Central Regional Police look for 13 National students
Friday, February 22nd is a public holiday
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - An Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) trying Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), for wilfully causing financial loss to the State, on Monday stayed proceedings pending the determination of his motion at the Supreme Court.
Mr Tsatsu is challenging the legality of the FTC and since this is a matter that needs constitutional interpretation, it is only the Supreme Court that has the mandate to do so.
Mr Justice Julius Ansah, the trial judge, said it was a fundamental issue that needed constitutional interpretation. His court had no alternative than to stay proceedings to await the outcome of the motion pending before the Supreme Court and accordingly adjourned the case to Monday, March 4.
According to the former GNPC boss, the FTC was not recognised by the Constitution and, therefore, its existence was unconstitutional. At the court's first sitting on Tuesday, February 12, his counsel, Mr E.V.O. Dankwah raised a preliminary objection that the FTC had no jurisdiction to try his client.
Mr Justice Ansah entered a plea of not guilty for Tsatsu and admitted him to self-recognisance bail in the sum of 500 million cedis. Tsatsu allegedly circumvented laid-down corporate objectives of GNPC when he by-passed its Board and committed the corporation to guarantee a loan of 5.5 million French francs by a French aid agency, Caisse Francaise de Developpement.
The money went to Valley Farm, a private cocoa-growing company, in which GNPC held an initial equity share of 17.39 per cent. Having found itself in distress, Valley Farm could not pay back the loan and without prior approval of the GNPC Board, Tsatsu paid the principal loan plus interest totalling 6,919,123.23 French francs out of the corporation's operational funds. Tsatsu's action adversely affected the financial status of GNPC, hence a loss to the State, the Prosecution said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Health, on Monday gave the assurance that by the end of 2004, more than 40 per cent of Ghanaians would be covered by the health insurance scheme, currently being developed to replace the cash and carry system.
"The government stands by its promises to the people of Ghana to replace the cash and carry system of payment of health care with a health insurance scheme." Dr Afriyie was speaking at a consultative forum on health insurance in Accra. The forum, under the theme: "fashioning out a policy framework-the way forward," was organised by the ministry.
The Minister said although a health insurance bill would be laid before Parliament in March this year, "there is still a lot more to be done in other aspects of health insurance in order to make it operational." He said a committee has been set up to study and make proposals on areas such as, actuarial review and costing.
The cash and carry system, which involves paying for health services at the point of service delivery, has been described as harsh on the poor, who are unable to access health services.
Dr Afriyie said it has been observed that attendance at health care facilities have in most cases either stagnated or declined over the years with the introduction of "fee for service" at the time of use.
"The current mode of payment for health service has, therefore, become a barrier to accessing quality health care." He said 47 organisations are being assisted to set up a mutual health insurance scheme, which involved non-profit organisations in the communities.
Dr S. A. Akor, Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Health Ministry, said health care financing still involved tax revenues and donor funding of about 80 per cent and 20 per cent of internally generated funds, known as the cash and carry system, which would now have to be replaced with health insurance.
He said within five years, 30 to 40 per cent of the population would be covered with a scheme, while in the medium-term, covering five to 10 years, 50 to 60 per cent of the population would also be covered by the insurance scheme.
"In the long-term, every resident of Ghana shall belong to a health insurance plan that adequately covers him or her against the need to pay out of pocket or at the point of service use," Dr Akor added.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Foreign Affairs, on Monday gave the assurance that remedial measures had been put in place to ensure that "passport contractors" were eliminated while applicants for passports could have them within four weeks.
In case of any delays, a hot desk had been placed at the ministry for remedial measures to be taken. A telephone hotline, (021) 684711, has been installed and has been on trial for the past two weeks, Owusu-Agyemang told a Press briefing in Accra to explain measures being taken by the Ministry to educate the public on the new arrangements on the issuance of passports and the elimination of fake passport contractors.
There were 175,000 applications for passports at the end of last year. Mr Owusu-Agyemang said there had been gross abuse of diplomatic passport and to restore sanity and integrity in the system, 1,800 were withdrawn last year while 660 new ones had been issued to those qualified to carry diplomatic passports.
The Minister said a standby generator had been installed to ensure uninterruptible power supply adding that the staff had worked continuously for the past seven months and sometimes at weekends to process the backlog.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the exercise had been fruitful as it had reduced the backlog to only one month adding; "we will continue so that the longest waiting period would be one month while foreign missions should not exceed two weeks".
He gave the assurance that it would now be possible for one to acquire a passport within one month from any part of the country, stressing that there was no need to contact the fake passport contractors for any assistance.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the measures were meant to save the public from unnecessary queues and payment of between 400,000 cedis and 500,000 cedis for a passport.
On what measures to stop foreigners from acquiring and using Ghanaian passports, the Minister said the system was being tightened with vigorous checks to verify the information normally on the application forms.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said Ghana had still not put in place the mechanism for the issuance of the ECOWAS passport as was agreed by the heads of state of ECOWAS countries.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - The tussle over the ownership of a Mercedes Benz C240 has taken a dramatic turn with the defendant in the case filing a civil suit against the Nigerian claimant.
Mr Joseph Basie Haizel, Director of Jobesh Car Rental company, defendant now plaintiff, is seeking an order from the High Court to declare that the
Mercedes Benz he bought in Accra is his. Mr Ufouma Omorode, the Nigerian and Yaw Boakye an Accra-based businessman are the defendants.
Mr Omorode and Mr Haizel are each laying claim to the car, which was seized by Interpol Accra in collaboration with Interpol Lagos after the manufacturers, Daimler Chrysler in Germany, through their agents in Lagos, realised that the car commissioned to Nigeria had surfaced in Ghana.
Mr Haizel claims he bought the vehicle from a Nigerian at Osu but Mr Omorode had presented documents certifying that he bought the car from Daimler Chrysler in Stuttgart, Germany, through their agent in Lagos. Mr Omorode said the car was taken from him at gunpoint on the night of December 12, 2000 at Doplin Estates in Ikoyi in Lagos.
The suit of Haizel, a copy of which was made available to the Ghana News Agency, is seeking an injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the plaintiff's rights as owner of the said vehicle and damages equivalent in dollars for the period of detention of the vehicle.
The suit is also seeking a declaration that the plaintiff is the bona fide purchaser for value without notice of the car with registration number GR 298 S. Mr Ekow Nyamakye Awoonor, an Accra-based legal consultant, representing the second defendant told the GNA that his client had received the suit and would respond accordingly.
He, however, noted that the writ was a strange one especially since Mr Haizel was facing a criminal charge of dishonestly receiving, which was a second degree felony.
Mr Awoonor said either the Police or the Attorney -General might have dropped the first case. Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, the Attorney -General, said he was not aware that the criminal charges against Mr Haizel had been dropped.
Mr James Abioduka, the Sate Attorney handling the case, also denied any knowledge of any attempt to drop the previous charges. "I do not have anything to do with the criminal charges only the civil one," he said. The GNA says its investigations at the Police Criminal Investigations Department confirmed that the Police were still pursuing the case at the court.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - The Fast Track Court presided over by Mrs Justice Agnes Dordzie, a High Court Judge, on Monday dismissed an application brought before it by Albert Hamid Odinga, who claims to be a Belize national, for unlawful arrest and detention.
Odinga, also known as Wilhelm Harrison Buller and Hamid Hamad Haidara, filed the application against his arrest and detention on June 9, last year by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI). He was arrested on suspicion that he was engaged in activities, which were incompatible with the security of the state.
Ruling on the motion, Mrs Justice Dordzie said she found the arrest and detention of the applicant lawful. She said the explanation offered by the BNI for keeping him was reasonable. "I, however, find the period he had been kept without effecting the deportation order rather long," she stressed.
She explained that the BNI claimed that they were finding it difficult to ascertain the nationality of the applicant. "This situation, I think, is the applicants own creation," the Judge added.
Mrs Dordzie noted that Odinga had several identities and under the circumstances, did not deem it fit to order his release. However, it would be unfair for him to be detained indefinitely.
She, therefore, ordered that after one month from Monday February 2002 if the BNI found it impracticable, it should make supervision order under Section 40 of the Immigration Act in respect of the applicant.
Arguing on the motion, attorney for the applicant, Mrs Akua Hayfrom-Benjamin, said on June 21, last year, the Minister of the Interior passed an Executive Instrument (EI), deporting her client from Ghana. However, the order had not been carried out and her client was still detained by the BNI, she said.
The application order was brought under the Habeas Corpus Act, 1964 (Act 244) praying for Odinga's release. Mrs Hayfrom-Benjamin submitted that the continuous detention of the applicant was unlawful.
She said upon the arrest of the applicant, he was charged under section 185 of the criminal code (criminal libel), but that the section of the criminal code had been replaced and, therefore, it was unlawful to continue to detain him.
Another ground for his detention, according to the counsel, was that her client was alleged to be an illegal immigrant. In that case it would be the Director of Immigration that could detain him with a repatriation order.
In respect of the deportation order, Mrs Hayfrom-Benjamin submitted that the Minister of the Interior alone had the power to detain a person in respect of whom he had made a deportation order.
She said it was unlawful for the Director of BNI to detain the applicant. The Counsel further argued that even if there was a valid deportation order pending against the applicant, there had been unreasonable delay in effecting it.
In replying, Mr Eric Agboloso, Chief State Attorney, who is the attorney for the respondents - the Minister of the Interior and the BNI, stated that the applicant was arrested because the security agencies had information that he was indulging in activities which were incompatible with the state and that he was deported from the country in 1980 for the same offence.
"He illegally re-entered the country in 1989 and had lived in the country since then, without any valid resident permit." He said Odinga was detained awaiting his deportation.
Mr Agboloso conceded that there had been delay in effecting the deportation, but explained that this was because the applicant had not been truthful about his identity.
He said the applicant used different names at different times. He claimed to be a Belize national, but the Belize authorities were yet to identify him as their national, the State Attorney said.
Mr Agboloso told the court that there was an exercise going on involving the United States and Britain to ascertain Odinga's true nationality and when completed, Odinga would be sent to his country of origin.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 19 February 2002 - The Brong Ahafo Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Regional Minister, Mr Ernest Akubour Debrah to take action on alleged attacks on its supporters and their property in some parts of the region.
In a statement signed by Alhaji Kwadwo Maama Adam, Regional Chairman, the party said the NDC was completely taken aback by the Minister's denial of the alleged attacks and molestation.
"This is due to the fact that on February 5, 2002, Alhaji Kwadwo Maama, as the Regional Chairman of the NDC, wrote an official petition to the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) of which the Regional Minister is the chairman. "It is unfortunate that the honourable Regional Minister has not investigated the issue but has already denied them".
The statement added that by denying the allegations the Minister had only tried to divert attention from action required of him as the chairman of the REGSEC. "We would want to state in no uncertain terms that the B.A. NDC would not be diverted from the substantive issues as stated in the petition", the statement said.
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Bolgatanga (Upper East) 19 February 2002 - Ten boreholes serving a number of communities in the Bongo District of the Upper West Region have been sealed because water in the wells contain more fluoride than is required for human consumption.
Mrs Brendina Batiir, Regional Director of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), announced this on Monday, when she presented the 2001
CWSA Regional Review Report at Bolgatanga.
She said the chemical contamination could be found in other parts of the region and called for the collaborative effort of neighbouring districts and non-governmental organisations involved in water delivery to help halt the trend.
Mrs Batiir stressed the need for sound environmental sanitation practices, saying, that was the best way the people could be assured of safe water. The Regional Director said even where clean water was provided, it could still be contaminated through the receptacles used in drawing it and advised the people to use clean containers.
She expressed regret that government departments and organisations in the region owed the Water and Sanitation Board about 20 billion cedis and said this was affecting its operations.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 19 February 2002 - The Brong Ahafo Regional Secretariat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed concern about the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government's inability to accept responsibility for its actions and inaction's but rather blaming their inefficiencies on NDC.
In a press statement, signed by Alhaji Kwadwo Maama Adam, NDC Regional Chairman, the NDC said NPP officials, "rush falsely to conclude issues without investigations and later return to apologise".
The statement made reference to the NPP government's initial explanation and justification for the misconduct of the operatives of the National Bureau of Investigations (BNI) at the residence of former Vice President John Evans Atta Mills and its later decision to apologise and to suspend those found to have been involved in the infamous drama of harassing Mrs Naadu Mills.
"As much as we welcome the NPP government's apology, we strongly deplore the characteristic NPP tactics of shifting everything negative on the NDC." The statement described such action as unfair but not surprising, since Alhaji Alhassan Malik, Minister of the Interior could go so low to the extent of claiming that NDC elements were causing bush fires.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Ethics Committee on Monday condemned the conduct of a reporter of the "Crusading Guide" who quoted the Chairman of the Media Commission, Mr Nutifafa Kuenyehia, without speaking to him and asked him to apologise.
Additionally, it said, Mr Amoportey Foster-Moore should publish a retraction in the "Crusading Guide" and his employers bill him for the full cost of the space for the apology and retraction.
A statement signed by Mrs Frances Ademola, Chairman of the Committee, said it found the conduct of the reporter reprehensible and in complete violation of journalistic ethics.
Mr Foster-Moore appeared before the GJA Ethics Committee on February 13 following a complaint against him by his Editor-in-Chief and publisher, Kwaku Baako for claiming that he had a chat with Mr. Kuenyehia, who had given him information about the premises occupied by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in his story headlined "Woes of NDC deepen".
The statement noted that in a rejoinder sent to the Crusading Guide, Mr Kuenyehia denied that he had any discussion with the reporter. The NMC chairman also said he did not know him. It said Mr. Foster-Moore admitted to the Committee that he did not have a chat with the chairman but published untruth in the story.
The committee said in arriving at its decision, it took cognisance of the reporter's youth and inexperience, but admonished him on his lack of appreciation of the import of the written word and his disregard for true facts. The Ethics Committee expressed its appreciation to Kweku Baako for his commitment to the promotion of journalistic ethics, the statement said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress (TUC), on Monday said the labour front was quiet as there were hardly any agitations.
"If anything, what we have now are worker complaints which do not constitute agitations. "When we talk of workers agitation, we mean public manifestation of worker grievances in the form of statements, resolutions, demonstrations and strikes."
Mr Adu-Amankwah was answering questions on what the Congress was doing to reduce the seemingly high number of worker agitations in the country at the beginning of a two-day training course for journalists.
The course, organised by the TUC in collaboration with the Media Foundation of West Africa, is aimed at equipping the 15 participants with skills and information to improve upon their reports on labour issues.
The topics included "History of the Ghana TUC", "Organisational Structure of the TUC", "Industrial Relations Act", "Labour Rights", "International Labour Laws and Conventions", "Collective Bargaining and the workings of the Tripartite Committee".
Mr Adu-Amankwah said the TUC was encouraging the merger of smaller unions to form bigger and stronger ones to enhance their viability to meet the demands of research, negotiations and payments.
He gave an example of the five different unions within the transport sector and said multiple and smaller labour groups within a single sector, compared to bigger ones, often lacked the numerical strength, viability and other resources to fight adequately for the interest of workers.
The TUC boss announced that it had entered into discussions with the government on a new minimum wage. He advised the labour reporters to use the expertise they would acquire to report accurately on labour issues to increase public understanding on labour issues.
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 19 February 2002 -The Cape Coast police are looking for 13 Ghana National College (GNC) students believed to be ring leaders of a rampage at the college over the weekend, which nearly disrupted teaching and learning.
The ASP Mr Henry Amankwatia, second in command of the Cape Coast district police who made this known to the Ghana News Agency on Monday said the suspected students are alleged to have all left the school and efforts are being made to arrest them.
He however, did not disclose the names of the suspects for security reasons and called on the public to help the police with the necessary information that would lead to their arrest. Mr. Amakwatia said police, who were sent to maintain peace and order at the college have since been withdrawn following relative peace on campus.
The headmaster, Mr Albert Aiduenu, blamed the media for their half truth publication on the issue, which he said nearly made the situation uncontrollable and called on the media to always cross-check their facts before publishing, adding that most of the things they reported on the situation were not true.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - The Ministry of the Interior on Monday announced that Friday, February 22, is a statutory public holiday and should be observed as such throughout the country.
This was contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Malik Al-Hassan Yakubu, sector Minister in Accra. The holiday is in connection with celebration of Eid-ul- Adha by Muslims.
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