Five cops
in trouble for demanding bribe
Exercise not solution to unemployment
Stand firm behind NDC - Bagbin
What President said on Dual Citizenship Bill
Hold public officials accountable
'Govt has incurred ¢6 trillion in 10 months'
Top diplomat robbed by vicious gunmen
Boakye Djan makes a plea!
Black Stars in $25,000 bribery scandal?
Senior
Secondary School to get 80.9 billion cedis
Teachers
association says educational structure is okay
Five
cops in trouble for demanding bribe
The Daily Graphic carries that five policemen stationed at Wenchi have been interdicted by the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command for allegedly demanding bribes from suspected drug dealers.
The five are Constable Yaw Baah, Chief Inspector Simon Wortoyesor (Station Officer), Inspector Frank Hagan, Corporal Thomas Acquah, and Constable Twum Dauda, all of the Wenchi Police Station.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) in charge of the region, Seth Obeng, who is reported to have confirmed the story in an interview in Sunyani, said thorough investigations were being conducted.
Security officials investigating the case were said to have been stunned when they found the ignition key to the vehicle of the drug dealers in the pocket of Constable Baah. The vehicle, loaded with large quantities of leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, had been hidden in tobacco farm near Offuman.
Constable Baah allegedly brought out the keys when BNI and some police officers confronted him over allegations that he and the four other policemen had negotiated for a bribe of ¢7 million from the owners of the Indian hemp to enable them to transport the leaves to Accra.
He said Constable Baah confirmed that he personally drove the vehicle to the bush on the orders of his superiors who were at the barrier, for the owners to bring the money before releasing it to them. The goods included 115 pieces of compressed leaves, which the police said was apparently meant for export, and 20 bags of dried leaves.
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Exercise not solution to unemployment
A Technical Director of the ongoing nationwide registration of the unemployed has cautioned Ghanaians against the expectation that the current unemployment registration exercise will automatically open up job opportunities for them.
Mr John Y. Amankrah stated that the exercise is a three-year programme essentially designed to collect data to serve as a basis for future action.
Mr Amankrah, who said this at the graduation ceremony of Ramina Wear Fashion School in Accra at the weekend, noted that the government will provide training in phases to those who register.
The government, he said, has considered apprenticeship system as one of the interventions to be used to design effective safety nets from the data to be generated from the current exercise.
"Consequently, (the) government intends to train 10,000 master craftsmen and women in selected public and private technical and vocational institutions throughout the country," Mr Amankrah said.
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Stand firm behind NDC - Bagbin
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has called on supporters and members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) not to feel discouraged by the fact that the leadership of the party has been less vocal after the party lost power to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Most leading members of the NDC have to contend with re-organising themselves and, therefore, find it difficult to contribute to both national and party issues, Mr Bagbin told the fifth biennial conference of the Tema West branch of the party, at which a 22-member executive was elected and sworn in to office.
The Minority Leader was of the view that by the end of the year, the leading members of the party would be more forthcoming after sorting out their personal difficulties. He, therefore, advised grassroots members of the party to do all they can to ensure that the party maintains a viable and formidable presence at the branch level.
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What President said on Dual Citizenship Bill
The Graphic says there was a factual misrepresentation in its story on the President's trip to Canada in which he was reported as having said that the Dual Citizenship Bill will be presented to Parliament during its Third Meeting.
The paper what the President said was that the Legislative Instrument to give effect to the Dual Citizenship Bill has been laid before Parliament. The Bill was passed in December last year and given Presidential assent that same month.
By law, the Minister of the Interior has to cause to be laid before Parliament a Legislative Instrument to operationalise laws. For this reason, the Minister on July 28, this year, laid before Parliament a Dual Citizenship Regulation LI 1690 to bring the law on dual citizenship into effect.
It is required that the LI is laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days to make the law effective and by that the LI becomes legally binding from November 9 as Parliament went on recess shortly after it was laid.
From that day, the procedure for anyone to regularise his or her dual citizenship and right of abode is provided for in the regulation in the Legislative Instrument.
GRi…/
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Hold public officials accountable
A section of Ghanaians living in Canada and other parts of America have expressed their willingness to return home and help build the economy.
They said their hitherto unwillingness to invest in Ghana was due to the way former government officials dissipated the tax payer's money with impunity and the fear of insecurity of their investments.
According to The Evening News, a cross-section of Ghanaians in Canada and North America interviewed in Toronto at a meeting between the President, J.A. Kufuor, and the Ghanaian Community in Canada said they saw the change in government in Ghana as a divine intervention to prevent the creation of a class society and its subsequent mayhem which would have befallen the country in the near future.
They have therefore called on the government not to renege on its avowed principle of zero tolerance for corruption and hold public officials accountable for their stewardship.
According to Dr Francis Sam, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Toronto University Hospital, economic activities in Ghana would have grounded to a halt if the insensitive way of squandering the nation's resources had continued for the next four years.
Though he often visits home, he said it had never occurred to him to invest in Ghana because of "day light robbery" of state funds by public officials. He said following the change in government, he, like many of his friends intends to invest in Ghana after studying the government for sometime.
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'Govt has incurred ¢6 trillion in 10 months'
Mr Alex Asamoah, chairman at a meeting to elect officers for the Bibian-Anhwiaso Constituency of the NDC on Sunday, has expressed regrets that in spite of the noise made by the ruling government on assumption of power about the country's external debt situation, no significant effort had been made to reduce it. He said its only a little over one trillion cedis of the debts that has so far been paid by the NPP government.
He said whereas the NDC left office with a ¢41 trillion debt which represented Ghana's total indebtedness since 1957, the debt situation had risen to ¢47 trillion meaning that within 10 months in office, the NPP government had added six trillion to it.
On national debt, which stood at nine trillion cedis at the time the NDC handed over to the NPP, this national debt has risen to ¢12 trillion.
Mr Asamoah noted that the two scenarios indicated the incompetence of the NPP to salvage the economy and said, "they have disappointed Ghanaians".
GRi…/
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Top diplomat robbed by vicious gunmen
The Statesman carries that around 10:30 am on Wednesday, October 31, hours before a daylight bank robbery occurred at the Spintex Road, a suburb of Accra, a more gruesome, life-threatening ordeal was visited upon a 53-year-old wife of the First Secretary of the Indian High Commission at their plush residence at Ablemkpe, also in Accra.
The robbery, according to The Statesman, has left Mrs Mohey, the Secretary’s wife in such a serious state of shock that she is now under sedation, so much afraid that she is constantly crying and urging her husband, H.R. Mohey for them to return to India immediately and never to come back to Ghana.
Speaking to the paper on Thursday, the Indian High Commissioner, Arun Kumar Banerjee, showed his disappointment at the slowness with which the Foreign Ministry and the police especially, had reacted to the incident.
The Statesman says it all started when three men scaled the wall of the home of the Moheys, forcing open the window of the living room and removing the security grill. The men went straight upstairs into the couple’s bedroom and thrusted the barrels of two handguns onto the forehead of the traumatised lady of the house and bombarded her with some queries. They then threw her into the bathroom and locking the door and ransacked the bedroom.
GRi…/
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Boakye Djan makes a plea!
Major Kojo Boakye Djan (rtd) has officially appealed to Parliament to adopt his recommended Peace and Settlement Commission or at least incorporate his ideas in any final Act for the National Reconciliation Commission Bill, reports The Crusading Guide.
His plea is contained in a 12-page document, which he presented to Mr Isaac Osei, the Ghana High Commissioner in London for onward transmission to Parliament.
In proposing his Peace and Settlement Commission for acceptance as "a major condition for the success of positive change as a vision", Major Boakye Djan said: "All I ask of you, the members of our sovereign Parliament, is that you work for its adoption or at least its incorporation in the proposed bill".
Copies of the three-part document made up of a critique of the National Reconciliation Bill in part one, general recommendations in part two and actual textual recommendations in part three, have also been sent to the President, the Chief Justice, the Council of State, the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliament Affairs and to the Speaker and the House.
GRi…/
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Black Stars in $25,000 bribery scandal?
The Graphic Sports carries that an extension of Nigerian 'hospitality' and 'handshake' after a humiliating World Cup qualifying loss to the Super Eagles, has caused a big stir in Nigeria.
The Nigerian press is screaming 'bribery!' over the event last July when the Super Eagles whipped the black Stars 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Port Harcourt and then held a dinner for the Ghanaians at the residence of the Rivers State governor, who allegedly presented $25,000 as gift to the Ghanaian team.
It was a landmark victory for the Nigerians and facilitated the Super Eagles narrowly edging out the Lone Star of Liberia to make their third successive World Cup finals appearance.
Liberian super star, George Weah was first to raise alarm after the game, accusing the Black Stars of complicity in the Super Eagles' 3-0 victory. He was seriously taken on by Black Stars coach Osam Duodu who earlier rather accused Weah of an attempt to influence the results of the Liberia - Ghana match in Monrovia, which Ghana won 2-1.
In the euphoria of that triumph, the Nigerians invited the players and officials of the Ghanaian contingent for a victory dinner at the residence of the State Governor of River State for a treat of Nigerian hospitality, where the cash donation was allegedly made.
But the excitement now over, the often critical Nigerian press, this week raked up the three-month old matter and scandalised the governor's gesture as bribery.
A member of the Ghanaian contingent on that trip on Monday rejected the bribery tag being put on the matter, saying, it was nothing illicit and that the donation was made at a public function.
He said the Nigerians explained at the time that the gesture was a normal Nigerian hospitality extended to all visiting teams and at the same function, about $150,000 was mobilised for the Super Eagles.
It was on the basis of that assurance, he said, that GFA chairman Ben Kuofie received the amount of $25,000 publicly and on behalf of the players and other members of the contingent.
The money was said to have been shared among players and officials on that trip, as a token of Nigerian hospitality and not with any intention of rendering any service in return.
GRi…/
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Despite reports of several scores of Ghanaian casualties in the September 11 terrorist bombing of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre (WTC) in the USA, only four have been identified so far as missing or presumed dead, The Chronicle says it can reveal.
Mr Japhet Jesse Ayi, Sophia Addo, Victor Kwakye and Nana Mintah are the only names of Ghanaians on the official list of the missing, even though compelling evidence exist that the number could be higher, sources within the large Ghanaian community in New York say.
The four names are with the Ghana Mission in New York and are currently the only ones on the official list of the missing compiled at the Family Centre. The centre is the official destination for relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to register the names of their missing relatives.
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A report by a team of investigators from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which investigated the Kwahu Government Hospital and the District Health Management Team (DHMT) at Atibie in the Kwahu District of the Eastern Region, uncovered shocking details of financial malpractices and fraud, says Chronicle.
Among the financial malpractices and fraud discovered, the SFO team established that Mr Daniel Benefo, Principal Accounts Officer of the DHMT Secretariat, teamed up with officials of the District Treasury Office (DTO) to forge the signature of the Head of the DHMT and succeeded in embezzling ¢14 million from the vote of the DHMT.
Benefo told the SFO that he shared the money with Kwesi Asante, a former District Treasury Officer of Mpraeso and three other members of the DTO.
It was again discovered that Bonah and the Pharmacist of the Hospital and acting Head of DGMT, Mr C.K. Baah, opened an unauthorised Fixed Deposit Account at the Mpraeso branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank, when the hospital had a properly authorised Treasury Bill Account with the Nkawkaw branch of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). The two were signatories to the secret account.
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Emmanuel Bright Mansilla, a teacher who allegedly shot his ex-girlfriend who was coming out from a bathhouse at Community 11, Tema under cover of darkness, was remanded in prison custody when he was arraigned before the circuit tribunal charged with unlawful causing of harm.
He pleaded not guilty. The victim, Joyce Yaawtse, a hairdresser, is receiving treatment at the Tem General Hospital.
The Tribunal heard that the accused and his victim were lovebirds and live in the same vicinity at Community 11, Tema. The relationship between them turned sour because of petty jealousies and threats issued by the accused whenever there was a misunderstanding.
On October 18, this year at about 10.30 pm, Joyce was returning from the bathhouse and sighted the accused, who was standing at the back of their corridor windows, and she called him because she knows him very well.
According to the prosecution, it was there that the accused fired at his victim with a gunshot. The victim screamed for help. The accused bolted when he saw that a co-tenant of the victim was coming to her aid.
She was rushed to the Tema Hospital where she is still on admission. The accused was later arrested.
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Members of
the National Democratic Congress (UK and Ireland branch) have called on party
members, both at home and abroad, to remain focused on the task of regaining
the political mandate of Ghanaians to resume its work of developing the country
and making life more bearable for the people, the Ghana Palaver reports.
The
“charge”, according to the paper, is contained in a message of solidarity from
the branch to its counterparts in Sweden, on the occasion of the second
anniversary of the inauguration of the latter. The message said, the Kufour Administration
has shot up the cost of social services, “making living conditions very
difficult for ordinary citizens, who are targets of the stiff measures”.
The message
also condemned the harassment of members of the NDC, including the arrests and
dismissal and premature retirement of some public officers, and described those
acts as rather unfortunate. In the fight for the recapture of power, the
message said:
“As we
fight this battle, ‘unity and discipline’ must never desert us. It must be the
glue that hold us together”.
GRi…/
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The
government will, by Friday, release 80.9 billion cedis to the Ghana Education
Service (GES) for disbursement to Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) to honour the
30 percent fees it promised to absorb to lessen the burden on parents.
The ‘
Ghanaian Times’ reports a source as saying in an interview on Monday that the
amount did not include scholarships. The government would pay ¢367,000 per
student, whether a boarder or day student for this academic year.
The source
explained that contrary to public perception, the Ministry had not delayed in
meeting its obligation rather shifting the blame on to the GES. According to
the source, the GES did not submit to it the total figures of students in all
public SSS for onward transmission to the Ghana Education Trust Fund for the
release of the amount.
“This they
were able to do only last week and we sent it to the GETF for the release of
the amount”, the source said.
The
conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) at the end of its 39th
annual conference in Sunyani, at the weekend, issued an ultimatum to the
government to release the money by November 9 or schools would be closed on
extended mid-term holidays.
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Teachers
association says educational structure is okay
Mr Kwame
Amo-Darko, National Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Teachers
(GNAT), has said that there is nothing wrong with the present educational
structure of six years basic education, three years secondary and three years
tertiary education.
“This is
the universal practice and that there is nothing wrong with the curriculum as
designed,” he said. However, Mr Amo-Darko said that certain assumptions
underpinned the recommended structure which, he noted were not true and the
result was that 14 years into the implementation of the new structure, the
country was still grappling with those assumptions.
Mr
Amo-Darko was speaking on the topic “Overhauling the New Educational Reform in
Ghana”, at the Fourth Pearson-Osae Appreciation Lectures on Prempeh College as
a prelude to the school’s Speech and Prize Giving in December 2001.
The
lectures were instituted by the college in honour of the Reverend S.N. Pearson,
first Ghanaian headmaster of the school.
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