Forty-four farmers honoured at Jasikan
Upper West achieve food sufficiency this year
Tamale (Northern Region)
The military had to fire several
shots into the air to disperse the warring factions, who were mobilising to
attack each other. One person was injured in the process. The military arrested
four persons believed to be the ring leaders and they have been transferred to
Tamale.
There are conflicting reports on
the cause of the recent disturbances. One report says that during the Eidul
Fitr celebration last Friday, some Muslim clerics were reported to have made
statements, which might have incited the youth to resort to violence.
The other report said a chief from
the Abudu clan went to the Bolin-Lana, the leader of the Abudu clan's palace to
pay homage on a horseback after the Eidul Fitr prayers, which some Andani youth
did not take kindly to and verbally assaulted him and his entourage when they
were passing by a place dominated by the Andanis.
The chief was said to have
reported the incident to the Boli-Lana, who gave him escort and they were again
verbally assaulted and it degenerated into a free for all fight and the
throwing of stones. The two rival clans started mobilizing for a showdown when
the military intervened to disperse the crowd.
The Officer Commanding the Sixth
Battalion in Tamale, which oversees Yendi, Major S.K. Adorkor, said the
military have intensified their patrols in Yendi and Tamale and that the
situation has been brought under control. He said the military is on alert and
assured the public that the situation would not get out of control.
The long-standing dispute between
the Andani and Abudu royal families of Dagbon sparked violent clashes last
March, in which the king, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and 26 others were killed.
A state of emergency has since
been prevailing in the Dagbon area. Under the state of emergency, a curfew has
been imposed, a ban on mass gathering and press censorship of news from the
Dagbon area.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
He, however, advised the members
and supporters not to allow complacency to get the better part of them, but to
work with renewed commitment, dedication and loyalty to the cause of the party.
Dr Addo Kufuor, who is the acting
Minister of the Interior and Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia, was
addressing an NPP constituency congress of the area at the Saint Anne's
He stated that a lot had been
achieved under the NPP's administration, adding that, it was not easy to
rebuild an economy shattered by years of incompetence and mismanagement. The
Minister mentioned the construction of some major highways, establishment of
community health insurance schemes to replace the discredited cash and carry
system in 45 districts, free medical treatment of accident victims, promotion
of rice production and substantial increase in the producer price of cocoa as
some of the significant achievements made by the government.
On the international front, he
said
"The sum total of our
achievements within our first term in office will convince the electorate to
renew our mandate for another four year term," he said.
Fredrick Fredua Antoh, Ashanti
Regional Chairman of the party, said they have targeted to win 95 percent of
votes in
This, he said, demands of all
functionaries and activists hard work, self-denial and sacrifice. Antoh told
them to let the public know of the gains made by the government, pointing out
that, "we have a lot to be proud of and openly tell the people
about".
Maxwell Kofi Jumah, the Kumasi
Metropolitan Chief Executive, announced that the government, through the
assemblies had awarded 770 school blocks on contract. All the constituency
executive members of the party in the area were returned unopposed.
They include Nana Osei Mensah,
chairman, Alhaji M. Meigari, first vice-chairman, Micheal Opoku, second
vice-chairman, Abed Atta Annor, secretary, Kwadwo Afriyie, organiser, Baah
Achamfour, assistant secretary, Madam Afua Serwaah, women organiser and Alhaji
Razik Sulley, youth organiser.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Ho (Greater
Saturday lamented the Ghanaian
attitude of refusing to expose corruption among officials in the society.
He said he was yet to see any
Ghanaian courageous enough to say he or she had given money to any official of
judicial to influence the justice process. The Speaker made these remarks at a
two-day workshop for members of the Parliamentary Committee on the Judiciary to
review findings of its hearings on the perceived corruption in the judicial
system of
The workshop, which was organized
by the committee in collaboration with the Center for Democratic Development
(CDD) -
Ala Adjetey noted that people only
complained about the problem quietly without doing anything about it. The
speaker said because he considered corruption in the judiciary as a grave
matter, he admitted a private member's statement on the issue in June this year
and thought it was prudent for the House to pursue the matter with the view to
finding possible solutions.
Ala Adjetey said corruption
whether petty or grand was a menace to national development and retarded the
progress of civilised societies adding that the problem could not be limited to
any single institution.
The Speaker promised that
Parliament would collaborate with the Executive and the Judiciary to enhance
its image and public confidence in the rule of law and the due process of law.
Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Chairman of
the Parliamentary Committee on Judiciary, said the public hearings on the issue
were an arduous task for members, who were encouraged by the enthusiasm of the
general public.
He said the number of petitions of
an average of five persons a week testified to the hearing. Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni,
Ranking Member of the Committee said while corruption was pervasive in the
society, Parliament's focus on the Judiciary did not mean it had been singled
out.
He said it was only a matter of
priority for Parliament to focus on the Judiciary, because ''when the due
process of law is under attack then something is wrong." Alhaji Mumuni
stated that the Committee did malign the Judiciary and apologised for any
statement that sought to create the impression that all members of the
Judiciary had been put under the carpet.
He conceded that there were many
people of integrity in the ranks of the Judiciary to make it the envy of other
African Countries. Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Chief Whip, underscored the fact
that an independent and impartial judiciary was the backbone of democratic
governance and economic development.
He, therefore, called for a review
of the criminal code for the effective tackling of the issue of corruption.
Mensah-Bonsu called for the adoption of the system of making the burden of
proof to shift to the accused to prove his innocence as being advocated by
Transparency International.
He also requested authorities to
improve the conditions of service of judges and urged the media to
conscientiously fight corruption.
Justice George Acquah, a Judge of
the Supreme Court, who represented the Chief Justice, said sometimes the
behaviour of some judges and their relationship with their staff and members of
society created doubts about their impartiality.
He said the Judicial Service had
recognised that there was a problem within its ranks and had set up a committee
whose report was ready for implementation alongside that of the Parliament.
Justice Acquah also said a new
code of ethics for the Judiciary with relevant sanctions including intermediary
disciplinary actions was in the offing.
Professor Kofi Gyimah-Boadi,
Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, said his organisation's support programme for
Parliament, being funded by USAID was aimed at strengthening the technocratic
base of the committees.
He said it was also to enhance the
effectiveness of parliament to discharge its constitutional obligations,
notably the oversight function and inter-branch accountability promotion.
Professor Gyimah-Boadi said a lot
had been achieved since the early 1990s in the area of democratic governance.
He, however, said more remains to be done to secure and deepen the gains of
democratic development.
Among the participants are Mr
Emile Short, Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice,
representatives of the Volta Regional Bar Association, Ghana Prisons Service
and the Police Legal Department.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Awutu-Beraku (Central Region)
She charged the citizenry to
regard education and agriculture as the master keys to the socio-economic
growth of the nation and should be given total national approach. Mrs
Tetteh-Kporda was speaking at the first speech and prize-giving day of
"Your Faith International School" at Awutu-Beraku.
She said that problems confronting
the two key Ministries- Education and Food and Agriculture were enormous and
the government alone could not find solutions to them, hence the repeated calls
by succeeding governments on individual Ghanaians, industrial establishment and
other organisations to assist.
Tetteh-Kporda, therefore, charged
Ghanaians irrespective of their political, ethnic and religious affiliations,
not to review issues bordering on education and agriculture on party lines but
rather on national perspective to ensure the success of government initiatives
towards these goals.
Tetteh-Kporda called on
Journalists to exercise extra caution in their reportage in order not to plunge
the nations into civil war. She said Ghanaians were peace loving people who
were not prepared in anyway to entertain situations like what is happening in
She advised parents and guardians
in the country to give honour respect and mutual cooperation to teachers to
train their wards in various schools as a sign of encouragement to spur them on
for more credible services to the nation.
John Larbi, Circuit Supervisor of
the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the area praised the management, staff,
PTA and the Board of governors of the school for the good work done within the
one year of existence and assured them of the GES continued support for all
their programmes in the country.
Kwasi Esseku, the Presiding Member
of the Awutu Effutu-Senya District Assembly assured the school of the
assembly's support in terms of logistics to promote education in the area.
He advised school children to
refrain from pre-marital sex to protect them against HIV/AIDS. In his report,
the headmaster of the school, Joseph Nkrumah enumerated a number of
achievements and appealed to the GES, NGO's, the Awutu Effutu-Senya District
Assembly, Individuals and traditional councils in the area for financial and
material assistance to early completion of a new and permanent school block.
Prizes were distributed to deserving pupils.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
It is in line with this that the
government has revamped the cassava industry through the Root and tuber
Improvement Programme (RTIP), to assist poor farmers with high yielding cassava
varieties.
Nii Ayittey Attoh said this during
the 18th Farmers Day celebration held at Madina on Friday. Under the PSI there
would be value added to the production of cassava starch and other related
products. Farmers within the catchments
area who take part in the programme would also be shareholders of the project.
Those within a radius of 24
kilometers from Bawjiase are included in the project. He said the Ga District,
in addition to nine other districts would be involved in the 13.5 million
dollar cashew development project which takes off fully in January 2003.
It aims at increasing production
and village level processing of cashew to enhance living condition of rural
farmers, contribute to poverty reduction and earn foreign exchange. An
important component of the project is the establishment of a credit fund to be
managed by the Agricultural Development Bank.
The District Chief Executive said
the threat of land degradation, especially due to sand winning is very
alarming. The situation is further
aggravated by the use of heavy earth moving machines to degrade large tracts of
fertile and arable land within a short time.
"I wish to sadly say that
some few years ago Ga District was the leading producer of watermellon in the
Greater Accra Region. Unfortunately as at now no more than about 15 acres is
currently cropped annually".
He appealed to chiefs, assembly
members, and opinion leaders to lead the crusade in halting this unfortunate
state of affairs. Another emerging issue, which is of grave concern to the
District Assembly is the destruction of food crops by cattle herd.
He said the unfortunate aspect is
that the cattle owners hardly pay any compensation to affected farmers and this
often leads to nasty confrontation between farmers, herdsmen and cattle owners.
Attoh said the fisheries
sub-sector is also faced with problems. Fishermen use unorthodox methods such
as dynamite and DDT. They also use
undersized mesh which often trap the juvenile fish and the result has been over
exploitation of marine resources.
It is also gratifying to note hat
the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP) has contacted a credit institution to disburse
funds to individuals and groups who have applied for assistance. The assembly
has also awarded contracts for the construction of the Katapor-Bodumase road
and Amamorley dam under the VIP.
Frank Deveer age 48, Managing
Director of Villa Development Farms of Old Domeabra won the overall Best
Farmers and took away many items including one bicycle, one sprayer and a half
piece of wax print. Other farmers had radio sets, cutlasses, a pair of
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tema (Greater Accra)
He urged the parents to discard
the notion that priesthood in the Catholic Church is a waste of time and
resources but rather they (parents) should lead lives that would encourage
their sons to willingly enroll in the Seminaries to become Priests, as there is
joy and honour in serving God.
Rev (Fr) Boye was delivering the
sermon at the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church (OLAM) at the Tema Community
One to mark the first worship after the ordination of Father Henry Kafui Ahorlu
and Father Blaise Bobi-Attachie, who are Parishers of the Church.
Fr Ahorlu and Father Bobi-Attachie
were among ten priests in the Accra Catholic Diocese who were ordained at the
Holy Spirit Cathedral by Archbishop Dominic Kodwo Andoh.
He exhorted the newly ordained
priests to be humble, respectful and obedient and let their lives shine to
change the negative attitude of their congregation as Christ Jesus did on
earth. So far the
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tanchara (Upper West)
For his prize, he took home a
brand new cornmill, a sewing machine and seven matchets. In all, sixteen
farmers including one woman were adjudged the best in various crop categories,
and were presented with prizes made of bicycles, wax prints, farm boots, radio
cassette recorders and matchets.
In his address, the Regional
Minister, Sahanun Mogtari said the Upper West Agricultural Development Project
(UWADEP) has put in place a umber of interventions to support farmers in the
region to improve on their agricultural activities.
Mogtari said under the project
improved and high yielding seed arieties would be made available to farmers for
cultivation. At the same time, small ruminants and poultry improvement
programme has also been put in place to improve on the existing local breeds of
sheep, goat and guinea fowls.
On feeder roads development, the
Minister said a total of 175.05 kilometres of roads have so far been improved
through the region with the exception of the Jirapa/Lambussie District where
work is to commence early next year.
Under water resource development,
Mr. Mogtari said five new small-scale dams have been awarded on contract in Wa,
Nadowli, and Sissala districts. He disclosed that 3,200 farmers have benefited
from the project's credit support to increase their production.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Jasikan (Volta Region)
Ibrahim Kumah, from Kete-Krachi,
who became this year's best
Akwasi Aboagye, who was Deputy
Regional Minister for the Volta Region, won the Jasikan district best farmer
award and was given a bicycle, a piece of wax print, a sewing machine, radio
cassette player, Wellington boots and two cutlasses.
Benoni Sedinam Agorda, a
47-year-old blind farmer, from Bowri-Aboabo in the Jasikan District was also
honoured for his hard work. Other awards winners received corn mills, pairs of
wellington boots, bicycles, cutlasses, radio cassette recorders and pieces of
wax prints.
Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional
Minister, said the government had initiated pragmatic projects and schemes
towards the modernisation of the agricultural sector. He also said the Social
Investment Fund had been introduced to assist farmers to purchase agricultural
inputs on favourable terms.
"The government has initiated
programmes to strengthen the infrastructure base of the country, improve the
marketing system and to provide extension services to our farmers for increased
productivity," Owusu-Yeboa added.
He said feeder roads were being
maintained to link food producing areas to the marketing centres. Owusu-Yeboa
called on traditional rulers and landowners to ensure that land acquisition was
simplified to woo investors into the region.
He hinted that irrigation canals
would be constructed in the region next year to facilitate agricultural
activities. Owusu-Yeboa warned the people against the setting of bushfires and
appealed to individuals, organisations and traditional rules to help curb the
menace.
The Regional Minister advised the
people to refrain from sexual promiscuity to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS. Sam
Bedu Kelele, Jasikan District Chief Executive, asked the youth to rehabilitate
abandoned cocoa farms and appealed to the people to stop smuggling cocoa to
neighbouring countries.
Kwadzo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of
Local Government and Rural Development, presented the awards to the winners and
urged district assemblies to collaborate with cocoa purchasing societies to
re-introduce the 'kilo-kilo' deductions.
He suggested that moneys accrued
from the source should be used for enhancing the welfare of farmers and for
development projects. Baah-Wiredu said one billion cedis from the Highly Poor
and Indebted Countries fund had been disbursed to the Jasikan District Assembly
and gave the assurance that the assembly's share of the common fund would soon
be released.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tanchara (Upper West)
Lankonu made this known at the
regional celebration of the 18th national farmers day at Tanchara,
in the Lawra District. He said area under cultivation increased by 10688
hectares from 348,178 to 358,866 hectares.
The Regional Director said food
production rose from 483528 metric tonnes last year to 641923 metric tonnes
representing an increase of 32.8 per cent. He said there was no major outbreak
of disease among livestock.
Even though there is this
assurance of food self-sufficiency all especially the farmers should be
judicious in the utilisation of the food, he said. Mahama Mwini, a 50 year-old
farmer from the Nadowli District was adjudged the Regional Best Farmer.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com