The Dispatch
'Judges' killers were mislead ' Rawlings', is the banner headline of the Dispatch. The paper says President Rawlings' reference to the June 30, 1982 abduction and murder of three Judges,
Mrs. Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Mr. Justice K.A. Agyepong, Mr. Justice F.P. Sarkodie and a retired Army Officer, Major Sam Acquah, at the Independence Square last Thursday to mark the sixth anniversary of the Fourth Republic, was one of the occassions where the President departs from his prepared text and makes headlines.
"During the period of the PNDC, something very traumatic, very painful happened to us in this country when some of our comrades misguided, by probably certain elements, collected a handful of judges and killed them, in a very painful way. But it did not stay there, we carried out a very efficient investigative process, followed by a very efficient and fair trial and what happened? The maximum punishment was exacted," the paper quoted the president as saying.
According to the paper, the President referred to this act when he condemned the continuing harassment of police personnel in particular and the brutal murder of Constable Owusu Sekyere and Corporal Jerry Wornoo at Ablekuma, near Accra. The President was reported to have challenged the Judiciary to deal drastically with people who engage in such acts.
However, Kweku Baako, the editor of the Crusading Guide in a Radio Gold 90.5 Fm programme last Friday, said it is only those from the moon who were not in Ghana who will think the way the President was thinking. " I'm surprise the President is even attempting to give some credit to the Special Investigations Board".
Ghanaian Chronicle
In front page banner headlines both the Ghanaian Chronicle and the Ghanaian Voice carry stories on the murder of the two policemen at Ablekuma near Accra last Month.
The Chronicle's headline reads "inside story of police raid on Ablekuma ...They stole goats and sheep, Stool regalia and gold ornaments missing" The Paper says Ablekuma, the Accra suburb which was the scene of Police vandalism last month, is still unable to resurrect from the death-blow dealt it by peace officers in the black uniform.
According to the paper, life in the town is at a standstill and last Monday, the Saint Justice Anglican Church Primary and Junior Secondary Schools had to call off their re-opening around mid-day after failing to attract its pupil population back to the classroom.
It said most of the few students who turned up had come from Odorkor, Awoshie and Anyah where they had sought refuge with relatives and friends fearing that the police would be back to re-enact the terror they unleashed on the town in their bid to trace the bodies of their two colleagues.
Ghanaian Voice
The Ghanaian Voice says; "More Details Unfold in the Ablekuma Murder case... owner of foundation living in America. Ninja will be buried thrice"; the paper says where Kweku Ninja (One of the policemen murdered in Ablekuma) was buried was a filling-in foundation of a building belonging to a Ghanaian domiciled in USA.
According to the paper Ninja's body was dug from a grave 50 metres away and reburied in a grave that was being used to fill a foundation of the building.
It said Police investigations will now seek to unravel the mystery surrounding the burial and the re-burial of Ninja's body and the complicity or otherwise of the workers on the site, the knowledge or otherwise of the owner of the foundation structure in the reburial of the body.
Public Agenda
Both the Public Agenda and the Democrat talk about the opposition and the celebrations of the sixth anniversary of the Fourth Republic.
The Public Agenda's headline: "Opposition savage J.J.'s speech," says leading figures of the country's political parties have expressed outrage at controversial utterances by President Jerry John Rawlings on what needs to be done to curb increasing indiscipline and lawlessness in the country.
The paper said in the President's address to the security agencies on 31 December at the El-Walk stadium launched verbal attack on businessmen and the opposition parties and blamed them for the lawlessness in the country.
In separate interviews with the paper, the General Secretary of the NPP, Dan Botwe, Prof. Mawusi Dake of Convention Party, Dr. Edward Mahama and Dr. wereko-Brobby, presidential candidates of the People's National Convention and United Ghana Movement, variously described the president's statements at El-Walk as provocative, dangerous and a threat to the peace of the country.
The Democrat
"Opposition runs away from parade....as nation marks 6th anniversary of 4th Republic" says the Democrat banner headline. The paper says when the story of Ghana's Fourth Republic comes to be written one notable feature that can never escape posterity will be the opposition's penchant for boycott of events whenever they can't have their way.
"They have on several occasions demonstrated this attitude in Parliament whenever they know voting on some crucial issues after a general debate would never go their way" says the paper.
Quoting a political commentator, the paper says "they (opposition) forget that politics is a game of numbers and the majority will always have their way even though the minority can always have their say".
Daily Graphic
'Danger!...Pollution of Densu River poses hazard', says the lead headline of the Graphic.
The accompanying story says painstaking investigations conducted by the paper in close collaboration with environmental experts, have established that the dumping of solid and liquid waste into the Densu River has been the major cause of pollution of the river. The Graphic says a visit to the catchment area of the Weija Dam in Accra, along the Densu River through Nsawam to Koforidua in the Eastern Region, showed that almost all the towns along the river had their refuse dumps and toilet disposal points either close to the river or near streams which flow into the Densu River. Thus when it rains, the waste is washed into the river and continues to the Weija catchment area of the Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation The Weija Dam supplies water to residents of some parts of Accra. President Jerry Rawlings, last Monday, directed the Minister of Works and Housing to take immediate steps to investigate reports of discharge of raw sewage into the Densu River by the Nsawam Prison community as well as some towns along the river's catchment area.
Ghanaian Times
The Ghanaian Times in a front page story reports that a total of 3,508,972 kilogrammes of hard drugs were seized from drug traffickers by the security agencies between January and September, 1998. They were made up of 546 grammes of cocaine, 17,656 kilogrammes heroin and 3,490.660 kilogrammes of cannabis.
The Times says statistics released by the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) showed that 66 people were arrested within the period, while 37 people were found with cannabis, seven for cocaine and 22 for heroin. The suspects were arrested when they sought to bring the drugs into the country or send them outside. According to the statistics, there was an increase of over 600 per cent in cannabis and heroin as against 1,648 kilogrammes in 1997, and 1,604 grammes in heroin within the period. The Times quoting statistics, says between January and September, 1997, 196 suspects were arrested, which showed that there was a decrease in people arrested but an increase in the quantity of drugs seized. Cocaine increased by 652 grammes, heroin by 17.50 kilogrammes, 3,325.9 kilogrammes in cannabis.