Lake Bosomtwi basin to be developed for tourism
Sunyani (Eastern
Region) 19 December 2002 - The application against the Inspector General of
Police (IGP), the National Director of Bureau of National Investigations (BNI)
and the Brong Ahafo Region Police Commander at the Sunyani High court was on
Wednesday struck out by the court following the withdrawal of the application
by Nana Obiri Boahen, counsel for the applicants.
The application was
withdrawn based on the submission of certified copy of court proceedings to
justify the arrest and detention of the applicants, Yidana Sugri (alias Red)
and Jahinfo Iddrisu Pachi.
They were put before
the Community Centre District Court in Accra, presided over by Mrs Elizabeth
Edusei. The two applicants have been arraigned for their alleged complicity in
the murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II on 27 March.
Justice F. Kusi
Appiah, Supervising High Court Judge in Sunyani, in his ruling stated that the
court was satisfied the applicants had been duly arraigned before a court of
competent jurisdiction.
He said the state had
justified that the applicants were in lawful custody, the application withdrawn
so the court had to strike the application out. Justice Appiah ruled that due
to the sensitive nature of the case the court would not award cost to any of
the parties.
Nana Boahen earlier told
the court that the document served him was a presumption of custody of his
clients, stressing that, they were in lawful custody. Counsel however, said in
the foreseeable future whenever an enquiry concerning a case of the sort is
made the authorities must respond promptly.
He said when he
learnt of the arrest of his clients he wrote to the IGP per Expedited Mail
Service (EMS) but no response was given to that enquiry. Nana Boahen said at
the moment, bail was only possible for his clients in Accra that "I am
going to peruse there for them."
Counsel therefore,
said having regard to the justification of the incarceration of his clients he
had withdrawn the application. "If
the IGP and others had reacted, we would not have filed the application and gone
through all these processes in court.''
Yidana and Jahinfo
who were brought to court from custody in Accra under heavy Police guard were
taken back after the court had struck out the case. The Sunyani High Court on
28 November ordered the IGP, the BNI and the Greater Brong Ahafo Regional
Police Commander to produce Yidana and Jahinfo following the granting of an
order of habeas corpus filed by Nana Boahen, their solicitor.
The two had been
arrested about three weeks earlier in Tamale and flown to Accra and placed in
Police custody for their alleged involvement in the murder of the Ya-Na.
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Tamale (Northern
Region) 19 December 2002- Bjarne Schmidt, Managing Director of Ghana Cement
Company Limited (Ghacem), has assured estate developers that the company has
the potential to produce enough cement to meet domestic demand.
He said the company
currently produces 1.5 million tonnes of cement annually but had the resources
to increase production to two million tones.
Mr Schmidt said this
at a meeting he had with Tamale Municipal Chief Executive, Iddrisu Adam, cement
distributors and journalists in Tamale on Tuesday.
The Ghacem Managing
Director was in the Northern Region to interact with the company's distributors
to find out their problems in an effort to open more distribution outlets and
to encourage developers to patronise the use of the company's cement.
Schmidt said the
company had acquired eight million dollars to improve the quality of its cement
and to ensure stability in the supply of the product.
The company, he said,
had instituted an annual award scheme for its workers and distributors as part
of its social services to the people. Adam appealed to the company to ensure
regular supply of cement to the three northern regions to enable government
projects to be completed on schedule.
He suggested to the
company to contract permanent and dedicated transport owners to serve the
regions to ensure the availability of cement all year round.
The Municipal Chief
Executive appealed to the management of Ghacem to adopt some schools in the
Municipality for assistance.
Some of the
distributors complained of poor packaging of the cement, saying they got easily
torn during loading and off-loading, causing financial loss to them.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002 - Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Vice Chancellor of the
University of Ghana on Wednesday called for a national dialogue among
stakeholders on tertiary education funding.
Prof Asenso-Okyere
said funding by parents, government and employers needs to be increased so that
public universities could match up with the current competition and enhance
quality education.
The Vice Chancellor
said this when he presented cheques totalling 20.5 million cedis to nine
students of the University. The cheques were awards presented by the Boards of
Trustees of the Standard Chartered Science Education and Kenneth Dadzie
Memorial Trust Fund to brilliant students.
Prof Asenso-Okyere
noted that resources at the disposal of public universities are limited and
cautioned that, "if this is not tackled the quality of education may be
affected." He stated that if nothing was done, a time would come when
students at public universities might not be able to compete with their
counterparts at the private institutions.
He said government's
allotment for the universities is likely to dwindle, leaving no option than to
transfer the full cost to the students. Prof. Asenso-Okyere deplored the bad
behaviour of some of the students, saying their acts ward off sponsors.
He commended the
award recipients for their outstanding performance and urged them to work hard
to attain higher academic laurels. Michael Kwabi Nimo, a beneficiary, said the
donors' gesture overwhelmed them and called on others to emulate them.
Mr Nimo entreated the
university to look out for other sponsorships that would enable students to
undertake internships abroad to enhance exposure.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002 - The National Media Commission (NMC) on Wednesday called on
the business community to support private newspapers through the placement of
advertisements and other commercial publications to meet their production cost.
"People in
business who profess to be democrats and believers in modern pluralism must not
shun private newspapers when it comes to the placement of advertisement,"
Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, NMC Executive Secretary, stated at a workshop for
stakeholders and the media on the activities of the Town and Country Planning
Department (TCPD) in Accra.
Boadu-Ayeboafoh
stressed that "it is only when our media are positively and actively
supported to raise funds to meet their cost of production that they would be
assisted to build the capacity and empowered to move away from the narrow
confines of politics."
He noted that the
private newspapers are forced to depend on the volume of circulations for the
recovery of production cost instead of advertisement, hence the enticement to
concentrate on political and sensational stories to the detriment of social and
developmental issues.
He said it is only
when people begin to appreciate that social and developmental stories are worth
reading that the media will be attracted to devote considerable attention to
the carriage of stories on urban development.
Boadu-Ayeboafoh,
however, reminded media practitioners that, "they are enjoined to see
themselves more as service providers, rather than commercial entities". He
stressed that journalists should be guided by the Code of Ethics of the Ghana
Journalists Association (GJA), which also enjoins all to provide the public
with truthful and unbiased information and to be socially responsible.
The NMC Executive
Secretary said the objective of the media must be the promotion of economic,
social and political empowerment of the people and to ensure their fullest
participation at all levels of national development and decision-making
process.
Speaking on "The
role of the Surveyor in Human Settlement Planning and Plan Implementation,
Senkyire Acquah, Chief Examiner, Survey Department, said the surveyor provides
information for effective and orderly planning of any spatial based human
activity.
He said this role is
intertwined with other professionals such as planners, architects, civil
engineers for effective and orderly planning of society. The workshop under the
theme, "Human settlement planning - A Tool for sustainable
development", was to educate the public and all landowning and land
developing stakeholders and the media on the functions and activities of TCPD.
It was also aimed at
equipping participants with information on TCPD's role in the social-economic
development and to correct the impression that the department deliberately
delays the issuance of development and building permits and encourages
unauthorized developments in the country.
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Cape Coast (Central
Region) 19 December 2002 - Okumanini Professor Obiri Yeboah 11, the Paramount
chief of Efutuakwa Traditional Area, on Wednesday appealed to the President to
appoint a Minister to be in-charge of chieftaincy affairs.
''This is imperative
because under the Chieftaincy Act 370 certain functions have been listed to be
performed solely by a Minister of chieftaincy affairs.'' Okumanini
Obiri-Yeboah, who was speaking at an end-of-year meeting of the House at Cape
Coast, did not say what those functions are but stressed that some of the major
chieftaincy disputes could have been avoided if such a minister were in place.
He said the Minister
would also be the focal point through whom the institution would make its
concerns known and who would in turn articulate such concerns at cabinet and
parliamentary levels.
Okumanini
Obiri-Yeboah said such a Minister could also work in collaboration with the
President of the National House of Chiefs to promote the interest of chiefs and
help reduce the spate of chieftaincy disputes in the country.
Other members of the
House supported the call and said the absence of such a Minister had left the
chieftaincy institution ''without a speaker at the national level.'' The
President of the House, Nana Atta Amanafo Poku II, advised chiefs to ensure
that disputes were nipped in the bud by ensuring that they are settled
amicably.
Nana Poku reminded
chiefs that it was their responsibility to ensure that land in their areas are
problem free in order to attract investors. He appealed to the government to
re-introduce the rural housing scheme to provide more low cost houses for rural
dwellers.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002 - Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh, Supreme Court
Judge, hearing the
Quality Grain case as an additional High Court Judge, on Wednesday turned down
a request by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to issue a bench warrant
for the arrest of former Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Adam for failing to
attend court.
Osafo Sampong asked for
the bench warrant after Sam Cudjoe, counsel for Adam, apologised for the
absence of his client in court. Cudjoe told the court that his client travelled
to Nigeria on Monday 16 December and was expected back the following day to
attend court, but his flight was cancelled thus making it impossible for him to
be present.
He said his client
wrote a letter explaining the circumstances to the DPP. However, Sampong asked
why the letter was not copied to either the Registrar or Manager of the Fast
Track Court.
He also asked why
counsel did not write the letter himself saying that it was very disrespectful
for the accused person to travel outside the country only two days to the next
adjourned date.
Sampong reminded the
accused person that since he was granted bail in his own recognisance, it was
incumbent upon him to make himself available to the court whenever the need
arose.
The DPP pointed out
that the courts must be accorded respect and dignity in their efforts at
ensuring the administration and delivery of justice. He therefore applied for a
bench warrant for the arrest of the accused person.
However, Justice
Afreh turned down the application, although he stated that it was regrettable
that the accused person had to travel outside Ghana a couple of days to the
hearing of the case.
He said the court had
taken judicious notice of the fact that since the trial started in May last
year, the accused person had always been punctual. Justice Afreh, therefore,
accepted counsel's explanation and refused to grant the DPP's application.
Adam is jointly being
tried with Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance, Dr Samuel Dapaah, former
Chief Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr George Sipah Adjah Yankey,
former Director of the Legal Sector, Private and Financial Institutions
Division of the Ministry of Finance and Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff.
They are facing
charges of conspiracy and causing financial loss to the State. The accused
persons are being tried for their alleged involvement in the Quality Grain
Project, which led to the loss of $22m to the State. They have all pleaded not
guilty to the charges and are currently on self-recognisance bail.
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Nkawkaw (Eastern
Region) 19 December 2002- The Okyehene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin has called
on the government to ensure adequate release of financial resources to finance
social infrastruture at the rural areas to enhance development and the living
standards of a greater population of the people.
He said since a large
number of the country's population live at the rural areas and also provide the
bulk of the nation's resources, more financial and logistical assistance such
as construction of roads, classroom blocks, health centres and potable water
should be provided to improve development in the communities.
Osagyefuo Ofori Panin
was addressing the closing ceremony of the three-day annual District Chief
Executives meeting at Nkawkaw on Tuesday. He said due to the high rate of
poverty, hunger, diseases and unemployment in the rural areas, the government
should mobilise all available local and foreign resources to enhance the
development of the rural folks to enable them to contribute towards the
development of the country.
The Okyehene
disclosed that he had received a lot of complaints about the poor performance
of some District Assemblies after a tour of 160 communities in the Akyem
Abuakwa traditional area and therefore, advised the DCEs to use their resources
to develop the rural areas.
The Deputy Minister
of Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama advised them to
implement all programmes under the decentralisation process to ensure its
success.
She urged them to use
five per cent of their common fund to provide infrastructure and logistics for
the establishment of the sub-structures of the decentralisation programme and
also hold monthly meetings with their staff to be abreast with their
programmes.
Hajia Mahama warned
the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives not to construct a
three-classroom block, office and store to exceed 160 million cedis from the
HIPC fund and even where it should be exceeded the differences should be
founded from other sources.
She advised them to
ensure that all contracts being awarded pass through the tender boards to avoid
malpractices in the execution of the projects. In a ten point communiqué issued
by the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives they called on the
government to ensure early implementation of all programmes under the
discentralisation process to enhance development in the districts.
They also called for
the supply of adequate logistics including vehicles to enhance their work for
they have been in office for two years without any good vehicles and also urged
the Finance Minister to ensure early distribution of common fund to enable them
finance more development projects in the communities.
They also urged the
Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs to ensure effective
dissemination of information to enable them to educate the people on government
programmes and policies as well as to ensure the settlement of chieftaincy
disputes in the communities to enhance peace and development.
They appealed for
more funds to complete projects under the Village lnfrastructural Projects
(VIP) in the communities and also involved them in the awards of contracts for
feeder roads construction and rehabilitation for effective supervision.
They called for a
shake up at the Non-Formal Education Division of the Ministry of Education and
employ qualify personnel to enhance their performances and also provide
adequate cinema vans to the Information Services Department to serve as a
propaganda tool to educate the people on programmes and policies and programmes
of the government.
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Dunkwa-on-Offin
(Central Region) 19 December 2002- Abudu Takora, the newly crowned National Best
Farmer, on Wednesday advised the youth not to view farming as a punishment
saying this is a wrong notion that is killing the sector.
He said the youth
should go into farming to salvage the frail economy. "The youth of today,
particularly the educated ones, have always had the wrong notion that farming
is a punishment and therefore do not want to go into it, but still complain of
unemployment," he said in an interview with the GNA at Dunkwa-OnOffin.
Takora, who was
crowned the 2002 National Best farmer on 6 December, said farming was one of
the main ways to pull Ghana out of the economic difficulties, adding that he
was prepared to share his experience in farming with whoever was ready to farm.
"My father never
took me to school, but now I can talk of wealth more than some of my educated
friends and brothers," he stressed. He called on the government to
subsidise agriculture as a means of encouraging many people, particularly the
youth, to go into farming to reduce unemployment.
Takora noted that
only the elderly have won the award since its inception and expressed the hope
that a member of the youth would one day emerge as the best farmer.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002 - The Accra Fast Track Court hearing the Quality Grain case,
would give judgment on Friday, 21 February 2003. Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh,
Supreme Court Judge, with an additional responsibility for the case as a High
Court Judge, announced the date at the court's sitting on Wednesday.
He gave the Director
of Public Prosecutions (DPP) up to 10 January 2003 to file his address. Five
former public officials including two former ministers in the erstwhile
National Democratic Congress government are being tried on charges of
conspiracy and causing financial loss to the state.
The two former
Ministers are Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture and Richard
Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance. The other accused persons are Dr
Samuel Dapaah, former Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture,
Dr George Sipah Adjah Yankey, former Director of the Legal Sector, Private and
Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance, and Nana Ato
Dadzie, former Chief of Staff.
According to the
prosecution the alleged involvement of the five accused persons in the Quality
Grain Project led to the loss to the state a total of 22 million dollars. They
have all pleaded not guilty and each of them has been admitted to
self-recognisance bail.
At its last sitting,
the court gave defence counsel up to 29 November to file their written
addresses, and the DPP up to 11 December to reply. At Wednesday's sitting,
however, Osafo Sampong, the DPP, told the court that counsel for only two of
the defendants - Adam and Dapaah – had beaten the deadline.
He said counsel for
Peprah, Yankey and Dadzie filed their written addresses on 10, 12 and 13 December
respectively. "Even in all the cases, we had to chase counsel's written
addresses ourselves," the DPP told the court.
Sampong intimated
that the address of the prosecution had been ready long ago, but because defence
counsel were delaying, the prosecution had not been in a position to file its
address.
Justice Afreh,
therefore, extended the prosecution's deadline for the filing of its address to
10 January next year. Turning to publications in some sections of the media
about the case, Justice Afreh explained that the number of pages and other
exhibits, which the court has to study and consider, are about 3,000.
He, therefore,
advised the media to be circumspect in their reportage and not to create the
impression that the court was deliberately "slow-tracking the fast
track."
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Kumasi (Ashanti
Region) 19 December 2002 - A Pastor has observed that unless religious leaders
themselves are morally upright and incorruptible, it will be difficult for them
to champion the crusade against indiscipline in their various churches.
Reverend Joseph K.
Gyimah, leader of the 'True Light of Christ' Church, said it was important for
pastors and ministers of religion to muster courage to resist temptations that
could corrupt their morals.
Rev Gyimah was
addressing an end-of-year crusade on indiscipline, organised by the church at
Abrepo in Kumasi on Wednesday. He said for the Vice President's crusade on
indiscipline to succeed, "it must necessarily start from the churches,
mosques and the various religious organisations".
Rev Gyimah said this
is because the followers and membership of religious organisations was
dominated mainly by the youth, "a sector of the population normally
accused of violent acts and corrupt moral attributes".
He suggested that
church leaders should not limit their evangelism to the pulpits alone. They
should preach and educate their congregation on the dangers of indiscipline,
and also work toward putting in place concrete structures and programmes that
will help inculcate sound moral values in church members.
Rev Gyimah said in addition,
churches should also use drama to occasionally portray the mishaps associated
with notoriety and the need to shun such negative acts in favour of positive
attributes of life.
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Kumasi (Ashanti
Region) 19 December 2002- The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has expressed gratitude
to the people of Akrodie in the Ahafo section of Asanteman for accepting the
peace gesture and recognising Nana Boakye Asiamah as the Akrodiehene.
He also commended the
committee appointed by the Asanteman Council under the chairmanship of Daasebre
Osei Bonsu, Mamponghene, which resolved the dispute for the good work done.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu was
speaking at the last Asanteman Council meeting for the year in Kumasi on
Monday. The Asantehene had accepted the findings of the committee, which looked
into the Akrodie chieftaincy dispute and the consequent breach of the peace at
the Akrodie traditional area. All other issues that led to the dispute and
breach of the people had also been resolved. The Akrodie chieftaincy dispute
started nearly 10 years ago.
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Dunkwa-On-Offin
(Central Region) 19 December 2002 - Major Courage Quarshiga, Minister of Food
and Agriculture (MOFA), on Wednesday announced that government was fully
committed to making farming technically enjoyable and financially rewarding.
He said this could be
done by improving the rural water supply, telephone facilities as well as the
roads network to make living in the rural communities easier to encourage the
youth to enter into farming.
Major Quarshiga said
this when he launched rice threshers and other agricultural processing machines
at Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Upper Denkyira district of the Central Regional.
The Dunkwa
Continental Goldfields Limited (DCGL), an initiative with backing from the
MOFA, would use cassava to process micronym, tough, floor, gari and Tampioca.
The company would also manufacture and assemble cassava processing machines to
support the Presidential Initiative on Cassava, Rice Threshers, Millers, Sugar
cane Crushers and maize planters and would supply some of the equipment to
farmers on agreement terms to boost farming.
Major Quarshiga said
modernised agriculture, as he always referred to, does not mean modern
equipment used in farming but the quality of food that would be produced to
avoid preventable sicknesses.
He said his outfit
"will prove to the whole world" that Ghana was capable of producing quality
rice to feed the nation and that the importation of rice would be cut by 30 per
cent.
He said the
revitalisation of the Afife Rice farm in the Volta Region was a living proof
that the NPP government was committed to putting farming high on its agenda. He
commended management of the DCGL for the brilliant idea and that government
would support them in all their endeavours.
Kris Kapoor, Resident
Director of DCGL, observed that there were people in Ghana with different
brilliant talents, that when tapped, would make farming in Ghana to become a
number one income earner.
He appealed to the
MOFA to collaborate with the company to process quality products to feed the
country. Mr Richard Anane Adabor, the DCE for the area, appealed to the company
to ensure that its products are of the highest quality and attractive to
consumers.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
19 December 2002 - The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has set up a
committee involving all stakeholders in the tourism sector to see to an
integrated development of the Lake Bosomtwi basin as one-stop tourism centre.
The development plan
involved the provision of hospitality services for both local and foreign
visitors to the area while a national museum and an eco-tourism park would be
built there.
There will be
cruising facilities on the lake alongside, water games and other entertainment
activities to serve as a holiday resort. Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional
Minister announced the laudable moves on Wednesday in Accra, when he took his
turn to explain progress of on going development projects in the region since
January 2001, at a press encounter dubbed "Meet the Press".
Boafo's appearance
was the last in the series of the ten regional ministers' press encounters,
initiated by the Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs. He said
researchers from Germany, United States of America (USA), Austria, Finland and
South Africa have expressed interest in the Lake Bosomtwi Basin.
The Geological Survey
Department and the Physics Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST) were collaborating to conduct scientific studies
on the lake site, he said.
Boafo said the
development and supply of water, electricity and telephone facilities, which
required huge capital were the constraints on the project. He thus asked for
support from the central government, local and foreign investors to harness the
potentials of the lake.
He said as part of
promoting tourism in the region, a Business and Tourism Secretariat (BITS) had
been established at the Ashanti Regional RCC to provide data and information to
potential investors and tourists.
Boafo spoke on a
number of investment moves and said he had made appeals to investors to
re-activate the GIHOC Shoe Factory. He said through the efforts of Ghana's Ambassador
to the Czech Republic, Veronica Kuffuor, Messrs Telfin from the Czech had shown
interest in the Factory.
He said the company
visited the country last March and had consultations with the Regional
Minister, the President, the ministers of Finance, Defence, Trade and
Industries, Education, Communications and Technology and the Divestiture
Implementation Committee (DIC) on the factory.
He said the DIC had
given approval to Telfin to take over the project, at a cost of one million
dollars for its assets. Telfin, he said, intended to employ about 800 workers,
who would run two shifts.
The Ashanti Regional
Minister said the Kumasi Jute Factory had been divested to a Ghanaian and a
foreign partner, and the factory would start production next year. He announced
that an Israeli firm, Messrs Hovey Agricultural Company was joining with a
Ghanaian company to undertake a project involving the cultivation and
processing of tomatoes and other vegetables at a cost of 16.5 million dollars
at Akomadan in the Offinso District with effect from the first quarter of next
year.
Boafo said the RCC
and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) had managed to open the Kumasi
Airport for commercial business and negotiations were underway to get flights
from neighboring countries to use the Airport and connect flights from Europe
and other parts of the world.
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