GRi Newsreel Ghana 18 – 04 - 2000

Price of LPG reduced

Rainstorm hits Bolgatanga district

Show reverence to chieftaincy institutions - Queen Mother

Four die in an accident at Elmina

Government urged to check lumber merchants

 

 

Price of LPG reduced

Accra (Greater Accra Region) 18 April 2000  

 

The National Petroleum Tender Board on Monday announced the reduction of the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) from 2,240 to 1,900 cedis per kilo.

 

A statement issued in Accra said the new price takes effect from 1800 hours on Monday. The statement issued in Accra on Monday by Mr William Parker, Chairman of the Board, said a cylinder of 14.5 kilos would now sell at 27,550 cedis instead of 32,500 cedis.

 

There has been public uproar since the price of LPG went up recently. The public argued that the price was a disincentive as people would return to the use of charcoal, which means the cutting down of trees with its environmental problems.

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Rainstorm hits Bolgatanga district

Bolgatanga (Upper East) 18 April 2000

 

A severe rainstorm that hit Bolgatanga district last Saturday ripped off the roofs of several buildings, including nine primary schools, six early childhood development centres, four junior secondary schools, three clinics and a nutrition centre.

 

At Sheiga, near Bolgatanga, the local clinic had its roof ripped off. More than 100 women, who sent their children for weighing and medical attention on Monday had to be attended to under trees.

 

The Bolgatanga District Chief Executive (DCE), Dr Albert Tenga, Mr John Akologu Tia, Member of Parliament for Talensi, Mr David Azangbeo, Bolgatanga District Co-ordinator of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and some assembly members have toured the affected communities to assess the extent of damage.

 

Dr Tenga advised communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that undertake projects to seek technical assistance from the assembly to enable them to put up structures that could withstand such rainstorms.

 

Dr Tenga observed that the effect of the storm on the Sheiga Primary School was not as devastating as at other places because trees surrounded it and therefore, urged the people to plant trees to act as wind breaks.

 

He said the assembly would form a task force to repair the affected schools to enable pupils to attend classes when schools reopen next week.

 

Mr Tia appealed to engineers to exercise strict supervision to ensure that structures are built to specifications.

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Show reverence to chieftaincy institutions - Queen Mother

Cape Coast (Central Region) 18 April 2000

 

Nana Amba Eyiaba, Queen Mother of Effutu, near Cape Coast, on Monday expressed concern about the indiscriminate manner in which foreigners are being installed as chiefs in the country and warned that if the practice is not checked, it would erode the reverence people have for the age-old heritage of chieftaincy.

 

Nana Eyiaba expressed this concern when she presented a paper on, "Traditional Governance from a Queen Mother's Perspective" at a symposium organised as part of activities of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Council meeting currently going on at the University of Cape Coast.

 

She said in spite of their contribution to the chieftaincy institution, queenmothers have no established body through which they could make their views on national issues known.

 

Nana Eyiaba expressed her unhappiness about the refusal of chiefs to allow them to become members of the regional houses of chiefs, saying that queenmothers, who serve as direct representatives of women in the Ghanaian society, should be recognised and given the necessary platform to enable them to deliberate on pertinent issues.

 

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Four die in accident at Elmina

Elmina (Central Region) 18 April 2000 

 

Three persons died on the spot and another at the hospital with several others sustaining serious injured when a tipper truck crashed into head on into the benz bus that they were travelling in at Best Western Resort on the Takoradi - Nyamoransa trunk road.

 

Two of the dead have been identified as Mr Alex Oppong, a driver's mate from Takoradi and Mr Yaw Owusu of Kumasi. The injured have been admitted at the Central Regional and Cape Coast district hospitals.

 

When GNA contacted the Police, Mr Adams Saaka, Assistant Superintendent of Police in charge of Elmina Police Station confirmed the story and said the bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the District Hospital mortuary.

 

He said the driver of the tipper truck, Kourouma Ibrahima, a Guinean has been placed in Police custody pending investigations.

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Government urged to check lumber merchants

Asamankese (Eastern Region) 18 April 2000

 

Mr Emmanuel Koran-Peprah, Managing Director of Empekon Sawmills Company Limited, has called on the government to institute stiff measures against chain saw operators and lumber merchants to help regulate the activities of lumber merchants who pre-finance chainsaw operators to go about their unpatriotic activities.

 

Mr Koran-Peprah told the GNA at Asamankese on Sunday that sawmill companies, which offered to feed the local market are now compelled to go back into export since the market is flooded with chain saw lumber.

 

He lumber dealers who trooped to their offices to make deposits and purchases of lumber soon after the ban was instituted have stopped because it is readily available on the market.

 

Mr Koran-Peprah suggested the removal of forest personnel placed at various checkpoints to enforce the ban, saying they are only there to enrich their pockets.

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