NPP
suspends Ajumako party chairman
Senior
Secondary School heads to sign performance contract
Ashanti
Goldfields posts impressive operational performance
Ghana
Institute of Journalism probes allegation
Supreme
court revokes decision on Blay-Miezah's will
NDC will
recapture power in 2004 - Agbesi
Angry
protesters confront Vice-pee, others
Sacked bank
staff cries foul over fraud charge
Forcible circumcision of girls - Chief, four other’s held
Curtain-raiser matches for Star league
Former Cameroon coach for Stars
NPP
suspends Ajumako party chairman
The Daily
Graphic reports that the Central Regional Executive Committee of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) has suspended indefinitely, James Appiah-Mensah, the
party’s Chairman for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam (AEE) Constituency following his
alleged involvement in a forgery case pending before court.
A party
statement issued in Cape Coast and carried by the paper, said the regional
executive committee took the decision in accordance with Articles 3 (f) and 4
(7) of the party's constitution.
The Graphic
in its October 16 edition reported that Appiah-Mensah had appeared before a
Cape Coast court, charged with forgery. He was alleged to have used the name of
one Samuel Dickson for a publication in the Chronicle, which sought to
implicate the Central Regional Minister, Isaac Edumadze, in acts of corruption.
"In
view of the publication, the regional executive committee has decided that due
to the court action involving Mr Appiah Mensah and the state, you should be
suspended indefinitely as the party's chairman of the AEE Constituency pending
the outcome of the court case", the statement said.
More…/
Senior
Secondary School heads to sign performance contract
The heads
of second cycle institutions will be requested to sign performance contract to
introduce efficiency and professionalism into their work.
Under the
contract, the heads would be expected to meet certain targets as chief executives
of their schools for a number of years and based on this, their contracts would
be renewed for another term.
The
Minister of Education, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-akumfi, who announced this at
Sunyani on Thursday at the opening of the 39th annual conference of
the Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), said they would also be
directly held accountable for any lapses in any section of the schools they
head.
More…/
Ashanti
Goldfields posts impressive operational performance
The Graphic
carries in another story that Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) posted an
impressive third-quarter performance with earnings going up by 93 per cent over
the same period last year.
The hedge
book, which has been a major headache for the company, generated over $6
million during the same period and this enabled the company to participate in
the gold price rally, Sam Jonah, Chief Executive Officer of the company,
announced at the presentation of the third-quarter accounts of the company.
He said
Ashanti has once again recorded a strong financial performance, underpinned by
slid operational results. Gold production for the quarter stood at 412,000
ounces, which he said was much better than the company had expected at the time
of presenting the second-quarter's accounts.
This result
has put the company’s year-to-date gold at over 1.2 million ounces, which is in
line with the increased annualised target of ¢1.6 million.
More…/
Ghana
Institute of Journalism probes allegation
The Board
of Directors of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has announced that it
has begun investigations into recent allegations of corruption leveled against
some lecturers and other staff of the institute in connection with the
admission of students to the institute.
An official
statement issued by the board in Accra on Thursday said that the board
considers the matter very serious.
The
Graphic, which carries the story, says the board gave the assurance that it
will cause a publication of its findings and directives in the media, as soon
as possible.
Sections of
the media, in the past few weeks, carried reports of alleged corruption in the
admission of students to the GIJ. The reports also imputed sexual impropriety
to certain lecturers and other members of staff of the institute, during
admissions.
More…/
Supreme
court revokes decision on Blay-Miezah's will
The Supreme
Court has by a unanimous decision revoked the probates granted by an Accra High
Court in respect of the 1989 Will of the late Ackah Blay-Miezah.
This followed
an appeal filed by Dr Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, and Mr F.K. Mensah, a nephew of the
late Blay-Miezah, challenging the decision of the High Court that the Will of
1989 was genuine.
The
five-panel court, presided over by Mrs Justice J. Bamford-Addo, ordered that
the probates be deposited at the Registry of the High Court.
Other panel
members of the court were Messrs Justice A.K.B. Ampiah, E.D.K. Adjabeng, G.K.
Acquah and W.A. Atuguba.
It would be
recalled that the High Court, in May 1997, declared that the will made by
Blay-Miezah on January 29, 1989 and produced by Dr John R. Kells, an Irish
confidant of the deceased, was valid.
Dissatisfied
with the judgement, the appellants went to the Appeal Court for a reversal of
the decision and the nullification of the 1989 probate held by Dr Kells.
The Appeal
Court, by a two-one majority in November 1999, upheld the High Court decision
and dismissed the appeal. The late Dr Blay-Miezah, Managing Director of Oman
Ghana Trust, died in June 1992.
In its
judgement, the Supreme Court declared that Dr Ako-Adjei, a Minister in the
First Republic and Mr Mensah were entitled to the probate of the 1988 Will of
the deceased together with the testamentary documents that were tendered in
evidence.
It also
ordered that the statement of accounts of the administration of the estate of
the deceased on the basis of the said probates should be filed at the High
Court Registry. Cost of ¢50 million was awarded against the plaintiffs.
GRi…/
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The Ghana
Palaver says two former Ministers of Local Government and Rural Development have
advised Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the current Minister, to build upon the unique
system of local administration, which he has come to meet and not help destroy
it.
In an open
letter to Baah-Wiredu, the two, Kwamena Ahwoi and Mrs Cecilia Johnson said:
“The new decentralised system of governance that we set up, won the acclaim of
Africa and the world. The least you and your team can do is to build upon it,
but we are afraid, in trying to destroy the initiators, the orchestrators of
the hate campaign (against the former Ministers) may end up destroying the
system as well.”
The former
Ministers, according to the paper, earlier had pointed out that the present
system is not only unique, but also a restructured sector, with policies and programmes
that were enunciated from the scratch.
“Policies
were evolved and innovations were introduced, which can best be appreciated, if
you and your team sat down with those of us, who were responsible for those
policies and innovations so that you could get a better understanding of them,
rather than criminalise those policies and innovations.”
The former
Ministers were reacting to what the paper described as “the vicious reports either planted or
leaked to the newspapers about their conduct while in office and emphasised:
“Let us assure you that try as whoever is behind these orchestrations might, it
will not be easy to indict our administration because we operated an open
administration, we operated with clean hands and we did our best in very trying
circumstances”, they said.
GRi…/
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Ban on
official cars for personal trips
The Upper
West Regional Administration has imposed a ban on Heads of Departments and
Agencies in the region, from driving official vehicle on trips outside their
stations, reports the Evening News.
This has
become necessary in view of the refusal of some heads to use their drivers
during official trips, which often result in accidents with serious injuries
and damage to vehicles.
Mr Mogtari
Sahanun, Upper West Regional Minister, announcing the ban at a meeting with the
heads in the region at Wa, warned that defaulting heads would be sanctioned,
but failed to specify the type of punishment to be meted out.
GRi…/
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NDC will
recapture power in 2004 - Agbesi
The Ghanaian
Chronicle reports of pandemonium at Kwabenya, on the outskirts of Accra, on
Thursday when a government delegation, comprising the Vice President Aliu
Mahama, Local Government Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, and Accra Mayor Solomon
Offei Darko arrived on an inspection tour of a newly acquired Accra
Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) site for its waste management project.
Irate
residents, clad in red and black mourning cloth and chanting war songs,
confronted the government officials chanting, "Kwabenya does not want
refuse, we want schools."
In the
ensuing confusion, a protester attempted to attack the officials but he was
arrested by the police.
More…/
NDC will
recapture power in 2004 - Agbesi
The
Chairman of the NDC Re-organising Committee of the Ashaiman Constituency,
Alfred Kwame Agbesi, who also stood as independent candidate in the 2000
elections, has predicted that the NDC will recapture the seat it lost to NPP in
2004.
Inaugurating
the constituency’s executives at a well-attended meeting held last week, Agbesi
said the losing spirit, which characterised the last general elections and
caught up with members is now being turned into winning spirit to face the NPP.
He asked
members to canvass for more membership and those who have defected to come back
into the fold of the NDC.
GRi…/
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Sacked
bank staff cries foul over fraud charge
The desire
for justice by Moses Okrah-Opoku, an ex-employee of the Agricultural
Development Bank (ADB), over what he called a wrongful dismissal by the bank,
may take a long time to come, if ever, says The Weekend Statesman.
He has
challenged his dismissal at a Sunyani High Court but from all indications,
justice is on extended leave because the bank has shown no interest to present
the prosecution with evidence.
Employed at
the Techiman branch of the bank as Loans Assistant in 1986, Okrah-Opoku was
among six employees dismissed in December 1999 over the theft of ¢1bn between
1992 and 1994. He was accused of authorising the disbursement of unapproved
loans and falsification of a signature as well as benefiting from the loans
disbursement as a Secretary to one of the groups.
But nearly two
years since the case was referred to the police, no charges have been preferred
against him, supporting his view that he was merely set up as a convenient bait
and that there is no way that a prima facie case can be made against him. He
was dismissed for contravening "the Rules of Service and Pay for Senior
Officers."
Okrah-Opoku,
said he was never a senior staff of the bank and was not even in a position to
authorise the disbursement of loans. He described his dismissal as a
miscarriage of justice, supporting this with correspondence between himself and
the bank.
Documents
available to the paper indicate that the alleged malpractices took place
between 1992 -1994 but it was not until 1999 that the bank brought up the
issue. The bank's memo to Okrah-Opoku said that investigations conducted into
the loans administration at the Techiman branch, revealed his complicity but
he, in a response, denied any knowledge.
Okrah-Opoku
said a host of frustrations led to his filing of a civil suit at the Sunyani
High Court challenging his dismissal, but the case cannot proceed because he
has not been cleared of the criminal allegations. The Attorney-General's office
at the Brong Ahafo Region's intervention for the police to charge him upon his
petition has also yielded no result.
GRi…/
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Forcible circumcision of girls - Chief, four other’s held
State daily, The Ghanaian Times, reports that the Wenchi Police in the early hours of Thursday stormed Gbao, near Banda Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region and arrested the Odikro and four others in connection with the circumcision of four teenage girls as part of their puberty rites.
They are Nana Kwadwo Bosomfo, the Odikro, Nana Yawa Brah, 70, the circumciser, Ernest Gyabah, Johnson Kofi Billy and Kwasi Mensah.
The police have sent the victims to the Wenchi Methodist Hospital for treatment. The Times had in its October 31 edition, published the plight of the girls.
More…/
The Inspector-General of Police has ordered the immediate interdiction of Sergeant C.A. Kufuor of the Konongo Police Station who stormed the Obenimase Goldmine Primary School last Wednesday, and mercilessly beat up an 11-year-old pupil.
He also directed that the case be thoroughly investigated without delay. Very credible sources disclosed this to the Times in Kumasi on Thursday. Sergeant Kufuor was said to have stormed a classroom and beat up Ebenezer Teye, in retaliation of the boy’s earlier assault on his son, Kingsley Kufuor.
More…/
Curtain-raiser matches for Star league
Soccer fans who troop to the various stadiums in the country to watch premier league games, would soon no longer sit idle counting the minutes before kick-off.
A source close to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) management board, on Thursday disclosed to the Times that the re-introduction of curtain-raiser matches is high on the agenda of he F/A.
The re-introduction of the curtain-raiser is not only to whet the appetite of fans before the main match but rather be part of the Ben Koufie’s F/A management board’s five year development plan for Ghana soccer.
The source however failed to mention what form the curtain-raisers will take; whether the premier clubs will be made to feature a reserve side, colts clubs or lower division clubs taking up the mantle.
Curtain-raisers used to be a popular feature during the then division one league, but ceased to function at the introduction of the professional league.
GRi…/
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Former Cameroon coach for Stars
The Graphic Sports writes that French tactician, Claude Le-Roy, a former coach of The Lions of Senegal and the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, has emerged on Ghana’s shopping list for Mali 2002.
A GFA source confirmed on Thursday that contacts had been made with the Frenchman who qualified Cameroon for the 1990 Word Cup finals in Italy and he has expressed interest in the job of coaching the Black Stars.
The source indicated that both the FA and the coach have expressed interest in working together but the details of that working relationship are yet to be worked out. Key to that relationship is the financial input, which is being tackled on all fronts, according the source.
GRi…/
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