Health Communicators Institute formed
Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - The Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday said it was ready to conduct the Bimbilla by-election any time Parliament declared the seat vacant.
The Ghana News Agency reports an EC Official as saying in Accra that the responsibility rested on Parliament and the candidate involved. The official said the Constitution mandated the Clerk of Parliament to notify the EC in writing within seven days after a vacancy had occurred and a by-election held within 30 days.
Although the Commission was yet to be officially notified of the Bimbilla vacancy following the appointment of Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas as the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, it had started the mobilisation of logistics needed for the by-election.
The source expressed concern about the long silence by Dr Chambas and Parliament to notify it of the vacancy, adding that the Commission's concern now was the possibility of the by-elections coinciding with the local government elections in June.
In the 2000 parliamentary election, Dr Chambas of the NDC won 18,611 votes (61.25 per cent). Mr Mohammed A Wumbei of NPP had 9,117 (30.01 per cent), Mr Iddi Aziz Iddisah of NRP 1,840 (6.09 per cent), Mr Kinjas S. Sulemana of CPP, 363 (1.19 per cent), Mr Nakugli Fusheini Mular of PNC had 278 votes (0.91 per cent) and Mr Baba A. Fusheini of UGM 175 voted (0.58 per cent).
Meanwhile the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) has declared its intention to contest for the Bimbilla seat. Mr Dan Lartey leader of the party told the GNA in an interview that the party had started working on the ground and waiting for the official declaration of vacancy.
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Wa (Upper West) 07 February 2002 – The Government has banned the importation and sale of potassium bromide because its use could cause cancer, low sperm count in men and could affect women's genes.
Mr. Kwamena Van-Ess, Head of the Food Division of the Foods and Drugs Board announcing this at a meeting of the Bakers Association at Wa on Tuesday, said the board had intensified educational programmes to combat the sale of unwholesome food and drugs as they had negative effects on the health of persons who used them.
Mr. Van-Ess said measures had also been intensified at all the country's entry points to curb the influx of such banned drugs and urged officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service and the Ghana Immigration Service to assist to achieve this goal.
He advised the bakers to add Vitamin C as supplement to their bread and other products instead of using potassium bromide, which had negative effects on the health of consumers.
Mr. Van-Ess urged district assemblies to register all bakers in their areas so that those who flouted the ban could be identified and punished. He said the board would organise a series of workshops and seminars to sensitise bakers and other food vendors on the dangers of consuming unwholesome food. Mr. Van-Ess said the board was carrying out market surveillance in some selected areas throughout the country to access how food and drugs were handled.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - The Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) at Akyem Tafo, is one of the key institutions to be visited by Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, during his three-day visit to Ghana.
Sources at the Presidency said Mr Blair would take a trip to Tafo to afford him the opportunity to familiarise himself with the cocoa industry as part of UK's interest in trade globalisation. Cocoa has for many years been Ghana's biggest foreign exchange earner. Ghana has always been among the first three on the table of producers in the world.
A document from the British High Commission in Accra said the institute was selected basically because of the importance of cocoa to the national economy and the role the cash crop plays in the relations between Ghana and Britain. The CRIG was established at Tafo (Akim Abuakwa) in June 1938 as the Central Cocoa Research Station of the Gold Coast Department of Agriculture.
At the time of its establishment, cocoa production in the Eastern Region, the cradle of the industry, was declining due to pest and disease outbreaks and the station was set up to investigate the problems and introduce control measures. In 1943 the station was expanded to form the West African Cocoa Research Institute (WACRI).
After Ghana's independence in 1957 and Nigeria's independence in 1960, WACRI was dissolved, giving birth to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN).
In Ghana, CRIG came under the administration of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. From October 1973-October 1976 CRIG was managed as a subsidiary of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (GCMB).
It was then placed under the Ministry of Cocoa Affairs. The Ministry was dissolved in July 1979 and the Institute reverted to the management by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
The CRIG has 35 highly trained professionals in various scientific disciplines and 175 technical staff. All professional and technical staffs live on the site. It carries out research into problems relating to the production of cocoa, coffee, kola, sheanut and other indigenous oil tree crops that produce fats similar to cocoa butter.
It also provides information and advice on all matters relating to the production of the crops. Among the most notable achievements of CRIG are:Characterisation of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot disease as a virus and the discovery of mealy bugs as vectors in early 1940s, understanding of the relationship between cocoa shade and nutrition yield between 1959-1963 and development of early bearing and high yielding hybrids in 1964.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it undertook a further isolation and characterisation of Cocoa Swollen shoot and development of diagnostic methods. Also in the 1980s and 1990s it undertook the development of pectin, alcoholic drinks, animal feed and jelly as by-product from cocoa wastes and the development of cosmetics and soaps from cocoa butter and related fats.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - The Minister of Environment and Science, Professor Dominic Kwaku Fobih on Wednesday gave Vanef STC an ultimatum of three months to install a separator in their drainage system to prevent the company from dislodging oil waste into the Odaw River.
The Odaw River leads into the Korle Lagoon and both are under rehabilitation to restore them to their ecological status of supporting aquatic life. Prof Fobih gave the ultimatum during a tour of Vanef STC and other industries in the South Industrial. Officials of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accompanied him.
The tour followed complaints about effluents being discharged by automobile industries concentrated in the south industrial area, within the Korle Lagoon catchment area into the Odaw River.
The industries visited by the Minister and his team were, Toyota Ghana Company Limited, Mechanical Lloyd, Ghana Rubber Product Limited, Fan Milk Limited, Freedom Textile Industry Limited, Accra Brewery Limited and Vanef STC.
Vanef STC has no environmental management plan, leading to the discharge of effluent into a drain that discharged into the Odaw River. Although most of the other industries had Environmental Management Plans, they had defaulted in the submission of their monthly and annual reports to the EPA.
Industrial companies are by law required to submit environmental management plans and annual environmental reports to the EPA. Vanef STC, however, did not have any environmental management plan. It had neither dirty oil collection point nor oil interceptors to collect oil waste from the drains. The soil around the workshop was heavily soaked with oil, which could kill plant life.
The Minister expressed satisfaction with the environmental management policy of Toyota Ghana Company Limited, Mechanical Lloyd and Fan milk Limited and urged them to continue to set examples for the other companies to follow.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 07 February 2002 - Brong Ahafo Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Nsoatre near Sunyani with effect from Wednesday, February 6.
A statement issued in Sunyani on Wednesday and signed by the Chairman of the REGSEC, Mr Ernest Debrah, who is also the Regional Minister, explained that the decision stemmed from the killing of one person inside the Nsoatre palace at dawn on Wednesday.
The statement cautioned all residents of the town to strictly observe the curfew and co-operate with the security personnel sent to maintain peace and order. "All should note that curfew breakers will be dealt with according to law," the statement added.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) on Wednesday explained that it had no contractual agreement with residents of Teshie-Nungua SSNIT/GREDA Estate to provide social amenities in the area.
Mr Togbor Mensah, former President of GREDA, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the association only sold the houses to the residents and the infrastructural development was the responsibility of the government.
Reacting to allegations by a cross section of residents during a tour of the area by the Ms Theresa Tagoe, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing (MWH), that GREDA and SSNIT had failed to fulfil their part of the obligation to provide infrastructure, Mr Mensah recalled that the residents' association in July 2000 sent a petition to Professor John Evans Atta Mills, former Vice President that GREDA and SSINT had failed to construct proper drainage system and roads within the estate.
He said the former Vice President initiated action through the Ministry of Works and Housing, assuring them that the government would include the infrastructure development of the estate in the next budget.
Mr Mensah noted that although the infrastructure was not provided before the change of government, what the association should have done was to draw the attention of the new Deputy Minister to the action, which was documented at the ministry.
"There is no need for the residents to employ media propaganda to draw unnecessary public sympathy to the obvious." Mr Mensah urged the residents' association to adopt consultative mechanism and join GREDA executives to draw the attention of the Ministry of Works and Housing to the existing agreement.
Mr Mensah deplored the attitude of linking business entities with political parties especially the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to seek favours with the current government. "This is not healthy for national development and the growth of business.
"GREDA is a business entity and ready to serve the nation and reduce the housing problem in the country through effective, efficient and affordable housing," he said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - Mr Ben C. Eghan, Chief Director of the Ministry of Manpower and Employment, said on Wednesday that the National Council on Disability, which would promote the rights of people with disability, would be placed before Parliament this month.
This would harmonise and co-ordinate the implementation of the National Disability Policy launched in 2000. It is also to ensure that opportunities existed for them to receive education and training for gainful employment and have access to social services.
Opening a nine-month professional training course for rehabilitation workers for the blind and visually impaired persons in West Africa, Mr Eghan said to promote community-based rehabilitation of persons with disabilities the ministry introduced and implemented a community-based rehabilitation programme, which was going on in four regions.
The eight participants are from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and Ghana. Seven out of the eight are being fully sponsored by Sight Savers International while the eighth, one of three from Ghana, is partly sponsored by the Jasiksn District Assembly in the Volta Region.
The course, modular in design, includes medical and low vision rehabilitation, introduction to projects, finance and office management, introduction to the management of rehabilitation programme and psychosocial rehabilitation.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - A Cape Coast Chief on Wednesday said British Prime Minister Tony Blair should visit the town during his three-day visit to Ghana from Thursday.
According to the GNA, Nana Kweku Egyir Gyepi III, Senior Divisional Chief of Cape Coast, who telephoned it’s offices in Accra, and said the town had been the capital of the Gold Coast and had several monuments named after the British monarch.
He said it would be appropriate for the Prime Minister of Britain, the colonial ruler of Ghana, to visit the town. "We have the Queen Victoria Park with her bust sitting next to the Cape Coast Castle. We have Queen Ann's Point. They are reflections of the British history," Nana Gyepi said.
According to him, about one year ago, he urged the British High Commission to help put back into shape the Queen Victoria Park, where big events at Cape Coast are held.
Mr Blair, who arrives on Thursday night, is scheduled to make only one visit outside Accra and that will be to the Cocoa Research Institute at Tafo. He will have talks with President John Agyekum Kufuor and visit the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 February 2002 - Health Communicators Institute (HCI), made up of media practitioners and health officials, has been formed to help journalists to accurately report on health issues.
The Institute, established in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, would also help media practitioners gain access to information from the ministry and other related agencies.
A statement in Accra on Wednesday said Ms Eunice Menka of the Ghana News Agency was elected president, Mr Edmund Kofi Yeboah of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation as the Vice and Ms Golda Armah of Graphic Communications Group as the Secretary.
The rest are Ms Sarah Gaisie of TV3 treasurer, Mr Norman Cooper, Ghanaian Times, Public Relations Officer, and Dr Ken Sagoe, Head of the Human Resource Division of the Ministry, patron.
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