Rail sector to go private
NDC warns against subverting Constitution
Election 2000…NDC leading NPP by 13%
Ghana on the brink of war…As NDC vows to resist demo
‘Fire at judge’s house: Terrorist act from inside’…Reveals pattern since ’82
Secrets of Rawlings’ era…
Rail sector to go private
The Daily Graphic reports in its top story that the government is working out modalities for the involvement of the private sector in rail transportation. The move is under a policy aimed at reviving and modernising the sector as a viable alternative transportation system in Ghana.
Within the next 12 to 13 months, the government intends to place the running of the rail system into the hands of investors on Concessional basis, the Graphic says, quoting the Minister of Roads and Transport, Mr Edward Salia as announcing in Accra. Mr Salia was speaking at a plenary session on investment opportunities in Ghana, held between government officials and a visiting 28-member delegation of major French companies.
The paper says the delegation, led by Mr Michel Roussin, a former French Minister of Co-operation and President of the African Committee on French Enterprises Association, is on a four-day investment-seeking mission to Ghana.
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NDC warns against subverting Constitution
In a front-page story, the Ghanaian Times reports that the NDC has served notice that it would not flinch from guaranteeing the integrity and authority of the Constitution if the opposition chose to contest for power in the street and through violent overthrow.
The Times says the statement is in reaction to the planned demonstration by the opposition scheduled for November 25, and a broadcast through the internet by a group known as the "Ghana Armed Liberation Movement". The group is said to have threatened to overthrow the government on November 26.
The paper says Alhaji Issifu Ali, co-chairman of the NDC, at a news conference in Accra, said that "Ghanaians may draw their own conclusion to the connection between the demonstrations and the self-proclaimed armed group, which has declared publicly to overthrow the government by force of arms, by looking at the two dates set for the events".
Alhaji Ali is said to have explained that the news conference was held because of the NDC’s genuine concern about some recent developments, which threatened the stability of Ghana.
"The developments, in the main and in the long-term, are obviously aimed at undermining the legitimacy of our government and the national Constitution, which is barely seven years old", he is quoted as saying. The NDC co-chairman is reported as saying that the call by the NPP for a new initiative to help Ghana out of ‘so-called’ economic, social and political crises was a blatant attempt to subvert the Constitution and roll back the clock of democratic progress.
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Election 2000…NDC leading NPP by 13%
The Dispatch reports on its front page that a July 1999 survey, "Attitudes to Democracy and Markets", conducted in all of Ghana’s 10 administrative regions, has revealed that 71.7% expressed interest in politics; 41.4% listened to radio news bulletins everyday; 12.9% read newspapers daily; 55% named their members of Parliament; 60.4% named the national Vice-President; 74.1% had trust in Parliament; 66.5% had trust in the Electoral Commission.
According to the survey, the highest trust rating of any government institution, 83%, was granted to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). The Dispatch says these interesting findings were revealed at a presentation of the survey report yesterday by a two-member team of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Prof. E. Gyimah-Boadi and Mr C.B. Wiafe-Akenten.
The paper says the survey, undertaken among 2,000 respondents, was to establish the extent to which democratic and market reforms had taken root in Ghana. The Dispatch says the findings on organisational affiliations provide interesting reading and analysis.
More people said they ‘belonged’ to churches and informal associations than political parties. Among the sample, the paper says, 38.3% identified with the ruling NDC and 25.2% with the opposition NPP. 33.4% said they were not close to any political party.
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Ghana on the brink of war…As NDC vows to resist demo
In a front-page banner, the Free Press says in a typical sabre-rattling manner, the governing NDC warned yesterday that it would resist the opposition’s planned demonstration for November 25, which it described in a veiled statement as a "misguided attempt to undermine the Constitution and make Ghana ungovernable".
The paper notes that the statement read at a press conference by NDC co-chairman, Alhaji Issifu Ali, reminded Ghanaians that if the opposition chose to contest the power in the streets and through a violent overthrow, then reminiscent of the mayhem that armed agents of the NDC leashed out during the ‘Kumepreko’ demonstration, "we will not flinch from guaranteeing the integrity and the authority of the Constitution".
The Free Press says in an unholy attempt to prevent the idea behind the planned demonstration, Issifu Ali linked the protest to a "so-called announcement by a virtually unknown Ghana Armed Liberation Movement" through the internet broadcast to overthrow the NDC government on November 26, a day after the opposition demonstration.
The paper says true to the NDC’s policy of always "giving the dog a bad name in order to hang it", Issifu Ali incited Ghanaians to draw their own conclusion as to the connection between the planned demonstration and "this self-proclaimed armed group, which has decided publicly to overthrow the government by force of arms".
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‘Fire at judge’s house: Terrorist act from inside’…Reveals pattern since ’82
The destruction of the official car of Mr Victor Ofoe, a Circuit Judge, who jailed Eben Quarcoo, former Editor of the "Free Press" last week, was a planned job from inside, designed to intimidate him, the Ghanaian Chronicle says, quoting family sources. According to the Chronicle, the sources discounted the theory that aggrieved journalists must have been responsible.
"We think it was an inside job to intimidate him and bring him into line, because certain people are not happy with his judgement. The theory is pure nonsense, it would defy any scientific explanation in the world", the sources are quoted as saying. They said "but our man does not fear death. As for death when it comes, there is nothing that can be done about it".
The paper says the red Mazda saloon car, with the battery terminals disconnected two days earlier, according to the judge’s mechanic, Randolph Birikorang, caught fire mysteriously while the judge was asleep in his Cantonments residence, the same area from where three High Court judges were abducted in 1982 and later murdered at Bundase shooting range.
The Chronicle says Judge Ofoe was not available for comment but it learnt that after the judgement, Ofoe’s police guards were assigned and replaced with new guards. According to the paper, the guards had been reporting punctually at 6.30 p.m. until that fateful day, when they arrived at 11.45 p.m. after the Ghana National Fire Service had been called to put out the blaze.
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Secrets of Rawlings’ era…
In a front-page splash, the Weekly Insight says in the wake of the controversy over the authenticity of an audio recording linking the President to certain criminal and violent acts, a former close associate of President Jerry Rawlings, has confirmed that hundreds of Ghanaians were extra-judicially murdered between 1982 and 1986.
According to the paper, the former associate has already shown the "Weekly Insight" two locations, which he claims, were used as mass graves. The paper says the associate pleaded anonymity because "they will hunt me down and kill me immediately.
They know I know all their secrets so I need a little more time to prepare before I explode". He is sad to have offered to give evidence before an independent judicial committee of enquiry and to identify all those who were behind the killing of hundreds of Ghanaians "for nothing".
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