his (Kwamena Bartels) personal account.
The Works
and Housing Minister said among others that because of the stolen official
furniture and other state property which the NDC Ministers greedily and
unlawfully took away, new ones will have to be bought while 60 bungalows will
also have to be renovated from the same amount for the new Ministers of State.
It would be
recalled that on Monday May 21, the Ghanaian Democrat in a story on its
front-page accused the NPP government of "throwing four (4) billion cedis
($571.00) to the wind".
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