GRi Press Review 13 - 08
- 2003
Ex-Chief Justice flown out for medical treatment
Late Ya Na's wives, children ready for demo
Attorney General dares critics
Korankye Ankrah blames past govts
Ex-Education Minister grabs top Commonwealth post
Five students in trouble over marijuana
About $623,000 goes waste
Andanis and Abudus stockpile ammunition?
NDC members grumble over ¢5m
NDC killed CPP - Egala
Ex-Chief Justice flown out for medical treatment
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 August 2003 - Former Chief Justice Wiredu who had a massive stroke and has been in a coma since, suddenly came out of the coma and for a brief moment regained his lucidity.
He one day got dressed up and asked his official driver to take him to the office only to be reminded that he had resigned as CJ and that a new CJ had been appointed and sworn into office. CJ Wiredu who could not believe the story vehemently denied this and branded new CJ Acquah as a traitor.
A professor in the Ghana Medical School who is alleged to be closely related to him was called to convince him but he was adamant. Fortunately, for the government, CJ Wiredu's moment of lucidity did not last long when he relapsed into a coma again and has been flown out of the country to Cromwell Hospital in London for treatment.
It is believed that his medical condition is "beyond pardon" but to move him out of the geographical environs of Ghana so that his "hallucination's of still being the CJ will not create an embarrassment to the Government. - Ghana Palaver
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Late Ya Na's wives, children ready for demo
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 August 2003 - The family, including wives and children of the late King of Dagbon, Ya Na Yakubu Andani the second, have started arriving in Accra to participate in an impending match by Dagbon Youth Association.
The demonstration is to back demands on government to find the perpetrators behind the murder of Ya Na and 40 others following the acquittal and discharge of the two suspects for lack of evidence.
Secretary of the Dagbon Youth Association, Hamza Tuferu, disclosing this to Joy News in Accra said natives of the area are expected from all parts of the country to participate in the peaceful demonstration. Although a date is yet to be fixed, Tuferu said the match would go ahead despite an appeal by the Police to call it off.
He explained that though the police have said that 26 more people are to be prosecuted after the discharge of the two earlier suspects, the youth are still not comfortable with the whole process.
Tuferu urged the National House of Chief to put pressure on government to find a solution to the problem. - Joy FM
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Attorney General dares critics
Sekondi (Western Region) 13 August 2003 - The Attorney General and minister for justice, Papa Owusu Ankomah has thrown a challenge to anyone who claim to have evidence of corruption against any member of the NPP government to make such information available to the state investigative institutions like the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for them to conduct their independent investigations.
He said if such evidence is made available to those institutions and they establish a prima facie case of corruption against any minister, he, as the attorney general, would make sure that minister is brought before court for prosecution without any favour.
Speaking at a meeting with his constituents in Sekondi last Saturday, the Attorney general said people should not be going round making all sorts of accusations against members of the government when as a matter of fact nobody has come forward with any concrete evidence to that effect.
He noted that the zero tolerance for corruption that the Kufuor-led government is championing is not meant for ministers of state alone but all NPP supporters and Ghanaians as a whole. He called on the critics to look at this carefully and stop making unfounded allegations against ministers.
The Sekondi MP also expressed surprise that some supporters of the NPP have joined the "we haven't seen nothing" chorus that the opposition is singing. He appealed to the supporters not to think about their stomach only but also about the mind, which would help the government to carry out the development of the country. - Chronicle
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Korankye Ankrah blames past govts
Kadjebi (Volta Region) 13 August 2003 - The General Overseer of the Royal House Chapel International, Rev Sam Korankye Ankrah, had blamed past governments for the phenomena of under-development that pervades the country, especially in the deprived areas.
He said that past governments had not been consistent with the policies that they evolved. "It is strange, some politicians talk a lot, but we have not seen the implementation of what they say", Rev. Ankrah said.
Illustrating his points with life in the Kadjebi district, Rev Ankrah said the place used to be a cocoa growing area, but over the years, governments have neglected the cocoa farmers and that led to the collapse of economic activities there.
He said "the farmers were not supported, their cocoa farms were not sprayed and diseases destroyed all, consequently most of them went out of business." He said this state of affairs has created a situation whereby parents could not send their children to school and even the children were not well fed.
He mentioned that governments had not shown so much commitment to the development of the country hence the general poverty of the people. He said governments had complained that they had financial constraints but said, "these days money does not fall from the skies."
Money is created, people ought to know how to create wealth, this question of poverty will cease." He called on takeholders, churches and civil society organizations not to stand aloof and leave the government alone.
Rev Ankorah was at Kadjebi last Friday to join the Member of Parliament, Alhaji Rashid Bawa and the District Assembly to honour 100 students and 10 teachers of basic schools in the area. The students received uniforms and other educational materials whilst the teachers were given sets of cooking utensils. In all, ¢50m was expended on the project. - Evening News
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Ex-Education Minister grabs top Commonwealth post
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 August 2003 - Chronicle Investigations can reveal that the glib-tongued ex-Education Minister, Spio Garbrah, has landed a top job as the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), by outclassing about 100 contenders around the world to grab the £70,000 job.
This revelation ends months of wrong speculation that Spio was heading for the Commonwealth Secretariat as Director of Communications. His position is said to be equivalent to a Secretary General or Director General of other international organizations.
Insiders say, the CTO is a lesser-known but strategically important organization based in London and devoted to global ICT development.
The Ex-Minister according to documents cited by The Chronicle and sources at the CTO Council is the first black and African from a developing country to occupy this prestigious office in the Telecommunication world in the 100 years history of CTO.
He beat top contenders including the incumbent Chief Executive, Dr. David Souter, who is said to be holding PhDs from world-class universities like Oxford and Cambridge. In all, 45 British, 10 Indians, five Canadians, seven Ugandans, six Botswanans, five South Africans, five Nigerians and nationals of other countries applied for the position.
Chronicle also established that the CTO has no legal or organizational connections to the Commonwealth Secretariat but works closely with international and regional institutions including the International Telecommunication Union. Currently the CTO delivers 250 bilateral technical co-operation projects as a well as £250 million worth of multilateral, research and information programmes.
Contrary to claims that Spio needed the NPP government's endorsement before he could be appointed, Chronicle confirmed from our deep-throat sources that his appointment did not need any government endorsement but that it required the endorsement of all the 50 odd member countries of the CTO of which Ghana is one.
Sources at Ghana's High Commission in London told Chronicle that in the unlikely event that the NPP government had chosen not to endorse the appointment of Spio Garbrah, he could still have gotten the job if other CTO countries endorsed him or raised no objections to his appointment.
They, however, said that some credit must go to the NPP government regarding Spio's appointment because even though the government did not have to endorse him, they confirmed his appointment after successfully gaining the highest marks from the records of the job hunters.
Other African High Commission sources in London also noted that it would have been seen as a blunder in diplomatic circles if the Ghanaian government had not endorsed him. "This is because the Ghanaian contender got his appointment entirely on his own merit and not by a political sponsorship. In fact the CTO constitution forbids lobbying for such a position." It said.
A another Nigerian diplomat in London said in an e-mail encounter that, "If after coming tops in such a transparent process, your own government cannot support you, it says more about your government than you the candidate. The Ghana administration could not have contemplated such an embarrassment. They took the right decision. We also had applicants from my country but your countryman overshadowed the others. So the Nigerian has accepted the results. I know your High Commissioner here; he is a sensible man."
According to a senior official at Veredus Executive Resourcing, the firm contracted by CTO to do the job hunt, the position was advertised internationally as required by the CTO Constitution and Spio applied and was short-listed amongst about 100 applicants adding that the short-listed applicants were subjected to a grueling three-hour testing and examinations and another one-hour interview.
Staff at the Commonwealth Secretariat (CS) where Spio was misreported as going to work as the Communication Director said they had no idea of his appointment at the CS and that no such vacancy existed at there to the best of their knowledge.
SPIO's SILENCE
Spio Garbrah seems to have taken a vow of silence since the beginning of this year. He has said nothing for the NDC or for Atta Mills' campaign, drawing criticism from some NDC functionaries that he seems not to be one of the guys who get going when the going gets tough.
NDC officials at the party headquarters told The Chronicle that they did not know about this job and don't even know Spio Garbrah's whereabouts having moved recently from his Labone office.
Some close friends of the ex-minister's said Spio has been spending a lot of time at Action Church, where he is said to be helping his friend, Bishop Duncan Williams.
He is described as one of the influential men in the running of the church, especially in the absence of Duncan Williams. The sources further said the ex-minister chairs almost every committee and the board of the church and he oversees the building project and the management of the church. The Chronicle has also learnt that Spio Garbrah is busily running his father's business.
When speculations began that Spio's appointment needed government endorsement, Chronicle learnt that there were divisions in the ranks of the party as to how the government should handle his endorsement especially for a man who severely criticized President Kufuor when he was a presidential candidate.
A retired diplomat of Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs with long years of experience in the UN system, who commented on the appointment, explained the differences between various appointments in order to determine whether Spio's appointment could fit in the all-inclusive government pronounced by President Kufuor.
Comparing the appointment of Dr. Ibn Chambas with that of Garbrah, the source said their appointments cannot be considered as an "all-inclusive" one since Dr. Chambas' appointment is not with the government of Ghana but required the support of other states.
"Is President Kufuor appointing Spio to any position anywhere even outside Ghana? No" he answered his own question adding that unlike positions such as Executive Secretary of ECOWAS or OAU Secretary General which can be competed for by several candidates and can involve several rounds of voting and horse trading over champagne and cognac to produce consensus, Spio's appointment was very different.
"In Spio's case, member countries were not being asked to choose or vote amongst several nominated candidates. The organization had itself come up with one candidate after screening the candidate. As courtesy demands, the member countries were to approve the one candidate," he noted.
The Chronicle obtained a print of the Constitution of the CTO from their website which spelt out the rules and procedure for applying for the position.
According to Article 14.2 of CTO's Constitution, "The Post of CEO shall be advertised in recognized and appropriate international publications. The advertisement shall be copied to all member countries and posted on the CTO website. The recruitment agency shall draw up a long list of candidates from which the Executive Committee shall produce a short list of candidates, based on merit, skill and experience to the requirement of the post"
The Constitution further states that "Any Candidate who directly or via a third party seeks to influence or lobby members of the Executive Committee or representatives to the Council shall be excluded from appointment". The clause puts to rest the issue of the government involvement in the appointment of Spio.
The Minister for Communication and Technology, Kan Dapaah when reached on the phone confirmed that Spio Garbrah was on his marks for the top job. He stated that Ghana, like the other member countries, also confirmed the appointment of Ekow Spio Garbrah.
CTO sources explained that the organization's emphasis on merit for the position is in line with growing practice in certain international appointment.
THE ACHIMOTA CONNECTION
In another development, some NPP insiders still believe that Spio must have benefited from his unusual luck of having two of his best friends and classmates from Achimota in two strategic positions in the Kufuor Administration.
This was also confirmed by some of the classmates interviewed by The Chronicle. They identified the two schoolmates of Spio as the Secretary to the President, D.K. Osei, and Ghana's High Commissioner to UK, His Excellency Isaac Osei. - Chronicle
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Five students in trouble over marijuana
Tema (Greater Accra) 13 August 2003 - Five students of Tema Secondary School (Temasco) are being questioned by the school authorities in connection with their alleged possession of marijuana.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that two of the students, Jale Papafio alias Last Killer, a science student, and Jeffrey Quist also known as Potalo were hospitalized after allegedly eating a loaf of bread laced with marijuana. According to student sources, about two weeks ago three of the five students bought bread at the school's canteen.
On their way back Jale and Jeffrey met them and requested for some of the bread, which had been sandwiched with the stuff. The sources said a few minutes after Jale and Jeffrey had finished eating Jeffrey had a black out.
He was rushed to a polyclinic where he regained consciousness. Jale also began behaving abnormally and he was taken to Port Clinic in Tema from where he was referred to the Pantang Psychiatric hospital.
The headmistress, Ms Eunice Quansah, declined to comment on the matter when "The Chronicle" contacted her. She said the school's disciplinary committee was investigating the matter. For now it was supposed to be only an allegation.
Our correspondent said he observed on the campus that most of the students had perforated their ear lobes and were openly wearing earrings. He could not tell if that was part of the school's dress code.
Meanwhile recent statistics gathered by The Chronicle indicated that out of 177 mental cases recorded at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, 104 involved first cycle (JSS) students, 57 were second cycle (SSS) students, and five were third cycle (University students). - Chronicle
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About $623,000 goes waste
Saltpond (Central Region) 13 August 2003 - About $623,000 has accrued as fees for the charter of a vessel for the storage of crude oil at the Saltpond Oilfields although not a drop of oil has been extracted by the Saltpond Offshore Production Company Limited (SOPCL), which chartered it.
The SOPCL is to pay $7,000 a day as charter party fee to Holdings Company Limited of UK, the owners of the vessel, MT African Wave, which anchored at the oilfields on 14 March 2003.
Investigations have revealed that while the charter party fee of $7,000 daily as stated in the contract between the owners of the vessel and SOPCL is accumulating day by day, SOPCL has not been able to raise the needed funds to begin production.
Thus the ship lying idle because production has not begun since the last shut down. The "Graphic" says it learnt that at its last meeting, SOPCL's board unanimously agreed that since SOPCL has not been able to gather enough funds to begin production, one month notice should be given to the owners of the chartered vessel to leave until production resumes.
When contacted, the General Manager of SOPCL, Opoku Mensah admitted that SOPCL has not resumed production since the last shut down because it has not been able to mobilize funds to resume production. He however declined to comment on the issue of $7,000, which is being incurred by SOPCL daily. - Daily Graphic
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Andanis and Abudus stockpile ammunition?
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 August 2003 - Chronicle's intelligence reports indicate that as late as 19 June 2003, there were credible reports from National Security to the President and the Vice President over the stockpiling of ammunition by the Abudu gate in readiness for counter attacks from the Andanis in the Dagbon chieftaincy fracas.
On live ammunition and an SMG were retrieved from one of them factions on the mornings of 15 June. But the National Security Coordinator, Francis Poku, confirming the story told the "Chronicle" on Tuesday that the situation was spotted at the early stages and quickly brought under control adding that the state security apparatus remains vigilant in the area.
The reports forwarded to President John Kufuor and Vice President Aliu Mahama has raised flags on the volatile security situation in Dagbon with pointers to a possible renewed outbreak of civil was in the area.
Titled "Situation Reports" the document spoke about alleged stockpiling of arms and ammunition at Yendi and the that Abudu Warriors and their supporters have concealed weapons at vantage points in readiness to counter an attack from the Andanis.
The gentle National Security capo, noted that: "We as Ghanaians must concentrate on what unites us as a people rather than what divides us and nothings should be done to inflame passions in the Dagbon conflict. This report comes after months of consistent claims by government official that calm has been restored to the Dgbon traditional area and that wounds of the people following the gruesome assassination of the late Ya Na Andani have healed.
The National Security boss commented that "Arms and ammunition are increasingly being stockpiled in Yendi and search operations should be conducted to retrieve all illegal weapons." In another development, the report stated that a delegation of Abudus, Andanis and Kuga-Na who traveled to Kumasi to meet the committee of eminent chiefs bokering peace in Dagbon returned to Yendi on 15 June 2003 after negotiations ended in a stalemate. - Chronicle
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 13 August 2003 - There is simmering resentment over the charging of ¢5m as filing fees for candidates who wish to contest the 2004 parliamentary election on the NDC's ticket. Reports say the party's members in some of the constituencies in Ashanti are saying that the fee is too high vis-à-vis the fact that they are not sure of their chances of winning in an NPP dominated area.
Reached to comment or deny the allegation, Sly Akakpovie told the "Daily Guide" that he has not received any official complaints from the candidates about the filing fees for the primaries, but what he knows is that some people who have filed to contest the next parliamentary elections on the NDC's ticket are being subtly threatened and intimidated by their political opponents.
He explained that at the last National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the NDC headquarters, there were various proposals for those filing for the party's primaries to elect parliamentary candidates for the 2004 elections on the party's ticket, to pay fees ranging from ¢2m to ¢10m. Eventually, the NEC agreed to ¢5m as the filing fees at the parliamentary level.
According to Akakpovie, when a candidate pays ¢5m, the constituency retains ¢3m. ¢1m will be retained at the regional level and the remaining ¢1m sent to the national headquarters.
He conceded that running a political party is a huge cost, adding, "All we are doing is to share the cost amongst ourselves".
Meanwhile, the Communications Director of the NPP, Kwadwo Afari has confirmed that his party also charged ¢5m as nomination fees for primaries to elect parliamentary candidates for the 2004 elections. According to him, there were no complaints about the filing fees from any of the people contesting the NPP's primaries because the candidates have been paying filing fees since the party was formed. - Daily Guide
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 August 2003 - A Convention People's Party (CPP) Chairmanship aspirant, Iddrisu Egala, has accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of being responsible for the disintegration of the legacy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. According to Egala, even after the overthrow of the PNP administration on 31 December 1981, Nkurmaists remained united until the NDC was formed, following which some of the Party faithful started deserting the fold for reasons only known to them.
In an interview with "The Heritage", after he formally launched his
campaign, Egala said "My leadership as the chairman will foster greater
discipline and unity within the party. I consider these as the pillars of the
electoral strength of the party".
Egala, a Chartered Accountant, and son of the late PNP chairman, Imoro Egala,
expressed regret that the CPP suffered intimidation and had been sidelined by
other political parties for far too long, especially the NDC, and that the time
had come for the party to unite and reclaim its lost glory.
He told The Heritage that the CPP was the party that overcame the barriers of ethnicity and separatism to win independence for a united Ghana and it is the party that truly represents the unity of the Nation.
"My candidature is the new dawn in the re-organization of the CPP and the building of a strong and self-sustaining party organizational structures from the polling station level to the national".
Asked about the possibility of an alliance for the 2004 general elections, Egala said that an alliance for now did not feature in his plans. "At the moment our preoccupation is to build a credible and independent party with viable organizational structures and a district social philosophy for electoral determination by the good people of Ghana", he stressed.
On recent accusations in the media that Egala, as a brother-in-law to Vice President Aliu Mahama is allegedly being sponsored by the CPP Parliamentary Action Group (PAG) to capture the CPP Chairman to execute an NPP agenda, Egala denied it outright, describing the rumour as "blatant lies without any foundation."
He told The Heritage that "no true Nkrumahist" would ever join the United Party (UP) tradition who claim to be liberal democrats. Egala called on all true Nkrumaists who have decamped to other parties to "come back home where they will be well received with a big heart."
Also in the chairmanship race with Egala are Dr. Edmund Delle, a medical practitioner who lost to the current chairman four years ago, and Felix Amoah, a former PNP Minister.
Those contesting for the CPP presidential slot at the congress scheduled for September 20 are George Aggudey, who was "mago-magoed" four years ago and Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama, the CPP's vice-presidential candidate in the 2000 presidential election. It was not clear at press time if Ato Sackey, who first threw his hat into the ring, is still in the race. Vying for vice chairmen are Johnny Hansen, William Buckman, Madam Araba Bentsi-Enchill and Mike Eghan. - The Heritage