GRi Press Review
Ghana 20 - 10 - 2001
Doctors'
exodus will go on unless…
We can deal
with anthrax outbreak
Tragic -
four Hawkers crushed to death
Three final
year University students dismissed
Three rice
varieties produced
Camp for
wizards set up at Gnani?
Woman
tricks judge…but court was smarter
Doctors'
exodus will go on unless…
The
University of Ghana Medical Students Association (UGMA) has cautioned that
until a comprehensive review of the salary structure and conditions of service
of the health sector is carried out, the mass exodus of doctors will continue.
The Daily
Graphic, which carried the report, says the President of the association, Felix
Sodzi Sodzi-Tetty, addressing a news conference in Accra on Friday, said
medical students are appalled at the salary of medical doctors, which is the
lowest in the West African sub-region.
He wondered
whether Ghanaians have considered why medical doctors in the sub-region do not
practise in the country but rather "are all over in other countries".
Mr
Sodzi-Tetteh said while medical doctors in Togo receive $1,200 as monthly
salary, "their counterparts in Ghana receive only $150 a month".
He debunked
the assertion that doctors are selfish and that they always want to travel
abroad at the expense of the taxpayer.
Mr
Sodzi-Tettey said medical students are prepared to sacrifice and assist the
government to achieve its health policy, "but such a sacrifice should not
be at the peril of our lives," he stressed.
The
association also called on the government to consider a proposal to set up an
independent pay review body for the health sector outside the Ghana Universal
Salary Structure.
This, he
said, will help improve the conditions of service of health workers and check
the brain drain.
More…/
We can
deal with anthrax outbreak
The Daily
Graphic reports the Health Ministry as stating that it has the requisite
personnel and logistics to deal with any incidence of anthrax outbreak.
It said the
disease is already endemic in the three northern regions of the country and the
MOH has been dealing with the disease as and when it is reported.
Mr Ken
Anku, Head of Public Relations of the MOH, who disclosed this in an interview
in Accra on Friday, therefore, gave the assurance that people should not be
scared about the ability of the ministry in handling any such situation.
There are
two main types of anthrax, cutaneous and inhalation. Cutaneous anthrax can
occur if the spores come in contact with cuts, sores and produces a
reddish-brown like lesion, that eventually forms a scab with a blackish center.
Inhalation
anthrax, he said, occurs by breathing in anthrax spores or after eating the
carcass of animals.
Giving
statistics, he said, 14 cases were recorded in the East Mamprusi District of
the Northern Region and one and two each in the Builsa and Lawra districts of
the Upper East and West regions respectively in 1999.
For 2000,
five and two cases were each reported in the East Mamprusi and Jirapa-Lambussie
districts of the Northern and Upper West regions, whilst as at August this
year, 17 cases were recorded at the Kassena-Nankana District of the Upper East
Region.
More…/
Tragic -
four Hawkers crushed to death
Four street
hawkers died on the spot and six others sustained various degrees of injury in
a gruesome accident on the Tetteh Quarshie-Airport road on Thursday evening. The
incident is said to have occurred when a Toyota tipper truck ran into a group
of street hawkers.
Two of the
injured whose conditions were said to be critical, are on admission at the 37
Military Hospital. The other four have
since been treated and discharged.
Three of
the bodies which have not been identified have been deposited at the 37
Military Hospital while the fourth which has been identified as Nana Abena, is
at the Police Hospital Mortuary, both in Accra.
The driver
of the tipper truck with registration number, GR 6904 M, Samuel Cudjor, has
been placed in police custody.
GRi…/
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Three
final year University students dismissed
The
authorities of the University For Development Studies (UDS) have dismissed
three final year students for absenting themselves from lectures for more than
two continuous trimesters.
The
affected students are Samuel Obeng, Willam Yaw Kwarteng and Benard Marfo all of
the Faculty of Agriculture Nyankpala campus.
According
to their dismissal letters dated September 5, the students have violated the
regulations of the University which debarred students from absenting themselves
from lectures for more than two continuous trimesters, because an interruption
of even one trimester could cause the lost of accumulated credits.
The letter
also accused the students of breaking their student programmes before
permission was granted to them to do so.
"I
regret to inform you that you cannot be allowed to continue the programme
because you have lost the accumulated credits", The Ghana Times quotes
from the letter.
The
Students Representative Council (SRC) however, in a Press Statement, described
the action of the university authorities as "Unfortunate and Unfair"
since those regulations have never been made known to the students except the
regulation on junior members which does not mention anything in relation to
deferment of academic year.
More…/
Three
rice varieties produced
The Savanna
Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), Nyankpala, has developed three new high
yielding varieties of rice to be distributed soon to farmers as seeds to boost
rice production in the country.
The new
varieties, which are early yielding, with capacity to withstand the terminal
drought common in the North, can yield a maximum of 25 maxi bags from an acre
of land if the necessary inputs are applied.
The
Institute is, however, waiting on the approval of a Seed Release Committee,
consisting of eminent agriculture research scientists, which is schedule to
meet at Nyankpala by the weekend to give its formal approval for the seeds to
be made public.
GRi…/
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Camp for
wizards set up at Gnani?
Contrary to
popular belief that only women are branded 'witches' and 'camped' at the
various witches homes in the Northern Region, the Gnani Witches Camp is a home
to more than sixty men condemned as wizards.
The Mirror,
which carries the story, says the camp is currently accommodating about 400
persons described as sorcerers and sorceresses.
The men,
whose ages range between 40 and 90 years live in the same community with their
female counterparts. The alleged wizards were sent to the camp on suspicion
that they had either killed or caused the sickness or misery of a relative or
neighbour.
Some of the
inhabitants The Mirror spoke to said they feel happy and safe at the camp and
that they are not under any compulsion to stay there permanently.
According
to Fuseini Imoro, a 65-year-old suspected wizard, he feels very secure at the
home because it serves as a safe haven for him.
Some of the
alleged wizards however, confessed that they had a hand either in the death or
chronic illness of their people for which reason they were nearly lynched.
Gnani,
which is about 20 kilometres from Yendi is mainly inhabited by Dagombas and
Konkombas whose main occupation is farming. The camp is about two kilometers
from the main Gnani township.
More…/
Court
acquits assemblyman for lack of jurisdiction
The Agona
Swedru Circuit Court has struck out the case involving an assemblyman and three
others in an alleged 303 parcels suspected to be marijuana.
Judge P.K.
Richardson, striking out the case, said it was over and above the jurisdiction
of his court and therefore ordered that the three be arraigned before a superior
court - the Central Regional Tribunal at Cape Coast.
George
Biney, also known as Brebo, 29, assembly member for the Maahodwe Electoral Area
of Agona Swedru, Yaw Ayitey, 58, painter and Kobina Abbam, 25, unemployed, were
charged with conspiracy and possessing Indian hemp for which their pleas were
not taken and were therefore remanded.
More../
Mason
jailed seven years for defilement
A
70-year-old mason who used ¢300 worth of doughnut as a bait and succeeded in
defiling a 13-year-old girl has been convicted and sentenced to seven years
imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra circuit tribunal.
The
tribunal, chaired by Mrs Elizabeth Anderson-Yeboah, heard that Yaw Paul lives
in the same vicinity with the victim and her grandmother at Sowutuom, a suburb of
Accra.
On
September 6, at about 1 p.m, Paul bought doughnut worth ¢300 for the victim
after which he lured her into his room and sexually assaulted her.
The
prosecutor said the victim's grandmother who had a hint of what was going on
went to knock at Paul's door but he refused to open it. The victim's sister
then used an object to force the door open.
According
to the prosecutor, Paul and the victim were found in the room when the door was
opened. A report was made to the Kwashiman Police and the victim was issued
with a medical form to attend hospital for treatment.
When Paul
was subsequently apprehended, he admitted that the victim came to his room but
denied having sexual intercourse with her. He was however charged with the
offence after police investigations.
GRi…/
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Woman
tricks judge…but court was smarter
A tribunal
judge was not perturbed when an accused person in the dock started behaving
like a mad woman. If anything, the
judge was rather amused.
Appearing
in tattered clothes, shouting and raising her hands as if she were insane, the
woman was found to be normal by the court, and tried accordingly.
Lydia
Boahin who defrauded a taxi driver of ¢93,000 was sentenced to two years
imprisonment by the Madina Community Tribunal. As expected, she suddenly
changed her strange behaviour when the sentence was imposed on her.
GRi…/
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