Restore Songor Lagoon to rightful owners - Clan
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - Around 22,000 pieces of viagra are expected to be consumed in the country this year as compared to some 16,000 pieces last year, Mr Divine Akaba, Medical Representative of Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company and producers of viagra, said on Tuesday.
Mr Akaba, talking to the GNA in Accra on the performance of the drug on the Ghanaian market, said the 16,000 pieces sold last year might indicate that some 2,000 men bought the drug.
Viagra, the first orally effective medication for the treatment erectile dysfunction in men, was introduced in the country in 1999, and is supplied as a blue, rounded-diamond shaped tablets in a pack of four.
Erectile dysfunction, previously known as impotence, is associated with the inability to have or maintain an erection for satisfactory sexual relation. It is not life threatening and affects over a hundred million men worldwide.
When it is severe, it may have a very significant impact on a man's self-image. Mr Akaba said viagra, a prescription only drug, acts to increase and maintain erection by promoting smooth muscle relaxation and increased blood flow to the male organ.
The drug has been variously described as a "tablet that brings back the joy of relationships". However, Mr Akaba said viagra was not a "joy drug" but rather was meant to treat a medical condition and erectile problems.
Some medical sources have indicated that cases of erectile dysfunction were on the increase in Ghana. There has been a recent increase of advertisements of various shades of alcoholic beverages described as "bitters" for the cure of impotence and improvement of virility and sexual potency in men.
According to Mr Akaba, risk factors that make people prone to sexual dysfunction include psychological conditions, such as anxiety, stress or depression and lifestyles including cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and drug use. He also explained that diabetic and hypertensive patients were also known to be at risk to the condition.
Mr Akaba expressed concern over the increasing number of adverts on aphrodisiacs (substance for arousing sexual desire) in the media. According to him, some of these aphrodisiacs do not deal with the actual medical condition in men, which may be an ejaculatory, orgasm or libido problem.
Mr Akaba urged the regulatory bodies, especially, the Food and Drugs Board to monitor the influx all sorts of aphrodisiacs on the market. When viagra made its appearance a few years ago in the United States, it was prescribed at a rate of at least 10,000 scripts a day, outpacing such famous "quick starters" as the antidepressant Prozac, which was one of the biggest selling drugs in the US.
Men, both genuinely dysfunctional and merely dissatisfied, besieged the offices of urologists and sex clinics in the US when viagra appeared on the scene. Researchers in the US have, meanwhile, recommended to the American Urological Association, that patients with impotence should benefit from heart examination.
According to studies conducted by them, impotence in men can be the first sign of diabetes, kidney failure or neurological diseases and it was important that men underwent a thorough health examination rather than simply taking medications such as viagra to treat impotency.
Statistics show that about half of men between the ages of 40 and 70 in the US suffer from some degree of impotence.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - The debate on the delay in the prosecution of drug traffickers has taken a bizarre turn with the revelation on Tuesday that an investigator has absconded with a female suspect in a drug case.
The Ghana News Agency reported that its investigations revealed that Mr Timothy
Semekor, an investigator of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), who was handling a drug smuggling case involving the woman, a Sierra Leonean travelling on a Malian passport, had disappeared with her.
Mr Justice Addu Amponmah, Chairman of the Greater Accra Regional Tribunal, showed the Ghana News Agency a letter dated January 15 from CEPS and signed by Mr D. Bartels-Kodwo, Chief Collector, indicating that a Custom Officer Timothy Semekor, who was investigating the case went to the remand prison, signed documents and took custody of the suspect and had never reported for duty ever since.
Mr Justice Ampoma said that Fatima Kande, the Sierra Leonean, was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport last June. Kande was arraigned at the tribunal on June 26 and was remanded.
After calling the case on three occasions, the prosecutor withdrew the charge on July 17 and preferred another one on the same day. The accused pleaded not guilty and was remanded to reappear on the July 24, 2001.
Mr Justice Ampomah said the accused applied for bail but the tribunal turned it down. However, on the October 25 the tribunal granted the accused a 100 million cedis bail with one surety to be justified on the grounds of ill health after the investigator had presented a medical report from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
The accused could not fulfil the bail demands so she was remained in custody. Mr Justice Ampomah said the tribunal realised that both the investigator and the accused did not appear anytime the case was called.
It was when the tribunal ordered the Prosecutor to produce the suspect that it was informed by CEPS that the investigator had absconded with the suspect. Mr Justice Amponmah said it was prosecutors and investigators and not the judiciary that were to blame for thwarting drug cases in court.
Some of the methods they used included the withdrawal of cases midstream and excuses like "our witnesses are not ready", absence of investigators and witnesses from court and withdrawal and preference of fresh charges.
"In the event of such instances the courts become handicapped in administering justice. We do not keep the suspects, we rely on investigators and prosecutors to produce the suspects in court at any trial day."
He explained that the courts were there to ensure due process of the law but could only do so with the co-operation of the prosecutors and investigators. Mr Justice Amponmah denied that condition for bails granted suspects were not stringent enough to avoid their jumping bail.
GRi../
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Tema (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 – Workers of the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) have called for an increase in rent paid by tenants of the Corporations’ rental units to reflect the present economic realities.
This follows the revelation that some tenants pay 4,000 cedis a month as rent. A worker, who expressed these sentiments at a durbar held in honour of the Minister of Works and Housing, Yaw Barimah, said the Corporation had faced interference from politicians any time it made the attempt to increase the rent.
The worker compared the rent charged to the price of a bottle of beer and urged the Corporation to take the initiative to increase the rent to enable it to stay in business.
Another worker expressed concern about the numerous land title cases pending before the courts and said if care was not taken all the Corporation's lands would be taken over by illegal claimants.
Notwithstanding the fact that compensation was paid during the government acquisition of the lands from the Nungua, Tema and Kpone stools in 1952, individuals have instituted legal action to claim portions of the land.
Mr Barimah, who was accompanied by a team of technical personnel from the Ministry, was paying his maiden-working visit to the TDC. He toured the Kpone Car Market and flood prone areas at Lashibi in Community 19 and Community 20.
Mr Barimah indicated that government was concerned about the housing needs of the people and was, therefore, sourcing funding to support medium and long-term projects.
He said TDC and Real Estate Development organisations would be the beneficiaries. Mr Barimah asked the TDC to act within the confines of the law to get used car dealers to move back to the Kpone Car Market.
He formed a committee and charged it to initiate action to solve the problem of flooding at Community 19, Community 20 and Lashibi.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - Mr. Etienne Marie Arthur Popler, former Managing Director (MD) of the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) on Tuesday told an Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) trying Hanny Sherry Ayittey and three others in connection with GREL's divestiture, that his company paid nearly one million dollars to the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM).
He said, Dr Albert Owusu-Barnafo, a Ghanaian consultant in GREL's divestiture, told management of Societe Industrielle Plantation Herea (SIPH), the French company that won the bid for GREL, that 31st DWM was so influential in the country that it could influence the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) to tilt the bid for GREL in SIPH's favour.
Mr Popler, the second prosecution witness made this revelation when Mr Anthony Gyambiby, Principal State Attorney, led him in evidence. Ms Ayittey, Treasurer of the 31st DWM and the three others, Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, former Executive Secretary of DIC, Ralph Casely-Hayford, a businessman, and Satirieh Dorcas Ocran, housewife, are being tried for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices during the divestiture of GREL in 1996.
They have all pleaded not guilty to their various charges, and the court, presided over by Mr Justice JC Amonoo-Monney, an Appeal Court Judge, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, has granted each of them a self-recognisance bail.
Mr Popler, a Belgian, who said he first arrived in Ghana in February 1988 to assist in GREL's rehabilitation told the court that Dr. Barnafo informed the management of SIPH that Mr. Dan Abodakpi, then Minister of Trade and Industry, and the four accused persons, were officials in the government who could influence the DIC board to help SIPH win GREL's divestiture.
He said as a result of this, his company paid various sums of money totalling about one million dollars to those officials in August and September of 1996. For instance, Mr Popler said, in August, he gave an initial amount of 25 million cedis to Dr Barnafo to be given to Ayittey, and followed it up with another 70 million cedis to Casely-Hayford.
He told the court that in the case of Casely-Hayford, he went to his office at Pig Farm, in the company of Dr Barnafo and one Georgina Okaitey, another prosecution witness who is yet to testify, where the payment was made. Mr Popler said on another occasion in the same month of August, the three visited Sati Ocran at her Achimota residence and gave her 15 million cedis.
The former MD told the court that he gave Agbodo's share of 25 million cedis to Dr Barnafo to be given to him. Continuing, Mr Popler told the court that apart from these payments, his company had in July the same year, parted with other monies totalling 550,000 dollars to the Movement through Ayittey.
He said an additional 150,000 pounds, which his company paid to influence GREL's divestiture, was, however, transferred into the foreign accounts of Dr. Barnafo in Vienna.
Recounting the divestiture account, Mr Popler earlier told the court that in 1988 when GREL was on the verge of collapse, it became expedient to rehabilitate the company.
He said the rehabilitation was carried out in two phases, with the first completed in 1989 and the second in 1995. The second prosecution witness said in 1993 when GREL was put on divestiture following an advertisement in the Ghanaian Times, SIPH expressed interest in the company.
He said after his company had received no response from DIC after writing to it on two occasions, management, in January 1994 visited Ghana to confer with DIC authorities.
Mr Popler said while the team was in Ghana, it got into contact with Dr Barnafo who told them he was a businessman. He said after the visit of the team to Ghana, Dr Barnafo came to the Paris office of SIPH where he had consultations with management on GREL's divestiture, and how best he could assist SIPH to win the bid.
The former GREL MD told the court that Dr Barnafo suggested to SIPH's management that in order to win the bid for GREL, SIPH ought to "see some Ghanaian officials", adding, "we were supposed to give donations to an NGO, the
31st DWM."
Mr Popler said on the advice of Dr Barnafo, SIPH submitted an open offer to DIC in May 1995, after the latter had written to SIPH in March to remind it of the need to make the offer.
He said at the beginning of August, DIC decided to change the offer from "open" to "tender", and after negotiations between his company's management and DIC, the two parties, on February 20 the following year, signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU). The second prosecution witness said negotiations continued thereafter, and in June, DIC wrote officially to SIPH informing it of it winning the divestiture of GREL.
Mr Popler told the court that following the divestiture, 75 per cent of the total shares of the company were sold to SIPH at the cost of 20 million French Francs, while the remaining 25 per cent shares went to the Government of Ghana.
He said, as a result of these developments, his company took over the administration of GREL on January 1, 1996. The case was adjourned to Friday, February 12, for Mr Popler to continue with his evidence.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - Hanny Sherry Ayittey, former boss of GIHOC Distilleries who is being tried with three others at an Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) on Tuesday created a dramatic scene when she kept two cameramen who wanted to take shots of her, in suspense for one and a half hours after proceedings.
The cameramen, one from Graphic and the other from Ghanaian Times, kept waiting downstairs after the sitting, whiles Ayittey, dressed in white, relaxed in the courtroom to prevent them from achieving their aim.
After waiting for nearly an hour, the Times cameraman climbed upstairs, where he managed to take one shot of Ayittey. She was coming down, but decided to retreat on seeing the cameraman. However, the shot had already been taken.
Ayittey outwitted the Graphic cameraman who waited patiently at the court premises to snap her but before be became aware, she had been whisked away in a waiting vehicle.
GRi../
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Akim Swedru (Central Region) 06 February 2002 - The Akim Swedru circuit court, presided over by Mr Justice Charles Koomson, has sentenced two members of a cow-stealing syndicate to eight years' imprisonment each.
Mahmoud Fulani, 23, and Ali Magogee, 19, both from Ashaiman, near Accra, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and stealing two pregnant cows belonging to Mr Kwabena Owusu-Nimoh, a prominent farmer of Kade in the Eastern Region.
A third accomplice, Teye Mensah, driver, was, however, acquitted and discharged because, according to Mr Justice Koomson, he was a victim of circumstances. Three other accomplices, however, escaped arrest.
Police Inspector Agyeman Reindorf told the court that on August 27, 2001, the accused hired the services of Teye Mensah, a KIA truck driver, ostensibly to cart beams from Nsawam. At Nsawam, the accused told Mensah that the beams were not ready and therefore asked him to take them to Kade.
Inspector Reindorf said the accused persons then asked Mensah to drive them to a spot where he was asked to wait for them, adding that after a while the driver decided to ease himself. When he returned, his truck had been moved a little farther from where he had parked.
Inspector Reindorf said Mensah then heard some strange noises in the truck and when he asked what was inside it, the accused told him they were two cows. The accused then moved again into the kraal and attempted to steal a third cow that proved too difficult to catch. In the ensuing struggle, the attention of the Fulani herdsman at the kraal was aroused.
The herdsman then confronted the accused, hitting one of them on the head but they sped off in the truck. He, therefore ran to inform Mr Owusu-Nimoh who alerted the police at Asamankese, Akroso and Akim Oda about the incident.
Inspector Reindorf told the court that the accused and their accomplices later arrived at a police barrier manned by him and two other colleagues. The gang, however, escaped into the bush when they sensed danger. The police managed to arrest three members of the gang while the rest escaped. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Koomson said he was being lenient in view of the young ages of the accused.
He expressed concern about the rising crime wave in the country and appealed to business concerns and other stakeholders to help offer employment to the youth.
GRi../
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 06 February 2002 - The Food and Drugs Board has ordered importers, distributors and retailers of "Wonder Insecticide Chalk" to withdraw the product from the market before it caused harm to people.
The Board warned that it would prosecute any one who flouted the order. The order followed the Board's discovery during an exercise at Kejetia to seize expired products that large quantities of the chalk on shelves expired as far back as 1995. Some had both their manufactured and expiry dates erased while others had their records on the date of manufacture and expiry torn off.
Meanwhile, the Management of Norsent Unique Products Limited (NUPL) in Kumasi, sole distributors of Miraculous Insecticide Chalk, has complained about the embarrassment the said wonder insecticide chalk was causing the company.
A release signed by Mr Kingsley Kwabena Kessie, Executive Director, said over the past three months NUPL offices had been invaded by angry customers, who complained about the non-performance of an insecticide chalk they had bought.
The company assured the consuming public that it had nothing to do with the said wonder insecticide chalk and advised consumers to look out for the date of manufacture, expiry date and batch number of insecticide chalk they buy.
The release asked the public to inform the Food and Drugs Board about any product presentation that did not bear manufactured date, expiry date and batch number.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - A group of persons claiming to be representatives of the Tekpebiawe Divisional Council (TDC) of Ada in the Greater Accra Region, on Tuesday appealed to the government to repeal the law which vests the right of ownership of the Songor Lagoon in the state and restore the lagoon to its rightful owners.
They also called for the abolishment of the six-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Songor Lagoon Salt Project, saying the IMC had stayed in office for over 10 months instead of the mandated six months and had not produced any tangible result as yet.
Following several conflicting issues on the Songor Salt Project at Ada, the government established a six-member IMC to study the issues and make recommendations within six months for a lasting solution to ensure the smooth progress of the project.
A spokesman for the representatives Mr Samuel Alini Tei Tsirapah, told the press in Accra that one month after the establishment of the IMC, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the then Minister of Mines, wrote a letter dated May 7, 2001 to the president of the Ada Traditional Council (ATC) promising that "the government is taking steps to formally actualise its intention to revoke the obnoxious PNDL 287."
He noted that it had been 10 months since the IMC was put in place and nine months since the Minister promised the repeal of the law but nothing had yet been done. "We are reliably informed that the IMC has secretly recommended to the government not to repeal the obnoxious PNDCL 287.
"Meanwhile the government is in the process of adding more people to the IMC to form Songor Oversight Committee to take over from the IMC.
"It now appears that our hopes may not materialise and we are at a loss as to the reason for the formation of the IMC, the oversight committee and what has become of the Minister's promise."
Mr Tsirapah said "the Tekpebiawe clan is totally opposed to the formation of the Oversight Committee and herby disassociates itself from it. It shall be fraudulent for anybody to hold himself out as a representative of Tekpebiawe clan on any such committee."
He said the situation would expose the elders and people of Tekpebaiwe clan to ridicule, adding that based on the government's promise to repeal PNDCL 287, "we went ahead to sign a memorandum of agreement with various investors and received traditional drinks from them pending other formalities for them to start operation in the lagoon".
"We will be embarrassed before the potential investors and our people will think we are fraudulent. We feel insulted deceived and betrayed by the NPP government."
He explained that lands at Ada were owned by clans and not by individuals, saying that there have been several judgements pointing to the fact that the Songor Lagoon belonged to the Tekpebiawe clan and not to a particular stool or paramount chief.
Mr Tsirapah said the government had no difficulty in determining the owners of the lagoon and must, therefore, deliver on its promise and hand over the lagoon and its environs to its rightful owners in the true spirit of privatisation and golden age of business.
GRi../
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