Kwame Peprah resigns as Chairman of AGC Board

NPP starts training of polling agents

Developers encroach on government lands.

Reform Party inaugurates Sakumono branch

Farmer, 90, burnt to death at Kokrobon

Accra (Greater Accra) 14 Feb. 2000

Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance, has resigned as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) with immediate effect.

In a letter to the Board, he said due to the pressures of implementing the challenging targets set out in the year 2000 Budget, he finds himself unable to effectively continue as Chairman and Director of the Company.

He wrote: "I am therefore, tendering my resignation as Chairman and member of the Board, effective 11 February 2000.

''I take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Board and the Company for the support during the period of my stewardship.

"I wish the Board and the management of Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited the best in its future endeavours. I am confident that the company will resolve the current problems it faces and restore itself to its former glory.''

AGC had been in deep trouble since late last year when its hedging policy backfired.

Creditors moved on the company and many crisis meetings were held in Accra and London to bail out the company.

Government owns 20 per cent and a golden share in the company, which for many years was the largest foreign exchange earner for the country.

Four shareholders took the company to court and obtained a ruling for an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) of shareholders to elect a new board of directors.

The court ruled that the EGM to elect a new Board of Directors should to be convened by Friday, 3 March.

Mr Justice Richard Apaloo, a High Court Judge as part of his consequential orders pointed out that only names in the register of shareholders of the company at the close of business on Wednesday, 9 February, would be entitled to vote.

He ordered that the circular convening the EGM should be vetted by his court prior to its despatch on Tuesday, 15 February, while notices for the meeting should be placed in foreign and local newspapers such as the Financial Times of London, Wall Street Journal of New York, Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times.

Additionally, he said, the notices could also appear in equivalent newspapers of mass circulation in Canada, Zimbabwe, Australia and New York, on whose stock exchange AGC is listed.

Mines and Energy Minister John Abu, told a press conference in Accra on Thursday that the government, after careful review of the objectives of four shareholders who took AGC Management and Board to court for gross mismanagement of the company "holds the view that the objectives of the two parties are now similar and that any differences can and need to be bridged."

"Government now proposes to invite the various stakeholders which include the Addrax Group of shareholders, Lonmin Plc and AGC management to meet in Accra soon."

He said the meeting would seek to resolve all outstanding issues so as to enable the company to conclude its negotiations with the banking syndicate.

Abu said the government believes that Ashanti has a bright future as an independent African gold mining company and will take all necessary measures to ensure the rights of shareholders, the safety and satisfactory returns on investments made in Ghana, he added.

Government has sought to play a constructive role throughout this period of uncertainty facing AGC, which began last October, by intervening when the company's hedge book showed imminent bankruptcy and Lonmin also attempted to merge with AGC on unfavourable terms.

After a review of the AGC situation with advisors, the government had proposed a number of solutions, which include reducing the number of Executive Directors and strengthening the Board with independent and internationally recognised persons.

GRi../

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Tamale (Northern Region) 14 Feb. 2000

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has organised the first in a series of trainers of trainers workshop, at Tamale, for its polling agents in this year's elections.

Topics being discussed at the tree-day workshop attended by 50 participants drawn from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions include election procedure, counting of votes and examination of voters' register among other processes.

The participants will in turn train other polling agents of the party at the constituency level.

The Chairman of NPP, Mr S. A. Odoi-Sykes described the exercise as crucial since it forms part of efforts to plug all loopholes for rigging and cheating at the polling stations during the elections.

He said the high calibre of the participants is indicative of the seriousness attached to the training and expressed the hope that those to be trained at the grassroots level will make the desired impact for free and fair elections.

"The NPP is growing with confidence and will win both the parliamentary and presidential elections".

He said Mr J. A. Kufour, the Party's flag bearer will improve on the percentage of votes he received against President Jerry John Rawlings in 1996, to oust the lesser known Professor John Evans Atta Mills.

Mr Odoi-Sykes noted that although the NPP is not as financially endowed as the party in government, it would not allow that party to dictate the pace of political campaigns this time.

The NPP has, therefore, decided to tailor its campaign to suit its finances by not holding big rallies, which cost billions of cedis. Rather cost effective door to door, house to house and village to village campaigns will be adopted.

He said the leadership of the party was not crumbling, as some people would like to believe. "The NPP is still bound together by the same principles and policies, which have endured for the past 50 years".

"The NPP still stands by its belief in multiparty democracy and rule of law and will not compromise on these principles."

He said the NPP believes that the Electoral Commission can do something to minimise the misuse of incumbency by the ruling party, by checking the misappropriation of state resources and machinery for party campaigns.

Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), National Organiser of NPP said the party hopes to train 100,000 polling agents in readiness for the elections.

Mr Dan Botwe, General Secretary and the Northern Regional Executives of the party also addressed the trainees.

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Baatsonaa, (Greater Accra) 14 Feb. 2000

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has decided to take stringent measures including demolition, to recover all government lands that have been encroached upon at Baatsonaa near Nungua.

Out of 45.8 hectares that have been acquired for the Nungua Secondary School and other government projects for which compensation have been paid to land owners, about 37.5 hectares have been encroached upon by illegal developers within the last eight months.

This became known when Mr Samuel Addoquaye-Addo, Metropolitan Chief Executive, Nii Armah Ashietey, Tema Municipal Chief Executive and a team of technical officers inspected the land at Baatsonaa, which lies opposite the TEXPO site, on Friday.

Mr Emmanuel Owusu Atakura, Planning Officer of AMA told the Chief Executives that in spite of several warnings, pulling down of part of the structures and arrests by the Police, the illegal developers had continued to build.

He said all the developers have no building permits and some have built their structures in watercourses.

It was discovered that the Ghana Railway Corporation (GRC) has marked buildings that have been constructed close to the railway lines with "stop work", but these warnings have been ignored.

Mr Isaac Adjovu, AMA Co-ordinating Director remarked, "what we are seeing is a mark of indiscipline, which cannot be tolerated in any decent society".

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Sakumono, (Greater Accra) 14 Feb. 2000

The National Reform Party (NRP) has inaugurated one of its 1,170 branches being established in the Greater Accra region.

The party, which is about 60 per cent through with achieving this target, currently has branches in all the 22 constituencies in the region and those at La, Ashaiman, Achimota, Darkuman and Odorkor would be inaugurated this week.

The occasion was also used to launch the party's newsletter "FORWARD" by Mr Kwaku Bako, Editor of the "Crusading Guide" to commemorate the first anniversary of the formation of the party.

Mr Goosie Tandoh, Spokesman of the NRP said if the party's mobilisation programme stays on course, then it expects to have about 1.6 million members before it holds its congress in the middle of this year.

He said, "1.6 million members, would be a political force to reckon with" and appealed to every Ghanaian to join a branch and contribute to its activities.

Mr Tandoh told the party's supporters that if they want good governance then they must be prepared to contribute financially to support the party, which currently has not got adequate finances for its activities.

He cautioned, "if Ghanaians are going to do politics on the principles of cash and connections then the rich will always win" but added that it will not serve any useful purpose if parties have the money and logistics but pursue bad policies.

The Chairman of the National Interim Working Committee of the Party, Mr Peter Kpordugbe presented certificate and membership cards to the branch.

He urged the members to pay their monthly dues of 1,000 cedis, explaining that half of the money would be kept at the branch and the other half used at the National level for the party's activities.

"The NRP is a party that should belong to its members and not a big rich man, who will dictate what they should do".

During the launching of the "FORWARD", Mr Bako said the NRP has come a long way to purge itself of whatever suspicion people carried about their sincerity after it broke away from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

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Offinso (Ashanti) 14 Feb 2000

Opanin Kwaku Grusi, a 90-year-old farmer, was burnt to death when fire swept through Kokrobon, a farming community near Kobreso, in the Offinso district last Tuesday.

All the 13 houses in the village were destroyed, displacing about 100 people.

Large quantities of stored yam, groundnuts, maize, domestic animals, sewing machines, bicycles and other personal items worth about 16 million cedis and 3.1 million cedis cash were burnt.

Mr Kwame Abebrese, Chairman of the local Unit Committee and Nana Kwadwo Kpanga, Chief of the village, who led Mr Joseph Akwasi-Kumah, Offinso District Chief Executive to inspect the site of disaster, said large hectares of plantain, cassava and cocoyam farms have also been destroyed.

The fire, he said, is believed to have spread to the village from the Buraso Forest Reserve, near Akomadan, when almost all the residents have gone to their farms leaving the aged, the sick and children behind.

Nana Kpanga appealed to the district assembly, non-governmental organisations, churches and individuals to go to their aid.

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