Indian lady drags Kofi Wayo
to court
Collapse of building at
Swalaba - 4 to face trail
Highlife musician commits
suicide
Rawlings addresses Press
today
Accra (Greater Accra) 07 April 2003 - This year's Basic Education Certificate Examination, BECE, starts this morning, Monday 07 April 2003 with a total of 268,284 candidates from 7,105 schools sitting in eight or nine subjects throughout the country.
As the candidates write their maiden major exams in their school life, stakeholders and parents are holding their breaths and praying that what befell last year's candidates is not repeated in the course of the five-day exercise.
It would be recalled that last year the whole BECE was cancelled because of a reported leakage of exam papers which damaged the integrity of the exercise. The candidates had to re-take fresh papers as a result of the cancellation.
The performance in this exam would determine which senior secondary school candidates get admitted into.
In a related development Alex Amponfi-Duku, Headmaster of Enyan Denkyira Secondary Technical School, has appealed to all stakeholders in education to ensure good conduct of the examination.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Cape Coast on Thursday Amponfi-Duku said the BECE is a national exercise which must be devoid of any acts that would tarnish the image of Ghana's educational system.
He said the leakage in the 2002 BECE, which resulted in re-sitting, has not entirely faded out of the memories of Ghanaians. The headmaster said the trauma suffered by parents, pupils and the general public should be a thing of the past.
Amponfi-Duku said the successful organisation of this year's BECE examination would go a long way to enhance the hard won reputation of WAEC and also save the Council and the nation from the previous year's experience.
He, therefore, urged the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to put in adequate security measures to offset any improprieties.
The Ghana Education Service in collaboration with the West African Examination Council have in a bid to ensure the integrity of the exercise set up monitoring units throughout the country and beefed up security at the centres to make it impossible for candidates to cheat.
These arrangements were disclosed to the in-coming Minister of Education, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and the out-going Minister for the sector, Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi by the Director of the Basic Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service, Emmanuel Acquaye during a tour of selected schools in the Accra metropolis earmarked as examination centres.
During the visit both ministers interacted with the candidates, head teachers and supervisors of the Kanda Cluster of Schools and the La Wireless Cluster of Schools which are presenting more than 400 candidates for the examination.
The ministers advised the candidates to report anybody who attempts selling question papers to either their teachers or the Police. The teachers on their part have promised to report any leakage to the appropriate authorities.
GRi…/
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Tono (Upper East) 07 April 2003 – Panic has gripped farmers in the Tono and Vea Irrigation area of the Upper Eastern Region due to the failure of their lean season tomato crops. The region is one of the largest tomato growing areas in the country. The farmers lost nearly all their crops in the December-February season.
Aside their investments going out in smoke, the farmers are also scared by the fact that scientists at the Tamale-based Savannah Agricultural Institute (SARI) and the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR) are still struggling to unravel the nature of the disease three years after it was first spotted in the area. ICOUR manages both the Tono and Vea Irrigation project.
“It took everyone by surprise”, managing director of the irrigation company, Alhaji M. Bukari told “Public Agenda”. The disease attacks the plants just before the tomato plants can flower and withers them living the fruits stunted, said the agricultural scientists.
The main farming season has just started and the farmers say they have no funds. Kojo Tedam, a father of three from Bonia said he sold two of his five cows for ø1.4m and invested all in a one-acre plot of ICOUR irrigated land at Tono but picked leas than 10 crates of tomatoes. The situation has prompted most truck to chase after fresh tomatoes in neighbouring Burkina Faso. – Public Agenda
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Indian lady drags Kofi
Wayo to court
An Indian woman resident in Ghana has dragged Charles Kofi Wayo, the maverick politician and businessman to an Accra High Court, claiming compensation for aggravated assault and battery.
Wayo, the woman alleges, held her neck and attempted to strangle her amidst racial abuses, whilst subjecting her and her two children to public ridicule and contempt.
The woman, Mrs Greena Punjabi, a housewife said in her statement of claim filed by her counsel, Brookman Amissah that Wayo struck her Peugeot 307 saloon car with his fist repeatedly until the windscreen cracked in an incident, last December.
In a six-point statement of claim filed on 13 March 2002, Mrs Punjabi said Wayo assaulted her by grabbing her hair and yanking it violently, causing her considerable pain. According to the statement, Kofi Wayo got hold of her neck and attempted to strangle her, while hurling racial abuse at her during, which she sustained personal injuries and damages.
Mrs Punjabi said she sought medical treatment at the 37 Military Hospital after she lodged a complaint at the Airport Police station. According to the medical report, Mrs Punjabi suffered trauma and shock, contusion of the neck, which led to stiffness of the neck and pain in the right arm.
The statement also said Mrs Punjabi had to fix her windscreen at Prestige Motor Company Limited at the cost of ¢3.5m.
But in an interview with the Gye Nyame Concord, Wayo denied the allegation saying the woman rather hurled abusive, racist insults on a friend of his whose defence he went to.
Both Wayo and the friend, Nii Otu Vanderpuye from Nima told the ''Concord'' that Mrs Punjabi, if anything was to blame for her insulting behaviour.
''I crossed her car to meet Wayo when I saw him and she nearly knocked me down. When I complained, she hurled racial and abusive insults at me. And you know, Wayo, he didn’t take kindly to her insults so he jumped to my defence and asked why she should be using such words on me,'' Vanderpuye said.
Wayo also alleged that the woman rather attempted to assault him.
''She tried to slap me and I deflected her hand. I’m sure she thought I was some ordinary guy just walking on the streets ‘cause I was in shorts that day, you know''.
''I was just defending a Ghanaian'', Wayo said adding that he has handed over the writ to his lawyer, Amarkai Amarteifio of Amarteifio Chambers. - Gye Nyame Concord
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Collapse of building at
Swalaba - 4 to face trail
Accra (Greater Accra) 07 April 2003 – The Attorney-General’s (AG) Department is to prosecute individuals whose acts led to the collapse of a four-storey building at Swalaba, a suburb of Accra, recently.
Those to be prosecuted include two officials of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) whose names were not disclosed, the developer, Paul Papa Grant, the architect, Dr A. A. Blankson and others whose acts of omission or comission led to the collapse of the building.
The out-going Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu who announced this at the inauguration of the new offices of the Ashiedu Keteke Sub-Metro of the AMA said a report has been forwarded to the AG’s office for immediate action.
According to a ministerial directive on the report of the committee that investigated the circumstances that led to the collapse of the building, Dr Blankson endorsed drawings that his firm did not design while Grant is to be prosecuted for flouting several statutory provisions on building construction.
The out-going minister explained that the directive follows a recommendation contained in a report submitted by the committee which was set up by AMA, and the ministry to investigate the circumstances that led to the collapse of the four-storey building on 12 December 2002.
Baah-Wiredu said the investigations established that there was act of negligence on the part AMA officials, the owner of the building, the engineers and contractors and that they must be made to face the full rigours of the law.
He was convinced that the strict implementation of building regulations is the only way to prevent unauthorised persons from designing building plans.
He said the connivance of some AMA officials with developers to put up structures illegally as well as the level of filth in some parts of Accra poses a great challenge to the assembly.
He, therefore, challenged officials of the assembly to follow the due process in the discharge of their duties and to work harder to improve sanitation and revenue mobilisation in the metropolis.
Baah-Wiredu said the assembly has been given ¢4bn to improve on its sanitation, construction and revenue mobilisation activities. He said many viable projects have been abandoned in the metropolis and called on the assembly to get the projects reviewed.
He charged all Ghanaians to adopt the culture of maintenance since, "too many important and viable development projects have been left to waste."
Throwing more light on the collapse of the building at Swalaba after the function, Solomon Ofei Darko, AMA Chief Executive, said the developer did not give any statutory notice to the AMA for the commencement of work or during the work as required by law.
He said two officials of the AMA have been suspended for a month without pay while the others will be prosecuted.
Darko said the Metropolitan Town and Country Planning and Works Departments are going to be put together under one roof at the Ashiedu-Keteke Sub-metro which was formerly housed at Palladium, Accra, in order to make them more effective.
The ¢80m building was commissioned by Baah-Wiredu with assistance from the Sempe Mantse and acting President of the Ga Traditional Council, Nii Adote Obour II . The ceremony was attended by a Deputy Minister of the ministry, Capt Nkrabeah Effah-Darteh (rtd), Members of Parliament for Odododiodoo, Korle Klottey and Ayawaso West, Reginald Nii Bi Ayi Bonte, Nii Darku Adu Mante and Dr Mustapha Ahmed.
The five-member committee chaired by Professor Ralph Mills-Tettey, presented its report after five weeks of intensive investigations.
It was also recommended that Christian Kafui Atsu of the Ghana National Fire Service be promoted for his timely intervention which prevented a lot of fatalities at the building site.
The report also reminded all district assemblies to strictly enforce the provision of LI 1630 in all building construction projects. The report said, "the committee's view that the whole system of building inspection has broken down reflects the lethargic nonchalant attitude of relevant schedule officers in AMA."
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Berekum (Brong Ahafo) 07 April 2003 - Ten District Chief Executives (DCEs) in the NDC regime who allegedly caused serious financial loss to the state during their tenure of office are to be prosecuted.
A Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Capt. (rtd) Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, announced this at the Fourth Speech and Prize-giving Day celebrations of the Berekum Secondary School which coincided with the inauguration of the school’s military cadet corps at Berekum at the weekend.
He mentioned five of them as Nana Kwadwo Boateng, formerly responsible for Dormaa, the former Jaman DCE, Matthew Gyasi; Jerry Acquaye Thompson, the Ga DCE. Alhaji Mahama Shamrock, formerly responsible for Zabzugu/Tatale and the late Bessa Simons, the former Abura/Asebu/Kwamankese DCE.
Capt Effah-Dartey did not name the remaining five DCEs but said the 10 DCEs who embezzled about ¢3bn during their stewardship, formed the first batch of such former government officials to be prosecuted.
Capt Effah-Dartey, who is also the MP for Berekum further stated that apart from his ministry submitting a list of the affected DCEs to the Attorney-General for prosecution, civil suits will also be instituted against them to retrieve the money they misappropriated. He stressed that the NPP Government would not sit down unconcerned for a few disgruntled people in the society to exploit the nation at the expense of the masses.
He stressed that only discipline can eradicate corruption and other criminal activities from the Ghanaian society. He, therefore, appealed to Ghanaians to lead responsible lives in order to build a better nation since nobody can reconstruct the country for them. Capt Effah-Dartey advised teachers who are role models to strive to be morally upright so as to instil discipline in the children they teach, since no school can attain high academic laurels in the midst of chaos and violence.
He suggested that all senior secondary schools (SSS) in the country should establish cadet corps for military discipline to be instilled in the students. Capt Effah-Dartey praised the science students of the school for manufacturing paint from clay and urged them to exhibit it during the first ever Berekum Trade Fair scheduled for November, this year. – Graphic
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Keta (Volta Region) 07 April 2003 – At long last, the much trumpeted and politicised Keta Sea Defence project has neared completion and four months from now, the hopes and aspiration of the more than 150,000 people in the district will be restored.
This is because by the end of August, this year, the $84m project, which started in December 1999, will be completed-six clear months ahead of schedule. Information gathered by “Chronicle” after a to day tour of the site and district indicates that work on the project, which was aimed at reclaiming nearly 200, 000 hectares of flooded land, defending the remaining township from future marine aggression and resettling the worst hit victims is 80% complete.
The tour also revealed that the final phase of work, involving the resettlement of the people of Vodza, Keta and Adzidzo will begin this Wednesday. To this end the out-going Minister of Works and Housing, Hon Yaw Barimah, is expected to cut the sod for the construction of some 100 completed houses at a total cost of ø2.5bn for the people of Vodza, who are the first beneficiaries.
“Chronicle” noted at the site last week that in a bide to complete work ahead of time, workers of Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company of Oak Book, Illinois, USA, defied the heavy rains of the day and were busy at work. All seven groins, each measuring between 200m and 250m and revetment had been put in place.
Already the 7km Havedzi-Keta road cum defence structure is passable but not yet opened to the public. Similarly, Construction Pioneers (CP), which is undertaking the spillway for flood control purposes between the lagoon and the sea proper has also gone far.
The District Chief Executive, Emmanuel Kwame Vorkeh confirmed that all is set for the sod cutting of the new Vodza township. According to him, even though the project was started just a year before the NPP government took over the administration of this country, President Kufuor had kept his campaign promise of continuing and completing it.
The Chief Executitve recollected how the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lied to the people of Keta that the NPP would abandon the project, should they come to power, adding that “the very people are now seeing things for themselves and would no longer be deceived.
Some of the main benefits of the Keta Sea Defence Project if the assurance that the fresh water of the lagoon, which provide sustenance for agriculture, will remain fresh as usual. Tourism will also be boosted as it will enhance the creation of bird habitats in the vicinity of West Africa’s largest lagoon.
Most importantly, commercial activities are expected to boom again when the road from Aflao to Anloga through Havedzi is opened. At the moment the only access road to the area is through Dabala. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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Ho (Volta Region) 07 April 2003 - As is usually the case in Ghana’s body politic, various reasons are now being given from all quarters for the forced resignation of Felix A. Oteng, Principal Technical Officer (PTO) and until recently, Volta Regional head of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), less than 24 hours after the falling of the axe.
His removal was based on the instrumental role he was alleged to have played in the registration, last year of four imported (bullet-proof?) cars belonging to the ex-president, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
According to a letter dated 21 March this year and signed by Joe Osei-Owusu, Chief Executive of DVLA, the decision to advise the victim to leave the employ of the authority by 31 March this year was the fallout from the findings of a Committee of Inquiry set up by the board of directors tasked to hear evidence of breach of procedures in the registration of the said cars.
The letter, with reference number PF/A/9, indicated that it was the recommendation of a disciplinary committee to let Oteng go. And in accordance with the directive, the 56-year old PTO has, since last Monday, packed bag and baggage out of Ho, the regional capital; ending his 22 years of service to the DVLA.
The story, which hit the newsstands mid last year, had it that a certain Asuboteng, presenting himself as vehicle registration agent, but without authority, power of attorney from the owner, caused the said cars to be registered in the name of J.J. Rawlings.
While the file bore the name of the former president, the photograph and signature were those of Asubonteng. This led to the formation of a three-member committee comprising a board member, the most senior technical officer and another officer to investigate the matter, which involves Oteng and two others.
At the end of it all Oteng was to go while a junior staff involved was suspended. A principal executive officer in charge of registration has however, been exonerated. This led to a few gossips in town over whether true justice had been done in the matter.
When Chronicle contacted him for comment, the victim said, “My brother, it is all politics. I know I haven’t done anything wrong. There had all along been a plot to remove me but I leave everything to God”. He said he would not go to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), as is being suggested to him by friends, because he does not think he would get justice there.
According to Oteng, who was laughing all through the interview and was surrounded by some of his 13 daughters, “no one can successfully fight against the government of the day.”
But for his side of the story, the chief executive, Osei-Owusu, said apart from the unfortunate incident, which was irregular, unlawful and very embarrassing to the former president, Oteng had involved himself in several other similar acts that warranted summary dismissal.
He said as late as December last year, Oteng, from his office in Accra, was registering several tractors belonging to Mechanical Lloyd, which were parked in the company’s yard. He asked, “as a principal technical officer, how can you register tractors without seeing them with your eyes?”
The chief executive denied any politics in the matter and hinted further that even after querying him a number of times, the victim fell foul of the law. “We are even lenient with him and that is why we are allowing him to go home with his full entitlements.” – Ghanaian Chronicle
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Highlife musician commits
suicide
Dichemso (Ashanti Region) 07 April 2003 - A popular highlife songwriter and musician, Tommy Wiredu is dead. Reports from Dichemso in Kumasi say Wiredu hanged himself in his house.
JOY FM enquiries have revealed that Tommy Wiredu, a long-time partner of Frank Mensah, has been bedevilled with a string of debts resulting from failure of his Executive Producer to pay his royalties.
Wiredu was only last week, arrested by the police for failing to settle a ¢25m debt. He had reportedly sold his car for ¢10m to defray part of the debt and was greatly embarrassed when he was arrested. Some the songs he composed include ''Susubribi ansa na da bone no eduru'' (literally meaning prepare before the evil day comes) and Abebrese. – MyJoyOnLine
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Rawlings addresses Press
today
Accra (Greater Accra) 07 April 2003 - Former President Rawlings is expected to hold a press conference today. It would be his first ever press conference after leaving office as (P)NDC Chairman and as President of the Republic of Ghana. This is because he never held any press conference for the local media for 19 years.
The ''Daily Guide'' says it was informed that the conference which would take place at the office of the former President at Ridge in Accra would address various issues, barring any last minute hitches.
The “Daily Guide” newspaper says some of the issues the former President would address include:
•Criticise the Electoral Commission for enabling the NPP to win all the recently held by-elections.
•Lash out at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) for what he and his party claim are its prejudices and answer some of the allegations made by Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor in Chief of the Crusading Guide newspaper during his recent appearance before the NRC.
•He is also expected to call for unity within the NDC as certain key elements on the youth front have threatened to resign from the party.
The paper says Baba Jamal, the deputy General Secretary of the NDC; Haruna Iddrisu, national youth organizer and Madam Frances Essiam, national women’s organizer are threatening to call it quit if the Party’s structures are not re-aligned to make it the once formidable party that it used to be. - Daily Guide
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Minister unhappy about TV
programmes
Elmina (Central Region) 07 April 2003 - Minister of State in charge of Basic and Girl Child Education, Ms Christine Churcher, has expressed displeasure at some of the programmes on television and radio, saying that “these have contributed to the weakening of the moral fibre particularly of the youth in the society”.
The Minister described some of the films shown on television as "outrageous", which only go to encourage bad moral habits among the youth. Ms Churcher was addressing the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Edinaman Secondary School at Elmina in the Central Region at the weekend.
She said the high level of indiscipline in the society requires that all Ghanaians, particularly the media draw up educative programmes that will help curb indiscipline acts.
Ms Churcher said as a nation, "we must establish what good morals are and work towards achieving these standards".
She called on parents to make conscious efforts to help mould the characters of their children. Ms Churcher said parents must begin to spend quality time with their children in order to know their needs and provide such needs, adding that “educating children will in the long run be profitable for the family and society as a whole".
She also advised the students to eschew all acts, which do not augur well for effective teaching and learning, as well as strive to go high on the educational ladder in order to contribute meaningfully to national development.
She hinted that the school has been selected to be upgraded into a first class school. Ms Churcher also pledged ¢2m worth of books for the school's library.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem, Nana Ato Arthur, said the assembly has concluded an agreement with the Mercer University in Macon, USA, to establish an exchange programme between the university and the school. The headmaster, F.A. Amanfu, said discipline is very high in the school but stated that the school lacks the needed infrastructure for effective academic work.
He appealed for classroom, teachers'
residential facilities and the tarring of the access road to the school.
Members of the teaching and non-teaching staff as well as students who excelled
in their various fields of endeavour were awarded. The best science student
award went to Vincent Sortoh. – Graphic
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