GRi Newsreel Cashew Devt Project takes off in Jaman District NDC will win back sit

Drobo (Brong Ahafo) 4 August 2003 - The Cashew Development Project aimed at reinvigorating the cashew industry as a major export cash crop has taken off in earnest in the Jaman District.

Dr. John Niendow Karimu, District Director of Agriculture told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Drobo in Brong-Ahafo that the District is the leading producer of the crop in Brong Ahafo and the whole country.

He said virtually all farmers in the district cultivate the crop alongside food crops on a minor scale but commercially there are more than 1,000 farmers who have on the average 1.5 acres of cashew under cultivation.

Jaman, Wenchi and Kintampo are three districts in the Region and seven others in Greater Accra, Northern, Upper East and West regions selected for the cashew development pilot project for the next six years.

The District Director said currently 18,000 hectares of land is under cultivation of the crop throughout the country while 5,000 metric tones of the cashew nuts are produced nation-wide.

Last year, total production was 1.8 metric tones and it is expected that this will shoot up to two metric tones this year, Dr Karimu said, adding that the Pilot Project consists of production, processing and marketing of the crop.

Dr. Karimu said the Government had contracted a 13.2 million United States dollars loan from the African Development Bank to support the growth of the industry within the six-year target period.

He said an opportunity had therefore been created through the District Assemblies and the District Agricultural Directorates for either individuals or groups to access the funds as loans for either the raising of seedlings, cultivation, processing or marketing of the crop.

Dr. Karimu explained that beneficiaries of the loan are supposed to form a group of 10 members each for the production, between 10 and 15 members each for the processing while the marketing could be three to five persons.

He said in the Jaman District this year, 72 out of 148 production groups and four processing groups that applied for loans from the CDP funds had been approved by the vetting committee of the CDP, comprising some staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Berekum Branch of the Agricultural Development Bank.

Dr. Karimu explained that the production groups were made up of 710 farmers, consisting of 494 males and 216 females.
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Sogakope (Volta Region) 4 August 2003 - John Kudzo Gyapong, a former National Democratic Congress (NDC) member of Parliament for Akan Constituency in the Volta Region last Friday said the NDC would win back the Akan seat as a matter of course.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview during the Volta Regional GPRTU Delegates Conference at Sogakope, Gyapong said the worsening economic conditions of the people had reached limits that they cannot cope with and want a change.

"We (NDC) would take the seat back, we cannot afford to lose it a second time to any party," he said. Gyapong said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is incapable of improving the living conditions of Ghanaians and must be unseated. Gyapong, who is the Chairman of the Kadjebi Branch of the GPRTU said he would contest the primaries alongside others for the NDC candidature in the Akan Constituency.

He called on supporters of NDC to register in their numbers when the Electoral Register is opened, saying, winning the elections cannot be possible if they (supporters) failed to register.

He said the electorate in the Constituency would not support Alhaji Rashid Bawa, whom he described as, a product of the NDC, who stood and won the Akan constituency seat in the 2000 elections as an independent candidate but joined forces with the NPP.

Gyapong pledged his support for whoever would be chosen at the constituency primaries to contest the 2004 parliamentary elections on the ticket of the NDC, if he should lose the opportunity to do so.
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Saltpond (Central Region) 4 August 2003 - About 70 per cent of infertility among women is caused by abortions through the use of poisonous chemical and herbs Dr Fred Vormawor, Medical Director of Saltpond Government Hospital has said.

Dr Vormawor made the point at a health talk on effects of abortion, organised by the hospital administration at Saltpond. He described abortion as the termination of pregnancy when the foetus was less than 28 weeks in the womb, adding that in Ghana 10-15 per cent of pregnancies ended in abortion including miscarriages.

Dr Vormawor said the worst form of abortion was the induced one, which women do due to economic and social factors and added that that was the time they used dangerous materials.

He said although abortion is a criminal offence in Ghana, the law permits termination of pregnancy on health grounds and advised women faced with such problems to go to a recognised health care institution for attention.
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Nkawie (Ashanti Region) 4 August 2003 - The Atwima District Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has successfully mediated in a feud, which had the potential to develop into bloodshed between two Islamic factions, the Al-Suna and Tijaniya sects at Nkawie-Panin.

The two sects have, therefore, signed an undertaking to be of good behaviour and live in peace. Briefing the GNA on the issue, Gabriel Essilfie, the CHRAJ District Director, said the Atwima District Assembly referred a case of an attack on Chief Salifu of the Tijaniya sect by Sheikh Abdulai Musah of Al-Suna to his outfit for settlement.

The attack, he said, scared the other Muslims from worshipping at the Nkawie-Panin mosque, a situation that created tension among Muslims in the community.

He said, he advised the two factions to appreciate the need to uphold the dignity of their religion by remaining united. Essilfie said he cautioned them not to do anything that would disturb the peace in the community.
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Tamale (Northern Region) 4 August 2003 - Ibrahim Adam, a lawyer based in Tamale has said some politicians from the Northern Regions have taken advantage of the high illiteracy rate and poverty among the people to divide them.

This, he said, has contributed to conflicts in the area. Adam was speaking on "Conflicts in the north, causes and solutions" at a day's symposium organized by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the Northern Region Students Union in Tamale on Saturday.

Adam said conflicts in the North are political, economic, religious, chieftaincy and ethnic and said, "all of them have a common denominator of being encouraged by educated Northerners".

He pointed out that no matter what form or shape conflicts might take in the North, some political leaders participated actively in sustaining them.

The theme for the Symposium was: "Peace and Unity - Prerequisite for Development, the Role of the Northern Student", and it was organized by the students to complement efforts by their elders to maintain peace in the area.

Adam advised the youth to tone down their their emotional involvement in partisan politics, saying " it is possible to become someone of substance without necessarily being a politician. On solutions to conflicts, he suggested the abolition of all ethnic based youth associations in the region, describing them as "breeding grounds for discussions and conspiracy for conflicts".

He advised members of the Northern Students Union to be ambassadors of peace and appealed to them to come back to the region on completion of their education and help sustain peace in the area.

Adam suggested that the government must invest in the education of Northerners to stop conflicts in the area regions. He, therefore, called for 50 per cent of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) for the development of schools in the Northern Regions.

Adam appealed to the District Assemblies and the Tamale Municipal Assembly to make education a priority in the regions.
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Azizadzi (Volta Region) 4 August 2003 - High tidal waves have displaced about 70 people at Azizadzi, Sorku and Horvi in the Volta Region.

Miss Dzifa Ametewee, a victim told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Saturday that she and other affected families were putting up with relatives at Agavedzi and other nearby towns. She said about 15 houses were submerged.

The Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, which are handling the Keta Sea Defence Project, have constructed trenches under the streets to make way for the floods to empty into the Keta Lagoon.

The victims, who the GNA interviewed, said on completion of the Keta Sea Defence Project, tidal waves could be higher and more destructive especially around eastern part of Keta.
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Benso (Western Region) 4 August 2003 - Nana Odeneho Akrofa Krukoko II, former Omanhene of Wassa Fiase traditional area, who was convicted in April, 2002 by a Sekondi high court for contempt, the basis for which he was destooled by some of the kingmakers, has appealed to the Western Regional House of Chiefs to take steps to restore him to his former status.

Odeneho Krukoko, known in private life as Kwesi Ampong, who was enstooled in 1994, said his appeal followed the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) decision to set aside the ruling of the Sekondi high court.

On 17 July 2003, the Appeal Court, presided over by Justice P.K. Twumasi, set aside the high court ruling and ordered that any fine or cost paid by the appellant be refunded to him because the charge preferred against the former Omanhene was "quasi-criminal".

At a press conference at Benso on Friday, Odeneho Krukoko said his "so called destoolment" was a plot hatched by his detractors to cause confusion among the people of Wassa Fiase.

"My purported destoolment and the enstoolment of the Right Reverend Chika Morgan, as my successor, two days later was a coup d' tat by my detractors for their selfish ends". Odeneho Krukoko said he is still the Omanhene of the traditional area and added that, he is recognised by the government as the Omanhene since he had not been de-gezzeted.

"My name in the local government bulletin as the Wassa Fiasehene has not been cancelled", he added. He called on the kingmakers to chart a course that would bring lasting peace to the area, and invited them and divisional chiefs and other opinion leaders to a dialogue to find solution to the problem that had seriously polarised the community.

Odeneho Krukoko outlined development programmes he had for the area to ensure accelerated development, and said the ten per cent of royalties to the traditional area that he had earmarked for development, would be raised to 15 per cent. Obaapanin Adwoa Gyanbrah, the oldest member of the royal family denied that there were two royal families in the traditional area.

Earlier, hundreds of jubilant supporters of Odeneho Krukoko dressed in white, with white clay besmeared on their arms and faces, paraded the streets with songs and brass band music.
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Koforidua (Eastern Region) 4 August 2003 - A 39-year old unemployed who took advantage of the absence of his wife from their matrimonial home and satisfied his sexual desire with his 13-year-old daughter, has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in hard labour by a Koforidua Circuit Court.

The accused, Julius Bawu, pleaded guilty to the charge of incest and was convicted on his own plea. Police Superintendent Elizabeth Allandu of the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service told the court, presided over by C. J. Ameyi that Bawu, that on 14 July, this year, Bawu had a quarrel with his wife and chased her out of the house with a cutlass.

The wife then left to stay with her relatives at Srodae, a suburb of Koforidua and left their three children, including the victim with Bawu. She said in the midnight of 20 July, this year, Bawu woke the victim up and wanted to have sex with her and when she resisted, he threatened to kill her with a knife.

According to the prosecutor, Bawu, after the first incident, slept with the daughter every midnight till 23 July, this year, and when she could not bare the ordeal reported it to her headteacher, who in turn reported it to WAJU. Bawu was arrested and in his caution statement admitted the offence and pleaded for leniency.
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Ekwamase (Central Region) 4 August 2003 - The chiefs and people of Ekwamase electoral area in the Ajuma-Enyan-Essiam District have denied a publication carried by an Accra private newspaper under a banner headline "We would not vote in 2004", which was attribute to them.

They said the publication sought to create the impression that the government had been insensitive to their plight, especially for refusing to install a cassava-grater donated to the women in the area.

At a news conference at Ekwamase at the weekend the chiefs commended the government in its efforts to improve their standard of living and assured it of their unflinching support.

Nana Nketia Afful, Abontsindomhene of the Abeadse traditional area and spokesman of the chiefs enumerated a number of projects the government had executed in the electoral area in 14 communities. They included the rehabilitation and construction of school blocks and roads.

Nana Afful said the paper's reporter never came to the area to interview the people before coming out with "that malicious publication." He appealed to the editor of the Independent newspaper to retract the story and apologize to the people for creating bad blood between them and the government.

Miss Eva Afful, Assemblywoman, in a contribution explained that the assembly received two cassava graters from the Ministry of the Women and Children's Affairs and gave them to the two women groups to promote their work. She said they received the machine only three months ago and not one and half years as reported in the paper.

Miss Afful said the assembly promised to provide them with materials when it started disbursing this year's common fund, and requested the communities to provide sand, stones and acquire a plot of land for the construction of a structure to house the machine.

She said she could not accused the assembly for failing to honour its promise when she knew very well that the supplementary estimates on the common fund were discussed and approved at the very meting the reporter picked the story.
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