GRi's Paul Osei-Tutu in Accra, reviews the Ghanaian press. The stories have not been verified and therefore we cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times
NDC Executives Exchange Blows. Ward chairman injured. MCE fails to account for NDC campaign=94 Is the screaming front-page banner headline of the Free Press. The paper reports that the Eastern Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress has become notorious for indiscipline.
It said a meeting held at the Asokore Community Centre to enable the old regional executives to account for their stewardship and to handover, turned into exchange of blows.
Mr. Antwi Agyei, the immediate past treasurer, kicked off the confusion when he landed a heavy slap on the face of 68-year- old, Samuel Kwabena Osei, the Effiduasi ward chairman of the party. Osei was said to have sprawl on the floor bleeding in the ear and nose.
The paper said the bane of the confusion was the inability of the old executive to account for large sums of party money they collected for the 1996 electioneering campaign.
Is Rawlings sick? asks the Weekend Statesman in a second front page story. The paper asserts that President Rawlings cut a pathetic figure of himself yesterday during his sessional address and increased speculations about his state of health for which immediate remedial measures need to be taken.
The president, who the paper claims has reduced in weight, cut such an unpresidential image of himself that left his NDC MPs, Ministers and State Officials sitting on tenterhooks throughout his delivery.
It said the President was constantly fidgeting with the microphones even when there was no need to and sweated so much in the fully air-conditioned chamber that he had to make do with two handkerchiefs which were placed in front of him with his pair of spectacles in between.
According to the paper, the president drew further attention to his state of mind when he left his sunshades behind while leaving his seat and had to be chased with it.
In a back-page story in the same paper headlined: =93PTA clashes with proprietress.=94 The paper reports that the Parent =96Teacher Association of Ridge International in Takoradi and the Proprietress of the school, Mrs. Rose Ansah are at each others throat following disagreement over increase in school fees.
Whiles the PTA contends that it will pay nothing more than the 58,500.00 cedis per child as approved by the Ghana Education Service, the proprietress also maintains that it will charge an additional 10,000.00 cedis. Miscellaneous fees, which was 8,500 cedis since the beginning of this academic year has been increased to 23,000 cedis for pupil in the primary level and 32,000 for JSS students and 5,500 cedis for snacks.
The Bank of Ghana transferred a little over one billion cedis ($436,302.99) as penalties charged on loans overdue for payments during the first half of 1997 reports the Ghanaian Chronicle.
The paper quotes Auditor Generals report on statement of foreign exchange receipts and payments of the Bank, laid before Parliament last Tuesday.
The report the paper said, linked late transfers of funds for repayment of loans to delay in submission of loan repayment authorisation and applications to the Bank from the Controller and Accountant-General=92s Department.
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Turbulence in forex market ends=94 says the banner headline of Ghana Palaver is attributed to President Rawlings.
The story has it that President Rawlings in his sessional address to parliament on Thursday confirmed an end to turbulence in the Ghanaian foreign exchange market.
The paper report him as stating that though the decline is not as much as was hoped for it is still heartening particularly considering the factors which exerted an upward pressure on inflation.
President Rawlings is said to have concluded that for the second consecutive years interest rates came down like inflation.
Developments that are indication of governments=92 efforts at providing a frame work for sustainable macro economic stability.
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Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times
Both the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times carried stories on President Rawlings sessional address to parliament yesterday. The Graphic=92s front-page lead reports the president as saying the country needs a just, simply and speedy judicial system to move the country forward.
He said the investor community must be assured that they will not be frustrated with delays, adjournments and cumbersome judicial procedures. He is also reported to have mentioned land tenure and legal system and how they affect investment.
He said to have cited an example of how the judicial system have been used to frustrate an investor and said if these things happens, both the investor and the Ghanaian economy suffer and a negative impression is created on Ghana=92s investment opportunities, the Gateway Project and the Vision 2020.
The Ghanaian Times headline reads =93Gov=92t =91ll stay on Dev. Course. President assured Ghanaians=94. The paper says the President pledged that his government would continue its orderly and equitable development of the country.
He is said to have mentioned improvement in the health education, agriculture and continued development of road and highway infrastructure, transport and communications. He also mentioned improvement in the energy sector, promotion of private sector growth, sports and culture.
Exposed again- Ghanaian women now bare all for porn magazine=94 is the screaming headline of the Weekend Chronicle. With pictures showing girls in the nude on the front with captions containing their names and hometown, the story on pages six and seven of the paper says that an American pornographic publication, Match Maker International has pictures of some Ghanaian women in the nude.
The paper notes that late last year, the appearance of nude Ghanaian women on the Internet, and issue which left many Ghanaians in shocked is now in a graver form. With sprinkles of half -caste girls of suspicious parentage all posing as Ghanaians.
The paper questions whether Ghanaian authorities in the West are aware of the activities of these women. Pointing out that soliciting for sex is illegal in Ghana.
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Witness exposed Georgido' is the Graphic Sports headline on the Yaw Sakyi transfer saga, which the paper exposed last week.
The story says Michael Kesse, one of the key witnesses in the Yaw Sekyi transfer scandal, has expressed disgust at the efforts by the Hearts Of Oak Chief Executive, Mr. Harry Zakkour, to wreck the case through the intervention of Mr. George Aduse Poku, alias George.
Kesse, a teacher at the Oforikrom L/A Primary School in Kumasi alleges that Georgido had made moves to retrieve the transfer certificate, believed to be fake, from Mr. Kwaku Adu, who is alleged to have sponsored the transfer deal.
Mr. Kese the paper said made these disclosures when he called at the Graphic offices in Kumasi to throw light on the role he in the transfer scandal in which coach Ouattara, is alleged to have collected $20,000 from Mr. Adu and paid it to Mr. Harry Zakkour, to secure a transfer certificate.
In a back-page story =93 Machomen storm club=92s meeting. Led by Alhaji Hearts=94 the paper says the depth to which Ghana soccer had sunk was openly manifested at the Accra Sports Stadium last Wednesday afternoon when the two factions within Hearts of Oak clashed, with one of the factions brandishing =93machomen=94 during a meeting to outline plans for the forth coming session.
The meeting was peaceful until the arrival of Hearts=92 Limited board secretary, Ernest Thompson and Alhaji Suleman Briamah a.k.a Alhaji Hearts. The paper said upon meeting Messrs. Sylvester Mensah and T.V. Musah, both members of the newly inaugurated Management Committee of Hearts Supporting Club, Mr. Thompson immediately charged towards the two men and accused them of causing chaos in the club.
After walking into the meeting room to remove his jacket, Thompson=92s rage turned on T.V Musah when Mr. Mensah walked away from the scene.
However the atmosphere became charged when Alhaji Hearts later appeared with over 20 burly-built, middle-aged men following him ostensibly to put the fear of God in Musah and Mensah.
According to the paper, one of the men who identified himself as a supporter of the club said they were brought in from the club=92s training grounds to harass and scare away the rival faction.
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