GRi Press Review 02 - 10 - 2001

Daily Graphic

Review VALCO accord

Three appointed Editors

Amoa denies being harassed

Eleven admitted to hospital with strange disease

The Evening News

Revenue collectors in fraud, embezzlement

The Ghanaian Times

CPP, PNC parties oppose water privatisation

Education Service to check bad behaviours in schools

Independent

NDC sells campaign cars

Why Rex Owusu-Ansah was dropped from ECOWAS

The Statesman

Attorney General reacts to NDC

Peprah mentions Rawlings

Vision 2020 is dead - Osafo Maafo

Ghana Palaver

Law making prostitution illegal advocated

The Chronicle

Fourteen billion cedis paid for vehicles not delivered

Scandal rocks animal research institute

GONJAS stake claim to new Region

Daily Guide

$20m missing at Ghana Petroleum

Asante Kotoko Express

Fans upset at Kotoko’s home loss to Okwawu Utd

Hearts News

Jones Attuquayefio back to Hearts bench

Graphic Sports

Three Bafana Bafana players killed in motor accident

 

 

Daily Graphic

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…/

 

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The Evening News

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…/

 

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The Ghanaian Times

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…/

 

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Independent

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…/

 

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The Statesman

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…/

 

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Ghana Palaver

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…/

 

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The Chronicle

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.../   

 

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Daily Guide

$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…/

 

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Asante Kotoko Express

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…/

 

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Hearts News

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.

 

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Graphic Sports

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…/

 

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