Police, military take-over of hospitals…Task force to review operation
AIDS test for rapists…WAJU boss pays fees
Tribal crisis in NDC…Over Vice-President
AGC strike probe report…'Tarzan' calls for quick action…
"Have mercy and arrest me"…Thief tells soldiers
Police, military take-over of hospitals…Task force to review operation
The Daily Graphic reports on its front page that a task force is to be set up to review the Implementation of the policy to transfer the Ridge Hospital, the Mamprobi and La Polyclinicsto the military and the police.
The paper says the decision was taken at a meeting held in Accra yesterday between the Vice-President, Prof. John Atta Mills and representatives of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA). The report, which is the lead story in the Graphic, quotes a statement signed by the Minister of Communications, Mr John Mahama, as saying that the meeting also agreed that the task force would examine in detail, the medical emergency needs of Ghana as proposed by the GMA.
Its national president, Dr J.K. Kwakye-Marfo, and Prof. Agyemang Badu Akosa, president of the Greater Accra branch of the association represented the GMA. According to the statement, the Vice-President explained that the decision to transfer the administration of the three health institutions to the military and police, were taken in good faith and in the national interest. He is reported as saying that it was it was not intended to render the medical staff "jobless, treat them shabbily or punish anyone". "In view of this, the task force will re-examine the situation as a matter of urgency".
The statement said the GMA representatives expressed indignation at the manner in which the policy has been carried out so far.
It said while expressing reservation about the conduct and attitude of the 37 Military Hospital Authority over the implementation, the GMA representatives were hopeful that the task force would address their concerns in a holistic manner and to the satisfaction of all.
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Ghanaian Times
AIDS test for rapists…WAJU boss pays fees
The Ghanaian Times lead story says Mrs Gifty Enin-Botwe, Commander of the Police Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU), yesterday made available 56,000 cedis from her own resources, to en able two convicted rapists to be tested for HIV/ASIDS at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
The gesture, according to the paper, followed a controversy over who should bear the cost of the screening of the rapists, as ordered by an Accra Circuit Tribunal.
The two rapists, Kweku Abeiku, 20, a steel bender, and Isaac Kofi Acheampong, 19, a farmer, were said to have been first taken to the Haematology Department of Korle-Bu On September 29, but the authorities refused to attend to them saying that the fee for each of them - 28,000 cedis should be paid in full before the test could be conducted.
The Times says the police later took the two convicts to the Public Health and Referral Laboratory, also at Korle-Bu but officials there also refused to attend to them.
They explained that the laboratory only offers free screening for patients on admission and others certified as being indisposed. According to the paper, the medical examination on the two rapists was expected to be performed this morning.
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Tribal crisis in NDC…Over Vice-President
In a screaming front-page headline story, the Guide says that the race for the leadership of the NDC is becoming hotter as the days pass by. The paper says while the general consensus in the party has it that Prof. John Atta Mills, leads, the confusion is about whom becomes his running mate. According to the paper, the hurdle for that position is therefore the bone of contention between the Northern caucus and the Volta 'Mafia'.
The Guide notes that while Dr Obed Asamoah, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, seems to be the obvious choice for the position of Atta Mills' running mate, the powerful Northern 'clique' believe it is their time to be at the top-most position of the party. According to the paper, the debate seriously weighs In favour of Dr Asamaoh on many grounds.
The Guide explains that some top NDC members, including MPs from the North think that the party stands the risk of losing their "World Bank" votes if the Ewe factor at the top hierarchy of the party is belittled. It says three Northern MPs, all of whom pleaded anonymity, are of the view that many parts of the three northern regions have seen more of the NDC government's development programmes than the Volta Region, which has unflinchingly given all of its seats and votes to the NDC.
"We can only retain the confidence of the people of the Volta Region if we at least, put their own son as the running mate of Prof. Atta Mills, to give them the assurance that we are still with them and that all is not lost yet", the Guide quotes one of them as saying.
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AGC strike probe report…'Tarzan' calls for quick action…
The Crusading Guide reports the presidential candidate of the United Ghana Movement (UGM), Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby as urging the government to quickly issue its view on the findings of the Committee that probed the strike action at the Ashanti Goldfields Company ( AGC) Limited in order to foster investor confidence and also quell the tension in some quarters of the Ghanaian society.
The Brigadier Anyidoho Committee was appointed by the government to probe the recent workers agitation at the AGC. The paper says, Dr Wereko-Brobby, an energy expert, who spoke through telephone while contributing to an edition of "Groove FM" programme - 'Hotline', explained why he had written to the Minister of Finance concerning the AGC.
He is reported as saying that the motivating force behind the letter was some information he had received from his financial advisers in London, which apparently indicated that there were worries about perceived government interference in the internal affairs of AGC. According to the paper, Dr Wereko-Brobby is an AGC shareholder via the London Stock Exchange.
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P & P
"Have mercy and arrest me"…Thief tells soldiers
The P & P in an inside page story says many thought Abass Ibrahim, a 25-year-old unemployed, based at Ashaiman near Tema, who, having been in and out of prison walls on several occasions, would put an end to stealing and look for a decent job.
However, to him nothing in the world could convince him to stop practising the trade he feels he s gifted in. But says the paper, luck eluded him on September 24, when fearing he might be lynched after being busted for stealing a lady's handbag, he beseeched two soldiers in a taxi to save his life and arrest him.
Quoting eyewitnesses, the P & P says they could not help but burst into uncontrollable laughter at the rather strange request.
The paper says the soldiers, touched by the visibly shaken Abass, obliged to his request and whisked him away in the taxi.
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