IGP tells
police personnel to preserve human rights
Major amends
in the police service to take off
Seek Ghana's
economic liberation, Rev. Adjanor
GETFund
funds projects in universities
Driver
runs over his daughter, killing her
Government
to spend over seven billion cedis
Religious
leaders urged to join HIV/AIDS campaign
Route poverty
alleviation funds
MP condemns
allegations against DCE
Aliu
calls for more effective structures
Six district
assemblies to be upgraded
Tamale (Northern
Region) 23 April 2003- Fighting broke out in Tamale on Tuesday between rival
groups of butchers over what is believed to be a confrontation about broken
tables at the butchers shop at the Tamale Central Market.
Unspecified number of
people are said to have sustained gunshots and cutlass wounds. Police and
military personnel have been deployed at the scene to bring the situation under
control. As at 12.30 pm, the security personnel were firing warning shots while
a military helicopter hovered around the town to scare the combatants.
Business in central
Tamale has since come to a halt whilst the banks have also closed down for fear
of any attack. People could be seen running for their dear lives throwing the
municipality into confusion. When contacted, the police could not give any
immediate information on the situation, saying that those deployed at the scene
have not returned yet.
It is now known that
about 10 persons are on admission at the Tamale Teaching Hospital following
injuries they sustained during the clash. Dr Augustine Tabir, a medical officer
at the hospital, briefing newsmen said four of the victims had been treated and
discharged while six others, including a woman, were still on admission. He
said the woman fell into a gutter and sustained deep cuts on her legs while
running for her dear life.
Dr Tabir said that
more victims were still expected since some of them had run into their rooms
with wounds and that hospital staff were working around the clock to save
lives. The situation at the Central Market was so volatile that the combatants
even attacked security personnel and newsmen, throwing stones at them.
The Northern Regional
Police Commander, Akrofi Asiedu told the GNA in Tamale that three supporters of
NPP reported that supporters of NDC who were returning from a clean-up exercise
at the Tamale Regional Hospital on Monday attacked them.
Seven persons had so
far reported to the police with injuries they sustained during the clash and
were issued with police medical forms. He said another complained from the
Regional crime officer indicated that there were disturbances at the butchers
shop at the Tamale central market over hoisting of NDC party flags on some of
the butchers tables.
He said the NPP youth
complained that the shop was a public place and that party flags should not be
hoisted there. The police commander said at a meeting with NDC executives, they
promised to remove the flags but as at the time of the clash, the flags were
still not removed.
He said as a result
the NPP Youth removed the flags, broke and burnt the tables and block the roads
leading to the market entrance. The police and the military were later detailed
to clear the roads and bring the situation under control. No arrests had been
made and investigations are going on.
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IGP
tells police personnel to preserve human rights
Accra (Greater Accra)
23 April 2003- Nana Owusu-Nsiah, Inspector General of Police (IGP) on Tuesday
charged the police to recognise the promotion and protection of fundamental
human rights of the citizenry as a key factor in the discharge of their duties.
He said police
personnel should recognise that they must use methods that are legally
permissible "or else we break the law ourselves." The IGP who was
opening a five-day national workshop on Human Rights Issues for 65 Police
Station Officers said, "Lots of inconveniences from undue delays are all
actions not to be tolerated in the present democratic dispensation being
nurtured in Ghana."
The officers drawn
from the Southern zone of the country were the first batch of 626 offices who
would benefit from the course under the phase two programme of the Good
Governance Programme initiated by government to bring the police service to the
level of internationally accepted democratic mode of policing.
It is being held under
the sponsorship of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) in
collaboration with the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice
(CHRAJ). Nana Owusu-Nsiah described reports from some police stations on the
treatment of complainants and suspects, dealings with the members of the public
and their service delivery in terms of response to distress calls and
investigation of cases as something that left much to be desired.
The IGP said
effective law enforcement required the use of various professional as well as
operational methods and strategies adding, "depending on the nature of any
particular duty to be performed, one method or a combination of methods and
strategies can be employed."
Nana Owusu-Nsiah said
the police today must know that there is a heightened civil liberty
consciousness among the citizenry, which they should jealously guard against to
avoid any infringement on their constitutional rights and freedoms.
The IGP told the
police, "The fact that we are law enforcement officers does not in any way
place us above the law. On the contrary we have a duty to operate strictly
within the parameters of the law to avoid violating the rights and liberties of
the members of the public...from lawlessness."
Emile Short,
Commissioner of CHRAJ said the onerous task of the police service required a
great exercise of circumspection and restraint in their interaction with the
public in the use of force in enforcing law and order.
He said law
enforcement by its very nature could easily degenerate into violation of human
rights and added that the police ought to be conversant with national, regional
and international standards formulated to ensure a proper balance between law
enforcement and respect for human rights.
Short said the
violations of the fundamental human rights of some citizens by some personnel
had led to the undermining of the authority and integrity of the police to
enforce the law.
He deplored negative
perception of some policemen that human rights standards were obstacles to practical
policing objectives. He said human rights standards were legal imperatives and
gross violations of them could not be justified in any circumstances.
"Human Rights
abuses can not be justified on grounds that they are necessary to secure other
desirable ends such as public order or the prevention and detection of crime.
Human Rights abuses are themselves breaches of public order," he noted.
Short said the
constraints and challenges of the police should provide no excuse for the
police to violate the fundamental human rights of the people they were obliged
to protect. He advised them to balance the duty to promote and protect human
rights with the requirements of good and effective policing.
The Commissioner
expressed the hope that the workshop would help the police officers in the
discharge of their duties and would equip them with the relevant human rights
standards and norms relating to their work.
The workshop would
examine the 1992 Constitutional provision on human, other relevant laws and the
international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, and the African Charter on Human Rights.
Other relevant
documents to be looked at included, the Ghana Police Service Instructions,
United Nations Body Principles for the protection of persons under any form of
detention or imprisonment and the UN Basic Principles on the use of force and
firearms by law enforcement officials.
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Major
amends in the police service to take off
Accra (Greater Accra)
23 April 2003- The mission statement, functions and organisational structure of
the Ghana Police Service will soon be revised to conform to the current
democratic temperament and modern practice in the country.
The process would
take into account the designation and introduction of performance management
systems, development of human resources management policies and plans that
would determine staffing levels, training assessment and training plan with
budget.
Mrs Leonora
Kyeremanten, Coordinator of the National Governance Programme who made this
known on Tuesday said ever since the country attained independence, the service
had not had any revision of its mission statement and functions, which had
contributed enormous problems to the Service.
She said since the
mission statement was formulated mainly for personnel in the colonial era,
there was the need to re-look at it and reshape it to fit the current democratic
culture and world standard of policing. Mrs. Kyeremanten was speaking at the
opening of a five-day national workshop on Human Rights issues.
It was under Good
Governance Programme and it was being organised in collaboration with the UNDP
and CHRAJ. Mrs Kyerematen said a development of a modern plan to improve assets
and equipment base and the use of ICT.
About 65 Police
Station Officers were attending the workshop representing the first batch from
the Southern Zone. It was expected to enable the officers discharge their
duties and be equipped with the relevant human rights standards and norms
relating to their work.
Mrs Kyeremanten said
several institutional reforms that had taken place in the past did not consider
the Police Service and that even the current one for the judiciary under the
National Renewal Institutional Programme (NIRP) has neglected the police
Service.
"The Service has
been underplayed and the need has come to comprehensively look at its structure
in its entirety because the vision at the time of the colonial days was
different and would not conform to today's demands, there is a complete
paradigm shift," she said.
Mrs. Kyeremanten said
government was also keen to provide immediate financial and technical
assistance for the modernisation of the services' Forensic laboratory.
"The reform neglect syndrome of the Service is now a thing of the past.
The government of Ghana and its development partners are poised to provide what
it takes to transform the police force in the near future into professionally
competent and citizen friendly agency..." Mrs Kyeremanten said.
She said while these
changes take place, there was a concurrent need to remould attitudes, in order
to bring the Service in harmony with the democratic dispensation of the times
as they represented the public face of the state and the character of the
Service.
"Substantial
gaps exist in the current philosophy, methods and priorities of policing in
Ghana and the attitudes and sensitivity of the Police to human and constitutional
rights," she noted. In exercising their discretionary powers, Mrs
Kyeremanten appealed to personnel to exercise restraint and circumspection
adding, "sometimes through over zealousness or sheer ill-will, some
members exercise their powers arbitrarily".
She said the police
personnel must know that the level of confidence and institutional support they
enjoy and would get from the public was proportional to the service's own
comportment, professionalism and integrity. The reverse, Mrs Kyeremanten said
was respect for police personnel rights by civil society as well as internal
democratic practices within the Service itself.
On issue of police
integrity she said it was regrettable that some personnel's conduct had put
their integrity in a questionable state. Various Presidential Commission
Reports, she said had seriously indicted some individuals and groups of the
service, she said. "Ability to
falsify records and make criminal insertions that defied detection and whiles
others engage in examination malpractices, recruitment and promotions" she
said, were in the service.
Mrs Kyeremanten said
the acquisition of adequate logistics and human rights learning, would not
automatically wipe out corruption where an administrative and institutional
culture embraced it. She said the crucial thing to target after appreciating
and respecting human rights would be to design and implement an innovative
home-grown anti-corruption agenda for the Service.
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Seek
Ghana's economic liberation, Rev. Adjanor
Kasoa (Central
Region) 23 April 2003-The Easter Convention of the Nyanyano/Kasoa branch of the
Apostolic Church has ended here with a call on Christians to help the economy
grow by working hard.
Speaking at the end
of the Convention, Rev S.B.S. Adjnor, District Pastor of the Church, said ''we
can leap over our poverty if Ghanaians will love work and discharge their
duties diligently the same manner as Jesus Christ did.''
Sampson Teilah,
District leader of the Witness Movement, youth wing of the Church, said the
youth must be inspired by Jesus' preparedness to work relentlessly, for that
reason, they should not be found wanting where duty calls. He said the Christian
youth, working in all sectors must lead lives worthy of emulation.
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GETFund
funds projects in universities
Tarkwa (Western Region)
23 April 2003-Fosuaba Mensah Banahene, Administrator of Ghana Education Trust
Fund (GETFund), has commissioned a 631.4 million-cedi Junior Common Room (JCR)
block, which is part of a hostel being funded by GETFund at a ceremony at
Western University College (WUC), Tarkwa.
The JCR block has
Students Representative Council (SRC) offices, hall tutor's office, a Common
Room for students, and porter's lodge, among others. Banahene said GETFund has
so far provided 4.4 billion cedis for building a four-storey library block,
construction of water distribution system, construction of students hostel and
procurement of vehicles at WUC.
Banahene said at the
tertiary level all the 17 public institutions have projects, including
administration blocks, hostels, classrooms and lecture theatres under
construction. He said this year GETFund would begin with the construction of
students' hostels at university campuses and the polytechnics. Prof. Daniel
Mireku-Gyimah, Provost, WUC, expressed his appreciation to GETFund.
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Driver
runs over his daughter, killing her
Sekondi (Western
Region) 23 April 2003- The Police have arrested Joseph Mensah, a driver at
Aiyinasi in the Nzema East District, for running over his one-year-old daughter
with his bus. Chief Superintendent of Police, Isaaka Salami, Western Regional
Crime Officer, told the GNA that the girl died on the spot.
He said Mensah was
being held for careless driving and negligently causing harm. Salami said on
April 17 the accused decided to drive his bus that was parked in his house to a
welding workshop for repairs and in the process he ran over his daughter who
was standing in front of the vehicle without noticing that she was there.
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Government
to spend over seven billion cedis
Akrofuom (Ashanti
Region) 23 April 2003- The government, in collaboration with the Adansi West
District Assembly, is spending about seven billion cedis on a number of
projects at Akrofuom this year.
The projects include
the tarring of the 11.6-kilometre Obuasi-Akrofuom road, the construction of a
maternity block, a basic school for the Methodist Church and the provision of
urinal and improvement of sheds at the local market.
Maurice Jonas Woode,
an assembly member for the area, who said this at a fund-raising rally at
Akrofuom also mentioned the construction of a girls' hostel for the Community
Secondary/Technical School and the rehabilitation of the Methodist Junior
Secondary School as other projects.
There would also be
an improvement on a mechanised borehole to enhance water supply to the
community. "When we cast our minds back we can see that no projects were
executed by the assembly over the past four years," Woode said, adding
that these projects demonstrated the government's sensitivity to the plight of
the people in the area.
Woode commended a
number of non-resident citizens, including Ben Fosu, a former Commissioner of
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and K. Appiah-Pinkrah, a development
consultant, for their exceptional contributions to the development of the area.
He reminded the people that the area's development was their responsibility and
urged them to revive their communal spirit to speed up the progress of the
town. More than seven million cedis was raised at the rally towards other
development projects.
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Religious
leaders urged to join HIV/AIDS campaign
Cape Coast (Central
Region) 23 April 2003- A five-day training workshop on HIV/AIDS and STDs was on
Tuesday opened in Cape Coast with a call on the public not to perceive HIV/AIDS
as a disease ''which is too far away and can only infect a particular group of
people.''
Dr Yaw Ofori Yeboah,
Cape Coast Municipal Director of Health Services, who made the call at the
opening of the workshop organised by Muslim Relief Association of Ghana (MURAG)
a local NGO, said everybody was at risk and people should be mindful of their
sexual life.
The workshop,
sponsored by DFID is the first to be organized in the municipality and is being
attended by 45 participants drawn from Kotokuraba, Kokwado, Dehia, kakumdo and
Amamoma all in the Cape Coast Municipality. It is geared towards the training
of Peer group educators who would in turn undertake a one- year training of the
youth in their various communities.
Dr Yeboah expressed
concern about the spread of the disease in the region and urged religious
leaders to join the crusade against the pandemic. ''If care is not taken a time
would come when there will be nobody for them to address in their churches and
mosque.'' He described the prevalence rate of 2.7 per cent in the region as
alarming and urged the youth to change their sexual life style to stem the
spread of the disease.
Muniru Arafat Nuhu,
Municipal chief executive, in a speech read for him expressed concern about the
increasing sexual promiscuity among Muslim youth and urged Muslim communities
to integrate the campaign against the disease in their Friday prayers and
teachings.
He commended Murag
for taking the bold decision to organise the workshop, stressing that the
government was committed to curbing the spread of the disease and appealed to
other organisation to emulate MURAG.
Alhaji Sumaila Wahab,
executive director of MURAG, said his outfit undertook the programme as a
result of the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and
HIV/AIDS among the youth, particularly Muslims.
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Route
poverty alleviation funds
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo)
23 April 2003- Senior Minister J. H. Mensah, on Monday charged District Chief
Executives to ensure that funds allocated for poverty alleviation are routed
through reputable rural banks to ensure their prudent management and disbursement.
He noted that some
banks rather transact other businesses with such funds instead of disbursing
them as loans to farmers, contrary to government objectives. As implementers of
government policies and programmes at the local level, DCEs must act as agents
of change by effectively applying and translating these policies and programmes
to the people, the Senior Minister said.
Mensah was speaking
at a maiden meeting of the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Nana Kwadwo Seinti,
with parliamentarians, ministers, and DCEs in the region aimed at giving them
the platform to interact, socialize and brainstorm about the development of the
region.
Mensah, who is MP for
Sunyani East, advised the DCEs not to deal with local or community banks that
had incompetent boards and managements and lacked the requisite expertise and
ability to perform to expectation, as state funds must be managed judiciously
and profitably for the benefit of everybody.
He said the
government believed in decentralization as the ideal way to transfer political
power to the people at the grassroots to facilitate development at the local
level. "It is the promise of the President that the decentralization
process will go on", he added, stating that all political parties were in
consultations for the creation of additional 40 constituencies.
Kwadwo Adjei Darko,
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development noted that disregard for
environmental laws and planning regulations had resulted in the reckless estate
development in most localities.
He cited that
indiscriminate development in water-ways, water-logged areas and specific
locations earmarked for community or national socio-economic purposes adversely
affected the short-term, medium and long-term development in the country as it
stifled investment opportunities.
Adjei-Darko, MP for
Sunyani West advised the DCEs to pay particular attention to planning and land
use to promote investment in their localities. Adjei-Darko deplored the
multiple sale of lands either for private or commercial estate development by
some chiefs and self-styled opinion leaders, saying the practice adversely
affected the country's progress.
He asked DCEs to
co-operate with parliamentarians and not to concentrate on infrastructural
development to the neglect of sanitation and environmental cleanliness. The
Minister charged them to ensure that Assemblies intensified internal revenue
generation and set aside a percentage to employ local youth to undertake
weeding and other cleaning jobs in the communities.
"A DCE must not
be an arm-chair public servant who only delivers speeches at functions in his
district, visits the RCC and sometimes travels to Accra for other official
duties" Adjei-Darko announced that a policy would be instituted to ensure
that quarterly reports on the performance of DCEs, including their visits to
communities under them would be submitted for appraisal.
Nkrabeah
Effah-Darteh, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and MP
for Berekum advised DCEs to discharge their functions with the transparency it
deserved, saying, "We have all sorts of interesting reports about some of
you."
He explained that the
DCE's position demanded sacrifice and commitment to the welfare of the people,
not for self-seeking and personal aggrandisement. The Deputy Minister warned
that "if you think you cannot work to the expectation as a DCE just resign
to pave the way for the government to appoint a new person because public
service is about truth, honesty and service to the people."
Nana Seinti in an
opening remarks stated that the collaborative functions of the RCC, the MPs and
the DCEs would catapult the development of the region. Present at the meeting
was Yaw Adjei-Duffuor, Deputy Regional Minister.
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MP
condemns allegations against DCE
Ejura (Ashanti
Region) 23 April 2003 - Sampson Attakorah, Member of Parliament (MP) for
Ejura-Sekyedumase, has condemned the action by some New Patriotic Party (NPP)
members in the constituency who called for the removal of Madam Elizabeth
Owusu, the District Chief Executive (DCE).
The allegation, which
was contained in a petition sent to President J A Kufuor, said among others
that the DCE favoured National Democratic Party (NDC) members who held various
positions as workers in the District Assembly and are still maintained at the
Assembly.
The petitioners also
accused her of offering a bribe before she was appointed the DCE. Attakorah,
who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Ejura, said the DCE did not
have the prerogative to fire public officers in her district on the basis of
their political leanings and that any attempt on her part to do that would make
her liable to prosecution.
Besides, the MP
contended that NDC members were also Ghanaians and were as such qualified to
work at any public sector where their services were needed. "As NPP
supporters who worked at the assemblies during the NDC regime were not fired,
so also the DCE could not dismiss NDC supporters", the MP added.
Attakorah, therefore, appealed to members of the NPP to bury their differences
and forge ahead in unity towards the development of the area.
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Aliu
calls for more effective structures
Senya Beraku (Central
Region) 23 April 2003- The Vice President, Aliu Mahama on Tuesday urged
district assemblies to strengthen their sub-structures by speeding up the
establishment of urban, zonal, town and area councils for effective
participation of citizens in local governance and the collective implementation
of programmes.
Vice President
Mahama, who said this when he launched the Second National Local Government
Week at Senya Beraku in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District, said the
sub-structures were crucial for social mobilization and decision-making because
they were the closest institutions to the people.
The Local Government
Week was instituted to enable local government administrators to take annual
stock of their stewardship, plan strategies to make them more accountable and
responsive to their people and to move forward their agenda for development.
Vice President Mahama
stressed that good governance could not be achieved automatically but was
predicated on effective and decentralized management of public affairs within
which people were empowered to make choices and be able to actively participate
in setting and prosecuting the development agenda in their communities.
He, therefore,
advised district assemblies to form viable partnerships based on mutual trust,
transparency and information sharing with their people. "To be able to do
this, district assemblies must first of all change their orientation from
governing the people to governing with the people," he said.
"The emphasis
should lie less on command and more on building partnerships with the aim of
moving the local economy forward, increasing labour productivity and finding
solutions to health, educational and social needs of the people."
Vice President Mahama
reiterated the government's policy towards the decentralization process, saying
it would provide resources, adequate logistics and the requisite human
resources to deepen the relationship between administrators and their
constituents.
District assemblies,
he said, should not take the flow of information between them and their
constituents for granted because it was through this that the citizenry would
learn of new things, for instance, about technologies and investment
opportunities, to improve their quality of life.
He advised them to
strengthen their campaigns on combating HIV/AIDS so that breadwinners of
families were not lost to the disease, which was infecting more and more people
by the day.
The Vice President
later presented an award to the Berekum District Assembly, which won the first
prize as the highest revenue mobiliser. The Assembly, which collected one
billion cedis, also received a certificate and a computer and accessories.
The Shama Ahanta
Metropolitan Assembly received a similar prize as the highest revenue mobiliser
in the Metropolitan category. It also received a certificate and sanitary
equipment worth 30 million cedis as the cleanest city.
The Nkoranza
District, which came second in the sanitation contest, received a certificate
and equipment worth 20 million cedis. In the Operationalisation of the
Sub-Structures Category, Obuasi Urban Council in the Adansi District received
the first prize of a photocopier machine, while the Zongo Yile in the Bawku
District came second and won an IBM typewriter and a certificate.
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Six
district assemblies to be upgraded
Senya Beraku (Central
Region) 23 April 2003- Cabinet has approved the upgrading of six district
assemblies to municipal status, while Tamale Municipality has also been
upgraded to Metropolitan status.
The six assemblies
are Bolgatanga, Wa, Sunyani, Ho, Obuasi and Bawku, the outgoing Minister for
Local Government and Rural Development, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, announced at the
launch of the Second Local Government Week celebration at Senya Beraku on
Tuesday.
The Local Government
Week was instituted to enable local government administrators to take annual
stock of their stewardship, plan strategies to make them more accountable and
responsive to their people and to move forward their agenda for development.
The week is under the
general theme: "Local Governance: Key to national development with focus
on the role of district sub-structures in the process." Baah-Wiredu said a
draft Legislative Instrument to increase the number of urban councils from 34
to 76 had also been laid before parliament whilst the ministry is working with
the Electoral Commission and the Office of the President to create additional
District Assemblies.
It has also initiated
a legislative procedure to review a number of legislations and institutional
structures of local government administration, in consonance with the
government's commitment to progressively deepen the decentralization process.
The Minister advised
Municipal and District Chief Executives (M/DCE) against corruption, bullying
and creeping pride. "Although these allegations have not been proven
beyond all doubts, there is a growing misconception by the public that we are
gradually going back to the old bad ways of doing things that culminated in the
phenomenal positive change.
"As we all are
aware, this government has declared a moral crusade code-named zero tolerance
for corruption. We shouldn't allow excessive pride, bullying tactics and
disrespectful nature to be associated to us, those who have ears, let them
hear."
Baah-Wiredu also
expressed concern about poor working relationship and inter-personal problems
affecting the smooth operations of MCEs and DCEs. He said the ministry had
numerous reports of lack of trust and mutual respect between some M/DCE and
Presiding Members, misunderstanding between M/DCE and their regional ministers,
Members of Parliament, party executives and activists and traditional
authorities.
"Intolerant
behaviour on the part of some M/DCE and the tendency of showing people where
power lies, a combination of all these wear all of us down, and do not ensure
the peace and tranquillity required for any meaningful development."
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