GRi NEWSREEL 07-01-99

Accra (Greater Accra), 7 Jan.

A woman who threw her 17 months old female child into fire resulting in severe burns, is to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for examination. Mrs Frances Owusu-Arhin, chairperson of an Accra circuit tribunal gave the order on Wednesday when the 38 year old unemployed mother, Rebecca Yarney, appeared in court on charges of exposing a child to harm and causing harm.

The tribunal further ordered that, the child, Akua Mummy, should be sent to the Osu Children's Home. Rebecca pleaded guilty but the tribunal entered a plea of not guilty for her when she explained that it was ''an act of a devil''.

Police Inspector Alex Yartey Tawiah of the Women and Juvenile Unit of the Police Service, said on January two, this year, at about midnight, Rebecca who stays at Nungua gave the child to a neighbour to look after while she went to do some purchases.

On her return, Rebecca who appeared drunk, collected the child but the neighbour, who was suspicious of her behaviour trailed her to the house. The woman, the prosecution said, saw Rebecca throw the child into a coalpot with fire .

People around rushed to the rescue of the child who had severe burns on her body and sent her to hospital where she was treated and discharged. A report was made to the Kpeshie Police who referred the case to the Women and Juvenile Unit.

Accra (Greater Accra) 7 Jan

Lieutenant General Arnold Quainoo, former General Officer Commanding the Ghana Armed Forces and Nana Kwadwo Nyarko the third, Omanhene of Prang and President of the Brong Ahafo Regional House of Chiefs have been appointed as members of the Council of State. According to a statement issued in Accra Wednesday and signed by Mr Jimmy Amissah, Secretary to the President, the appiontment was made by the President, Jerry John Rawlings.

Nana Nyarko replaces the late Nana Agyeman Badu while Gen. Quainoo replaces the late Major-General D.K. Addo.

Wa (Upper West) 7 Jan. 

The people of Fadama a suburb of Wa have stopped patronising pipe-borne water because they can not afford ''the high water bills'' and have resorted to using two ponds which are polluted with human and animal waste.

While some people use the water from the Gengen and the Dakagili ponds for cooking and other household purposes, others wash their vehicles and do their laundry in them. Domestic animals also drink and defecate in and around the ponds. Mr. Mahama Mohamadu, Wa District Environmental Officer, said the ponds are polluted and should not be used for domestic purposes.

Despite an educational campaign to stop the people from using the ponds for domestic purposes, they claim they have been drinking from these sources for decades without any infection.

Mr. Mohamadu said as a long term measure, the Wa District Assembly in collaboration with Suntaa-Nuntaa, a Wa based Non-Governmental Organisation, is to fence the ponds and to develop them into a recreational centre. When the GNA visited the ponds women and children were fetching water while animals also were drinking from them. One women who was also drawing water at time claimed the water was good for consumption and said they do not go for pipe borne water because of the high water bills.

Bolgatanga, (Upper East) 7 Jan.  

The Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, has praised the Swiss government for supporting Ghana's Development efforts.

he said the Swiss government, through its embassy in Ghana, has not only supported local communities with funds to build schools and construct small-scale dams for irrigation but has also contributed significantly to health care delivery.

Alhaji Sulemana said this when the Swiss ambassador to Ghana, Dr Peter Schweizer, paid a courtesy call on him at Bolgatanga as part of a week's tour of the region.

The visit is also to enable the ambassador to inspect and Commission some projects in the area, executed with funds from the Swiss government.

The Regional Minister appealed to the ambassador to encourage the Swiss Red Cross to expand its eye care services in the region as it is in the Upper West Region.

Nana Akumanyin Essandoh, Chief of Gomoa-Odumase, has released 50 acres of land to the Gomoa-Manmu branch of the 31st December Women's Movement for the cultivation of cassava to feed a gari processing factory established by the Movement at Gomoa-Manmu, Gomoa-Asempenyin, Bibianiha, Antseadze, Odumase, Ajumakoansah, and Gomoa-Manmu.

Nana Akumanyin Essandoh announced the release of the land during the inauguration of branches of the movement within the six communities at Gomoa-Odumase yesterday and expressed the hope that the gesture would encourage members of the movement to produce enough cassava to feed the gari factories.

Mr Kow Anyanful, Gomoa District Chief Executive, advised the members to emulate the selfless and dedicated services of the founder of the movement, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and make positive contributions towards the development of the district.

Mr Anyanful thanked Nana Akumanyin Essandoh for releasing the land and appealed to other chiefs to follow suit.

Madam Ernestina Ekuban, Gomoa District Organiser of the movement, called for co-operation and hard work among the members to ensure effective maintenance of the factory. She said the movement plans to start a tie and dye industry and a snail farming project.

Accra, (Greater Accra) 7 Jan.

Parliament and courts in Accra are to be computerised next month under a one million-dollar pilot project to improve their data storage capacity and increase their efficiency.

"It will basically involve an internet system and record keeping gadgets that will improve information storage and circulation from the Supreme Court to Community tribunals and the entire Parliament system", Dr Appiah Koranteng, National Co-ordinator of the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) said in Accra yesterday.

Dr Koranteng said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored project will be extended to the regional and district levels to ensure speedy trials

" In February this year, all gadgets will be ready for installation and I believe within a short time, courts in Accra will have very efficient data system while Parliamentarians will only have to push a button to get access to any available information''.

Dr. Koranteng said the aim of the package is to install information systems in all regional capitals within the next five years to enable constituents to communicate with their Parliamentarians on issues without travelling to meet them in Accra.

" At least people should have the means to air their good intentions. This will be a positive step towards good governance.'' Other independent institutions such as the National Media Commission and the National Commission on Civic Education will soon have their share of the package.

According to an analysis by NIRP, if these areas ''are put off raw paper work'', the institutions will be saving two thirds of their budgets on information processing. The saved money could be used to keep the system going.

NIRP co-ordinates several performance improvement programmes to make the work of institutions transparent and result-oriented.

Accra, (Greater Accra) 7 Jan.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) said in Accra yesterday thatit will not participate in the parade to mark the sixth anniversary of the Fourth Republic because of the ruling NDC has linked it to the 31st December Revolution.

A statement signed by Mr K. Adu Kwabena-Essem, Director of Communications, said the NPP "dissociates itself completely from the linkage of the December 31, 1981 coup to the Fourth Republic" and will not participate in such activities.

"The above decisions, notwithstanding, the NPP wishes to assure Ghanaians that it will participate fully in its democratic obligations of ensuring good governance, the rule of law and dictates of the Constitution.

"The party's decisions on the celebrations around the 31st December coup and the Fourth Republic should not, therefore, be seen as an affront to democracy and constitutionalism.

"Our Members of Parliament will be at their benches in Parliament to do what they know best - debating in the interest of Ghana".

The NPP said that last month Ghanaians saw a "provocative celebration" of the 31st December, 1981 coup that ousted President Hilla Limann, adding that President Rawlings used the occasion to make unfounded allegation against his opponents.

It said the celebration of December 31 was outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1993, "however, every year since that landmark ruling, Flt. Lt. Rawlings, with the collusion of his political party, the NDC, and several organs of state, have defied the ruling with 'indirect' celebrations by linking it to the celebrations of the inauguration of the Fourth Republic''.

It said President Rawlings used the celebration "to incite and instigate our Armed Forces against the civilian populace and also constitutionalism". The NPP said it was calling the attention of the international community, especially donor countries, to "these annual tirades against the people of Ghana and the dangers they pose to our Republic".

Fumesua (Ashanti Region), 6 Jan.

The Timber Export Development Board (TEDB) and the Forest Products Inspection Bureau (FPIB) have presented a cheque for an initial 50 million cedis to the Forestry Research Institute, Ghana (FORIG) to support plantation development research.

The money is in fulfilment of a pledge of 200 million cedis the two organisations made to support plantation development research at FORIG under the Forestry Development Master Plan (FDMP).

The plan seeks to increase the area of forest and tree cover by 10 per cent through afforestation, re-forestation, industrial plantations and agro-forestry.

Under the plan, FORIG has been tasked to provide about 500,000 seedlings of fast-growing species of Wawa, Cedrella and Ceiba.

It is expected that other species like Kusia, Dahoma, Niangon, Odum and Bamboo will be added in the course of time. Presenting the cheque, Mr John A. Sagoe, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Area Manager of the TEDB, said the two organisations attach great importance to the venture since it is the beginning of a major project to commercialise tree growing in the country and to improve the environment.

Mr Sagoe said the successful implementation of the initial venture will determine the rate of cash flow from TEDB and FPIB and hoped FORIG will receive the necessary assistance to ensure total success.

Dr Joseph R. Cobbinah, Acting Director of FORIG, who received the cheque, expressed the appreciation of the Institute to the two organisations for the support. Dr Cobbinah noted that the country's forest has dwindled from 8.2 million hectares at the beginning of this century to a mere two million hectares now. The mean annual rate of deforestation, is estimated at between 0.84 and 1.3 percent, which is high even for the humid tropics.

He said the use of tree plantations is, therefore, widely advocated as a remedial measure to reforest degraded land. Although it is estimated that the area under plantation in Ghana is about 75,000 hectares, recent studies indicated that only 15,000 hectares are productive.

It is now estimated, Dr Cobbinah said, that over 200,000 hectares of tree plantations are needed in order to make up for the nation's deficit and assured that FORIG will apply the funds for the purpose for which it was given.

Accra, (Greater Accra) 7 Jan.

Six weeks after allegedly being killed by a mob at Ablekuma village near Accra, the body of Constable Owusu Sekyere, alias Kweku Ninja, a Police martial arts expert, was this morning recovered from under a concrete slab at a building site in the village.

The body was discovered by a team of 20 Policemen led by Deputy Superintendent K. Amamoo after a three hour search.

The feet and the left arm were cut-off with the head badly smashed, Inspector David S. Eklu, Acting Public Relations officer, told newsmen in Accra yesterday.

Inspector Eklu said the Police believe that the body was removed from its original burial place to the building site to avoid detection.

Two Policemen, Constable Jerry Wornoo and Constable Sekyere, were said to have been tortured and killed at Ablekuma on November 24, last year, when they went to the village to erect pillars on a piece of land acquired by the latter.

The body of Constable Wornoo was discovered on December 18, last year, in a water logged area about 30 metres outside the village.

The bodies have been deposited at the Police Hospital Mortuary while investigations are going on.

Juaso (Ashanti), 7 Jan

Military personnel sent to Juaso-Ashanti in the waking of rioting earlier last week have been withdrawn and number of armed Police personnel patrolling the town reduced because peace has returned to the town.

Security re-inforcement was sent to the town following a clash between the Police and supporters of Nana Owusu Achiaw Prempeh the Second, Ex-Juasohene last Sunday which led to the death of one person and 12 injured.

Speaking to the GRi at Juaso-Ashanti, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr Yaw Adu-Gyimah, Ashanti Regional Police Commander said with the situation now under control and peace and order returning to the town, armed security personnel in the town were being demobilised.

Mr Adu-Gyimah said eleven more people, mostly women and a sub-chief from have been arrested in addition to 60 others, who are undergoing screening for possible prosecution.

GRi was informed that the Asante-Akim South District Security Committee is making efforts to get an alternative office accommodation for the Police.

The Juaso Police station and barracks wereo set ablaze, properties worth several millions of cedis destroyed and three suspects in Police cells escaped.

Nana Prempeh has been arrested and is in Police custody in Accra.