Boards free to operate – Attorney-General declares
Screen the watchdog – Asantehene
DCE accused of sexual harassment…Conflict erupts between him and MP
Quarshigah wishes to be Interior Minister
Dangerous lab reports at Ridge Hospital
Boards free to operate – Attorney-General declares
The Daily Graphic reports in its top story that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Obed Asamoah, has declared that chairmen and members of boards of state-owned media organisations are not legally hindered from exercising their legitimate functions.
He said the law legally protects them as the recent Supreme Court ruling did not question their status or standing. The Graphic says that Attorney-General was clarifying the ruling of the court in Accra. The Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision last week, upheld the claim of the National Media Commission that it is the constitutionally recognised body to appoint chief executives of state-owned media organisations and that appointments made by the government n respect of such positions on the coming into force of the Forth Republican Constitution in 1992, are unconstitutional.
The Graphic says that since the Supreme Court’s ruling, interpretations have been made in certain quarters to the effect the court also upheld that chairmen and members of such boards were also not properly appointed and have to be removed Dr Asamoah is said to have described as misconception, the assertion that the ruling declared null and void the appointments of chairmen and members of the boards of state-owned media houses. He explained that the subject of the court’s decision was in respect of chief executives of the state-owned media, who were appointed by the government after the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution.
Dr Asamoah is said to have pointed out that all the heads and members of the various boards of the state-owned media houses were appointed by the National Media Commission in consultation with the President and not by the government as erroneously stated in some quarters.
"These national officers were, therefore, appropriately appointed in line with the provision of the Constitution and, therefore the court did not say such appointments were unconstitutional and invalid as others have sought to imply", the Attorney-General is quoted as saying.
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Screen the watchdog – Asantehene
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is reported to have urged police officials responsible for neighbourhood watch committees to ensure that people of good character are selected as volunteers. The Ghanaian Times in its lead story quotes the Asantehene as expressing concern about some of the volunteers, who pose as police officers to intimidate members of the community in the course of their duties.
The Times says that Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the call when Ashanti Regional branch of Neighbourhood Watch Committee called on him at the Manhyia Palace. The national chairman, Nana Owusu Kwaa, chief of Dida in the Bosomtwi-Atwima-Kwanwoma District of Ashanti, led the volunteers.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Richard Baduweh, Head of the Police Public Relations Directorate in Ashanti accompanied them. The Asantehene is said to have told them to be conscious of their duties, saying that "being a volunteer does not make one a police officer".
He is reported to have said that if they rendered good services to the community, they would win the support of the general public in al their endeavours. He assured them of Asanteman’s support in terms of logistics, among other assistance
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Free Press
DCE accused of sexual harassment…Conflict erupts between him and MP
In a screaming headline story, the Free Press reports that the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ajumak-Enyan-Essiam, Mr B.K. Musa-Biney, has vowed never to recognise the MP for the area, Mr Isaac Edumadze, once the court had ruled against his membership, notwithstanding the MP’s appeal against the ruling. According to the paper, because of this, the DCE insisted he had refused to release to the MP, his share of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund.
The Free Press says that this came to light when t called on the MP to cross-check the multiple transfer of a female staff of the district assembly by the DCE, which has sparked off a controversy at the assembly. The paper says that the multiple transfer of Miss Juliana Sey, 20, receptionist at the assembly from that office to the library, the revenue section and then back to the reception, over a period of seven days and crowned it all by a query, has sparked off a controversy at the assembly.
While the DCE is said to maintain that the transfer is a pure administrative exercise, Juliana and a section of the workers see it differently. According to Juliana and the workers, the DCE’s action amounts to sexual harassment. Juliana is reported to have said at Ajumako that she was employed by the DCE on August 3, 1998 and treated as his receptionist although on her pay slip her position was sanitary labourer.
She claimed that in October, last year, Mr Musah-Biney proposed love to her but she turned him down and since then their relationship had soured. She told the Free Press that the situation was so bad that her boss even threatened her. She consequently reported the matter to her grandmother. The DCE is said to have blamed the MP for influencing Juliana to report him (DCE) to the press.
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Evening News
Quarshigah wishes to be Interior Minister
In a front-page story, the Evening News reports that Major Courage Quarshigah (rtd), national organiser of the NPP at the weekend, dropped a hint of the kind of post he would like to be offered if his party wins the general elections and forms the next government.
He is said to be eyeing Nii Okaija Adamafio’s hot seat saying that he would teach him how to run the Ministry of the Interior better. The paper notes that this is contrary to speculations that as a soldier and an accomplished one for that matter, he would have preferred the Defence Ministry.
The Evening News says that Major Quarshigah, who was speaking at Sunyani during the Brong Ahafo Regional Delegates’ Congress of the NPP at which a new executive was sworn in for a three-year term, is quoted as saying "I have begged the elders of the arty to give me the Ministry of the Interior for just a day and the difference will clearly show".
According to him, it did not require any "force" to get the citizenry compliant and to maintain law and order, apparently referring to the occasional show of strength by the law enforcement agents in their mob control operations.
The Evening News says that Major Quarshigah, who maintained that the NPP would surely win this year’s polls, noted, however, that it was unfortunate that his party is going to inherit from the NDC-led government, the twin legacy of indiscipline and lawlessness. If we do not correct that in the first 100 das in office, then forget it. We have to work hard to put things in order, he is quoted as saying.
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Dangerous lab reports at Ridge Hospital
The Weekend Statesman in a front-page banner, reports that doctors at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, are p in arms against Elan Laboratories, currently operating the hospital’s laboratory.
The doctors are reported to be rejecting the laboratory’s reports saying that most of them are dangerous and unreliable! The paper says that at a meeting on January 13, the doctors told the hospital’s management that since the laboratory was divested to Elan Laboratories, they have been saddled with inaccurate laboratory reports, which constitute serious danger to the health of their patient.
"Some of the reports are too frightening to believe", the doctors are quoted as saying. The story says that some of the reports are so frightening that the doctors wonder why their patients are still alive! According to the doctors, the only way to ensure that the lives of the patients are not further endangered is the immediate termination of the Elan contract.
The Ministry of Health is said to have privatised the Ridge Hospital laboratory and given it to Taylor and Taylor Company Limited, which is operating under the name Elan Laboratories. Taylor and Taylor is said to be a United States-based company.
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