Red letter demo tomorrow
We won’t abandon policies…Veep assures donors
Election 2000…58 MPs and Ministers defect to Reform
More NDC men to fall
Akufo Addo held for six hours over tape
Red letter demo tomorrow
The Ghanaian Chronicle in front page banner headline story says that the Castle, panicked over the possible fall-out of the planned demonstration by the Opposition parties tomorrow and the NDC’s hyped statement on a coup plot, yesterday sounded a red alert deploying heavily-armed security personnel at all Ghana’s entry points.
The paper says internally, all entry points to the capital Accra-Adenta, Ofankor and Weija, were secured by soldiers and police backed by armoured personnel carriers.
The Ghanaian Chronicle explains that the alert followed the announcement on the Internet of a coup plot by an unknown "Ghana Armed Liberation Movement" to topple President J.J. Rawlings on November 26, a day after the Opposition demonstration.
According to the paper, the surprise deployment of soldiers at Accra entry points shocked travellers and commuters, who wondered what had triggered off such unusual security presence.
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We won’t abandon policies…Veep assures donors
The Daily Graphic reports in its top story that the Vice-President, Prof. J.E.A. Mills, has given the assurance that the government would not abandon the prudent economic policies it has been pursuing because next year is an election year.
"We will continue to stay this course and fine-tune whatever rough edges there are, so make Ghana an object lesson in the transparent and judicious use of inflows from development partners", he is quoted as saying.
Prof. Mills was addressing the opening session of the fifth Consultative Group meeting between Ghana and her development partners in Accra yesterday.
The two-day meeting, which is taking place in Ghana for the first time, will discuss the economic difficulties currently facing the country.
It will also deliberate on how government with donor assistance, plans to address the situation, improve agriculture as well as key sectors for the poor, and related issues of government’s poverty reduction strategy. Representatives of Ghana’s donor partners, including Japan, United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, France and Denmark, are attending the meeting.
The World Bank, the private sector and civil society, among others, are also attending it. The Graphic says that the Vice-President stated that the government is as committed to the issue of transparency as the donor community is and that part of the fine-tuning will be the eradication of any detected corrupt practice in the implementation of policies.
"Indeed, special measures will be instituted in the light of the new awareness about corruption in public services all the world over, to ensure that corrupt officials and acts are rooted out", Prof. Mills is reported as telling the meeting.
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Election 2000…58 MPs and Ministers defect to Reform
In its lead story, the Dispatch says that as at the weekend, the National Reform Party (NRP) was coming to terms with the defection of 51 Members of Parliament and 17 Ministers of State from the ruling NDC to join the its fold.
The paper says a number of factors have been responsible for the defection of the MPs, who make up little over 38 % of the NDC’s 133 parliamentarians.
According to the Dispatch, although the defections of the MPs have been on the quiet, the manner in which some of them have been asking their organisers to sign up with the NRP in their various constituencies, presupposes that they are preparing the grounds for their ‘open’ or public defection in mid-June, 2000.
The paper says rumours that candidates for the NDC in the 200 constituencies would be selected by the party to avoid primaries, are said to have played a part in the decision of the MPs to defect.
The Dispatch continues that although these are just rumours, no senior party official has denied them. The paper says in fact, one is even reported to have explained that although a firm decision has not been taken, the NDC was still thinking of an appropriate mechanism to avoid primaries, which he described as ‘divisive’.
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More NDC men to fall
The Weekly Insight predicts that more prominent members of government will be kicked out of office or compelled to resign by the first week of January, next year.
The paper says sources close to the ‘centre of power’ indicated that the President has been raving about what he calls the ‘betrayal and incompetence’ of many of those who have been close to him, especially from the early days of his ‘adventure’.
The Weekly Insight believes that a major shake-up may give the government a new image and help President Jerry Rawlings to leave office with some revolutionary pretence.
The paper says the biggest difficulty facing the President, however, is that most of the ‘old guards’, like Mr Fred Ohene-Kena, former Mines and Energy Minister, appear determined to fight back. According to the paper, "whatever happens, Ghana would be a very interesting place to live in".
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Akufo Addo held for six hours over tape
The Evening News, the latest state-owned newspaper on the news-stands, reports on its front page that Nana Akufo Addo, MP for Abuakwa, was on Monday interrogated for six hours by an interrogation panel led by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Peter Nanfuri.
The paper says that the interrogation was part of investigations into the circumstances surrounding the publication of a transcript from a tape recording by the "Weekly Statesman".
The Evening News says Nana Akufo Addo is the Board Chairman of Kinesic Communications, publishers of the Weekend Statesman, which broke the story headlined: "Tapes from the Rawlings episode" – a story that has generated so much controversy.
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