Death on the road…Eight perish
AGC in deep crisis
Assembly officers squander 1.4bnC poverty fund
Govt orders demolition to continue…1,250 houses to be affected
Betrayal of Mills
Kwamena Bartels clashes with constituency executive
Death on the road…Eight perish
A fatal motor accident on the Accra-Nsawam road yesterday is the subject of the lead story of the Ghanaian Times.
The Times reports that a wrong over-taking by a DAF tipper truck on the Accra Nsawam road at 5.30 a.m. yesterday, resulted in the death of eight people on the spot. More than 20 others, who received serious injuries, were rushed to the Police and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospitals.
The paper carries a picture of the accident victims on its front page. The caption under the picture says the picture, tough gruesome, is being used for a purpose. It is to prick he public conscience and remind motorists of the dangers of careless driving.
The Times says it was a multiple car accident involving six vehicles adding that the badly mutilated bodies of the dead, four men and four women including a white man, have been deposited at the Police Hospital Mortuary in Accra. The dead are yet to be identified.
According to the paper, the accident attracted hundreds of people, especially motorists who parked their vehicles in the middle of the busy Accra-Nsawam road to catch a glimpse of the victims. The paper says a lot of people wept as others sighed in grief for the dead. Meanwhile the police are reported to have started intensive investigations into the case, which was attributable to wrong over-taking and over-speeding.
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AGC in deep crisis
The Daily Graphic in a front-page story, reports that the merger talks between Lonmin, the rump of the former Lonrho conglomerate, and Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), have intensified following Lonmin's conditional $835 million offer.
The paper says the first condition is that the 17 creditor banks will be prepared to allow a standstill covering its outstanding obligation of $270 million The second condition is whether the Ghana government, which owns 20 per cent and a 'golden' share, will support the merger.
The Graphic says Lonmin already owns 32 per cent of Ashanti and now it wants to offer 32 shares for every 43 Ashanti shares. This means that every Ashanti share is just under $7.5. Lonmin is said to be Africa's third largest producer of platinum and own nine gold mines in Zimbabwe. According to the paper, AGC has hedged two-fifths of its reserves against decre4ase in gold price, but prices of the commodity soared over $325 per ounce. The Graphic says that the unexpected rice in the bullion price sent AGC wobbling on its feet, adding that in four trading days the price jumped by $70.
The paper notes that Ashanti Goldfields has pursued hedging and other options to ward off any devastating effect on its reserves, but with the upsurge of the bullion, the company became the loser.
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Assembly officers squander 1.4bnC poverty fund
In a front-page screamer, the Ghanaian Chronicle reports that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigations have revealed that much of the `1.4 billion cedis in the UNDP sponsored Poverty Reduction Fund in the Afram Plains District, has been misappropriated.
The paper says three investigation teams despatched to the Plains by the executive director of the SFO, Mr Anku Sapati, have provisionally reported that the bulk of the money has found its way into the pockets of the district's departmental heads. It says a source close to the SFO summed its findings thus: "The programme can no longer be called a poverty reduction fund, but an 'increased impoverishment programme".
The execution of the programme is said to be bedevilled with "unwarranted and unwanted expenditure". The Poverty Reduction Fund is aimed at reducing the incidence of abject poverty and lift the standard of living of the people in the district, which is one of six, country-wide, executing the programme on a pilot basis.
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Govt orders demolition to continue…1,250 houses to be affected
The Dispatch reports in a front-page banner headline story that the government has now ordered that the demolition of all illegal houses across Ghana be resumed immediately.
The paper recalls that on April 12, this year, a new 65-room hotel was demolished with all its furnishings because "it was illegal and situated on a waterway". Within days, the paper continues, old family houses, eating places, new and uncompleted buildings at Labadi, Teshie and Nungua, were also demolished, amidst the full glare of television cameras.
The Dispatch notes that President Jerry Rawlings, at the height of the 'demolitionmania', announced in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region that all illegal houses, irrespective of class, would be demolished. The paper says that was the President at his political 'raps' but soon after, the demolition ceased.
The Dispatch says sources at the Office of the President have hinted that the flooding in many parts of Accra following the hour-long rainfall last Saturday and subsequent complaints, have pricked the consciences of some highly-placed officials to advise the President to order the resumption of all illegal house.
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Betrayal of Mills
The Weekly Insight says Mr Vincent Assiseh, Publicity Chief of the NDC, has dropped hints that Vice-President John Atta Mills may not receive the endorsement of the party as its presidential candidate in the year 2000 elections.
The paper says Mr Assiseh, who speaking in an interview on an Accra FM station, indicated that the race for the presidential candidate of the NDC is still wide open. According to the Weekly Insight, when Mr Assiseh was asked which of the three persons, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, Prof. Mills or Dr Obed Asamoah, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, will the party choose as its presidential candidate, he responded thus: "Spare me that, the party's constitution stipulates that the presidential candidate should be selected in the election year and we will make our choice when we get there".
The paper says in the past, Mr Assiseh had insisted that no matter what happened, Prof. Mills would become the presidential candidate of the NDC in the elections scheduled for the year 2000. The paper says Mr Assiseh had described Prof. Mills as a hardworking and brilliant politician adding that his (Assiseh's) refusal to endorse Vice-President Mills as the candidate of the party is seen as a sign of things to come.
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Kwamena Bartels clashes with constituency executive
In a front-page splash, the NPP in the Ablekuma North constituency in the Greater Accra Region is on the verge of tearing apart as aggrieved founding fathers and old executive members threaten to advise themselves if the misunderstanding between them, the MP, Mr Kwamena Bartels and the present executives, is not resolved immediately.
The paper says the aggrieved members have not only threatened to advise themselves but also to withdraw their support for the MP, whom they described as 'neither hailing from the constituency, not owing a property there nor staying there. According to them, the MP, instead of serving the interest of the people, was rather reported to be lording it over them and using divide-and-rule tactics. They contended that these tendencies had divided the party at the constituency, thereby giving the NDC the upper hand there.
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