First child-victim of 1963 bomb blast officially named
Koforidua (Eastern
Region) 04 April 2003- The Chairman of the Eastern Region branch of the
National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Fred Ohene-Kena, has expressed disgust
about the pulling down of the statue of former President Jerry John Rawlings,
erected at the "Club" near the offices of the Regional Co-ordinating
Council (RCC).
"Such an incident
could only take place in a confused society," he said. Ohene-Kena said
this when he led some members of the Regional Executive of the NDC to inspect
the statue.
The "Club" is
a public building being used as a camp for military personnel from the First
Battalion of Infantry on duty in the Eastern Region. The destruction of the
statue reportedly took place a week ago after a publication in an
Ohene-Kena said
democracy would only thrive in the country if the judiciary would stand up for
justice and the media gives fair comments on issues affecting the nation. He
said the Executive and Parliament could always come out with policies and laws
that would not benefit a section of the public, but "it is only when the
citizenry have the confidence that there would be fair trials by the judiciary
and fair comments by the press that the country can progress."
He reminded those who
pulled the statue down not to think that because ex-President Rawlings was out
of government his support was weaning, adding that "their action
infuriated a greater part of the supporters of the ex-President in Koforidua
and the leadership of the NDC'.
Ohene-Kena recalled a
similar incident to the bronze statue of Dr Kwame Nkrumah after his overthrow
in 1966. He said: "it is a shame that an incident which happened 37 years
ago should be repeated." He assured that the leadership of the NDC in the
region would do everything possible to put back the statue.
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Kumasi (Greater Accra)
04 April 2003- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday, made a stopover in
Kumasi on his way from Yamoussoukro, Cote D'Ivoire after addressing the
inaugural ceremony of that country's Government of National Reconciliation.
The Presidential Jet had
to return to
President Kufuor had
since returned to
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04
April 2003- Henry Badoo, Greater Accra Regional Rent Control Officer, on
Thursday asked landlords to desist from acts aimed at frustrating tenants to vacate
rooms and houses they occupy although they must have met all tenancy
requirements.
He said this amounts to
a criminal offence adding, that it is inappropriate for landlords to take the
law into their hands and do whatever suits them because they own the house. He
said the rent law states in part: "Any landlord who shall do any act
whatsoever or refrain from doing anything which the conditions of tenancy
requires him to do, with intent to compel the lessee of any premises to give up
possession thereof shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction by the
appropriate Rent Magistrate, be liable to a fine ..."
In an interview with the
Ghana News Agency (GNA) in
He said in the first
quarter of this year, a considerable number of complaints it received were on
frustration of tenants. Badoo cited removal of windows, doors or roofs of the
targeted room as some of the inhuman measures adopted by landlords to eject
tenants.
Other impediments were
barring or nailing of doors to the bathroom and toilet, fixing of new locks and
pouring of urine or faeces at the entrance of the room. Landlords also demand
new rent advances when the previous rent had not been exhausted and refuse to
maintain or renovate the house.
Badoo said such actions
make life uncomfortable for tenants adding that it is directly contrary to
dictates of tenancy agreements and they should be discouraged. The Rent Control
Officer stressed that it is the responsibility of the landlord to make life
bearable for a tenant.
Badoe said there is no
law that compels a landlord to rent his house out but once it is rented out,
the law requires that the right thing must be done. He said the rent law
specifies that if a landlord wants to eject a tenant the appropriate measures
within the confines of the law should be adhered to.
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Dawhenya (Greater Accra)
The police, led by
Superintendent Victor Adetor arrived at Dawhenya, searched the house of Robert
Nii Charway, NDC youth organiser for the town, and found the old shotgun.
Patrick Addico, a
farmer, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dawhenya that on their arrival, the
police wanted the youth organiser but they were told that he had travelled.
They asked for the Assemblyman for the area and they were told he had also
travelled.
He said Adetor then
ordered that he (Addico) who is a brother of the Assemblyman should stand in
and help the police to search the room of Charway, who they alleged had arms
and ammunition kept in the room.
Addico said the police
ordered him to force open the door but he refused. Adetor then ordered that the
window be forcibly opened and when this was done some policemen entered the
room through the window and retrieved a rusty old shotgun and some NDC posters.
After that they searched
four other rooms in the house but found nothing. When Charway returned he told
the GNA that he had not been feeling well so he travelled to Adawso in the
Eastern Region where his sister lives on Friday 28 March.
He said he found that
his room had been searched and One million cedis in a cupboard was intact but
another 1.5 million cedis that was hidden under his bed had been stolen.
Assistant Commissioner
of Police, Mrs Agnes Sikanartey, Tema Regional Police Commander, told the GNA
that the security agencies had information that some people had brought arms
and ammunition by canoe and had stored them in a room at Dawhenya. She said a
directive was given to Supt Adetor of Railways and Ports police to move his men
in the company of BNI to conduct the search and retrieve the weapons.
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Akim Manso (Eastern
Region) 04 April 2003- The Benkumhene of the Akim Kotoku Traditional Area,
Obrempong Sintim Poku 111, has lauded the government on its sound economic
policies, which he noted, would help reduce poverty especially in the rural
communities.
He mentioned mass cocoa
spraying, periodic increase in the producer price of cocoa as well as bonuses
paid to cocoa farmers and said the incentives contributed to the high cocoa
yield last season.
Obrempong Sintim Poku,
who is also the chief of Akim Manso was speaking at the "Akwasidae
festival" at Akim Manso. He was grateful to the government for absorbing
the Atweman Senior Secondary School (SSS) into the public system and the
provision of social amenities in the area.
Obrempong Sintim Poku
mentioned some of the projects as the construction of a clinic, a 20-seater
modern toilet facility, the rehabilitation of the Akim Manso/Odumase road as
well as plans to rehabilitate the two-and-half kilometre road linking the town
to the main Akim Oda/Accra road. The chief appealed to rural communities to
bury their political differences and stand solidly behind the government in its
efforts to salvage the economy.
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Some patients do not
seek treatment for the disease, Mrs Cynthia Sackey, Institutional Co-ordinator
of the Suntreso Hospital said and added that the Metropolitan Health Management
Team would step up efforts at educating the people on the disease.
She was speaking to the
Ghana News Agency (GNA) at a three-day workshop on TB for 20 health care givers
on the need to increase educational programmes of the disease. Mrs Sackey said
the "Directly Observed Therapy Short Course" (DOTS), which was the
close monitoring of patients as they undergo treatment was working well. ''In spite
of this people still default'' and attributed the situation to stigmatisation
attached to the disease.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04
April 203- Ms Gloria Akuffo, Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney
General, on Thursday called for an anti-discrimination policy that would
legally protect People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs) from being discriminated
against by society.
She noted that efforts
by stakeholders to fight the disease through ending stigmatisation and
discrimination would fail if it were not supported with a legal framework.
She said many infected
persons had been thrown out of their families, sacked from their jobs, denied
access to services and excluded from all sort of social gathering and events
after people got to know their HIV/AIDS status.
Ms Akuffo made the call
when she opened a two-day workshop organised by the Ministry of Justice in
collaboration with its partners on the theme: "Sharing And Recording
Institutional Experiences For Managing HIV/AIDS". It was organised in
Accra with the support of the Ghana AIDS Commission.
The aim of the workshop is
to create a supportive legislative environment for the prevention of AIDS and
the care of PLWAs to ensure that they had access to a respectable and dignified
life.
The current prevalence
rate for the country is 3.6 per cent and about 600,000 cases were recorded as
at the end of December last year. Ms Akuffo said experiences from other
countries that came out with laws, rules, policies and procedures had largely
resulted in the stigmatisation of PLWAs.
Such laws included
compulsory screening and testing, detention and compulsory treatment,
limitation of international travels and medical examination. "Experience,
however, shows that such measures only serve to increase and reinforce
stigmatisation of the PLWAs as well as persons who are at a greater risk of
contracting the virus."
Ms Akuffo said since
about 70 per cent of the population were illiterate there was the need to first
and foremost educate the people about the law and their rights through the district
assemblies.
She called for the
involvement of traditional leaders, chiefs, clan heads and others to become
allies and not adversaries to promote the cultural changes needed for the
prevention of HIV/AIDS and provide effective long-term support to PLWAs and
needy families.
Professor Sakyi Awuku
Amoa, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, who presided, said it was
about time that the denial of PLWAs in the society was discarded. They should
be accepted and given support to live a happy life before they die.
"People should not
sit back pointing fingers at some people responsible to do the work. All of us
should be on the deck to ensure that Ghana would be better off in curbing the
spread of the menace."
Prof Amoa said the
Commission's priority areas for the year focused on orphans, treatment and care
for PLWAs and provision of test kits to the district hospitals to encourage
voluntary testing. He called on all to take it as a responsibility to care and
support PLWAs.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04
April 2003- The Minority in Parliament on Thursday, described the recent
Cabinet reshuffle as a simple game of musical chairs in which the same old
ministers have been recycled and placed in other ministries.
The recycle also did not
rpt not take into consideration the constitutional provision of ensuring
reasonable gender and regional balance in appointments to public office. A
statement issued in Parliament and singed by John Mahama, the Minority
Spokesman on Communications, said the increase in the number of Ministries,
Ministers, Special Assistants and Advisors, would rather increase the financial
burden of Ghanaians, rather than lessen it.
"In the present
situation where ordinary Ghanaians are being asked to tighten their belts, the
huge expenditure outlay on the large army of political appointees is unjustifiable."
The Minority also questioned the appointment of four Ministers at the Ministry
of Education, Youth and Sports and said the decision was a recipe for
duplication, overlapping of responsibilities, conflict and total confusion.
It said the integration
of the Ministry of Youth and Sports back into the Ministry of Education was a
return to the unfortunate past, where Youth and Sports failed to receive the
relevant focus and attention because it was subsumed under a mammoth sector
such as education.
The statement described
the creation of the new Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways as a complete
waste of resources, which was aimed at creating additional "jobs for the
boys". It also questioned under what sector the aviation industry had been
placed, adding: "In the 21st Century where the emphasis in the transport
sector is the development of integrated multi-model transport system, it is a
regressive step to separate the management of road transport from railways and
the maritime industry".
The re-designation of
the Ministry of Tourism as Ministry of Tourism and Modernization of Capital
City was unnecessary demotion of the "once powerful Minister of
Information and Presidential Affairs".
The statement said the
responsibility for Modernisation of the
The Minority said
despite the President's famous confessions about how when the New Patriotic
Party NPP was in opposition it criticised the previous government for having a
large size yet it held the NPP government to its pre-election promise of
reducing the size of government when they came to power.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04
April 2003- President John Agyekum Kufuor left Accra this morning for
Yamoussoukro, Cote de Voire to attend a day's meeting to push forward the peace
accords signed by the various factions in the Ivoirian crisis.
The out-going Foreign
Minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman and officials of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs accompanied the President. President Kufuor, who is also the Chairman
of ECOWAS, is expected to attend the first Cabinet meeting of the National
government of Cote d'Ivoire, in which the various rebel groups have been given
appointment.
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He said the first phase
involves the relocation of road service facilities. Vice President Mahama said
the Japanese government had given 'strong indication' to finance the second
phase that is the construction of the road.
Vice President Mahama
said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Omanhene of Oguaa Traditional
Area, Osabarimba Kwesi Atta, as part of his three-day tour of the Central
Region. He said ''the government is mindful of that project so every effort
would be made for its construction.''
The Vice President
described Cape Coast as the "eye of the country" in terms of
education and expressed the desire of the government to ensure that the area is
upgraded to befit its status.
Vice President Mahama
said the government had released four million dollars for rehabilitation works
on Cape Coast water project. He called on chiefs to see themselves as partners
in development and should support the good cause of the government. The Vice
President later called on the Central Region Chief Imam, Alhaji Abubakar Hassan
at the Kotokuraba Zongo in Cape Coast.
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Patrick A. Firempong;
Correspondent; Yamoussoukro.
Yamoussoukro (Cote de
Voire) 04 April 2003- ECOWAS Chairman President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday
asked the new Ivorian Government of National Reconciliation, to prove equal to
the task of restoring law and order, national unity and reconciliation of all
Ivorians.
He said: "Your
singular aim must be to restore your nation to an orderly humanity and
democratic governance." President Kufuor was addressing the inaugural
ceremony of the 39-member government that comprised all the warring factions in
the Ivorian crisis.
The ceremony held in a
serene atmosphere at the Houphet Boigny Foundation Hall that houses the Ivorian
Parliament, was under very tight security and attended by all the factions
President Kufuor said the new government, must provide the framework for the
unity of
He said in the past
The ECOWAS Chairman said
since Ivorian's independence, it had been the main financial, economic and
commercial dynamo of Francophone West Africa not by chance, but by the uniquely
wise, far-sighted and humanitarian statesman and historic Leader - Houphet
Boigny.
"You owe the nation
the challenge to at least maintain this enviable heritage, if you cannot
improve upon it. It is to be hoped that by your collective, selfless and
nationalistic leadership you will prove capable of building upon it ", he
said.
President Kufuor said
with the inaugural ceremony that ushered the new government into power, they
stood at the threshold of history with high hopes of achieving for their
country a durable peace that would signal to the world that at long last the
leaders had for the love of their nation succeeded in ironing out their
differences peacefully.
He said Africa had in
the past the misfortune of bearing an unfair share of conflicts and the
peaceful resolution of the conflict in Cote d'Ivoire signified the beginning of
the end of other conflicts in the Sub-Region.
The ECOWAS Chairman
urged all members of the new government to facilitate the realization of peace
by resolving to be each other's keeper to tolerate each other's views and never
again resort to armed conflicts as a way of settling differences.
He commended all the
representatives of the various factions that formed the government for their
sacrifices and concessions made to make the ceremony possible. "With the
help of all those present, ECOWAS has demonstrated its capacity for the
peaceful resolution of conflicts. It is my sincere hope that you will continue
to give due support to ECOWAS that is committed to serve and promote peaceful
integration of the Sub-Region," he said.
President Kufuor
expressed appreciation to the Ivorian people for their endurance and evident
resolve to continue to stay together as one people with one common destiny. He
said the international community had been supportive and was watching with
cautious optimism, saying that the new government must not fail the nation, the
Sub-Region and the international community.
Ivorian President
Laurent Gbagbo expressed his appreciation for the formation of the new
government that had been the outcome of a series of negotiations and
consultations from the first meeting in Accra to Lome, Bamako, Linus-Marcoussis
and then to Accra.
He gave the assurance
that nominations to the portfolio of Minister of Defence and Security that had
been a thorny issue would be solved within a week, adding: "I am happy the
inaugural ceremony had been performed for the new government to begin
work."
President Gbagbo said
due to the complexity of the situation, measures had been taken in order that
there would not be overlapping of portfolios and since the nation belonged to
them all the Ministers should endeavour to work in unity and peace.
He said the way had now
been paved for the theoretical aspects of the various accords to be put to
practical terms and for the past six months what had sent the nation's
development back should be restored within the next three months.
President Gbagbo said
efforts should not be spared over trivial issues because some developed
countries had similar experience and with hard work and dedication they managed
to push their countries ahead.
He said there would
always be divergent views over issues but with a united front they should be
able to take steps to move the nation forward. Flags throughout the country had
flown at half-mast since 13 March the first meeting between the various
factions at Yamoussoukro and would be in that position for a month in memory of
those, who died during the conflict.
President Olusegun
Obasanjo of Nigeria, Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo and Professor Albert Tevoedjre,
UN Secretary General's Special Representative attended the ceremony. Dr
Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of ECOWAS and representatives of
institutions and organisations that formed the Mediation Team on the Ivorian
crisis were also present.
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John Ayikwei Quarcoo, an
Accountant, said 50 per cent of the 18,000 cedis he saved with the Ghana
Commercial Bank at the Korle-Bu Branch in March 1979, was put into that account.
He appealed to the NRC to ask the Bank of Ghana to submit that account for
their scrutiny and for the public to know who authorised the payment of money
into that account.
Quarcoo said he visited
the bank to cash his money only for his bankers to inform him that the SMCD 226
came into effect on 9 March 1979 and that all customers, who saved money after
that date were all affected.
He said he distributed
textbooks to second cycle schools and the universities in 1979. Quarcoo said
the 18,000 cedis was money accrued from the sale of his car to enable him to
beef up his capital and to use the proceeds to establish a printing press.
He said after the bank
seized the 9,000 cedis, he decided to use the remainder for estate development
and he bought two plots of land at Dansoman on which he built a house. "To
add insult to injury, the State Housing Corporation demolished the house
because it said the plots of land belonged to it."
Quarcoo said several
petitions he made to Ghana Commercial Bank, Ministry of Finance and State
Housing Corporation to retrieve his money and compensation for his house
failed. He said though State Housing Corporation demanded an estimate on the
building from him he had since not had any response from them.
Quarcoo said the seizure
of his money made him lose his business. This coupled with the demolishing of
his house made him miserable. He said he could no longer pay the school fees of
his children and life became so difficult for him until 1986 when one Awusi
Mensah invited him to help with his business for which he was paid 40,000
cedis.
Quarcoo said with his
five children, 40,000 cedis could not sustain them adding that he had since
been helping a friend with his business where he was paid some money to feed
himself and his family.
He said things had not
been easy for him and that he walked from Mamprobi where he stayed to the Old
Parliament House on Thursday to narrate his story to the Commission. He
appealed to the Commission to ensure that justice was done.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04
April 2003- Alhaji Mohammed Kwame Osei, alias Nana Osei, a farmer based in
Nkawkaw, on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) he and
other prominent business people were arrested by soldiers without charge a week
after the June 4, 1979 Uprising and drilled.
At the Police station,
soldiers made them to roll on the ground and frog-jump. In the course of the
drill one Kwame Nkrumah fainted. He said he fell sick and went to Accra for a
medical check-up after the drill. When he returned, he found that soldiers had
ransacked his store and arrested his wife and taken her to the Michel Camp for
detention.
Alhaji Osei said he
followed up to Michel Camp, but he could not identify her wife when he found
her, as she had been shaved and had whip marks at her back. He said she was admitted
at the Michel Camp Hospital for four months.
He said his wife told
him one Kwasi Somua, who had asked him to sell some of the stock of goods he
was keeping for members of a co-operative, invited the soldiers to his store on
allegation of hoarding. She said Somua also forced her, a Muslim, to drink
akpeteshie during a Ramaddan fast.
Alhaji Osei, who said he
was the founder of the Okwahu United Football Club, said he was again arrested
in 1982 on a false charge masterminded by Oduro Nyarko, his clerk, and one
Ofori Boateng for distributing literature for Major Boakye-Djan to overthrow
the government of the Provisional National Defence Council.
His home was thoroughly
searched and he was taken to Accra and detained at the Legon Police Station for
four months. He also spent one month at La Police Station and four months at
Tesano Police Station.
He was released in April
1983. Alhaji Osei said at the time of his arrest, soldiers seized his car and
when he retrieved it later, it was in a dilapidated state and he sold it for a
mere 100,000 cedis.
He said he had earlier
in 1972 been arrested and detained overnight by the Police without any charge
when he went to Koforidua to inquire about a friend, who had been arrested by
Police.
He said when the going
became tough all his three wives left him. He has now re-married two women.
Alhaji Osei said God had been his tower of strength and he was out to tell his
story as a lesson to the public. He said his wife, who was maltreated at the
barracks, also left him and his efforts to convince her to petition the
Commission had not been successful.
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First child-victim of 1963 bomb blast officially named
Madam Rose
Baah Okraku, mother of the then nine-year-old
Prof.
Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, a Commissioner, said all the reports on the Stadium bomb
blast merely said several children were lost. She added that it was painful
that none of the reports on the bomb blast mentioned the names of any of the
unfortunate children for necessary recognition as lost human lives.
Prof.
Mensa-Bonsu expressed her gratitude to Madam Okraku for coming forward to tell
of the death of her son to the world. She added that the mention of the name
would accord dignity to the unfortunate children. Members of the Commission
expressed their condolence and sympathy to Madam Okraku, whose husband is dead.
Madam
Okraku told the National Reconciliation Commission that the pain of the death
of her son was still fresh in her mind.
She said
three of her children, Eric Nii Armah Hammond, then 15, Richard Aryee Hammond
and Michael, as well as other children of in the house, went to the stadium on
that fateful day when Michael met his untimely death. Madam Okraku said when
the other children returned to the house, she asked about their brother, but
they said they could not see him.
A cousin
who was with them at the stadium later said he saw blood oozing from the side
of his ribs. He rushed to his side but could not help the situation.
He said he
when he was running to inform some relatives at Kinkawe about Michael's plight,
he was stopped and arrested along with others and taken to a camp to be
searched for bombs.
Madam
Okraku said the family made frantic efforts to search for Michael whose body
was finally discovered at the 37 Military Hospital with a fat corpse lying on
top of him.
Madam
Okraku said it was rumoured that one Teiko Tagoe hurled the bomb into the
stadium from the Independence Arch area.
When the
Commission asked if she received any compensation from the government, Madam
Okraku said she was so traumatised that she could not petition for
compensation.
She said
she was a supervisor of women who swept the streets in
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