Accra (Greater Accra) 20
February 2003- The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Wednesday expressed
regret at the rot that has engulfed the Ministry of Environment and Science
which had hitherto had Technology attached to it.
It said with the removal of
Technology from the Ministry all the department under the Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) "are confused as to which parent ministry
they relate to.
Alban Bagbin, NDC Minority
Leader in Parliament at a press conference held on two years of NPP
administration: A litany of broken promises and shattered dreams - Minority
perspectives, said that the confusion at that ministry has brought in its wake
inertia, despondency and low output.
"An NDC led government will
re-designate this Ministry to its former status as Ministry of Environment,
Science and Technology." He said the previous NDC government, realising
the key role the Ministry plays in the socio-economic development in the
country had promulgated the Science and Technology Policy document to provide a
blueprint for the development of the country to be based on Science and
Technology.
Bagbin said, "It is
regrettable that this all-embracing policy document has been abandoned by the
NPP government and left to gather dust on the shelves while adhoc policies are
adopted on Science and Technology application in the country.
"No wonder, President Kufuor's State of the Nation Addresses in 2001, 2002 and
2003 touched very little if anything at all about science and technology and
the environment."
He said the government's consideration
to grant applications for mining in the forest reserves in the Eastern,
Bagbin said, "The
experience of reclamation is that the mined out forest areas are never restored
to their original pristine condition before the bulldozers moved in." He
said the Ministry's poor handling of a reported case of cyanide spillage
endangered the lives of people, and the environment in the Western Region.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20
February 2003- Alhaji Abubakari Musah,
a Butcher at Ashaiman, on Wednesday told the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) the ex-president Jerry John Rawlings ordered
his release from the Gondar Barracks cells in 1979,
after he had been wrongfully arrested and tortured by one Corporal Peter Tasiri and five others.
Alhaji Musah
said in the wake of the
"I refused to sell to him
at the controlled prices he requested for, so he left in anger," he said.
"The following day at
He said in his house he was
given three slaps and his money, 1m CFA Francs, $350, his passport and his
Peugeot 504 car were taken from him, adding that he was then sent to the
Alhaji Musah
said at the
Alhaji Musah
said Tasiri was refused access to the cells until one
day Rawlings called for him (Musah) to be brought to
his office in the barracks. "Rawlings asked for the reasons for my arrest
and when he was told, he ordered my immediate release," he said. "He
even gave his personal car for me to be driven home."
He said later on
It was alleged that one RSM
Billy, Afriyie, Alhaji Mustapha, Alhaji Sulemana and
Col. Abittoe, who were declared dissidents at the
time, were allegedly based in
Alhaji Musah
said in four different interrogations, he denied knowledge of any such plot,
though he knew at least two of the alleged dissidents, adding that RSM Billy
once sold a corn mill machine to him and Alhaji Mustapha was his brother.
He said he was detained at the
BNI for four months and sent to the Usher Fort Prisons for another two years
five months without trial. "I was then taken to the tribunal at the State
House and on the account of some witnesses, I was sentenced to death by firing
squad," he said. "After three months of appeal, my appeal was
dismissed and I was put in the condemned cells at Nsawam
Prisons."
Alhaji Musah
said at Nsawam, 21 people were picked up from his
cell for execution but his sentence was changed to life imprisonment, adding
that after 14 years in prison he was released in 1997 for reasons not known to
him.
He said on his release he went
to Peter Nanfuri, Director of BNI at the time when
the BNI personnel seized his items and Nanfuri, who
had then become the IGP, referred him to one Gyan at
the BNI.
"I met Gyan
and he told me he did not know the whereabout of my items but gave me a letter
to be given to the Commission to make a formal request for my items," he
said.
Alhaji Musah
said till date he has not recovered his items, adding that as a result of his
imprisonment two of three wives married other men and all his 10 children have
become school dropouts.
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Mampong (Ashanti Region) 20 February
2003- The Asante-Mampong Divisional Police Command
has described as false a statement by the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) that Thomas Edward Atakorah,
Sekyere West District Chief Executive (DCE), ordered
the Police to arrest and place in cells Kwaku
Asamoah, the Assemblyman for Pinting.
Reacting to an NDC statement about
the incident in which the assemblyman was arrested for biting and chewing the
earlobe of the Mamponghene's umbrella bearer at the
last Akwasidae celebration, Chief Superintendent Opare Addo, the Mampong Divisional Police Commander, said the assemblyman did
not conduct himself well in the palace.
"His action obviously
warranted an arrest and it, therefore, sounds naïve for the NDC Regional
Secretariat to state that the action of the Mampong
Police was influenced by the DCE." Addo said the
assemblyman was brought to the front parlour of the Mamponghene's
palace a few seconds after he (District Commander) arrived at the palace.
He said he personally shepherded
the assemblyman to the Police station where he was placed in cells to keep him
out of the wrath of the angry crowd. "When he was later found to be
bleeding from a head injury he sustained from the angry crowd, he was taken to
the
Addo described the NDC statement as
an affront on the integrity of the Mampong Police and
said the Police were insulated from partisan politics and do not act on the
whims of any politician.
Meanwhile, the assemblyman was
on Monday put before the Mampong District Court for
intentionally and unlawfully causing harm to Kwame Asamoah Ansah
the umbrella bearer of the Mamponghene. He pleaded
not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of 50 million cedis to reappear on
28th February.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20
February 2003- The Minority has said that despite the spin and propaganda of
the New Patriotic Party's Administration it has become increasingly clear that
the period is a litany of broken promises and shattered dreams.
It said the government has
failed to raise any glimmer of hope in the people that their lives would get
any better in the fast diminishing period remaining of the NPP's
tenure of office.
Alban Bagbin, the Minority
leader said this at a Press Conference at Parliament House on Wednesday on
"Two years of NPP Administration: A litany of broken promises and
shattered dreams, the Minority's perspective".
He said, "after winning the mandate of the good people with sugar
coated promises of turning
Bagbin said lack of well thought
sectoral policies, inability to cut waste, extravagance in government and
over-reliance on increased taxes, tariffs and prices of basic products like
petroleum are all indications that the government has reached the end of its
wits in solving the challenges facing the country.
He said the bloated size of
government created by the recruitment of all manner of special assistants and
presidential aides, and a general lack of prioritisation in expenditure outlay
has constrained the investment budget and reduced government's ability to meet
the development expectations of the people.
The Minority Leader said in the
absence of any clear development programme of their own, the NPP has resorted
to the plagiarization of on-going NDC projects and in the past weeks many of
the initiated projects have been repackaged with accompanied sod-cutting and
commissioning and presented as achievements of the NPP government.
Bagbin said it was disheartening
and incomprehensible that at a time when the international economic environment
was most favourable to
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20
February 2003- The Minority in Parliament on Wednesday said the government has
paid "very little" attention to the mining sector over the past two
years resulting in extensive shut downs and a general reduction in the rate of
Foreign Direct Investment in the sector.
In a statement read by the
Minority leader, Alban Bagbin on "Two years of NPP Administration: A
litany of broken promises and shattered dreams", the Minority said a duty
of five per cent on specific mining imports was slapped on the sector by the
government.
"This brought to an end an
exemption, which was so pivotal in stimulating investment and production in the
gold mining sector," he said. Bagbin said the government announced after
the imposition of the five per cent duty that a committee was to be set up to
look at the issue of incentive for the mining industry in order to provide
recommendations to attract investors.
"It is clear that this was
a 'ghost' committee. After two years there have been no such
recommendations." Bagbin said the government had not indicated a clear
policy to address the problem of low levels of productivity and technology of
small-scale (galamsey) operators and its attendant
environmental damage.
He said with no clear policy on
even how to manage environmental damage and reclamation, of land degraded by
small-scale mining, government is on the verge of issuing licenses for
large-scale mining in the last remaining forest reserves in the Ashanti,
Eastern and Western regions. "This move will spell unmitigated
environmental disaster for
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20
February 2003- The Minority in Parliament on Wednesday criticised the
government's policy on agriculture policy saying the country has been relying
heavily on imported food since it came to power in 2001.
In statement read by Alban
Bagbin, Minority Leader, the Minority said despite the target of reducing rice
imports by 30 per cent, rice imports have actually doubled and there are now
more varieties of imported rice flooding the market, thus creating problems for
marketing locally-produced rice.
The statement was titled:
"Two years of NPP Administration: A litany of broken promises and
shattered dreams." The statement said from 1997 to 2000,
"The recent attempt by the
Minister of Agriculture to attribute the increased import figures to the use of
our ports by our landlocked neighbours is grossly misleading. Items meant for
neighbouring counties are captured in transit trade statistics."
Bagbin said imported poultry
products more than doubled from $1.1m in 2000 to $26m by June 2002 and
indications point to an even higher percentage by the close of 2002.
The Minority said in 2001,
Bagbin said the large increases
in license fees for the fishing industry from 450,000 cedis per boat in 2000 to
8.5m cedis in 2002, together with increased cost of inputs, is threatening to
collapse the local deep see fishing industry.
He said the result of this has
been an increase of fish importation from $110m in 2000 to almost $300m in
2002. Bagbin said yellow maize imports also increased from 5,000 tonnes in 2000
to 15,000 tonnes in 2001 and an estimated 20,000 tonnes in 2002.
The Minority said during the
year, the smuggling of cocoa continued because of the "bad pricing
policy" of the government, pointing out that the main attraction has been
the nearly 400,000 cedis difference per bag between the local price and what is
paid in Cote d'Ivoire.
The Minority said government
continues to pay a producer price of less than 50 per cent of the current
international market price of nearly $2,400 per tonne, adding that the current
producer price is 8.5m cedis per tonne compared to a world market price of over
20m cedis.
The minority said preliminary
figures released by COCOBOD indicate that $70m has been lost this year through
smuggling, adding that the only sure means of curtailing smuggling is by
removing the incentive through price mechanisms rather than physical policing
of the borders.
"It is ironical that the
same government which increases prices ostensibly to stop smuggling of
petroleum products does not see the need to increase the producer price of
cocoa to curtail smuggling."
Meanwhile, it said, cost of
inputs for the cocoa industry has risen adding that all these factors have
combined to displace
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 February
2003-The Police have busted an armed robbery gang known as 'Al Qaeda' which has been terrorising residents within the
Accra and Kumasi metropolis.
The gang was involved in an
armed robbery incident at the residence of Reverend Owusu Ansah
at Achimota where a man and his son who were witnesses to the robbery were shot
dead in July last year.
Bright Oduro,
Regional Crime Officer told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that among some of the
arrested suspects are Tony Nana Yaw Owusu, 23, Nana Kwame Agyeman, Jones Appiah
and Habib. The others are Odartey
Lamptey and Ali.
He said some of the suspects have
allegedly confessed that they conspired with others in the Ashanti Mampong bank robbery where two policemen lost their lives
in an exchange of fire in June 2001.
He said some of the suspects
were arrested at dawn last Saturday at Darkuman, Kwashieman and Alogboshie and
Achimota. He disclosed that up to 140 robberies have been recorded between November last year to date while about 52 suspected robbers
are in police custody pending investigations.
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Adeiso (Eastern Region)
The 25-member team of Doctors,
Nurses, Pharmacists and Evangelists from the Medical Missions International
would be in the country for a week. Pastor Kingsley Anderson of the
Others are Nsawam,
Dago Offada and Bawjiase. Pastor
Anderson said the Americans after the initial visit would come to
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 February
203- A three-day training of trainers workshop on marketing and export business
development of pepper and okro opened in Accra on
Wednesday with a call on farmers to increase the production capacity of horticultural
commodities for export.
Major (Rtd)
Courage Quashigah, Minister of Food and Agriculture
(MOFA), in a speech read for him said the horticultural sector of the ministry
was faced with constraints that militate against the successful entry of such commodities
into the world market.
He mentioned lack of knowledge
and skills about post harvest handling techniques, storage of commodities,
suitable packaging of materials, presentation of products and inadequate knowledge
and the ability to conform to international trade and agricultural standards
and rules.
The Minister said the Ghana
Export Promotion Council (GEPC) reported receipts of large orders for chili pepper annually, which is the biggest importer of the
"To be able to increase our
market share of these commodities, we must address the constraints facing the
industry and improve upon the accessibility to market information, business
opportunities, technical and technological abilities to our farmers".
The 30 participants mainly MOFA
extension officers, as well as the private co-operatives would be taken through
topics like the principles of marketing horticultural crops, international
rules and opportunities, international standards and regulations, developing
marketing plan for export and farmer-based organisation as a tool in
agricultural development.
The production of the pepper and
okra is mainly done in Greater Accra, Volta and the Central regions. Major Quashigah noted that the pepper and okra exports for
Francis Aidoo,
Director, Human Resources Development and Management Directorate of MOFA said
the workshop was an outcome of
He said the cultivation of okra
and pepper was labour intensive, which lends itself to smallholder production
suitable as an export led poverty reduction crop and urged farmers to take
interest in that area.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 February
2003- President John Agyekum Kufuor left Accra on Tuesday night for Paris to
attend a conference of a number of African Heads of States and France, which
opens on the 19th and ends on the 21st.
The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu
Mahama, Ministers of States, the
The Conference, which has the
theme: "Africa And France Together In A New Partnership"
would discuss issues relating to relations between
Over 40 heads of states and
international institutions and organisations are expected to attend the
conference. The Franco-African summit was first held in 1973 in
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 February
2003- Tobge Sadzimadza Afari, made a second appearance before the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) using his private name, Christian Afaglo, to respond to interrogation by counsel for people
he made allegations against during his first appearance.
Afaglo stood by his allegations against
Togbe Addo VIII, Fiagah of Klikor Traditional
Area. In his previous evidence he alleged that Togbe Addo ejected his family from his house at Klikor during his days of detention and again, Togbe Addo lured him to hand over
his property to the Klikor Community.
He also provided documents to
prove that he gave furniture and other items to Togbe
Addo. In his response, Togbe
Addo explained that he made Afaglo
write a letter handing over his property, made up of a school, a clinic and a
post office to the Klikor community as a way to be
used as evidence of his patriotism.
He said that was necessary because
Afaglo was in detention and he (Addo)
needed that letter to convince Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings of Afaglo's patriotism and his subsequent release.
"I was able to get the
letter to Rawlings, but just before he took a decision to release him, Afaglo escaped to
Togbe Addo
admitted that he was aware that Afaglo with the
assistance of some Koreans and one Anyimadu constructed
the school and the clinic. He said the land on which the structures were
constructed however, was given out by Togbe Addo VI to the government of I K Acheampong's
regime for the same purposes.
"I got close to Afaglo, who was then a Sub-chief in Sadzimadza
Kope and I honoured him as a progressive Chief of Klikor for his immense contribution to the development of
the area," he said.
On the issue of an X-ray
machine, which Afaglo claimed it was his personal
property, which he gave to be used at the clinic, Togbe
Addo said he took delivery of the machine, a van and
some drugs on behalf of the Klikor community at a
durbar.
"I handed over the machine,
the van and drugs to Afaglo to be used in the clinic
and the school," he said. "I am surprised that he said the X-ray machine
was a gift to him personally by one Dr. Kim from
Togbe Addo
alleged that after the delivery of the X-ray machine and drugs, there was a
promise of another consignment of drugs for Klikor,
but he got the information that Afaglo concealed the
drugs in his hotel at Tema. He said some of the issues Mr. Afaglo
raised are currently in court so he did not want to comment on them.
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