GRi Newsreel Ghana 03 - 09 - 2001
Policeman runs amok, kills two, injures three
NGO accuses security agencies of arbitrariness
Directors to be held for ghost names on payrolls
Armed robbers invade a house at Agona Swedru
Pan-Africanists mark day against racism
Aiyanese (Western Region) 03 September 2001 - The town of Aiyanese in the Nzema East District of the Western Region was thrown into a state of confusion, fear and grief when an armed Policeman allegedly ran amok and shot dead a man and a woman on Sunday.
Bullets hit three others and the Policeman was also later found dead. The cause of his death has not been established.
An eyewitness said the Policeman, who was returning from duty at the Nzema Manle Rural Bank at Aiyanese at about 17:00 hours on Sunday started shooting on reaching a spot called "The Base" and people started to run helter-skelter.
The Policeman allegedly fired into a vehicle, which pulled up in front of him killing the driver, one Mr Blay, instantly, and the woman, yet to be identified, who died later at Eikwe Hospital.
The others, who were injured, have been admitted to the hospital. The Eyewitness said the Policeman later went to the house of the Police Inspector in charge of the station, broke the door and ordered that he should come out but he was not at home.
The Western Regional Police Command has confirmed the incident and said a team of investigators was sent to Aiyanese on Monday to verify.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 September 2001 - The Peace Seekers International, an NGO on Monday called on security personnel to exhibit tolerance and professionalism in their handling of suspected criminals in order not to violate the human rights of citizens.
It said the security agencies had over the years been acting arbitrarily against civilians for suspected crimes in a way that undermined the rule of law.
"The avalanche of military and police brutalities against citizens of this dear nation should be treated with the concern it deserves and unreservedly condemned," a statement signed by Mr. Abubakar Alhassan Daa Naa, National Co-ordinator of the organisation said.
The statement said it was disturbing that in an era of constitutional rule, security personnel should be taking the law into their own hands.
It said, Peace Seekers supported President Kufuor's call for an enquiry into the various cases of military and police brutalities reported in the media.
The statement said personal vendettas and political motives were the underlying reasons for the brutalities.
It condemned the brutal acts on Alhaji M. B. Seidu, National Organiser of the Egle Party and his family and the unwarranted search of the palace of the Chief of Sefwi Wiawso, saying whatever their crime the constitutional rights of victims of such brutalities must be protected.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 September 2001 - District Co-ordinating Directors were on Monday told that they would be held liable for "ghost names" on payrolls in their areas.
This, Mr Francis N. Andan, Chief Director of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development said the directors had not been exercising effective control over the various input forms before they were submitted for processing.
Mr Andan who was addressing the first of a series of workshops for 18 co-ordinating directors drawn from the Ashanti Region, at the Institute of Local Government at Ogbojo, near Accra said it was their responsibility to scrutinise all forms before appending their signatures.
Mr Andan said the issue of ghost names would have ended by now if as the authorising officers, the directors took time to scrutinise all payroll forms before signing.
In July 1995, a new computerisation system, which integrated for the first time personnel and payroll information, was introduced into the civil service to erase the issue of ghost names.
However, since the inception of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) the issue of ghost names had lingered on and even sometimes blotted the payrolls.
Mr Andan said revelation of such ghost names had not only tarnished the image of the district assemblies but that of the ministry as well.
The purpose of the training was not only to enable the participants to appreciate the usefulness of the IPPD system and the importance that the government attached to it, but also to equip the participants with the requisite skills to combat crimes associated with the system, he stated.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 September 2001 - Mr Jakdish Lakhiani, an Indian Director of Blowplast Industries in Accra, who allegedly assaulted a worker of the company, would be arraigned on Tuesday, the Police disclosed on Monday.
Lakhiani allegedly slapped and kicked Mr John Antwi, a 27-year old staff of the company in the lower abdomen and the groin.
The Police source said after a careful study of the docket enough evidence of assault has been established against the Director.
The sources said the medical report indicated that Mr Antwi was suffering from ''contusion of the left cheek, hyperaemia of the left eardrum, contusion in the scrotum and the groin and pain in the penis when urinating''.
An Accra daily on Wednesday reported that on August 20 Lakhiani attacked Antwi, when he saw him packing finished polythene products at what he described as ''an undesignated place of the factory''.
Lakhiani suspected Antwi of trying to steal the products hence the alleged attack. He denied assaulting Antwi, saying he ''playfully knocked his head''.
In another development, Lakhiani told Joy FM today that the reporter who filed the earlier story for the Ghanaian Times had attempted to blackmail him, alleging that he demanded five million cedis as a condition to kill the story but he refused to pay.
He also said he had a tape recording of his encounter with the reporter.
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Agona-Swedru (Central Region) 03 September 2001 - About 20 armed robbers on Saturday raided a house at Agona-Swedru, shot and wounded two tenants and took away, a saloon car, 5.3 million cedis and personal effects.
Those shot were the Agona-Swedru District Environmental Health Officer, Nana Opoku and Mr Kwaku Ntow, a co-tenant.
Nana Poku has been admitted at the Agona-Swedru Hospital and is responding to treatment while Ntow was treated and discharged.
The robbers took away a Daewoo Expero Saloon car, 4.7 million cedis, three video decks, a 20-inch colour television set, 14 pieces of cloth and a sound system belonging to Nana Poku.
Mr Ntow, who was shot in the left leg, had his mobile phone and camera taken away.
The robbers also attacked the Landlady, Mrs Esther Obeng and her husband Mr Ofori Adofo and made away with their video deck, a sound system, six full-pieces of cloth, four blankets and 600,000 cedis.
Mrs Obeng told the media that she heard an unusual noise at about midnight behind their house and woke up the husband, who checked and informed her that the robbers had surrounded the house.
The robbers soon started firing into the air. They used crowbars, hammers and chisel to break into the house and marched all the tenants into one of the rooms at gunpoint before beginning with their operation.
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Aflao (Volta Region) 03 September 2001- District Assemblies have been allocated 101 billion cedis being arrears of Common Fund allocations for last year, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development said on Saturday.
He said henceforth, payment of the fund would be made on May 21, for the first quarter, September 21 for second quarter, November 21 for third quarter and February 21, the following year for the fourth quarter.
Mr Baah-Wiredu was addressing the second monthly conference of District Chief Executives (DCEs) in the Volta Region at Aflao in the Ketu District.
The Minister asked the DCEs, to monitor the decentralisation programme, to ensure that public officers perform their work well.
Mr Baah-Wiredu expressed concern about widespread mismanagement of revenue collection, and said strict supervision would be applied to ensure proper collection and lodgement of revenue.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 03 September 2001- Pan-Africanists at the weekend marked the International Day of Action Against Racism at the Du Bois Centre in Accra with poetry recitals, drama and speeches and set a bonfire to symbolise the burning of the traces of racism.
The ceremony was organised by the All-African People's Revolutionary Party
(AAPRP), the Afrikan World Reparation and Repatriation Truth Commission (AWRRTC) and Jubilee 2000 to coincide with the ongoing Third United Nations' World Conference on Racism being held in Durban, South Africa.
The theme for the Day was; "Reparations Yes!, Imperialism, Slavery, Neo-Colonialism and Zionism, No!".
Mr Albie Walls, Organiser of AAPRP, speaking on Neo-Colonialism said it was sad that the formulation of any economic policies must be given the green light from the neo-colonialists who were basically the very people who undertook the most cruel commerce and inhuman slave trade against Africa and extended them into colonising the continent.
"Africa's human and material resources are being ruthlessly put under pressure of severe exploitation by international corporations such as Shell, Shevron, Total and Lonrho.
"This plunder of Africa in a continuous succession is the result of leadership deficit and the undue external influences they exerted on Africa through the granting of loans to the poor in the name of trade and development.
He said all Ghanaians, except the aristocratic ruling class, defended the HIPC initiative for no obvious reason than that it was an avenue for the exploiters to increase their already ill-gotten wealth while the poor majority suffer.
Mr Walls said the traits of neo-colonialism found expression in strategies of eroding the confidence in oneself culturally and politically to the extent that it ensured that graduates, professors, business executives, managers and lawyers who were beyond the parameters of poverty collaborate with the neo-colonialists to continue to exploit their people in the name of lucrative business.
Mr Walls said the discriminatory values under neo-colonialism led to stultification of individual initiatives because it sought to deprive the indigenous people of their right natural resources
Mr Ibahim Omar, Palestinian Ambassador in Ghana said the conscience of the world should be pricked when Israel is gunning down children and women in Palestine's fight to regain its own land, which Israel has wrestled.
He said US President George Bush could continue to support the killings but the Palestinians will continue to fight for their land.
Dr Hamet Maulana, Chairman of AWRRTC called on those who suffered from the inhuman slave trade and colonialism to rise up with one voice to demand reparation from those who benefited from the trade.
Mr Tony Akoto Ampaw, Co-ordinator of Jubilee 2000 called on the rich North to cancel Africa's debt because the whites have benefited sufficiently from the continent's exploitation.
"We have paid over and over again in terms of financial payments and our history of exploitation and racist oppression, by the beneficiary countries of the North".
Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr., a journalist who chaired the function said the imperialist world had fed developing nations with lies to such an extent that the lies were taken to be the truth to justify their continued exploitation of Africa.
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