Review
VALCO accord
Three
appointed Editors
Amoa
denies being harassed
Eleven
admitted to hospital with strange disease
Revenue
collectors in fraud, embezzlement
CPP,
PNC parties oppose water privatisation
Education
Service to check bad behaviours in schools
NDC
sells campaign cars
Why
Rex Owusu-Ansah was dropped from ECOWAS
Attorney
General reacts to NDC
Peprah
mentions Rawlings
Vision
2020 is dead - Osafo Maafo
Law
making prostitution illegal advocated
Fourteen billion cedis paid for vehicles not
delivered
Scandal rocks animal research institute
GONJAS stake claim to new Region
$20m
missing at Ghana Petroleum
Fans
upset at Kotoko’s home loss to Okwawu Utd
Jones
Attuquayefio back to Hearts bench
Three
Bafana Bafana players killed in motor accident
Review
VALCO accord
The
Daily Graphic says highly-placed officials in the country have called on the
government to review without delay the electricity tariff currently paid by the
Volta Aluminium company (VALCO) to reflect prevailing realities.
Pleading
anonymity, they said government cannot continue to subsidize a giant company
like VALCO and asked that new negotiations should open by December, this year,
instead of the scheduled 2003.
The
last review was in February 1998 and, under the five-year agreement, the next
negotiation is in 2003.
One
of the officials said after 30 years of low electricity tariff, the time has
come for the company to pay tariffs that reflect the world average price and
suggested that it should be possible to open negotiations by December, this
year.
"VALCO
cannot enjoy the privilege under which it is treated as a baby, when the poor
populace is very often called upon to make sacrifices to sustain the producing
agencies," said the officials.
They
questioned the moral justification for the poor to subsidise a giant company
like VALCO.
The
Volta River Authority (VRA), they said, cries for increases in tariff, but
however justified the company is, the increases should not be borne by only
Ghanaians.
The
officials argue that it should be possible for VALCO to pay the average 3 cents
per kilowatt hour even though some smelters pay about 3.5 cents per kilowatt
hour. At the moment, VALCO pays below two cents for one kilowatt hour.
They
maintained that Ghana, under the Heavily Indebted Poor countries (HIPC) status,
deserves fair price for the power that it generates, pointing out that there is
a strong urge for a new agreement, which will take into account the worldwide
price of power.
Unlike
the VRA, which wants the previous agreement to operate until 2003 when there
will be another negotiations, the officials who are outraged by the low rates
being paid now are calling for immediate re-negotiation. VRA is said to be
pushing for tariff increases because it is under pressure to find money to fund
its activities.
According
to them, they do not dispute the fact that VALCO was a genuine pioneer industry
in 1962 but it cannot claim that status now and therefore recommend that the
status of VALCO be made the same as any other industrial concern operating in
Ghana.
More…/
Three
appointed Editors
The
Board of Directors of Graphic communications Group Limited has, in consultation
with the Public Services Commission, appointed Editors for three of the
company's newspapers.
A
statement issued in Accra by the board said the new appointments are Graphic
Showbiz, Mr. Nanabanyin Dadson; Junior Graphic, Mrs Mavis Kitcher, and Graphic
Sports, Mr Felix Abayateye.
It
said Mr Dadson, a graduate of the University of Ghana, Legon, joined the
Graphic (then a Corporation) in November, 1984, and has been acting as Editor
for Graphic Showbiz since May, 2001 when the then Editor, Mr Lee Akorley went
on retirement.
Mrs
Kitcher, who is a product of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and the School
of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, has been acting as Editor
for Junior Graphic since the paper was started in September, 2000, the statement
said.
According
to the statement, Mr Felix Abayateye, an Assistant Editor, Graphic Sports,
takes over from Mr Joe Aggrey, who was recently appointed Deputy Minister of
Youth and Sports.
"In
a related development, the Board of Directors has given the Managing Director,
Mr Berifi Apenteng, additional responsibilities as acting Editor-in-Chief of
the Group", the statement said.
It
stated that Mr Apenteng, who has more than 25 years experience as a journalist
and a mass media practitioner, will have oversight responsibilities for the
editorial content of all the five newspapers currently published by the
company.
More…/
Amoa
denies being harassed
The
former Chief Executive of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) Mr Yeboa Amoa, has
stated that he is not being harassed by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP)
Government.
He
said contrary to the recent allegations by the National Democratic Congress
(NDC), "the NPP Government is not harassing me in any way whether directly
or indirectly.
In
a press release, Mr Amoa said although certain individuals are engaged in what
he called a campaign of public vilification, against him, "as far as I am
concerned, these have not been done by or on behalf of the NPP
Government".
He
stated that he has neither been a member of the NDC nor a government official.
Mr
Amoa explained that although he was the Chief Executive Officer of the GSE, he
was not a government official.
"This
is because the GSE is not a ministry, department or agency of government,"
he further explained.
He,
therefore, requested the NDC to withdraw his name from the list of those it
mentioned as being persecuted by the NPP.
Mr
Amoa further asked the "NDC not to feel responsible for him, since he does
not feel responsible for the NDC.
"I
am old and knowledgeable enough as a 57-year old lawyer, with 32 years post
enrolment experience to be responsible for myself, by the grace of God."
"I
want to assure the public that if I feel harassed by the NPP Government, in any
way, this would have been an excellent opportunity to say so", he added.
More…/
Eleven
admitted to hospital with strange disease
Eleven
people were on Monday rushed to the Tamale Regional Hospital, following an
outbreak of a strange disease which made them collapse and foam at the mouth.
Graphic
story said some of the victims vomited blood while others twitched and groaned
in pain.
All
the victims are reportedly on admission and responding to treatment, except
one, whose condition is said to be critical.
The
onset of the disease and conditions of the victims, who are resident around the
Tamale Central Market and along the Kaladan Park, created fear and panic among
residents of the municipality, when word went round about the disease.
Speaking
to the Graphic at the hospital on Monday, one of the victims, a 26-year-old
apprentice welder, Awudu Mumuni, said after welding a client's motorbike at the
shop, at about 3.30 p.m. on Monday, one of his master's sons complained to him
that he was sick.
Mumuni
said after he had administered a dose of paracetamol to the boy, he asked him
to go home.
Mumuni
said, he then started feeling some sensation and that was the last thing he
remembered till he woke up on a hospital bed to be told that he had fallen
unconscious.
Two
persons, one of them Mumuni's master, Shahadu Iddrisu, who rushed him to the
hospital, collapsed at the casualty ward. They are among the 11 victims
presently on admission.
Both
Dr Nsor Azaare and Dr Opoku Richard of the Tamale Hospital, attributed the
development to a likely gas pollution in the area.
Dr
Azaare said the blood pressure of most of the victims are normal, but expressed
fear that some of them could suffer from lung infections.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Revenue
collectors in fraud, embezzlement
Naked
frauds and embezzlements as a result of over-invoicing and under-invoicing on
the part of revenue collectors are some of the major problems undermining the
effective mobilization of funds for the District Assemblies, The Evening News
quotes Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah, Eastern Regional Minister to have disclosed.
He
said some revenue collectors have become too familiar with rate-payers and have
as a result become ineffective.
The
Regional Minister was speaking at the opening session of the third regional
meeting of District Chief Executives at Mpraeso in the Kwahu South District
last Friday.
He
said to check the situation, his administration had embarked on massive
postings of tax collectors and called for support and cooperation to make the
exercise a success.
He
said until Ghanaians agree to team up with government to fight the rot in the
system, the positive change which "we are all yearning for would be
elusive".
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
CPP,
PNC parties oppose water privatisation
The
People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) have
spoken against the government’s decision to privatize water supply services in
the country, reports The Ghanaian Times.
The
parties declared their stand in two separate statements issued in Accra on Monday,
signed by Dr Edward Mahama, Leader of the PNC, and Dr Abubakr Al-Hassan,
chairman and leader of the CPP, the two parties said that they were against any
attempts by government to put the nation’s water supply into the hands of
multinational corporations.
The
CPP said that it shared the same view with the Non-governmental Organisation,
ISODEC, in protesting the attempt to put the profit motives of multinational
corporations over and above the right of the general citizenry to potable
water.
“We
are equally protesting against the arm-twisting machinations of the IMF and the
World Bank who are always quick to impose stifling conditions on undeveloped
countries as preconditions for extending credit facilities to them”, it said.
The
CPP said it was now clear that with the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
Initiative, “the World Bank is beginning to exact its price which includes the
‘fast-track dismantling of the public sector such as the Ghana Water Company
(GWC) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
“The
CPP’s position is that water, just like the air we breath, is a collective
natural resource for humanity and it is so critical to human existence that
access to it in its clean form must not be conditional upon the ability to pay
for it”, the statement added.
The
CPP said that it was particularly appalled at the attempt to “redbait”
opponents of the IMF/World Bank and their multinational handmaidens
exploitative presence in the national economy, saying that it was divisionary,
to say the least.
The
PNC, on its part, said that it was alarmed at the statement issued by the
Ministry of Works and Housing calling on Ghanaians to “ignore ISODEC” and the
organisation’s view that privatizing urban water supply was not in the interest
of Ghanaians.
“Today,
we are considering yet another prescription to invite “foreign interests on our
water supply management,” the PNC said, and asked, “why should Ghanaians not
hear all the views on the issue”?
More…/
Education
Service to check bad behaviours in schools
The
Ghana Education Service (GES) is to stem the tide of social vices and other
irresponsible bahaviours like armed robbery by some students in the country’s
basic and secondary schools.
Towards
this end, the GES would soon organize a training workshop for coordinators to
augment and strengthen its school social services unit.
Mr
Joseph D. Amuzu, Head of the school social services unit of the GES, disclosed
this on Monday at the opening of a four-day workshop for senior, Regional and
Headquarters Welfare officers of the GES at Nungua near Accra.
He
said that the GES was concerned about the upsurge in social vices and
irresponsible bahaviours being reported in some secondary schools and had
tasked welfare officers to take the matter up with the various Parent Teacher
Associations (PTAs).
Mr
Amuzu said that the focus would be on parents because responsible parents must
train their children in a more responsible way to become better adults.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
NDC
sells campaign cars
The
Independent says it's ten months since the NDC assumed an unusual position as
operatives from the fringes, however, party sources have hinted that it is yet
to master the rough opposition terrain.
According
to the paper, the NDC has started feeling the heat of swapping positions with
the NPP and can no longer keep up with the pace of maintenance of its vehicles
acquired for campaign in the last elections.
Most
of the party's cars embossed in party colours, according to the story, are
already up for sale and the scramble for them has been intense because of their
relatively cheap prices.
"The
party is cash-trapped" a source disclosed and added, "we are
therefore exploiting all possible avenues to raise enough funds for the 2004
elections."
More…/
Why
Rex Owusu-Ansah was dropped from ECOWAS
Mr
Rex Owusu-Ansah, Clerk of Parliament was dropped as a nominee of Ghana for the
position of Secretary-General of the ECOWAS parliament for reasons that highly
placed sources in government describe as selfish.
According
to sources close to government, when the ECOWAS position was declared vacant
for Ghana's occupation, three persons, namely Dr. Niyi Alabi, of Accra-based
CHOCIE FM, Mr Rex Owusu-Ansah and Mr S.N. Darkwah, former Clerk of Parliament
were nominated by the leadership of Parliament.
With
the process of nomination completed, Mr Rex Owusu-Ansah, according to sources,
started intense lobbying for the position and as a result made strong
representations at the highest levels of government that the other two
contestants were not interested in the position.
The
government was thus compelled to assume that none of the other two contestants
could present their curriculum vitae for consideration.
The
Independent says it was therefore to the shock of government that both Dr Alabi
and Mr S.N. Darkwa presented their curriculum vitae for the same position.
Government
therefore had no option than to send the curriculum vitae of the three persons,
but as it emerged that the other two had not pledged support for Mr
Owusu-Ansah, it decided to withdraw Mr Owusu-Ansah from the position to correct
the erroneous impression created in certain circles to the effect that it
backed Mr Owusu-Ansah as against the other two.
Government
is yet to come out with a set of new nominees for the position that has been
allotted Ghana, according to the paper.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Attorney
General reacts to NDC
The
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Ado has dismissed the
decision of former NDC appointees not to cooperate with investigations into
allegations of impropriety against them, reports The Statesman.
Delivering
the key-note address at the annual conference of the Ghana Bar Association
(GBA) in Sunyani on Monday the Attorney-General said: "Cooperation or non-cooperation,
government will not be deflected from the necessity to pursue these enquiries,
which are entirely legitimate. For we will not allow a culture of impunity to
develop in this nation.
The
enquiries, he said, would be pursued to their logical conclusion and
"persons of integrity should have nothing to fear."
The
theme of the conference is "Corruption, the Rule of Law, and
administration of Justice."
The
Attorney-General said the portrayal of the current trials of former NDC
functionaries as an NPP government's grand plan to destabilize and destroy the
NDC is far from the truth.
"I
appreciate the difficulty they find themselves in - yesterday’s vociferous
apostles of probity and accountability who, today, shriek witch-hunt,
harassment and inquisition whenever the searchlight of these very same
principles is thrown upon their conduct," he said.
More…/
Peprah
mentions Rawlings
The
controversy over the ownership of the 'Presidential Jet', the Gulfstream II
executive jet, has heightened, with former President Rawlings being mentioned
by his former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah, as the man who first disclosed
the existence of the jet and recommended its acquisition, according to Serious
fraud Office (SFO) sources.
The
Statesman says it has also learnt that the patience of the SFO is about to
snap, after what has been seen as an expensive ping-pong game of passing the
buck between Kwame Peprah and the bank involved in the dealings, HSBC, over
ownership of Gallen Ltd. Gallen is the company which leased the executive jet
to the NDC government in a deal wrapped in mystery and said to be couched in
monumental fraud against Ghana.
The
former Finance Minister, who on behalf of Ghana, signed the agreement with
Gallen, is said to have constantly referred to HSBC as owners of the jet. In
fact, in his last statement to the SFO, Peprah allegedly stated categorically
that Gallen was a subsidiary of HSBC, a footsie 100 quoted company, and that
all the officials of Gallen who signed the agreement worked for that bank.
Investigators
were, therefore, not amused when, in response to their inquiries, HSBC wrote
back to say that Peprah was the best man to answer all questions on Gallen.
This puzzling twist seems to suggest that Peprah, who represented Ghana, was at
the same time involved with the lessor company. Why then will he be the best
man to answer for Gallen, as HSBC, claims?
Attempts
to get to Peprah to clarify the situation have so far been unsuccessful, as he
refuses to cooperate. "See you in court," he was quoted as saying, as
if resigned to the inevitability of a prosecution, states the Statesman.
The
NPP government has refused to use the jet on account of the shady manner of its
acquisition, and its attempts to identify the true owner is bound to land in
the law courts soon.
More…/
Vision
2020 is dead - Osafo Maafo
Vision
2020, the development document initiated by the NDC government, has been
declared dead by the Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo.
The
declaration followed the inability to meet the major initial economic indices
set out in the document.
According
to the document, whose long-term objective was to make Ghana a middle-income
country by the year 2020, the first five years of its implementation were to
ensure that inflation was reduced to a single digit. But six years on,
inflation is hovering around 40 per cent.
Honourable
Osafo, speaking on Ghana Television on Sunday said the decision to abandon the
NDC's much cherished document was not borne out of political expediency but
rather based on reality. “None of Vision 2020's targets can be achieved under
the present economic conditions”, he said.
The
Finance Minister said in its place, the NPP government would pursue what he
called Vision 2010 aimed at ensuring that Ghana is self-sufficient in food
production, generate enough raw materials for local industries and processes
traditional produce for export.
Citing
cocoa, Ghana's major export commodity, he said the target is to process over 40
per cent of the entire produce by the year 2010, from the current 18 per cent.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Law
making prostitution illegal advocated
A business
executive has advocated the enactment of a law to make prostitution in all
forms a criminal offence, the Ghana Palaver reports.
Mr
Opoku Agyemang Prempeh Managing Director of Lakayana Company, a construction
firm, who made the suggestion in Kumasi on Wednesday, said however, that if
there already exists a law prohibiting commercial sex then it is imperative for
the government to enforce it.
Speaking
to the Ghana News Agency on the ill-effects of prostitution on the economy and
ways to eliminate it, Mr Prempeh said the security services should carry out
regular swoops on hotels to arrest suspected prostitutes, investigate their
backgrounds and prosecute the culprits.
He said unless such
courageous measures were introduced to stamp out prostitution, HIV/AIDS would
spread at a more alarming rate, in spite of the huge financial investments that
the government may make in awareness campaigns.
Mr
Prempeh also suggested that people who test positive for HIV/AIDS should to be
quarantined, saying: "the absence of such a policy allows AIDS patients to
spread the disease and undermine national efforts to check its spread.
He
called on the films censorship board to ensure that the media and cinema halls
show only films that do not offend public morality and values. He said such a
move is essential and should not be perceived as interfering with press freedom
because pornographic and violent films that appear in the mass media corrupt
the morals of Ghanaians.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Fourteen billion cedis paid for vehicles not
delivered
The Chronicle reports that three years after
the NDC government ordered for 100 units of four wheel Galloper Station Wagons
and 10 Sanitation Equipment from the African Automobile Limited (AAL) and
months after the same government effected payment for the order, the company
has failed to deliver the vehicles and machinery.
The total amount paid to the car retailing company
in respect of the order so far exceeds 14 billion cedis.
The paper says its enquiries, confirmed by the
Managing Director of AAL, Mr. M. S. Hijazi, indicate a deposit of 8 billion
cedis paid in two instalments to the company for the 100 wagons.
A total of ¢6.1 billion cedis was paid to AAL
for the sanitation equipment also by two instalments.
The sanitation equipment are made up of three
Hyndai Skip loaders at the cost of $108,600 each; 60 skip containers at the
cost of $3000 each, and three Cesspit emptiers valued at $123,000 each.
As a result of the non-delivery of the vehicles
and equipment, the Auditor-General's Department, which investigated the case,
has directed that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and
the government institute legal action against AAL, local agents of Mitsubishi
and other brands of vehicles, to recover the amount involved.
"If we do not hear from you within
fourteen (14) days from the date of the letter of repudiation, I shall be
compelled to refer the matter to the legal authorities to take action for the
recovery of the money," the Acting Auditor-General Edward Dua Agyeman had
written to the company over the issue recently.
The Auditor-General also advised the Ministry
of Local Government and Rural Development to abrogate the contract with African
Automobile Limited, saying that, the company must be made to pay the money with
interest.
More.../
Scandal rocks animal research institute
The Chronicle carries that while the government
is struggling to mobilize resources to improve on the standard of the Animal
Research Institution (ARI), a subsidiary of the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), evidence available to it suggests that the nation
has lost millions of cedis through shady deals of some top officials of the
institution.
ARI is said to have in 1996, under the
leadership of Professor Otchere, the Director, verbally entered into a barter
agreement with a construction firm, Kasap, allowing the company to win laterite
sand for the construction of the Accra Dodowa road. The agreement also allowed
the company to fetch water from the ARI dam for its projects.
The agreement did not receive the approval of
the government, as the sector ministry, the Ministry of Environment, Science
and Technology, was not informed.
In return, Kasap agreed to clear the land
earmarked for pasture, rehabilitate or re-gravel the ARI road and de-silt the
institution's dam.
Few months after Kasap started winning the
laterite, some officials of ARI turned themselves into sand winning contractors
and in the past six years, hundreds of millions of cedis passed through their
hands from those operations.
As a result, officials of ARI did not sound the
alarm on the activities of their colleagues, according to Chronicle.
Prof. Otchere, who is currently on leave,
admitted that the institution entered into an agreement with Kasap without any
documentation, but denied knowledge of any official of ARI winning laterite and
selling it to private estate developers.
"The late Armah, the Managing Director of
Kasap, was such a good man to us and when we were planning to move to our new
site, I contacted him to clear a place for us so that we can use it as a
pasture for our cattle, which he responded positively."
He said all that he could remember was that
Kasap were winning the sand from their place while they were constructing some
roads at Burma Camp, and also used ARI sand to rehabilitate the institute’s
roads.
“Never did they win sand from our place for the
construction of the Dodowa road,” he said.
But contrary to what Prof Otchere had said, Mr
Okai, a management member of Kasap told the paper that his company was actually
winning laterite from ARI for the Dodowa road.
More.../
GONJAS stake claim to new Region
The GONJA Youth Club in Kumasi has declared its
position regarding the creation of a new region out of the existing Northern
Region.
The youth have suggested that a Gonja town be
made the capital of the new region.
A statement issued by the club last week and
signed by its chairman, Mr Baba Yakubu Adams, lauded the intention of the
government to respond to their agitation for an additional region to enhance
the speedy development in the area.
The youth, however, declared that in the event of the creation of the new region, they would appreciate that the capital be sited at a Gonja town.
The proposal is on the premises of speculations
that the government intended to site the capital at Yendi.
They claimed that Gonjas are peace-loving
citizens who can co-exist with other tribes and would not mind if Gonjaland is
divided into two regions, having forfeited Atebubu, Kintmpo and Yeji in
previous demarcations to Brong Ahafo.
The youth suggested that in order not to mar
the good relationships that have existed between Gonjas and Dagombas and the
two major tribes of Mamprusi and Nanumba, Gonjaland be cut off from the present
Northern Region a new Region.
Apart from this, the Northern Region as it
stands today should remain, they argued.
GRi.../
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
$20m
missing at Ghana Petroleum
The
Daily Guide says it can reveal that an amount of $20 million is reported missing
from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) vaults.
The
figure is part of a $100 million facility advanced the corporation by Societe
Generale (SG), a France based commodity firm through the Citi Bank of London in
1996.
It
is also different from a $41 million facility, which the corporation obtained
from SG in 1997, to enable it deal in a hedging business in oil and its
derivatives with the Paris based firm.
The
loss of the $20 million was detected when investigators auditing the GNPC failed
to reconcile the fact that after the corporation had used SG to contract an $80
million loan from the Citi Bank of London, to import crude oil for Ghana (July
7, 1995) and without waiting for the facility to mature, the Government of
Ghana reportedly decided to contract an additional $80 million as "Bridge
Financing Facility", this time, from SG of London to repay the first loan
taken at Citi Bank.
“It
was a simple case of robbing Peter to pay Paul”, observed a source at the
Auditor-General's Department, which revealed this to the paper on Monday.
The
source disclosed that on July 24, 1996, when the first loan was about to
mature, the Ghana government decided to contract an additional loan of $80
million from SG to pay off the first loan from Citi Bank.
In
paying for the second $80 million loan that the country had taken, it went for
$100 million under the Bridge Financing Facility.
Out
of this loan, $80 million was used to pay off the second loan from the same
bank SG in London thus leaving $20 million, which was paid into the GNPC
vaults.
It
is in the desire to find out the whereabouts of the $20 million arising out of
the Bridge Finance Facility from SG that a financial firm, Messrs Osei Kwabena
& Associates, has been contracted to establish the mystery surrounding it
since SG has confirmed GNPC actually took $100 million and not $80 million
contrary to records available at the GNPC.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Fans
upset at Kotoko’s home loss to Okwawu Utd
Okwawu
last Sunday trekked to the Kumasi Sports Stadium and succeeded in shattering
the home invincibility of Kumasi Asante Kotoko with a well-executed 1-0 victory
over the Porcupine Warriors, writes the Asante Kotoko Express.
It
says on a particularly bad day that saw the club’s fans angry when Kotoko
dissipated too many glorious chances and eventually lost to Okwawu United at
the Kumasi Stadium, it needed the strength of about 70 policemen to shield
players from an instant mob action.
“So
angry were fans that they besieged the entrance to the dressing room soon after
the match, asking to be handed the entire playing body to be taught some
lessons in seriousness”, the club’s mouthpiece said.
The
paper adds however that two of the players, Stephen Oduro and Michael Osei
needed no protection. They were perceived to have played their hearts out and
could not have been targets of the fans’ fury.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Jones
Attuquayefio back to Hearts bench
The
Hearts News reports that Ghana and Africa’s best coach Jones Attuquayefio has
been reinstated as the headcoach of Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club Limited.
He
was asked to continue to take charge of the club’s technical affairs last
Friday evening after the Board Chairman, Mr Ato Ahwoi, met all the stakeholders
who matter in Hearts at the clubs secretariat.
According
to him, everything is on course as far as defending the league title is
concerned and every soul under the great Oak tree should all come together as
one family in order for them to lift the league trophy for the fifth time on
the trot.
Coach
Jones and the Chief Executive, Harry Zakkour, were all present at the meeting.
With
the directive from the Board Chairman, Jones Attuquayefio was on the Hearts
bench last Sunday when Hearts played Ghapoha at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Last
Tuesday, Chief Executive, Harry, in conjunction with his management team served
Jones a letter to “proceed on leave”, claiming the technical head needed some
rest.
The
aftermath of the decision drew protests from some fans who in turn disrupted
the day’s training.
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Three
Bafana Bafana players killed in motor accident
Five
persons including three players of Takoradi-based division one football club,
Bafana Bafana FC, were last Sunday night killed in a tragic motor accident
around the Past Timbers area, near Sekondi on the Takoradi-Accra road.
According
to the Graphic Sports, which carries the story, eighteen others sustained
various degrees of injuries.
Nine
of the injured have been treated and discharge at the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital
while the rest who sustained serious injuries are on admission.
The
team was returning from Cape Coast after a Division One league match against
Vipers when their Benz bus collided with a truck.
Speaking
on his hospital bed, the team manager of the club, Mr Solomon Evoniah, who was
a victim said when their bus was nearing Fijai Junction near Sekondi, the truck
veered into their lane and in an attempt to avoid it, the truck crashed into
their bus, resulting in the accident.
A
medical officer at the Casualty Ward, Dr Kwabena Boateng-Boakye, said the
injured players were rushed to the hospital around 7 pm with four dead and
several others injured. He said most of the injured persons have been treated
and discharged.
He
commended the management of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, the Ghana
Primewood Limited, paramedics and students nurses of the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital
and the local FM stations for their immense support.
GRi…/
Send
your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com