GRi Press Review 09 – 11 - 2001
Legon
students protest over delay of loans
Rebuild
self-reliant economy-Dan Lartey
Battle for
Blay Miezah's estate rages on
Fifty
thousand dollars given to team - Doe Adjaho
Mfantsipim
has played its parts
Three Ghanaians to hang in Thai prisons
Legon
students protest over delay of loans
Students of
the University of Ghana, Legon, on Thursday held workers of various
organisations at the Gulf House, near the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout in Accra,
hostage for four hours to demand the release of their loans, states the Daily
Graphic.
Clad in red
attire and bands, chanting war songs and carrying placards, some of which read,
“Starvation is terrorism,” “10 weeks in hell,” “Osama bin Akumfi,” “What is the
use of the EDUFund?” “Rest in Peace Positive Change,” “SSNIT is an ally of Al
Quaeda,” “Legon is not Afghanistan,” the students disrupted activities of all
the 16 organisations in the five storey building.
Earlier,
the students, numbering about 300, blocked the main access roads to campus,
thereby causing heavy traffic jam on the Legon-Tetteh Quarshie road.
The
students later marched to the Gulf House, about two kilometres from the campus,
blocked all the entry and exit points, and prevented cars from entering or
leaving the premises, while some of them blocked the main entrance to the
building. Others also sat on the cars within the premises, while some removed
most of the parking signs.
However,
personnel of the Accra Police Command, led by the Commander, Dr. K.K. Marfo,
managed to control the students to ensure that there was no damage to life and
property.
More…/
Rebuild
self-reliant economy-Dan Lartey
The Great
Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) has said it would sustain its call on the
Kufuor administration to develop a self-reliant economy.
According
to the leader of the GCPP, Dan Lartey, "the Kufuor administration should
develop a pioneering mentality, breaking new grounds which would ensure that
the country's dependence on the generosity of the developed world for its
survival is considerably reduced."
Mr Lartey,
who was speaking at a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party in
Accra on Thursday, said the country is will endowed with both human and natural
resources to build a self-reliant and sustaining economy.
More…/
Battle
for Blay Miezah's estate rages on
The Daily
Graphic says the battle for the estate of the late John Ackah Blay-Miezah,
believed to be worth millions of dollars in foreign banks, has taken a new
turn, with the lodging of a caveat against the granting of a probate to Dr
Ebenezer Ako-Adjei and Mr Francis Mensah.
The caveat
was lodged by William Adumuah-Bossman, counsel for Dr John R. Kells, an Irish
confidant of the deceased, who was authorised by an Accra High Court to execute
the will of Blay-Miezah made in 1989.
On October
24, the Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision, gave judgement in favour of a
1988 will in the possession of Dr Ako-Adjei, a Minister in the First Republic,
and Mr Mensah, a nephew of deceased.
The
five-member court, presided over by Mrs Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, also went
ahead to revoke the probates granted by the High Court in respect of the 1989
Will of the deceased.
The
judgement followed an appeal filed by Dr Ako-Adjei and Mr Mensah, challenging
the decision of the High Court that the Will of 1989 was genuine.
According
to legal experts, the lodging of the caveat could be followed by an application
for a review of the October 24 judgement by the full bench of the Supreme
Court.
The High
Court in Accra, in May 1997, declared that the will made by Blay-Miezah on January
29, 1989 and produced by Dr Kells, 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.
More…/
Fifty
thousand dollars given to team - Doe Adjaho
The
Minority Chief Whip, E.K. Doe Adjaho has stated that information available from
Port Harcourt to the Minority Group indicates that the amount given to the
Black Stars contingents after their encounter with their Nigerian counterparts
was $50,000 and not $25,000 as was reported.
Mr Adjaho
who made this known at Thursday's sitting of Parliament, however, did not give
details. He said at the appropriate time he will give the details about the
source.
He
reiterated the Minority's call for the interdiction of the Deputy Minister of
Youth and Sports and the GFA Chairman who were present at the function when the
amount was doled out to the contingent. "Our international image has
seriously been injured," he stated.
More…/
Mfantsipim
has played its parts
The UN
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has praised Mfantsipim School, his alma mater,
for the important role it has played in promoting the global spread of
knowledge.
He said
Mfantsipim has, over the years, trained ambassadors and international leaders
who have worked for the world peace and for stronger ties and better
understanding between Ghana and other countries.
Mr Annan,
who recently won the prestigious Noble Peace Prize, said this in a message to
Mfantsipim School on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, to be
celebrated on Saturday.
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W.O.I Kuntoh, the retired bodyguard of former President Jerry Rawlings, would be arraigned before court to answer a charge of deceit of public officer if Police investigations reveal that he deliberately lied in his accounts to the Police about the attack on his home on Wednesday, October 24, 2001.
According to The Weekend Agenda, however, the Inspector General of Police, Ernest Owusu Poku, would not draw any conclusions when the Agenda asked him about the implications if their investigations revealed that Kuntoh deliberately lied to the Police.
“I will cross the bridge when I get there,” the IGP said about what the Police would do if they found out that Kuntoh deliberately lied.
A Police preliminary report released to the press last week showed that elements of Kuntoh’s alibi to the Police contradict evidence that Police Forensics found on the crime scene.
While the Police say Kuntoh told them he was able to shoot at and wounded two of the alleged burglars, Police forensic experts said they found no blood at the immediate crime scene, casting doubt on Kuntoh’s alibi.
The Police, however found a trail of blood about 45 metres away from the crime scene, which Forensics matched with one of Kuntoh’s neighbours ‘Red’. However they said Red’s injury was not sustained from gunshots.
More…/
The killer turkey tail, imported from Europe, popularly known in the local parlance as ‘Chofi’, which was banned in Ghana in 1999, as a result of its high fat content, has found its way back onto the Ghanaian market.
Officials of the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) say ‘Chofi’ was restricted alongside other frozen poultry products with more than 15 percent fat content. ‘Chofi’ according to expert could not pass the 15 percent fat mark because it contains about 45 percent of fat even after the fat glands are removed.
A notice to importers from the Ministry of Trade and Industry dated September 1st 2001 and signed by the former Minister, Dan Abodakpi said, “poultry and meat products with fat content higher than specified will be confiscated and destroyed at importers cost.”
Presently, Chofi is sold alongside fried yams. Especially at night in some food selling joints. Chofi is also common along the Kumasi highway. Sellers usually rush them to waiting passengers travelling to Kumasi and beyond whenever the cars stop at Nsawam and other towns along the Accra-Kumasi route.
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The controversy surrounding a new landfill site at Kwabenya, a suburb of Accra, by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) seems to deepen with the persistent opposition of the residents of the area.
They say apart from the environmental hazards, it also threatens their lives as the project is sited on the Odartey stream, which serves as their source of water supply.
“We are not against the landfill project; we are afraid of the negative impact it will have on the nearby communities. What we are saying is that the landfill must be sited far away from human habitation,” declared Isaac Amoh Smith, spokesman for the Agyamankata Community, Kwabenya.
The AMA is embroiled in a dispute with communities living near the new landfill site, the preparation of which is 70 per cent near completion. Following the people’s agitation that the project would affect their normal lives, the AMA has suggested that the communities could be relocated. The AMA says it is losing 37 million each day the contractor continues to be prevented from carrying on with the work.
But Smith says relocation is not part of the deal. “We want to make it clear to the government that we will not accept any compensation or relocation.”
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The Ghana Palaver reports that the first batch of two hundred Ghanaian troops left Accra on Monday for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on peacekeeping duties.
A statement from the Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate said a second detachment of 201 personnel would leave on Monday, November 12 to join the first batch to serve for six months.
Brigadier J.B. Danquah, Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, told the troops in a pre-departure talk to exhibit the highest level of dedication and professionalism in order to maintain the enviable heights that the Ghana Armed Forces had attained in international peacekeeping.
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Three Ghanaians to hang in Thai prisons
Three Ghanaian drug dealers have been sentenced to death by hanging at the Klong Prem prison in Bangkok, Thailand, The Ghanaian Chronicle names Sadji Kamara, chairman of the committee of convicted Ghanaians in Thailand, to have revealed this to the press in a note.
According to Kamara, there has been no execution in Thailand for a decade until April this year when a Taiwan national and three others were hanged for drug dealing. He noted that conditions at Thailand’s prisons are extremely harsh and inhuman.
Kamara said even though they concede that drug trafficking is criminal and dangerous, the government owed it a responsibility to use diplomatic channels for a swap so that they can serve the remaining of their term in Ghana. “It is our hope that the Kufuor administration will fulfil its election promise with respect to alleviating hardship among Ghanaians who are facing trouble,” he’d stated.
More…/
The Vice-Chairman of the Western Regional reorganisation committee of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nana Alex Asamoah, has declared his intention to organise a demonstration similar to the ‘Kumeprekos’, organised by the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) should the government decide to privatise the water sector of the economy which individuals and institutions have protested against.
Speaking at the Bibiani-Ahweaso-Bekwai constituency congress of the NDC at Bibiani in the Western Region he said water is a basic necessity, therefore if it is privatised or its activities commercialised and the tariff is astronomically increased, it would make life unbearable in the country.
According to him, the NDC as an opposition party, it would not sit down unconcerned for such a thing to happen, hence his determination to organise the demonstration across the length and breadth of the country to halt the idea of privatising the water sector as NPP did to NDC to suspend the VAT at the initial stage of its implementation.
More…/
A coalition of groups, individuals and organisations committed to promoting women’s rights, Network for Women’s Rights (Netright) has criticised the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP) describing it as seriously flawed taken into consideration its conception, content and process which could not address the numerous problems confronting the poor in society.
The coalition further stated that the GPRSP has failed in its purpose in addressing gender dimensions of poverty and the propose strategy that are gender friendly and sensitive. This, the coalition sees as problematic in view of the widespread and undisputed inter-relationships that existed between gender and poverty.
It has therefore called for a reopening of a debate at addressing the problem of poverty in the country and a review of the micro-economic framework focused on poverty and committed to promoting gender equity in policies and strategies for development in the country.
These views were expressed by the coalition at a one-day seminar organised by Netrigh for its members on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP) in Accra.
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The
Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs has expressed surprise that in spite
of the law banning the practice of Female Genital Mutilation, girls are still
being subjected to the inhuman treatment in the name of culture and tradition,
reports the Ghanaian Times.
The paper
reports a Ministry statement issued on Wednesday as saying that nobody was
above the law and warned that any act of violence committed against women and
children in the name of culture and tradition, would not go unpunished.
It urged
the law enforcement agencies and civil society to be more vigilant and resolute
in the enforcement of laws that sought to protect women and children.
The “Times”
in its Thursday, November 1 edition reported that five teenage girls had been
circumcised at Gbao, near Banda Ahenkro as part of their puberty rites.
More…/
The
headquarters of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has condemned
the recent strike action undertaken jointly by its Legon branch and the
Federation of the University Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG).
The “Times”
in an interview with Dan Antwi, the union’s General Secretary said they had not
sanctioned any such strike. “If there was the need for any strike, it would
have been a collective decision but not a unilateral one as taken by the Legon
branch,” he said.
Mr Antwi
said as at two weeks ago, they had written to all the five Universities to
exercise restraint since they were working on their grievances, which centred
on delays in the payment of 15 per cent salary adjustment arrears. “As I speak
now, all the Universities had collected their cheques of the arrears from the
National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), he said.”
More…/
The Volta
Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO) is to spend over 40 million dollars in power
purchases next year. This would maintain the Volta River Authority’s (VRA)
revenue from VALCO at four times higher than all industrial and mining
customers in the country.
These were
disclosed by Dave Weaver, Director of Human Resource and Administration at the
commissioning of a ¢200 million sanitation site for the Tema Manhean community,
near Accra.
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The Evening
News quotes Willie Ansah, former personal aide to ex-Vice-President Prof John
Atta Mills as saying in a letter to the paper that he is not happy with the way
some National Democratic Congress (NDC) members are defending the party’s
record.
He said it
was a pity that the few macho-NDC members who hawkishly are trying to defend
the NDC record are unfortunately not those who are hauled before the courts, so
they do not realise how the shoe pinches.
He said it
was unfortunate that a few members of the NDC “for their self-serving purposes
would see no fault with the past performance of the NDC.” By so doing, he said
they had brought resentment against their colleagues who might have slipped
here and there in the course of discharging their duties.
Mr Ansah
pointed out that there was nothing shameful about admitting faults. “We are all
human and we make mistakes every now and then.” He advised those who are
faulting the Attorney-General for pardoning Victor Selormey for his alleged
crime to reconsider their stand.
He said “in
the first place, the Attorney-General is well within the ambit of the law and
the discretion allowed him by his office to take such decisions,” that the
decision has great benefits for both sides.
“First the
state avoids the expenses of a trial whiles it gets its money back and Selormey
avoids custodian sentence.” The state, he said, indeed should do more of that
to avoid spending too much money prosecuting cases whose outcome one could not
be sure of.
“There is
also the humanitarian aspect where the case is so cut-and-dried, one could
strike such bargain to save the accused too much pain. After all in this case,
the state is more interested in recovering the money than in jailing Selormey,”
he said.
More…/
The
differences and infighting within the NPP in the Upper West Region have
deepened, according to the Evening News, as two regional executive members of
the party have dissociated themselves from the decision to nullify the Wa
Central constituency elections by the regional executive.
The two,
C.B. Gbeksture, first vice-regional chairman, and Lawrence Banyeh, regional
youth organizer, are members of a group that passed a vote of no confidence in
the regional chairman.
In a letter
to the regional chairman and copied to the general secretary of the party among
others, they stated that the NPP constitution does not allow any chairman to
solely take decisions and repackage them for the general public as the
collective wish of the entire executive.
They said,
“we members of the regional executive are not privy to your decision and more
so that NPP constitution does not empower any regional executive member to
interfere and usurp the functions of the constituency executive to declare
results of any congress null and void, especially in a situation where you in
particular is an interested party.”
The
statement noted that the Wa Central constituency had never held any
congress since 1992 and fully endorse
the action taken by the outgoing constituency organiser in calling for the
congress and consequently the elections.
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