Seven billion cedis needed to repair Police
vehicles
Lone-armed-robber strikes at Stanchart,
Spintex Road
Residents protest against Kwabenya landfill site
UK delegation calls on Interior Minister
Kufuor urges Canada to speak for developing
countries
Six new envoys presented with credentials
Ghana needs integrated road and utility
services system - Aliu
Prampram NDC calls for measures to strengthen party
Seven billion cedis needed to repair Police
vehicles
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - Over seven billion cedis would be required to repair at least 200 police vehicles grounded nationwide and replace obsolete communication equipment at the Police Control Room.
This came to light on Wednesday during a tour by newsmen to some facilities of the Ghana Police Service in Accra. The tour took journalists to the Communications School, the Police Workshop and the Police Training School.
The Communications School was established in 1970 to train operators, telephonists, and technicians but it has not been operational since 1999 when a rehabilitation exercise was abandoned midstream.
At the main telephone exchange there were only two consuls instead of the 20 required, making it difficult for outsiders to get through with their calls.
"Every caller would have to wait for his turn since calls are taken on first come first served basis", said Augustine Sewoatsri, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of communications.
He said the service would require about eight million French Francs to buy modern equipment to replace the over 20 years old system.
Mr Sewoatri said the new equipment, which could serve Accra and Tema, would have about 2,000 extensions and could take 150 input lines.
" The Police are efficient but are not being effective due to lack of equipment." He said though transportation was important for Police work, communication was the most vital.
Mr Sewoatsri urged the public to come to the aid of the service for it to play its vital role of securing the environment for all to go about their duties peacefully. At the Police Workshop it was established that the Police has 538 vehicles nation wide out of which 245 have broken down.
Mr Emmanuel Gali of the Mechanical Division said that up to 45 million cedis would be required to repair each one of the Land Rovers or Nissan Patrols that have been in the workshops over the years.
He said funds released for maintenance was so meagre that it could cater for just a few vehicles. Superintendent Yaagy Akuribah, Commanding Officer of the Training School, said it has inadequate facilities that were being over stretched.
" Most of the facilities were made for a smaller number than we have now. For example, 30 trainees are using dormitories meant for 15."
Mr Akuribah said the school has no library. The foundation for one initiated by the current Inspector General of Police in 1976 when he was the Commanding Officer of the school is deteriorating.
He said the school has no common room for lecturers and no computer for the trainees to study the basics of computing. "It is simply not in the curriculum."
Also, there is no dining hall for the trainees. Tables are set outside with no chairs and they stand in the open to eat their meals.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 01 November 2001 - Sergeant C.A. Kufuor of the Konongo Police Station, caused a stir at the local Obenimase Gold Mine Primary School last Wednesday, when he stormed a classroom and mercilessly beat up an 11-year old pupil.
His reason? He was avenging an earlier assault on his son, Kingsley Kufuor, 11, by his classmate, Ebenezer Teye (the victim). Shocked by the man’s conduct, the Ashanti Regional Police Command has ordered immediate full-scale investigations into the case for the appropriate disciplinary action to be taken against him.
Briefing newsmen in Kumasi yesterday, Chief Inspector Kwasi Ofori, Officer-in-charge of the Regional Police Public Relations Unit, said typical of school children, a misunderstanding arose between the two, leading to a scuffle.
Little Kufuor, went home after classes and reported the incident to his father. Gripped with fury, Sgt. Kufuor, stormed the school the next day, entered his son’s classroom and asked him to identify his assailant.
As soon as his son pointed out Teye, the policeman, in uniform, pounced on the boy and rained blows on him much to the bewilderment of the class teacher and the pupils.
The teacher raised the alarm, attracting the attention of other teachers and the head teacher who intervened to rescue the pupil. After the intervention, Sgt. Kufuor was said to have left the school in his waiting taxi.
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Lone-armed-robber strikes at Stanchart,
Spintex Road
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - A man on Wednesday robbed the Spintex Road Branch of the Standard Chartered Bank at gunpoint and made away with foreign currencies and cedis.
Bank sources said the lone-armed-robber took away 5,720 pounds sterling, 7,124 dollars and 247,750 cedis.
Sources at the Tema Police Station said the man, said to be dark and heavily built, arrived at the bank in a taxi and paid the driver off.
When he got out of the taxi he put on a cap and on entering the bank "he turned the cap into a hood". He took out a gun and held hostage a bank worker and ordered everybody in the bank to lie on the floor.
The robber then asked for the foreign exchange desk where he took away all the foreign exchange in the money case and ordered the worker to surrender his car key.
He drove away in his red Opel Kaddet saloon car. The sources said the robber abandoned the hijacked car at the Johnson Wax Junction, where he took his own car, which he had parked there, and bolted.
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Residents protest against Kwabenya landfill site
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - A meeting scheduled between Ga District Assembly, chiefs and opinion leaders of Kwabenya on Wednesday to solve the conflict over the proposed landfill site was nearly disrupted by some members of the Kwabenya Residents Association.
The protesters clad in red and black dresses stormed the Ga District Assembly amidst drumming and dancing to protest against the sighting of landfill there.
Areas affected by the project are Kwabenya, Mayera, Katapor and Pokuase. Mr Asiedu Amoaku, Chairman of Kwabenya Residents Association, said they were not ready to receive any compensation from AMA and asked the assembly to look for a new site.
He said some top officials and scholars have expressed fears about the dangers associated with the project but the two assemblies have turned deaf ears to their concerns.
Despite the presence of the police at the premises, the protesters who had been waiting for more than five hours, demanded to see the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Solomon Darko to address them.
They blamed the Ga District Assembly and the AMA for failing to inform them early about the project. Mr Samuel Nii Aryeetey Attoh, Ga District Chief Executive, gave the assurance that the Kwabenya landfill site project was purely scientific and would be recycling domestic waste.
He explained that concrete tunnels and pipes would be constructed underground to extract liquid from the refuse.
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UK delegation calls on Interior Minister
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - A three-member delegation from the United Kingdom on Wednesday held discussions with Alhaj Malik Alhassan Yakubu, Minister of the Interior on the need to create better conditions in the country's prisons.
The delegation, which is from the Government Centre for Management and Policy Studies in the UK, is on a week's working visit to assist Ghana improve upon its prison services.
Mr Alastair Papps, head of the delegation, said the general conditions that pertain in a country's prisons reflect the extent to which human rights are respected in the wider society.
He said the delegation aims at assisting five senior staff of the Ghana Prisons Service for a planning process, which would result in better conditions for inmates.
Mr Papps said there is the need to discover local resources that could be utilised in creating a better prisons system since punishment by imprisonment is very expensive.
He said forms of punishment such as community service could also be introduced for petty offences. Alhaji Yakubu said among the factors that infringe upon the rights of prisoners are overcrowding and quality of food.
"The fact that someone is a prisoner does not mean his rights should be denied," he said, adding that the government has been looking at the best way to deal with the situation.
He said apart from getting prisoners to learn life-sustaining skills, measures are being taken to speed up the hearing of cases involving prisoners on remand.
The minister said one major cause of overcrowding is the accumulation of the number of remand prisoners. Among those present at the meeting was Mr Richard Kuuire, Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service.
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Kufuor urges Canada to speak for developing
countries
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday appealed to Canada to be an advocate for developing countries at the G-8 Countries meeting scheduled for Canada next year.
"Canada should initiate the move for G-8 countries to see the predicament of developing countries, especially Ghana, in the perspective of Africans and help them solve their socio-economic problems," he said.
President Kufuor made the appeal when the Canadian High Commissioner in Ghana, Jean-Pierre Bolduc, paid a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu.
Canada is a strategic partner of Ghana, he stated, adding that his impending visit to Canada on Friday would give him the opportunity to explore bilateral relations of both countries to their mutual benefit.
Mr Bolduc said it was time for Canada to show its support to the democratic process in Ghana adding that Canada's support to Ghana was in several areas.
The Canadian High Commissioner said the visit by President Kufuor, the first by any Ghanaian Head of State, would be used to explore other avenues of priority to Africa.
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Six new envoys presented with credentials
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday presented letters of credence to six newly appointed envoys at the Castle, Osu.
They were Mr Samuel Arthur Odoi-Sykes, High Commissioner to Canada, Professor Albert Owusu Sarpong, Ambassador to France and Dr Barfour Adjei-Barwuah, Ambassador to Japan.
The rest were Abdel Razaq Muhyiddin Hassan Tahir, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Shuaibu Musah Shariff, Ambassador to Guinea and Mr Daniel Yaw Adjei, Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
They swore the oath of allegiance, secrecy and the official oath. President Kufuor said the current state of affairs in the world calls for a High Commissioner or Ambassador who is sensitive enough to keep his government quickly informed on developments.
It is a tricky and treacherous world, he said but expressed the hope that the new envoys would live up to expectation. President Kufuor asked them to ensure that Ghana's economic interests are paramount in their deliberations with their host countries and Ghanaian citizens are well catered for.
Mr Odoi-Sykes on behalf of his colleagues assured the President that the confidence reposed in them would not be misplaced.
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Ghana needs integrated road and utility
services system - Aliu
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - Vice President Aliu Mahama on Wednesday launched a Road Reservation and Management Manual to co-ordinate the activities of land users, road agencies and utilities and urged them to work towards a modern integrated road and utility services system that would support economic activities.
The manual was developed to address problems such as the cutting of roads by utility agencies for installations, which results in the reduction of the life span of roads, damage to vehicles, inconvenience to road users and loss of national revenue.
The 55-paged manual, developed by a team of 19 engineers from the various stakeholder organisations consequently prescribes guidelines for cost sharing, management of right of way among land users, road and utility agencies, exchange of information and record keeping on location of utility facilities on road reservations.
Alhaji Mahama called on the agencies involved and district and municipal authorities to ensure the strict enforcement of the guidelines to eliminate waste. "It is common to see newly built roads being destroyed the very next day when telephone cables or water pipelines are laid," he said.
"It is also common, unfortunately, to find in our cities, road pavements encroached upon by hawkers who operate from metal containers, kiosks and other temporary structures, thereby impeding future development."
According to engineers, it costs about 120,000 cedis to repair a pothole, measuring one square metre. Alhaji Mahama said the government was considering, for approval, a proposal for a legal background to the manual to make its implementation more effective.
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Prampram (Greater Accra) 01 November 2001 - The Ningo/Prampram Constituency of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at its delegates' conference at Prampram on Wednesday suggested the creation of portfolios within the party at national to branch levels to take charge of communications.
A resolution at the end of a delegates' conference said portfolios such as Communication Directors and Council of Elders should be created to educate and offer advice to NDC activists nation wide on current events, create awareness to enable them react to misinformation peddled about the NDC.
Other bodies suggested were the reconciliation committee and permanent conflict management committee to resolve problems that would crop up to enable the party remain united at all times from constituency to the national levels.
The resolution said members, who did not play active role in the organisation of the party and who did not contribute financially, for more than two years in their constituency, should not be allowed to contest parliamentary post or hold any vital position.
Addressing the delegates, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, MP for the area and National Organiser of the party, called on party activists to unite and work hard to win more members for the party to win the next elections.
To achieve better results, Mr Mensah asked members to eschew petty squabbles and rather get abreast with the socio-political events in the country to be able to educate their members to make informed decisions.
Dr Farrouk Briamah, former Deputy Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, said NDC government did a lot for the country in the form of road construction, opening of the airwaves for private radio stations and development of the middle level manpower, adding, "we are yet to see any achievement of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, which has been in office for 10 months.
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