Genital mutilation still going on in Brong Ahafo
Diplomat tears 25,000 cedis at airport
CPP Elders call for goodwill towards Nkrumaist Unity talks
Ghana to go into digital broadcasting - Tandoh
Government says it acknowledges difficulties facing Houses of Chiefs
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 30 October 2001 - Despite the relentless war against female genital mutilation by both government and non-governmental organisations the people of Gbao, near Banda Ahenkro in the Wenchi District still practice the outlawed custom.
Last Thursday, five girls were forcibly circumcised as part of puberty rites, The Rev Moses Asante, Minister in charge of the Banda Mission Field of the Presbyterian Church told the media.
The girls, he said, had taken refuge at the Kabrono Manse of the church to avoid being taken through the rites but the family members broke into the mission house and took them away.
The Priest said although the case was reported to the police, the two policemen at post at the local police station appeared helpless and could not stop the perpetrators.
Rev Asante said the victims are currently with the old lady circumciser who is nursing their wounds.
The Sunyani District Minister of the Presbyterian Church, the Rev Kwabena Asare-Ayeh said the case has been reported to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 October 2001 - Richard Graeme, Managing Director of Goldfields Ghana Limited, on Monday reiterated that the cyanide spill that occurred on October 16 at Tarkwa did not in anyway affect human health or safety.
He said the company responded quickly when the fault was detected. "We responded as promptly as any one would have responded to an outbreak of fire in his premises."
Press reports had said the spillage was the worst environmental disaster in the country that killed plant, birds as well as fish and crabs in the Asuman River.
Mr Graeme described the press report as a "great deal of incorrect and misleading information about what actually did occur at the Tarkwa Gold mine".
He said the only thing that died was fish as a result of the introduction of chlorine to detoxify the stream. "Fishes are extremely sensitive to chlorine, but the chlorine was to kill the effect of the cyanide."
The manager said since the incident, the company has been serving the affected communities - Abe Kuase and Huninso - with water on a daily basis through a water tanker.
"We are also sinking three bore-holes for each community," he said, adding that investigations and sampling of the river is on going.
"Even the first water sample tested by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mine Inspectorate showed that there was no damage to human health and safety," Mr Graeme said.
He said the most frightening revelation of the sample from the Asuman River was that some communities had been "dumping buckets of human waste into the river."
"This is even more dangerous since it could cause Bilharzia and guinea worm in the communities...."
Asked why the mining company would not provide toilets for the communities, Mr. Graeme said, "I must confess on some ignorance about what is required of us to do as a social obligation to the communities in which we work. We have always focused our attention on schools, health care and water supply."
Prof. Dominic Kweku Fobih, Minister of Environment and Science on Friday asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Water Research Institute (WRI) and the Water Resources Commission (WRC) to carry out tests on the Asuman stream in the Tarkwa district of the Western Region to establish its quality for human consumption and usage following the cyanide spill.
At a press conference held in Accra, Prof. Fobih said although he had led a team to the area to investigate the story, the EPA, WRI and the WRC needed to do their independent investigations to come out with the level of pollution in the stream.
He said his team's investigation revealed that the newspaper had blown the incident out of proportion. "However, monitoring of the situation is in progress and will continue until the ministry is assured of the safety of the people."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 October 2001 - A 22-year-old American diplomat, Cortez Daiden was on Sunday night stopped from boarding a Ghana Airways flight to Lagos after he tore 25,000 cedis that security officials would not allow him to take out of the country.
Daiden did not understand why he would not be allowed to take the money to Lagos. After a hectic argument with aviation security he tore up the money.
He has been detained at the Ghana Immigration Service headquarters in Accra pending investigations. Daiden told newsmen that he was allowed through customs check point only to be stopped by an aviation security officer who asked that he handed over the 25,000 cedis.
According him, he refused because the officer was not ready to issue him with a receipt. He said he thought that as a diplomat he was supposed to enjoy that status and was surprised that the officer asked that he deposited the money with him.
He claims he did not know that it was a crime to tear up the money and apologised for it, adding that he felt the officer did not work for the money and did not deserve it.
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Asutuare (Eastern Region) 30 October 2001- Ghana’s Agriculture Ministry says it has initiated plans to increase the production of some food crops to reduce the importation of food items.
The sector Minister, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd) said on Monday that rice, for instance, needs just a little push to improve the quality.
Major Quashigah, who at the weekend, commissioned a locally manufactured rice thresher-cleaner worth 30-million-cedis at Asutsuare in the Eastern Region, said time has come to tap talents for the benefit of the country. The machine was manufactured under the supervision of a Senegalese engineer.
The Minister said "we always talk about our ability to do things for ourselves, which never materialised but this time round, we are going to put our actions together to move the country forward".
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Koforidua (Eastern Region) 30 October 2001 - The Eastern Regional Council of Elders of the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) has called on the leadership of the party to approach the on-going Nkrumaists Unity talks with the goodwill that would help achieve the desired unity expeditiously.
In a five-point resolution passed at a meeting at Koforidua on Monday, the Council noted that as a result of the divisions in the Nkrumaists front many of its sympathisers "are sitting on the fence and will surely receive the announcement of the achievement of unity with joy".
It urged the committee charged with negotiating for the unity to expedite action to reach an early conclusion by the end of December "or we in the Eastern Region will advise ourselves."
The resolution, which was signed by the Council's chairman, Nana Bosompem Frempong and Secretary, Mr Baabu Fenning demanded that the struggle for positions among the top bracket of the Nkrumaist Group should cease forthwith until a National Congress was held to decide "who gets what".
It recommended that the name "Convention Peoples' Party, which sends shivers down the spines of our opponents" should be retained, saying, "it will be the height of hypocrisy for individuals and groups who claim antecedents from Dr Kwame Nkrumah to remain outside the CPP and continue to call themselves as Nkrumaists".
"The CPP is the name the Osagyefo bequeathed to us and no one should try to obliterate it from Ghanaian politics."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 30 October 2001 - The National Communication Authority (NCA) is conducting research to introduce a Frequency Band Plan to replace the existing VHF-FM Band Plan. This would give way to a new band for terrestrial digital broadcasting.
The new band plan - to involve the change from analogue to digital broadcasting - would make the storing, editing and the procession as well as retrieving of a huge volume of data, including audio and textual data easier, Major. John Tandoh (Rtd), Acting Director General of NCA, said on Monday.
Maj. Tandoh said with the proliferation of radio stations, there is the need for a careful research and planning of the radio frequency spectrum to safeguard Electromagnetic Interference (EMI).
The EMI may soon disrupt a wide range of electronic and electrical equipment and services as more of such equipment are introduced in the system, he told the opening session of a week's training workshop on Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (MSE) radio programmes for radio presenters.
Maj. Tandoh said currently all forms of information are transmitted on the basis of separate fixed-voice and image channels. However, through digitalisation and new communication technologies, all information would be conveyed through a single channel to ensure the orderly development and efficient operation of communications services in the country.
The workshop is being organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through its In-Focus Programme on Small Enterprise Development to support the development of radio programmes.
The MSE radio programmes examine issues affecting small businesses and identify solutions with the sole objective of making the small business sector develop.
The programme is aimed at encouraging FM radio stations to package and produce programmes in local languages easily understood by small-scale business people. It was started in Uganda on a pilot basis and has been extended to Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Tanzania.
Kapital Radio in Kumasi has been running a pilot programme since November 2000. Five other stations - Eastern FM, Koforidua, Choice FM, Accra, Top Radio, Accra, Asta Radio, Techiman and Shaft Radio, Obuasi - will be launching their editions of the programme after the workshop.
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Government says it acknowledges
difficulties facing Houses of Chiefs
Kyebi (Eastern Region) 30 October 2001 - The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the government acknowledged the manpower crisis facing institutions constitutionally mandated to dispense with justice, but said the problem could not be remedied merely by creating more "fast track" courts.
He has, therefore, appealed to the media to help in rallying the public to support moves for improved conditions of service for legal practitioners in the public sector so as to attract more of them into the field to enhance the quality of service they were to offer the people.
Reacting to calls for the establishment of a "fast track" judicial system to deal with chieftaincy disputes, Nana Akufo-Addo said the real problems facing the various Houses of Chiefs was not one of a new system of adjudication but rather on how to retain lawyers posted to these institutions.
He was speaking to newsmen in an interview at Kyebi on Sunday following suggestions by the Konor of Manya Krobo, Nene Sakite II for the replication of the judicial "fast track" system for chieftaincy disputes.
Nene Sakite explained that this had become necessary because certain cases before the judicial committees of the House of Chiefs had been pending for as long as 10 years and, therefore, appealed to the President and the Attorney -General to establish such a system for the chiefs.
Responding, Nana Akufo-Addo said the generally poor conditions of service for attorneys in the government sector did not entice new entrants into the system, while those already in the service were also leaving for the private sector.
Consequently, he said, for the situation to improve, there would have to be a public acceptance on the need to reward legal practitioners in the public service adequately to enable them to be attracted to and remain in government service.
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Banda
Ahenkro (Brong Ahafo Region) 30 October 2001 - Osabarima Okokyeredom Kwadwo
Sito, Omanhene of the Banda Ahenkro Traditional area has sent an SOS to the
government to send a team to spray black flies in the Black Volta river.
He said the
presence of the flies, which causes river blindness, is hampering farming and
educational activities in the area.
Speaking at
a meeting in Banda Ahenkro at the weekend, Nana Sito said the river used to be
sprayed periodically, ''but now they have stopped''.
The
Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) under which the area was sprayed with
lavicide has come to end. The black flies do not carry the worms that cause
river blindness but their bite is a nuisance.
Nana Sito
called o the District Directorate of Education in Wenchi, to post more teachers
to the area where several schools do not have teachers.
He appealed
to the government to revisit the Bui Dam project, which he said could create
jobs for the youth in the area and boost socio-economic activities.
Nana Sito
expressed gratitude to the government for appointing Mr Joe Danquah, as the
District Chief Executive for Wenchi, saying he is "the first Banda citizen to hold such a high position in the
district".
Chief
Superintendent O. M Gyeabour, Divisional Commander of the Ghana Police Service,
Wenchi, called on communities in the district to establish neighbourhood watch
committees to assist the Police in combating crime.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 30 October 2001 - Mr Issac Adu Boahen, Managing Director of
Ghana Post Company Limited, on Tuesday said there is no immediate threat of
anthrax infection in the country through the mails.
"We
have put in place measures to curb any threat of the disease, but we must avoid
creating a panic situation," he told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra.
Mr Adu
Boahen said postal officials have detected no suspicious case."We are,
however, leaving no stone unturned in treating all in-coming mails from
specific locations with special attention," he said.
Mr Adu
Boahen advised the media to guard against sensationalism that may lay the
ground for unscrupulous people to send hoaxes around to create panic.
He assured
members of the public that everything is under control. "As far as we are
aware there is no threat whatsoever," he said.
Scores of
suspected cases of anthrax have been reported in the United States with three
deaths in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington and the bombardment of Afghanistan by the US. There was a suspected
case through the mail in Nairobi, but a second test proved negative.
Mr Adu
Boahen said in all situations mails are difficult to monitor and people should
be wary of certain letters they receive.
The
Postmaster General said mails with suspicious addresses or with inscriptions
like "special", "confidential" or from places where the
recipients have no contact should be properly scrutinised before they are
opened.
He said the
anthrax spore, which is very small might escape detection.Mr Adu Boahen said
any suspicious substance found in letters must be handed over to the health
authorities.
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Aflao
(Volta Region) 30 October 2001 - The wrongful positioning of accident victims
and bundling them together in vehicles to hospitals has been identified as the
major cause of death among accident victims in the country.
Dr Michael
Ahedor, Ketu District Medical Officer of Health, said this at the weekend
during the inauguration of the Ketu District Committee of the Ghana Red Cross
Society (GRCS) at Aflao.
He said it
was important to make accident victims breath comfortably as first aid to save
their life.
"We
are only concerned about rushing victims to hospital without ensuring that they
have enough room to breath without which they could die before reaching the
hospital", Dr Ahedor said.
He said an
unconscious accident victim being conveyed in a vehicle, should be made to lie
down on his left side or if in the supine position, his head must be turned to
the left side and the lower jaw drawn forward and the head flexed backward.
Dr Ahedor
said handlers of victims should also avoid sandwiching them while being
conveyed to the hospital.
He asked
the district administration to provide ambulances for the handling of accident
cases to reduce avoidable deaths.
Major
Francis Adjorlolo (rtd), the Ketu District Chairman of GRCS said they have been
providing first aid to victims in the area.
Mr Ransford
Ninson, District Superintendent of Police, called for effective collaboration
between the GRCS and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to prevent
deaths during accidents.
Mr Kwamivi
Gafa, General Secretary of the Togolese branch of the Red Cross, also called
for co-operation among the societies in the West Africa Sub-Region for the
effective management of accident victims.
Mr Larry
Yeboah, Volta Regional Secretary of the Red Cross, presented a motorbike to
Major Adjorlolo for the Ketu District GRCS.
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 30 October 2001 - The youth wing of the ruling New Patriotic
Party (NPP) on Wednesday called on the government to withdraw immediately all
extra courtesies being extended to former President Jerry John Rawlings.
The youth
wing said in a statement: "the constitution places a former President on a
pedestal complete with facilities befitting his status, envisaging that a
retired president would rise to the level of a statesman."
The
statement said former President Rawlings' comments and actions over the past 10
months demonstrate that he prefers the status and doings of a politician to
that of a statesman.
The youth
mentioned some of the extra courtesies as the provision of five houses, about a
dozen cars and drawing of free fuel, liberal state-sponsored overseas travels
since January 2001 and scores of policemen.
The
statement said the ex-President's decision to abandon his recent trip to
Botswana because of what he perceived as an assassination attempt on the life
of his former aide-de-camp was "a mischievous and diabolic agenda to
subvert the government".
It said the
action was intended to create an atmosphere of instability and uncertainty to
discourage investors and prepare the ground to provoke a violent change in the
political direction of the country.
"There
is enough evidence to prove that the latest action by the former president is
part of subversive tactics to undermine the confidence of the international
community in the presidency of Mr John Agyekum Kufuor and the NPP
government," the youth stated.
They said
the police report on the October 23 incident at the residence of Ex-Warrant
Officer Patrick Kuntor indicated an armed robbery and not an assassination
attempt on the life of Kuntor as the office of the former president wanted to
portray.
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