Wayo is desperate - Awoonor
836,273 names expunged from register
NDC abhors vote rigging - Veep
Cabbie driver jailed for stealing accident victim's money
Rawlings incites violence - says Jake Obetsebi Lamptey
CHRAJ decries govt. attitude
Afari-Gyan agrees with our proposal - MP
NPP wants the true story
NPP wants alliance with CPP - but Kwasi Prempeh, others say no
Wayo is desperate - Awoonor
Prof. Kofi Awoonor, National Vice-Chairman of the NDC is reported by
the Daily Graphic to have described the allegations made against him by Mr Kofi
Wayo, the NPP parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso East, as a despicable lie and
a desperate attempt by Wayo to shore up his dwindling image and recognition in
his party and constituency.
Wayo at an NPP news conference on Monday stated that he parted with
$5,000 dollars to the presidential staffer during a visit to the United States
where he domicled.
Prof. Awoonor said Wayo has resorted to unwarranted and unrefined
public pronouncements designed to soil the image of the NDC and its leading
members ever since he failed to use the government to enhance 'his spurious and
so-called business activities'.
"Wayo fell out with us because we found out that he was another
Blay Miezah. His grievances are that we blocked his access to the President,
denied him his crazy request of getting a monopoly in the private sector power
generation programme and denied him access to the crude oil supply market
through the TOR and the GNPC," he said.
Awoonor said he met Wayo in 1992 when he claimed that he had $500
million dollars to invest in the country. “ Our task was to assess this man and
after about half an hour with him, we were fairly confused about his multiple
stories of wealth, deals in Nigeria, Dubai, Indonesia …” Mr Awoonor is quoted as saying.
He said the 5,000 dollars that Wayo claimed he took rather went to
Wheta Foundation for the purchase of electrical equipment for the Wheta
township where he (Awoonor) came from.
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836,273 names expunged from register
A total of 836,273 names have so far been expunged from the voters
register, report the Daily Graphic on its front-page.
This has consequently brought down the previous figure of 10.7 million
eligible voters in the register to 9,863,72.
Mr Kwame Damuah Agyeman, Chief Director of the Electoral Commission
(EC), disclosed this to the Graphic in an interview on Wednesday.
According to the new figures released, Ashanti region recorded the
highest figure of 1,980,550 followed by Greater Accra and Eastern with
1,845,880 and 1,187,553 respectively.
GRi…/
NDC abhors vote rigging - Veep
Vice-President John Atta Mills has said that the NDC would contribute
to any machinery instituted to check vote-rigging in the December elections.
"We are not interested in vote rigging in the December
elections," the Ghanaian Times reported him saying.
He said the massive response by the electorate and their presence at
the rally were enough testimony of the NDC winning the election decisively in
the very first round.
Prof. Miils, speaking at an NDC rally at Ningo-Prampram on Tuesday, said
the party upholds the truth and would therefore ensure that "whoever wins
the election becomes the President".
The NDC, he also said, believes in equitable distribution of the
nation's resources and would, when retained, develop every part of the country
regardless of its political affiliation.
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Cabbie driver jailed for stealing accident victim's money
Kwabena Mensah, 31, a taxi driver who went to the aid of an accident
victim but bolted with her handbag containing 1.9 million cedis and gold ornaments
worth about 16.8 million cedis, was last Monday jailed three years in hard
labour by a Circuit Tribunal.
Mensah picked the victim Madam Akua Afriyie with his car near the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at Kumasi where he had sustained
injuries in an accident.
Mensah reportedly got to the spot at about 10.30 pm and the victim
asked him to transport her to the State Transport Corporation terminus but
realising that Afriyie was 'so relaxed' he managed to steal the handbag
containing ornaments including Proton wrist watches, rings and 310,000 cedis.
Afriyie later detected the theft of her bag but was fortunate to bump
into one Kwaku Darko on September 15 who was selling the wristwatches. His
arrest helped to locate Mensah.
GRi…/
Rawlings incites violence - says Jake Obetsebi Lamptey
Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the NPP National Campaign Manager has described
President Rawlings as an irresponsible President who only tells lies to achieve
his political ambition.
Reacting to allegations made by Rawlings that the NPP wants to come to
power, to use state money to settle their billions of debts, Obetsebi-Lamptey
told the Guide that "this is a total fabrication calculated to tarnish the
hard won reputation of the NPP.
It is unfortunate this is coming from the President, which is an insult
to the integrity of Ghanaians."
He said he was surprised that a President who is supposed to lead the
Nation is rather inciting violence and using lies to divide the country adding
that the country is not for Rawlings, nor the NDC.
He also responded to Prof. Kofi Awoonor's allegation that the NPP
intends to disrupt the democratic process by announcing its own results and
plotting to create violence if the NPP lose by saying that his party's action
is only a measure to ensure that elections are not rigged.
GRi…/
CHRAJ decries govt. attitude
The Crusading Guide reports in a front-page coverage that the
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is not at all
happy about the NDC Government's eerie silence over its adverse findings
against three Ministers of State on charges of corruption.
In 1995/96 CHRAJ, acting on private newspaper reports alleging that
four Ministers had indulged in some corrupt practices, conducted investigations
and made adverse findings against three of them and exonerated one for lack of
evidence.
Mr Emile Short, CHRAJ boss, reflecting on the matter at a conference
organised by the Fellowship of Christian Council of Churches, lamented the
government’s failure to take the issue serious.
He said the government unfortunately lost the opportunity to prove its
commitment to curbing corruption by erroneously issuing a White Paper
disagreeing with the findings of the Commission.
"Since then two other Ministers have appeared before the
Commission on similar charges of corruption but have been acquitted," he
said.
Mr Short noted that corruption has a political dimension because of the
way in which politics is financed and managed, especially in multi-party
democracies in Africa.
GRi…/
Afari-Gyan agrees with our proposal - MP
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, is
reported by The Independent in its centre-spread, to have agreed with the NPP's
latest proposal on elections even though he has some reservations.
Hon. Kye Mensah-Bonsu, NPP Member of Parliament for Old Tafo-Suame told
a group of journalists attending a Thomson Foundation course for print
journalists in Kumasi that the EC did not reject the decision outright but
cited the issue of crowd control, provision of toilet facilities as some of the
problems they will encounter, which they have not planned for.
The NPP had proposed that all eligible voters check their names at
their polling stations from 7 am to 11 am on voting day before actual voting
starts. Once voting starts, the ate queue would be closed.
GRi…/
NPP wants the true story
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called for a full-scale inquiry into
the accident on the Tema Motorway involving the President and the First Lady
that left four of his body guards dead, writes the Accra Mail.
Briefing newsmen on Monday, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the party's
Campaign Manager said the NPP believes an inquiry into the accident will let
the public know the true story just like in the case involving the late
Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed.
"Because of the high profile of the people involved and knowing
that there would be gross speculation and rumour mongering, the normal enquiry
that would follow such an accident was dramatically heightened, so that today
we are privy to the true story of a driver driving responsibly because he had
drunk before driving", he said.
The NPP asked Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings whose car was also involved in
that fateful tragedy to demonstrate a responsible behaviour by ordering the
inquiry to put to rest disruptive rumours and speculation doing the rounds in
the country.
GRi…/
NPP wants alliance with CPP - but Kwasi Prempeh, others say no
The Ghanaian Democrat reports that the NPP, after ditching the People's
Convention Party (PCP) in 1996 by arrogating to itself a lion's share of
parliamentary seats, has written to the Central Committee of the Convention
People's Party (CPP) requesting another alliance to ensure that they do not
split votes of the former.
This is especially for parts of the Ashanti Region, which are the CPP's
strongholds.
A source told the paper that a staunch Nkrumaist, Kwasi Prempeh, and
other Nkrumah faithfuls in Ashanti have warned the Chairman of the new CPP, Dr
Alhassan Abubakar and other members of the Central Committee, not to flirt with
the NPP since it will end in disaster.
Prempeh and his group would want none of the pranks of the latter-day
Nkrumaists who formed the ignoble Alliance for Change with the NPP cheats which
did them no good.
The Central Committee, by the development, is said not to be feeling
comfortable to react to the NPP letter.
"This is a test case for the flagbearer of the CPP Prof. George
Hagan, and if he does not come out boldly and acquaint himself creditably to
tell the NPP not to come anywhere near the CPP, he will be blamed for the
collapse of his party in the Ashanti Region and in other parts of the
country", Democrat stated.
GRi…/