Kweku Baako dares Rawlings to debate
Courts to clear disputes
Two arrested for electoral offences
I'm poised to take-over - Mills
NDC, NPP in close race
0.12m Tema voters get photo ID cards
Bad driving in Kumasi - 1 cop killed, 5 maimed
Ghana to h'dquarter WAMI
200 billion fraud
Kweku Baako dares Rawlings to debate
The 1999 Journalist of the Year, Kweku Baako, has dared the President,
Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings, to a debate on any issue "anywhere, any day and
anytime", in reaction to media reports about comments made by the
President that he (Baako) was a school drop-out.
The President reportedly stated also that the only thing one needs to
do to win the Journalist of the Year award is to be 'shit bombed'.
Baako said despite his initial shortcoming of dropping out of school he
has educated himself to get to where he is now, to be given that honour by his
colleagues.
"The President's reported comments on the Ghana Journalists
Association (GJA) giving me the awards, shows his ignorance about how these
awards are given. If he does not know, he should ask," he said.
Mr Baako intimated that he has been honest enough to admit his initial
handicap and how he overcame that as an example to other Ghanaians who may find
themselves in a similar state and urged President Rawlings to tell Ghanaians
how he progressed in his promotion examinations over the years.
The 1999 Journalist of the year however remarked, "the President
is no doubt an intelligent man, having completed Achimota School. In his 20
years as Head of State, he is supposed to have learnt on the job on all spheres
and issues. I hereby throw a challenge to the President to debate me on any
subject or subjects, anytime and anywhere. I am sure the television and radio
station will find sponsorship to telecast the debate live. I am waiting for his
answer. The ball is in his court," he said.
GRi…/
Courts to clear disputes
The Daily Graphic reports that electoral disputes, which will emerge
during the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections are to be
resolved within seven days after the disputes have been reported.
Mr George Aryeetey, acting Judicial Secretary, speaking in an interview
with the Graphic, said under a special arrangement agreed upon by the Chief
Justice and Supervising High Court judges, the judges will sit on the cases
every day, including Saturdays and holidays, if the need arises.
According to Mr Aryeetey, it is the responsibility of the Supervising
High Court judges to hear the cases but if the judge is unable to sit on it, he
should within three days, appoint a High Court Judge to do so.
Reacting to a call by the Civil Society Coalition for the Chief Justice
to set up a specially designated electoral court to deal expeditiously with
matters, which would arise out of the elections, Mr Aryeetey stated that the
special court is not necessary.
He said as part of the mechanism, the registrar of a high court should,
within 24 hours, bring to the notice of the Supervising High Court Judges of a
region any electoral offence that would be filed.
More…/
Two arrested for electoral offences
The Berekum Police are reported to have arrested two young men from
Pruso in the Jaman District of the Brong Ahafo region for allegedly attempting
to change two thumbprinted voter identity (ID) cards bearing other people's
names into photo ID cards bearing their pictures.
Police said the suspects, Kwame Moses, 21, and Kwadwo Kyeremeh, 19, are
to be charged with defrauding by false pretences and would be put before court
on Wednesday.
A Berekum District Police source said the police had a tip-off last
Friday that one of the political parties had conveyed some people from Pruso to
change their thumbprinted voter ID cards into photo ID's at Berekum instead of
Drobo, the District capital.
The police who followed up to Berekum EC office picked eleven people
out of which Moses and Kyeremeh were found possessing other people's voter ID
cards.
GRi…/
I'm poised to take-over - Mills
The Vice President and NDC Presidential candidate for the December 7
elections, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills last Saturday told party loyalists
at a Cape Coast regional rally that he is poised to take-over from President
Rawlings when he leaves office next year.
Prof. Mills cautioned Ghanaians against double standards in assessing
the achievement of the NDC government.
He said although the ruling government had a lot to its credit the
government is humble enough to admit that more needs to be done to find jobs
for the youth.
He said people had been citing various SFO reports as evidence of
government's inability or unwillingness to deal with corruption in the country
but added that such people should learn to be objective in their analyses of
events.
The NDC, he said, was committed to objectivity no matter the
consequences.
GRi…/
NDC, NPP in close race
Political analysts according to the Guide place the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the lead in the race to the
December 7 elections.
The analysts say if attendance at rallies are anything to go by then
Prof. Atta Mills of the NDC and Mr J.A. Kufuor of the NPP are the two persons
to watch as they carry the most crowds.
"It has therefore become difficult to predict the possible final
results of the elections just about 14 days to the D-day, and has been
described as 'too close to call', the paper said.
Mr Goosie Tanoh of the National Reform Party (NRP) however remains the
enigma, the bit of a puzzle in the whole political drama as his position cannot
be too well defined at this time.
In place of holding big rallies, Goosie and his Reform Party are more
than determined to unseat or help to unseat the NDC from which it emerged by
holding people's summits during which party agents explain issues to the
electorate on a person to person basis, taking and answering questions.
Reform is predicted to cause an upset on December 7, most probably
against the NDC.
The analysts cite inroads that have been made by the CPP and the PNC in
the Western, Central and Upper regions of the country. They place Dr Wereko
Brobby's UGM at the bottom of the ladder while conceding that Mr Dan Lartey of
the GCPP is a lost soul.
GRi…/
0.12m Tema voters get photo ID cards
The Ghanaian Times reports that a total of 117,551 registered voters,
representing 50 per cent of the 286,224 eligible voters in the Tema
Municipality, have since May replaced their thumbprinted identity cards (ID)
with photo identity cards.
Speaking to the paper at Tema on Tuesday, Mr Fitz Addo, acting
Municipal Electoral Officer, said that many more voters were rushing to his
office daily for new photo identity cards.
Most of those who called at the office had either their cards misplaced
or wanted to replace their thumbprinted IDs with photo IDs.
More…/
Bad driving in Kumasi - 1 cop killed, 5 maimed
The Times says six policemen in the Kumasi Metropolis have fallen
victim to careless driving resulting in the amputation of one of them.
Corporal Pascal Amedzro of Odumasi Police Station, near Konongo, was
trapped by a metal container fully loaded with logs of timber, which had
slipped off a fast moving truck that had run into a Renault Taxicab, chopping
off his legs.
Amedzro is said to be on admission at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching
Hospital.
The story also says another policeman, Isaac Bonful, while on duty was
knocked down by a cargo truck at Chirapatre, a suburb of Kumasi.
The Times mentions other incidents in which four other policemen
received various degrees of injuries through careless driving in the
metropolis.
Expressing concern about the rampant careless driving in the
metropolis, Chief Inspector Ofori said that the police would deal ruthlessly
with any driver who disregarded the police in the discharge of their duties.
GRi…/
Ghana to h'dquarter WAMI
The Ghana Palaver reports that Ghana has been selected as the location
for the Headquarters of the West Africa Monetary Institute (WAMI), the interim
institution that is to work towards the establishment of the West African
Central Bank.
The Bank is to be the central monetary authority of the West African
Monetary Zone (WAMZ), the official name given to the six countries of the
Second Monetary Zone who have decided to fast-track monetary integration within
ECOWAS.
Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, Minister of Planning, Regional Integration and
Co-operation was talking to the paper on his return from a just ended Third
General Meeting of the Convergence Council of the Second Monetary Zone in
Banjul, Gambia.
The Council comprises the Ministers of Integration, Finance,
Trade/Commerce, Foreign Affairs and Governors of Central banks.
A mini-summit of Heads of State in Ghana on April 20, 2000, saw members
signing the 'Accra Declaration' which committed Ghana, the Gambia, Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone to the establishment of the Zone, a common Central
Bank and a common currency in 2003, and its possible merger with the CFA for a
single West African currency in 2004.
GRi…/
200 billion fraud
The Weekly Insight reports that the National Communications Authority
(NCA) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) are accusing each other of non
co-operation in investigations into the loss of more than 200 billion cedis to
the State and Ghana Telecom (GT).
While the NCA claims that the SFO is not carrying out the
investigations with diligence, the SFO insists that it has next to no
co-operation from the NCA.
The NCA first notified the SFO of illegal installation of sophisticated
equipment by Internet operators that terminated international calls in Accra,
making them look local.
NCA said operators, including Mac Telecom, IDN, and TIN-IFA paid local
bills to GT and kept the difference in foreign banks making GT and the nation
lose more than 30 million dollars.
Nana Fred Owusu, a director of TIN-IFA, in a statement to the Police,
admitted that some monies realised from their operations were deposited into
the company's accounts at the Hudson Bank in New Jersay, USA.
Sources close to the SFO, however claim that the investigations and
prosecution of the offenders was only designed for the benefits of a Mr Ben Adu
a consultant to the NCA.
They alleged that Mr Adu has applied for and obtained a licence to
operate a similar Internet service from the NCA and is pursuing the case of
fraud against the three companies only because they are his competitors.
GRi…/