GRi Press Review
Ghana 31 - 05 - 2001
NDC
threatens court action if …
Court
dismisses Mallam Isa's application
Kan-Dapaah
explains Sahara Oil contract
'Vitol was sneaked
in at 11th hour to lift oil' - Dapaah
Soldiers on
alert …for future emergencies
Gen. Hamidu
must be sacked
Kume Preko killer
busted!
Bombshell!
"I saw E.T.'s former bodyguard fire"!
Supreme
Court to rule on Blay-Miezah's estate
NDC
threatens court action if …
The NDC
Caucus in Parliament on Wednesday indicated its intention to go to court over
the way and manner the Public Holidays (Amendment) Bill is being rushed through
Parliament, reports the Daily Graphic.
Mr Ken
Dzirasah, Second Deputy Speaker, who gave the signal during a debate on the
Bill said in laying the Bill the Interior Minister failed to abide by the
processes required for the laying of bills before the House.
The Bill
seeks to abolish the celebration of June 4 as a public holiday and the NDC has
expressed its dissatisfaction at the amendment.
Mr Dzirasah
quoted extensively from the Standing Orders of the House to buttress his
argument, saying there was no need to rush the Bill through Parliament, so that
members could have sufficient time to comment on it.
As soon as
the Bill was mentioned by the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Freddie Blay, who was in
the chair, for the second consideration, almost all members of the NDC filed
out of the chamber, leaving some few of them and their leadership to comment on
the Bill.
More…/
Court
dismisses Mallam Isa's application
The Fast
Track High Court on Wednesday dismissed an application for stay of proceedings
in the case in which Mallam Ali Yusuf Isa, the dismissed Minister of Youth and
Sports, is being tried for stealing $46,000 belonging to the State.
The court,
presided over by Mr Justice Julius Ansah, an Appeal Court judge, sitting as an
additional High Court judge, however, asked counsel for the ex-Minister to act
on an appeal he has filed at the Court of Appeal against certain decisions by
the court within seven days.
According
to the judge, Mallam Isa would be compelled to open his defence, if his
counsel, Mr Ambrose Dery, does not act on the appeal within the seven statutory
days.
The case
has been adjourned to June 8.
Mallam Isa
stands accused on two counts of stealing and fraudulently causing financial
loss to the state but he has pleaded not guilty to both charges and has been
granted bail to the sum of ˘500 million with a surety to be justified. The
surety was ordered by the court to deposit the title deed of a landed property
at the registry of the court as part of the bail bond.
Mallam Isa
is also to report to the head office of the Police Criminal Investigations
Department every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, until the determination of the
case.
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Kan-Dapaah
explains Sahara Oil contract
The lifting
of crude oil from Nigeria to Ghana, which has generated a lot of debate in
recent times, on Wednesday came up for discussion in Parliament, reports The
Ghanaian Times.
The
Minister of Energy, Mr Albert Kan-Dapahh, was called upon to answer urgent
question from Mr Abraham Kofi Asante, (NDC) Amenfi-East and Minority Spokesman
on Energy, on why the lifting of the oil from Nigeria to Ghana was awarded to
Sahara without competitive bidding and what the terms were.
Mr
Kan-Dapaah said that the government contracted Sahara Energy Resources Limited
of Nigeria to lift oil for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to save the country
about 7.4 million dollars a year.
Mr
Kan-Dapaah discounted assertions that the contract was not transparent enough
and that there were Ghanaian shareholders in the company. He said that under
the terms of agreement, which lasts for one year in the first instance, Ghana
had been offered 90 days of credit before paying for each consignment of crude
oil delivered to TOR.
Additionally,
he said that, the payment of an outstanding debt of 2.3 million dollars
incurred by GNPC as a penalty for failing to lift oil under a previous
agreement, had been deferred for a period of two years.
He said
Sahara would ensure that the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) made
available for lifting, Bonny Light and Brass River grades of Nigerian crude oil
for TOR.
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'Vitol was
sneaked in at 11th hour to lift oil' - Dapaah
The
Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the heat of last year's
campaign towards the Presidential run-off awarded a contract to the Ghanaian
representative office of VITOL, (Anglo-Swiss coy) to lift crude oil to Ghana
from Nigeria, says The Chronicle.
The
contract was awarded to VITOL on December 20, 2000, that is thirteen days after
the first round general elections held on December 7, and at a time all
attention was on political run-off.
This was
made known when the Energy Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah appeared before
Parliament to answer questions in connection with the award of contract to
Sahara Energy Resource Limited to lift crude oil to Ghana from Nigeria.
He made it
known that contrary to speculations it was not a sole source contract awarded
Sahara, saying "we examined proposals from two companies".
The second
company that was also considered is VITOL, which claimed to have a lifting
contract already with the TOR.
Kan-Dapaah
mentioned that VITOL's contract with TOR signed on December 2000 was effected
at a time when there was no allocation contract between the Government of Ghana
and Nigeria. He said, in selecting VITOL the then Government of the NDC did not
resort to competitive tenders.
In
selecting Sahara however, the Energy Minister hinted that Government considered
its ability to undertake the assignment and furthermore, it was clear from
discussions that their management fees would be much lower than that of VITOL.
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Soldiers on
alert …for future emergencies
The Accra
Mail says even as the nation is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the
Presidential Commission probing the tragedy of May 9 and the measure going to
be put in place to obviate a recurrence, the government has already taken a
major move.
Dr
Addo-Kufuor, Minister of Defence, has announced that a Rapid Emergency Response
Unit has been created at the 37 Military Hospital to handle disasters. The
ambulance service, which is to be operated on a pilot basis, he said, will
after a while be extended to other parts of the country.
The
Minister made the disclosures to officers and men of the 6th
Garrison of the Ghana Armed Forces in Tamale early this week. He told the
soldiers that a major cause of the loss of many lives in accidents was because
the country had no emergency ambulance service to handle such situations.
The military,
he said, is going to be charged with the responsibility of handling emergencies
in the country and details about this new arrangement would be made available
soon.
Every facet
of the military would be involved, including even Secondary School Cadet Corps.
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Gen. Hamidu
must be sacked
The
Ghanaian Voice says although it is not its duty to call for the sacking of a
Minister, a functionary or even an advisor to Prez JAK for non-performance, it
is constrained by the tons of failures and embarrassment that General Joshuah
Hamidu has caused this government to ask for his immediate dismissal.
It says
since the former Liaison Officer of the AFRC and government business during the
days of the AFRC, took over Captain Kojo Tsikata's and lately Kofi Totobi
Quakyi's mantle as the capo of national security, the old General has stumbled
on many occasions and his utterances and performances have embarrassed the
current regime.
Nothing
seems to have gone right with Gen Hamidu, who was allegedly touted by General
Olusegun Obasanjo to be the running mate to the then presidential candidate
JAK.
The
government according to the paper, is still reeling under the bad publicity
generated by the arrest of the ex-Minister Victor Selormey and his blunder
number two was orchestrating the arrest of Mr Osei Tutu Prempeh, the former
Auditor General when he had gone to worship his God in a Church. Later, it came
out that the arrest of Mr Osei Tutu Prempeh was not only flimsy but cynical.
Then also
when the E.T. Mensah's arrest came, he called a press conference, which
normally security chiefs don't do, to threaten Armageddon.
The old
general is said to have also openly boasted that the government is prepared for
coup makers, an act seen by the paper as uncalled for and unwarranted because
what it did was to dare coup makers to attempt that infamous act.
The Voice
lists other factors connecting Gen Hamidu and says the sum total of all these
bungled jobs is to create embarrassment for the new government, leaving it to
always find reasons for his inefficient operations.
"Indeed
the old General must go", the paper concludes.
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Kume Preko
killer busted!
The
Crusading Guide writes that at long last the alleged leader of the "killer
gang" that perpetrated the Kumepreko May 11, 1995 mayhem in the streets of
Accra has been arrested.
Joseph K.
Asamani alias "Black Shirt", a commando based at the then Sankara
Barracks located at the Castle, was picked up last Tuesday at the Accra General
Post Office upon a tip off from the paper, to help the Police to unveil the
criminals involved in the May 11 killings.
He was
picked up whiles at work as a customs officer responsible for checking and
dispatching of parcels.
On May 11,
1995, Asamani reportedly led a gang of men in a white Nissan Patrol (with
registration no. ARC 9110) belonging to President Rawlings' Personal Security
squad, based at the Castle, to counter the Kumepreko demonstration.
Lantei
Charles Annan, also a Commando, was seen to have leapt out of this vehicle at Adabraka
(Farisco area) in Accra, and gunned to death, 14 year-old Ahunu Honger who was
not part of the Kumepreko demonstrators. He had just emerged from behind a wall
with a sister.
Eye witness
accounts said that the about eight men on board the Nissan Patrol, in the wake
of the gunning down of Ahunu Honger, launched into a trigger happy rampage in
the streets of Accra and were said to have fired shots onto the ground, scaring
people to scramble for their dear lives.
Following
the disclosure of the names of Lantei Charles Annan and 'Black Shirt' as part
of a gang that had caused the loss of the lives of some innocent citizens, the
two men assumed a low-key profile.
The
Kumepreko demonstration, was a mass protest action organized by the Alliance
For Change (AFC) against the Value Added Tax (VAT) levied against Ghanaians and
the generally high cost of living that was then prevailing in the country.
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Bombshell!
"I saw E.T.'s former bodyguard fire"!
The Chief
Security Officer of the National Sports Council (NSC), W.O. II Seth Dwamena has
told the Presidential Commission probing the Stadium disaster that the former
bodyguard of Hon. E.T. Mensah, MP for Ningo Prampram, was involved in firing of
teargas on to the spectators that resulted in the May 9 tragedy.
W.O. II
Dwamena, according to a story in The Guide pointed out that even though he
cannot identify him by name, if an identification parade is conducted, his
identity can be recognised.
Answering
questions before the five-member commission chaired by Mr Sam Okudjeto, in
Accra on Wednesday he said if proper and adequate security measures had been
put in place, the magnitude of the death and injured could have been minimized.
According
to W.O. II Dwamena, the Central Coordinating Committee (CCC) of the National
Sports Council had requested that 10 unarmed security men be deployed at the
north stands before the match.
However,
the Chief Security Officer failed to implement this decision, which according
to the commission, could have deterred the undisciplined spectators from
breaking the plastic chairs.
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Supreme
Court to rule on Blay-Miezah's estate
The Supreme
Court is expected to pronounce on June 27 its judgement on the seven-year old
litigation over who is the rightful person to administer the estate of the late
Dr John Ackah Blay-Miezah, Managing Director of the erstwhile Oman Ghana Trust,
according to The Evening News.
Dr
Blay-Miezah who died in June 1992 is reputed to own billions of dollars from
which he has bequeathed various amounts to some named beneficiaries including
the Republic of Ghana.
What seems
to have delayed the wish of the deceased is the rival claims by Dr Ebenezer Ako
Adjei, a minister in the First Republic and Mr Francis K. Mensah, a businessman
on one hand, who are contending that a will allegedly made in 1988 by Mr
Blay-Miezah is the genuine will.
This has
been challenged by Dr John Robert Kells, an Irish and confidante of the late
Blay-Miezah who maintains that another will made by the deceased in 1989 is the
valid will.
Both an
Accra High Court presided over by Mrs Justice Sawyer Williams on July 20, 1997
and the Court of Appeal by a 2-1 majority in November 18, last year ruled in
favour of Dr Kells, insisting that the 1989 will signed by the late Blay-Miezah
and kept in a bank in Switzerland was valid and not a forgery.
Dissatisfied
with the trial by the High Court ruling that the 1988 will is a forgery, Dr Ako
Adjei and Mr Mensah had petitioned the Supreme Court for the reversing of the
decision.
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