Accra (Accra Greater) 08 February 2002-The Fast Track High Court (FTHC) trying the Quality Grain Company case on Thursday directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to grant the defence access to Aveyime to value the rice Project.
Mr Justice Kwame Afreh, an Appeal Court Judge sitting as an additional High Court Judge ruled that the Defence should be given the same assistance as was given to the Prosecution.
Mr Kwaku Baah, counsel for Kwame Peprah, former Finance Minister, one of the five accused persons, had earlier prayed the court to allow the defence team to visit the site, to value the project.
The former Finance Minister, together with four others are facing charges of conspiracy to commit crime and causing financial loss of over 20 million Dollars to the state. All the accused persons have denied the charges and the court has granted them self-recognisance bail.
They are Ibrahim Adam, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Samuel Dapaah; former Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; George Yankey, former Director of the Legal Sector, Private and Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance, Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff.
Shortly after the ruling, Nana Adjei Ampofo, Counsel for Dadzie, who was at the verge of closing his defence, told the court that he would no longer call former President Jerry John Rawlings to testify in the case. He did not give any reason.
Nana Adjei also stated that he had declined to continue with an appeal, which he filed at the Appeal Court. In the course of the proceedings, he requested that a copy of the recordings should be given to him for his study, but according to him, the Court Registrar asked him to pay for the cost.
Based on this, he had argued that the recordings should have been given to him without cost. Ms Gloria Akuffo, Deputy Attorney General, said if the defence wanted an interpretation on the cost, regarding the recordings, then it was a matter of going to the Appeal Court.
Mr Osafo Sampong, Director of Public Prosecution, told the court that he did not have any objection or comment to make. The Presiding Judge said he could not do anything about it, since it was purely an administrative matter. Proceeding continues on Tuesday, February 19.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday said this year marks the watershed in Ghana's socio-economic development.
Friendly and donor countries should, therefore, endeavour to offer all the needed assistance to move the country away from its present socio-economic stagnation, President Kufuor said when welcoming British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the Castle, Osu in Accra.
President Kufuor was at Kotoka Airport in Accra to welcome Prime Minister Blair, who arrived aboard a British Airways Boeing 777 on Thursday evening for a three-day official visit, after visiting Nigeria.
President Kufuor said it was destiny that brought both Ghana and Britain together to form a partnership some centuries ago. Since independence in 1957 Britain has supported Ghana through thick and thin, he said.
He said Ghana's independence ushered into Africa a more positive progress in development but unfortunately since that period things have not been rosy for Ghana.
"Everything has been in a mess but now we have a new crop of leadership at the helm of affairs determined to make a positive change in the lives of the people for the world to see."
He said the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative was to provide breathing space for the economy to grow, adding that Africa, was searching for its proper place in globalisation. He expressed the hope that with Prime Minister Blair's visit, Britain would continue to support the continent to achieve its objective.
Prime Minister Blair pledged his support to assist Ghana in the challenges ahead to ensure that the positive change being envisaged by the government in the lives of the people was achieved.
He said he was delighted and thrilled to be in Ghana to express his appreciation for the strong friendship between the two countries. Among those present at the Castle were Vice President Aliu Mahama and Ministers of State.
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Bolgatanga (Upper East) 08 February 2002 - A Bolgatanga circuit court bonded four persons to be of good behaviour for 15 months for defying orders by a Catholic Parish Council not to use the church's facility for a record dance.
Maclean Ayamga, a revenue collector, Joe Zankanga Anaba, a teacher, Fredrick Asampana, a watchman and a sub-chief, Astisuure Thomas, a farmer, all of Gowrie, a farming community in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region pleaded guilty for disturbing public peace.
The complainant, the Reverend David Ayariga, Parish Priest for the Bongo Catholic Church, told the court that the Parish Council had placed a ban on organising record dance at all Catholic Social Centres in the area because of the repercussions it had on the church.
Rev. Ayariga said when the accused persons approached him for permission to organise a record dance at the centre at Bongo he refused, reminding them of the
Council's decision but they carried out their intention.
Passing sentence, the Circuit Court judge, Mr Albert Kouro advised persons in the area to embark on more important programmes such as seminars on HIV/AIDS, water bone diseases or on agriculture at the catholic centres in particular and if the accused had done so the church would not have dragged them to court.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - The Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College where British Prime Minister Tony Blair is visiting on Friday morning is the highest training institution of the Ghana Armed Forces.
It offers 11-month training to midstream officers of the rank of Major, Lieutenant Colonel and their counterparts in the Navy and Air Force. It aims at developing the professional knowledge and understanding of the officers in their preparation for the assumption of increased responsibility as Staff Officers or Commanders.
The GAFSC also offers a Masters Programme in International Relations and a Diploma in Public Administration. Officers from other African countries such as Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, and some Southern and Eastern African countries patronise the College.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - The Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) at Akyem Tafo, which Prime Minister Tony Blair would visit on Friday is very crucial for Ghana's cocoa production.
For decades, cocoa has been the mainstay of Ghana's economy. Ghana has always been among the first three on the table of producers in the world. Cocoa production has been well above the 300,000-tonnes mark for several years after drought and bushfires led to the plummeting of production to less than 200,000 tonnes.
Production for the 1996/97-crop year was 322,488 tonnes, rising to 409,382 tonnes in 1997/98. Production slipped to 397,675 tonnes in 1998/99, rose to 436,946 in 1999/2000 and then dipped to 389,800 tonnes in 2000/2001-crop year.
Sources at the Presidency said Mr Blair's trip would afford him the opportunity to familiarise himself with the cocoa industry as part of UK's interest in trade globalisation.
A document from the British High Commission in Accra said the institute was selected basically because of the importance of cocoa to Ghana economy and the role the cash crop plays in the relations between Ghana and Britain.
Ghana's total value of cocoa exports to the UK in 1996/97 was 79.3 million dollars, rising to 122.8 million dollars in 1997/98 and 153.7 million cedis in 1998/99. The value slumped to 36.7 million dollars in 1999/2000 and rose slightly to 63.6 million dollars in 2000/2001. The CRIG was established at Tafo (Akyem 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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Wa (Upper West) 07 February 2002 - The Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) has directed all government departments, ministries and agencies in the region to document and regularise all lands they acquire.
The directive contained in a circular letter dated February 5, and copied to all regional heads was necessitated by the emerging phenomena of litigations over lands in the region.
Alhaji Alhassan Issahaku, Deputy Regional Co-ordinating Director who signed the letter, noted that, "indeed litigations are emerging even on lands which were given out freely for the simple reason that the cost of land continues to appreciate."
The circular expressed fears about the possible effect on projects that might require land acquisition. It called on all relevant land acquisition agencies to facilitate the process for the departments.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 08 February 2002 - A Kumasi High Court has issued an order of limited injunction restraining the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Subin-Metro Council and the assemblyman for New Amakom from continuing with the development of shops at the sanitary area at Afful-Nkwanta in Kumasi.
The court, presided over by Justice Francis Kusi-Appiah, further restrained the defendants from doing anything that would obstruct the use of the sanitary area and in particular the 30-seater place of convenience for 14 days.
The court, however, indicated that the defendants reserved the right to return to court to get the order discharged. Mr Kofi Nsiah, the plaintiff in an affidavit in support of his claim, said he was granted permission by the Subin Metro Council to construct a toilet facility and operate it under a "franchise" management agreement.
Based on that he constructed a 30-seater water closet toilet at a cost of 240 million cedis on the land the Council earmarked for sanitary purposes. The plaintiff said under the franchise agreement he pays 240,000 cedis to the KMA at the end of every month. The facility was being operated without any impediment until about a month ago when the Council and the Assemblyman started constructing shops on part of land.
He said the defendants were carrying out their illegal development with haste, adding "the construction of the shops is such that their completion will make it impossible to empty the cesspit anytime it is full".
He said notwithstanding the fact that he would lose the money he invested in the provision of the facility, the shops were being built in such a manner that if the defendants were not restrained, the water closet would be destroyed and the people would be denied the benefit of its use.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - The Students Representative Council (SRC) of Accra Polytechnic on Thursday said they would not call off their strike to protest against the grading system in the polytechnics.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, Mr Samuel Yeboah, SRC President, said the student body would continue with the strike "for as long as it will take to bring home to the authorities our demands for better grading system, academic progression and recognition at the work place."
Mr Yeboah, who was flanked by other executive members of the SRC, said the students had been negotiating since 1997 but "nothing has come out of the negotiations. "We have negotiated, boycotted lectures with nothing coming out till today. This time round we are asking for pragmatic approach to solving the problem."
The Ghana National Union of Polytechnics Students (GUNPS) on January 22 went on a demonstration through some principal streets of Accra resolving not to resume lectures unless the government suspended the new performance grading system to allow proper negotiation to take place.
The new performance grading system places 50 per cent as the pass mark. Mr Yeboah said it had come to the notice of students that the government was treating the students the same way that the previous government did without addressing their grievances.
He said in as much as they cherished the democratic dispensation that people had the right to freedom of expression and choice of movement, "We are also aware that when situations such as this erupts, certain individuals capitalise on it to satisfy their personal and selfish interest".
Mr Yeboah said the SRC had observed that some political fanatics had "associated this just cause with political influence" adding that people should stop drawing political lines around their legitimate concerns.
The GNUPS presented a resolution to President John Agyekum Kufuor through the Minister of Education Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi on their grievances.
The petition called on the President to intervene, as a matter of urgency, in the impasse between the Ministry of Education, National Board of Polytechnic Examination (NABPEX) and the student body.
The GNUPS listed six areas in contention to include the academic progression of the Higher National Diploma (HND) graduate, job placement of the HND graduate, autonomy of the polytechnics, lack of adequate academic and administrative staff, basic academic and residential infrastructure and the implementation of Ken P. Brown and Professor F.O. Kwami's reports.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - Mr Akwesi Akumeah Kyeremanteng, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, on Thursday called for an effective legislation that would ban smoking and advertisement of tobacco products in the country.
"It is unfortunate that there is no legislation to that effect. What is there is only a directive banning smoking from public places," he said. Mr Kyeremanteng, who made the call when he chaired a day's sensitisation workshop for parliamentarians on tobacco in Accra, said effective control of tobacco required both public health and legislative interventions.
The workshop was under the theme: "Working together for a future without tobacco". Mr Kyeremanteng said with such a law tobacco smoking could not be banned and no prosecution could be done because it had not become a law.
"Tobacco production cannot be banned totally since it has an international trade backing," he said. Mr Kyeremanteng said parliamentarians had issued statements on the harmful effects of smoking and were still advocating for a law to check the activities of the tobacco producers.
He noted that enactment of a law in Ghana takes a long time and urged the public to join other concerned agencies to advocate for a law quickly. Every year, four million people die globally as a result of the harmful effects of tobacco use and this figure, according to the World Health Organisation, was likely to increase as more and more young people take to smoking.
It is estimated that by 2020, tobacco would become the leading cause of death and disability; killing 10 million people a year, with 70 per cent of them in developing countries.
Dr Sam Adjei, Acting Director of the Ghana Health Service, said the prevalence rate of smoking among adolescents was rising and that the age of "initiation" had dipped below 18 years. He expressed regret that there was no explicit Act of Parliament that prohibited advertisement and which prescribed sanctions when flouted.
Dr Adjei urged the parliamentarians to ensure that a legislation that would ban smoking from public places, increase taxes, prohibit selling of cigarettes to children under 18 and prosecute smuggling of tobacco products into the country, among other things, was put in place.
Dr Samuel Sackey, Head of the Disease Control Unit of the Ghana Health Service, said the smoke from a lit cigarette contained dangerous chemicals that caused cancer of the lung, mouth, bladder, pancreas and larynx. He said though the government received huge sums of money from the producers, the life of the people especially the youth should be more important.
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Lawra (Upper West) 08 February 2002 - Productivity in the Upper West Region is likely to reduce if measures were not taken to curb the rising cases of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) in the region.
Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister, who gave this caution at Lawra during the regional launching of iodated salt, explained that the disease was becoming endemic in Lawra and Jirapa/Lambussie Districts.
He called on health workers and other collaborators to step up education programmes on the use of iodated salt particularly in the rural areas, where cases were on the increase.
Mr Mogtari also called on salt producers in the country to repackage their product into smaller sachets that would be affordable to people in the rural areas. He appealed to the security agencies to tighten security at the entry points to check traders, who smuggle un-iodated salt into the country.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - The British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Accra on Thursday for a three-day visit. His host, President John Agyekum Kufuor who led an official welcoming delegation, met him at the foot of the gangway.
Prime Minister Blair, who arrived from Nigeria, is on a four-nation West African tour that would also take him to Sierra Leone and Senegal. A detailed programme on the visit released by the Ministry of Information in Accra said Prime Minister Blair, would hold bilateral talks with President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Castle, Osu.
On Friday morning, he would visit the Military Academy and Training School (MATS) at Teshie, where he would hold discussions with serving and retired military officers on peacekeeping and conflict resolution.
He would address Parliament before continuing his visit to the Eastern Region, where he would call on the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin at the Ofori Panin Fie, Kyebi, on Friday and visit the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRAIG) at Akyem Tafo and the Nankese Akuapa Co-operative Society to interact with the members.
He would make a stopover at Suhum on his return to Accra. During the day, Baronness Lynda Chalker, who would be in the entourage, would hold discussions with the Economic Management Team behind closed doors. Mr Blair leaves Ghana on Saturday morning to continue his four-nation tour of West Africa to Sierra Leone and Senegal.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 February 2002 - Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, who arrived in Ghana on Thursday for a three-day visit as part of a four-nation West African tour, is the son of a barrister and lecturer. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 6, 1953. He was educated at Fettes, studied Law at Oxford and went on to become a barrister himself, according to material from the British High Commission.
After standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in a by-election, Blair went on to win the seat of Sedgefield in the 1983 General Election at age 30. Blair made a speedy rise through the ranks, being promoted first to the shadow Treasury front bench in 1985. He subsequently served as a Trade and Industry spokesman, before being elected to the Shadow Cabinet in 1988, where he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Energy. In 1989 he moved to the employment brief.
After the 1992 election, Labour's new leader, John Smith, promoted Blair, making him Shadow Home Secretary. It was at this post that Blair made famous his pledge that Labour would be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime."
John Smith died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1994 and in the subsequent leadership contest, Blair won a large majority of his party's support. Blair immediately launched his campaign for the modernisation of the Labour Party, determined to complete the shift further towards the political centre, which he saw as essential for victory.
The debate over Clause four of the party's constitution was considered the crucial test of whether its members would commit to Blair's project. He successfully removed the commitment to public ownership and at this time coined the term, New Labour. The Labour Party went on to win the 1997 General Election by a landslide, after 18 years in Opposition.
The government began to implement a far-reaching programme of constitutional change, putting the question of devolution to referendums in Scotland and Wales, establishing an elected post of Mayor of London at the head of a new capital-wide authority and removing all but 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords in the first stage of its reform. The Labour Government has also implemented an investment programme of 42 billion pounds in its priority areas of health and education.
Blair was re-elected with another landslide majority in the 2001 General Election. Tony Blair is married to Barrister, Cherie Booth and they have four children. Their youngest, Leo, was the first child born to a serving British Prime Minister in over 150 years.
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