Voters to use photo identity cards only…
Murder of Dr Acheampong…Police grab three suspects
NUGS urges quick action on Education Trust Fund
New life for forts and castles
Voters to use photo identity cards only…
The Ghanaian Times reports in its top story that the all eligible and registered voters will be required to use only photo identity cards to vote in this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The Times says all thumb-printed identity cards issued by the Electoral Commission will, consequently, be withdrawn and replaced by photo identity cards.
Mr Kwadwo Sarfo-Kantanka, Deputy Chairman of the Commission in charge of Finance and Administration is reported to have announced this in Accra. He said that the exercise and other programmes by the Commission towards the general elections would cost Ghana over 21 billion cedis.
The story says that the Electoral Commission has packaged the entire programme into two phases, the first one focusing on the revision of the voters’ register, involving addition of newly registered names and the deletion of deceased voters’ names from the register for update.
The second phase, which the Commission said might start tentatively in April/May, would involve an outreach programme to the non-photo identity cards areas to withdraw them and issue the photo identity cards. According to Mr Saro-Kantanka, the provision of photo identity cards, though expensive, would help clear doubt and suspicion associated with voting procedures.
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Murder of Dr Acheampong…Police grab three suspects
In its lead story, the Daily Graphic reports that intensive investigations by the Police CID Headquarters in Accra, have led to the arrest of three suspected armed robbers, who allegedly raided the house of Dr Jonathan Acheampong, an Accra electrical engineer, murdered him in cold blood and made away with his car and other belongings.
The story says that the names of the suspects, two Ghanaians and a Nigerian, are being withheld for security reasons. A fourth accomplice, also a Nigerian, is said to be on the run and the police have mounted an intensive search for his arrest.
The Graphic says that Dr Acheampong, owner of Sages Electrical Construction Company, was found dead in his living room on September 30, last year, at Akoshie Junction, Mamprobi in Accra. His murderers are said to have gagged him and bound his hands and legs with wire. According to the paper, the armed robbers stole two personal computers, three television sets and other electrical gadgets.
The armed robbers are said to have also driven away with the deceased’s white Toyota saloon car. The Story says the police have recovered some of the stolen items from the rooms of the suspects.
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The Evening News
NUGS urges quick action on Education Trust Fund
The Evening News in a front-page story, writs that the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has asked the Ministries of Finance and Education to examine proposals submitted by the Committee on Funding Tertiary Education and quickly make appropriate recommendations on the source of funding for the Trust Fund.
The association is also said to have called on the Ministry of Education to take urgent steps to place the bill on the Trust Fund before Parliament. The story says that Mr Timothy Nyaaa-Nsobila, NUGS president, at a news conference in Accra, said if the fund becomes operational by the beginning of the 2000/2001 academic year, "it will be a big relief not only to students and parents, but the government and all Ghanaians".
He said this is because the fund is expected to provide support to the development and maintenance of academic facilities, infrastructure and others facilities at the tertiary level.
It will also provide support for the National Students’ Loan Scheme, as well as grants for tertiary institutions to retain brilliant but needy students to train as members of faculties and to facilitate research and other academic projects.
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New life for forts and castles
The Free Press reports that all European countries that once colonised Ghana have agreed to restore and conserve their forts and castles left behind after the colonial era.
The paper in a back-page story, says that this was in response to a request made by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to the countries including Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Sweden, to endeavour to conserve their former legacies in Ghana.
In this connection, the story says, a seven-member Dutch team of experts visited Ghana to assess their forts and castles and possible restoration. The Free Press says that in its recommendation, the team drew up what it termed "Old Accra Integrated Conservation Development Framework", in which the Dutch and the Ghanaian authorities recognised the value of the global approach being taken for the project to take off.
According to the paper, the team also recommended that the Dutch authorities should consider ways in which they could efficiently support the project to help alleviate the high level of poverty in those areas where the forts and castles are built.
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