GRi Newsreel 24 – 01 - 2003

Increase in British visa fees

Withdraw request for Nkrumah's body

House of Chiefs starts documenting lineages

Rubber Estates case adjourned

Nkrumah was our chief, we want his property - chief

Assembly unhappy about delay

Ahmadiyyas hold 74th National Convention

"Give peace a chance" - Ahmadiyya Mission

Veep calls for community, Wildlife Division cooperation

France, Germany urged to bring EU closer

Pensioner petition NRC for increase in salary

Repeal Police Service (Amendment) Law - ex-ASP

Doing politics wasn’t for our enrichment -Debrah

I was redeployed from P&T without benefits

Mogae and Kagame leave

EGLE Party to be rejuvenated

 

 

Increase in British visa fees

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003 - The British High Commission has announced an increase in visa fees with immediate effect.

 

A statement issued in Accra said standard visa, student visa and transit visa will now cost ¢530,000. Direct Airside Transit Visa is now ¢400,000. It said one-year visa is ¢885,000, two-year visa is ¢1,030,000, five-year visa is ¢1.3m, 10-year visa ¢2.21m and settlement ¢3.835m.

 

The statement said Certificate of Entitlement is ¢1.62m, returning resident ¢530,000 and long-term ¢1.105m. It said visa fees once paid are non-refundable. The statement reminded applicants that the British High Commission only accepts Barclays Bank Drafts as payment for visa fees.

 

Applicants should obtain a draft for the correct amount from Barclays’ Bank. “If, however, drafts for the new amounts are not immediately available, for an interim period applicants can provide a bank for the old visa fee and then top-up the difference in cash.

 

“For example, previously a standard visit visa cost ¢485,000, it now costs ¢530,000. Applicants may therefore obtain a Barclays Bank Draft for ¢485,000 and pay the remaining ¢45,000 in cash at the British High Commission on presentation of the visa application.”

 

The statements also reminded applicants that Barclays Bank charges an administration fee of ¢20,000 for the provision of bank drafts. This is in addition to the visa fee and is non-refundable.

GRi…/

 

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Withdraw request for Nkrumah's body

 

Nsauaem (Western Region) 24 January 2003- The family of the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah at Nsauaem has requested the chief and people of Nkroful to re-write their petition to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) asking for the return of the body of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah to Nkroful.

 

Making the appeal at a press conference at Nsauaem yesterday, the family declared that the press conference held by the chief and people of Nkroful in October 2002 asking for the return of the First President's body was improper because no member of Dr Nkrumah's family was present.

 

J. A Armah, a legal practitioner, who was the spokesman for the family, said the family was “opposed to both the statement made at the said press conference and the petition sent to the NRC in their entirety.”

 

“The request for the remains of Dr Kwame Nkrumah to Nkroful was definitely wrong and misconceived,” he said. Armah said, “What the chief and people of Nkroful have petitioned for does not belong to them and no member of Dr Nkrumah's family was among the signatories to the petition to the NRC.”

 

He said it was the family's prerogative and customary rite to decide where, when and how to bury the remains of one of its members. “A chief at the birth place of any person cannot claim the right to bury that person for the simple reason that the deceased was accidentally born in his area of jurisdiction.”

 

Armah expressed concern about the neglect of the Western Region in terms of development despite the fact that the region contributed about 50 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

 

He said all the roads in the region were in bad shape and appealed to President J.A Kufuor to fulfil his promise of repairing roads in the region. Armah appealed to the government to rescue the Aboso Glass factory, Bonfira Tyre Company and to re-open the Tarkwa Gold Refinery, to support the Essiama Oil Mill, to reactivate the Bamboo Factory at Apaitaim and to assist the Subri Industrial Plantation.

 

“We strongly believe that President Kufuor will not neglect the Western Region in terms of education, health, employment and development,” Armah said.

GRi…/

 

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House of Chiefs starts documenting lineages

 

Sekondi (Western Region) 24 January 2003- The Research Committee of the National House of Chiefs has started documenting lineage of succession of stools in a bid to curb chieftaincy disputes.

 

Odeneho Gyapong Ababio, President of the National House of Chiefs, speaking to the GNA in an interview on Thursday, said most chieftaincy disputes were the result of wrong people occupying stools.

 

Odeneho Gyampong Ababio said the Research Committee, chaired by Professor B. Nabilla of the University of Ghana, Legon, has so far documented the lines of succession of 40 traditional areas.

 

He said the committee would document lines of succession of all the 192 traditional areas in the country. The committee would cover 40 traditional annually due to financial constraints and the report would be sent to the traditional areas for approval.

GRi…/

 

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Rubber Estates case adjourned

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- The Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) divestiture case involving four accused persons was on Thursday adjourned to Tuesday, 28 January.

 

This followed a brief meeting in chambers between the trial judge and counsel on both sides. Immediately after the meeting, a clerk of the Fast Track Court (FTC) hearing the case announced the date, but assigned no reason for the adjournment.

 

It is, however, believed that it was due to the boycott of the courts by members of the Greater-Accra Regional branch of the Ghana Bar Association. The four accused persons standing trial at the FTC in the GREL divestiture case are Hanny Sherry Ayittey, treasurer of the 31st December Women's Movement, Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, former Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), Ralph Casely-Hayford, businessman and Sati Dorcas Ocran, housewife.

 

They are facing various charges on bribery and corruption in connection with the privatisation of the company. They have all pleaded not guilty and are currently on bail in their own recognisance.

 

Johnny Quarshie-Idun, David Lamptey, J E Senoo, Rodney Heward-Mills and Tony Lithur are defending the accused persons. Ms Gloria Akuffo, Deputy Attorney-General, is leading the prosecution team made up of Osafo Sampong, Director of Public Prosecutions, and Augustine Obour, Assistant State Attorney.

 

After a peaceful demonstration at the premises of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, members of the association resolved to withdraw their services from the law courts today in protest against what they termed “the illegal filing fees”.

 

They resolved to be on strike until “the illegal filing fees” were withdrawn, pending the proper placement of the proposals for the increase before Parliament. Meanwhile, the National Executives of the Association would hold a meeting with the Chief Justice over the issue this afternoon, after which they would brief members on its outcome.

 

Prince Frederick Nii-Ashie Neequaye, spokesman of the association who spoke to newsmen at the Supreme Court premises said before  “the illegal filing fees” were announced, an application for the filing of letters of administration, for instance cost between three and five thousand cedis.

 

Prince Neequaye said the fee had shot up to as much as 204,000 cedis. He said previously, it cost a lawyer only 30,000 cedis to file a writ in a land case, but "the illegal filing fee" is now one million cedis. The spokesman said "the illegal filing fee" of an injunction now stood at 300,000 cedis, as against between five and 10,000 cedis previously.

GRi…/

 

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Nkrumah was our chief, we want his property - chief

 

Nsuaem (Western Region) 24 January 2003- The Agona Royal family of the late President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah has appealed to President John Kufuor, political parties, parliamentarians, chiefs and the Wassa West District of the Western Region to ensure that the property of the First President is returned to his family.

 

The property is made up of a palace and four flats he built for his family and his successors after his installation as a chief of Nsuaem on 7 April 1962. The family made the appeal at a news conference at Nsuaem on Wednesday.

 

Throwing more light on Dr Nkrumah's property, a spokesman for the family, J. E. Armah, said Dr Nkrumah's mother, Madam Nyaniba, hailed form the Royal Agona family but went and stayed at Nkroful in the Nzema East District where she gave birth to Dr Nkrumah.

 

He said after the death of his uncle, Nana Aduku Adaa II, Chief of Nsuaem, Dr Nkrumah succeeded him as the chief of Nsuaem under the stool name of Nana Aduku Adaa III and all the necessary customary rites were performed including putting him on the Agona Royal family Black stool at Nsuaem.

 

Armah supported the family's claim with a copy of a Daily Graphic newspaper that showed Dr Nkrumah's installation in its edition of 9 April, 1962, captioned: “Nkrumah is a chief.”

 

He claimed that a few years after his enstoolment, Dr Nkrumah built a palace and four estate houses for himself and his successors, adding that the inhabitants of Nsuaem provided communal labour.

 

Armah said due to his numerous duties he could not visit Nsuaem regularly to perform his traditional role and placed his nephew Adzea Nyame Ayeh to act as regent on his behalf.

 

Armah said since the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah the palace and the estates were confiscated to the state the family had sent many petitions to successive Heads of State for the release of the property to it but to no avail.

 

He said it was when the last general elections were approaching that the family received a letter dated October 18, 2000 that the petition was receiving attention. Armah said some confiscated properties have been released either to them or their families.

 

He said it was a matter of regret that Dr Nkrumah's assets remained confiscated to the state in spite of all that he did for Ghana, Africa and the World. 'We should be treated well as we treat other Heads of State of the country, he said."

GRi…/

 

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Assembly unhappy about delay

 

Elmina (Central Region) 24 January 2003- The Presiding Member of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) District Assembly, Frank Appiah, on Thursday said the failure of the Attorney General's Department to gazette its bye-laws had made the administration of law and order in the district difficult.

 

Appiah said that the absence of such laws had rendered the assembly a “toothless bull dog” and had made the assembly's effort to stem vices like child loitering and harassment of tourists and truancy futile.

 

The presiding member who was addressing the first session of the assembly at Elmina, in this regard, appealed to the A-G's department to expedite action on all by-laws submitted for final approval to enable the assembly enforce law and order in the district.

 

On chieftaincy, Appiah also expressed concern about the numerous chieftaincy disputes in the area, and their effect on socio-economic development and called on all factions involved to settle them amicably to facilitate development.

 

He pointed out that the assembly needs peace and tranquillity in its efforts to reduce poverty and ignorance in the district. Appiah reiterated the need for the assembly members to eschew all forms of political, religious and personal negative tendencies and to remain neutral in disputes.

 

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Nana Ato Arthur in his address asked the finance and administration sub-committee and the accounts and budget and planning units of the assembly to evolve strategies to step up revenue generation as a “matter of urgency”.

 

This, he said, was imperative, as the assembly was last year able to realise only 411,866,556.39 cedis of the internally generated revenue target of 571,637,400.00 cedis.

 

He however, announced that the Assembly was able to settle about 70 per cent of its indebtedness to contractors and suppliers adding that his administration inherited a debt of 3bn cedis and had a balance of 900m cedis to pay.

 

On development, the DCE, enumerated a number of projects being carried out with the support of organisations like the European Union, and through government interventions such as the HIPC relief and district assemblies common and the GETFund.

 

These include the construction and renovations of school buildings, the provision of toilets, potable water and health facilities. He however, charged assembly members to rekindle communal spirit in their areas to facilitate the early completion of projects.

 

On the new transport fares, he expressed concern that transport operators are not conforming to the 40 per cent increase agreed upon and warned that drivers who flout it would be brought to book.

 

Nana Kodwo Eduakwa V, chief of Attonkwa who stood in for the paramount chief of the Edina traditional area, Nana Kodwo Conduah VI, appealed to the assembly to find a lasting solution to the problem between the canoe and 'Seiko' fishermen once and for all to avert any possible clash between the two groups.

 

A new fire service station for the township, was later commissioned a by the DCE, to bring to two, the number of fire stations in the district. Speaking at the ceremony, Nana Arthur, regretted that there were 12 major fire outbreaks in the district last year, which resulted in the loss of property running into several millions of cedis.

 

Agyarko Attobrah, Regional Fire Officer appealed to fishermen to stop storing petroleum products in their room, since it was the major cause of fire outbreaks in the area.

GRi…/

 

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Ahmadiyyas hold 74th National Convention

 

Ashongman (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- President John Kufuor on Thursday appealed to Ghanaians to adhere to the messages of the campaign against indiscipline in the society to bring peace and unity, which the country needs to develop.

 

He said the campaign was a challenge for the nation to change "and for this to happen, the citizens need to change their attitudes first before we can achieve our goals". President Kufuor said this in a speech read for him by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, at the 74th Annual National Convention of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission (AMM), Ghana, at Ashongman, near Madina.

 

The three-day convention under the theme: “Curbing Indiscipline in Society - The Role of Religion,” was to take stock of the Mission's activities of the past year and to consider other ways to enrich society and members physically, mentally, morally and spiritually.

 

President Kufuor acknowledged the contributions of the Mission in the areas of human resource development and its role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He said the theme was well chosen and timely for the people to identify the need to be disciplined.

 

“When we are all disciplined, the nation will be a disciplined nation,” he said, and urged both Muslims and Christians to disseminate the message to make Ghana a disciplined country.

 

“Leaders do not change people but they can only inspire people. Meanwhile, they can only change themselves.” He, therefore, urged all Ghanaians to make the decision to change to make the country a peaceful one.

 

Maulvi A. Wahab Adam, Ameer and Missionary-In-Charge of AMM, Ghana, said indiscipline formed part of the major causes of the problems facing the country. "From all indications, we are all heading towards the abyss of national self-destruction unless urgent steps are taken to arrest the situation."

 

He said the war against indiscipline launched by the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, was an effort towards orderliness and good sense and deserved the active support of the entire citizenry.

 

Maulvi Adam said the belief of blasphemy among a section of Muslims had regrettably contributed to the creation of disharmony in relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims at both national and international levels.

 

He said a lot of violence had been perpetrated and a lot of blood spilled in the name of God, ostensibly to punish blasphemy. “If there is any religious book that prescribes punishment for blasphemy in the world that book is not the Holy Quran,” he said. Maulvi Adam described the recent carnage in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, during which more than 200 people were killed in demonstrations against what was perceived as blasphemy as “senseless killings.”

 

The riots occurred after Mulsims considered an article in a newspaper on the abortive Miss World contest in Nigeria as blasphemy. He said Islam did not advocate the punishment for blasphemy in this world nor does he vest such authority in anyone.

GRi…/

 

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"Give peace a chance" - Ahmadiyya Mission

 

Ashongman (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- Maulvi A. Wahab Adam, Ameer and Missionary-In-Charge of Ahmadiyya Mission in Ghana, on Thursday appealed to the Andani and Abudu Royal Gates in Dagbon Traditional Area to give peace a chance since that was the only way to ensure development in the area.

 

He said any development that comes to the area would not be for the present and the coming generations of the people in Dagbon alone but for the nation as a whole. “While government should endeavour to facilitate a process of resolving the disputes and conflicts, a lot will depend on the willingness of the parties to live in peace and the desire to reconcile and bequeath to the present and future generations areas free of conflicts.”

 

Maulvi Adam, who was speaking at the 74th National Annual Convention of the Mission at Ashongman near Madina, said the past year was one of numerous blessings for the country even as the people strived to improve the economy, however, all had not been well.

 

It was under the theme “Curbing Indiscipline: The Role of Religion.” He said, “Land and chieftaincy disputes had threatened the peace and security of our communities. In particularly, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission is deeply saddened by the tragedy in Dagbon and wishes to add its voice to the appeal to both gates to give peace a chance.”

 

“The same appeal goes to our compatriots in other parts of the country. We have been spared the agony and pain that have afflicted some of our neighbouring countries, wreaking untold havoc on the people,” he said, and asked God to have mercy on them and deliver them from their moments of extreme tribulations.

 

On discipline, Maulvi Adam said in Islam, discipline was considered to be so crucial to the development of the individual and society that it had been made an integral part of worship.

 

He said the three-day convention would not only stimulate further debate on the issue but would bring about the necessary attitudinal change that would reduce indiscipline from the society.

 

The Apostolic Nuncio in Ghana, Reverend George Kocherry, also stressed the need for both Christians and Muslims to ensure discipline in their various places of worship.

 

He said, “The two religions have roles to play in bringing discipline in Ghana to ensure peace and harmony among the people.” Moses Mokasa, UNFPA Country Representative, said about 60,000 people were diagnosed with the HIV/AIDS disease in Ghana and stressed the need for collective efforts to address the pandemic.

 

He said people living with the disease carry along with them the stigma of shame, isolation and discrimination and urged the public to show such people love and change their negative attitudes towards them.

GRi…/

 

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Veep calls for community, Wildlife Division cooperation

 

Ankasa (Western Region) 24 January 2003 - Vice-President Aliu Mahama on Thursday called for a greater co-operation between community leaders and the Ghana Wildlife Division to ensure success of the Protected Areas Development Programme (PADP) for the sustainable management of resources, which are the backbone of the economy.

 

He was commissioning the first phase of visitor facilities and staff accommodation for at the Ankasa Conservation Area in the Western Region estimated at 4.6m Euros by the European Commission.

 

The Ankasa Conservation Area is about 500 kilometres square on the Takoradi - Cote d'Ivoire Highway with up to 300 plant species per hectare and 43 mammal species such as the common Diana Monkey and the endangered West African chimpanzee.

 

The Vice-President said the unprecedented assault on the nation's forest resources by chain saw operators, illegal miners and bushfires placed a national duty on Ghanaians to maintain and conserve the remaining vegetation zones by encouraging community integrated forest programmes to help create a congenial climate for agricultural development, Vice President Mahama told the Chiefs and people of the area.

 

The project belonged to them and must defend and protect every aspect of it to derive the full benefit, he said. “To achieve meaningful conservation, land owners, local communities and other stakeholders must begin to play a more active role as contained in the new forest and wildlife policy,” Vice President Mahama added.

 

The government has put in place broad strategy to develop the technical skills and managerial competence, economic potential as well as the promotion of popular participation in the programme.

 

He said PADP was aimed at developing resource management plans to enhance biological diversity conservation in two important protected areas. Stefan Frowen, EU Ambassador and Head of Delegation, said the Ankasa Conservation Area remained one of the unexploited tropical rain forest, adding that, Ghana could only enjoy the full benefit with a commitment to protect the area.

 

“The pressure to exploit timber in the conservation areas appears to be enormous and growing as other forest resources becomes scars”, he said. Tourism development, Frowen said was an important means to safeguard the future of conservation areas.

 

He said visitors to the Conservation Area has risen from less than 100 between 1990-97 to more than 1,500 during in 2001. “These are still modest and need significant increases if they are to make any real impact,” Frowen said.

 

Joseph Aidoo, Regional Minister said the natural resource endowment of the region was a base for eco-tourism development, which must recognised and supported. The commissioning of the facilities signified a milestone for the development of tourism in the Region.

 

Thomas Broni, Deputy Minister for Lands and Forestry, giving an overview of PADP and said the Ankasa Conservation Area and the Bia National Park in the Juabeso-Bia District constituted the most important biological forest areas in the country.

GRi…/

 

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France, Germany urged to bring EU closer

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- The originators of the European Union (EU) idea, Germany and France, were on Wednesday urged to initiate moves that would enable Europe to scale heights, bringing the Union closer to the hearts of the people.

 

Jean-Michel Berrit, the French Ambassador to Ghana, at a reception in Accra to mark the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty signed on 22 January 1963 by the two countries to end an old rivalry, said the experience of Germany and France and what they have been subjected to in their past history was unique.

 

The cooperation achieved was still unequalled and unprecedented in European history, Berrit said. “As originator of the European Union idea, we have to take actions that would enable Europe to scale new heights by the extension of its borders and ensuring that the European Union is brought closer to the hearts of the citizenry.”

 

The two countries, he announced, were marking the day by the organisation of joint meetings between the two governments and their parliaments. The German Ambassador, Harald Loeschner said the Franco-German partnership was a symbiosis, yet there was the need for both sides to complement, energize and further each other's political, social and economic goals.

GRi…/

 

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Pensioner petition NRC for increase in salary

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- Alexander Samuel Abbia-Kwakye, a former security guard at the Flagstaff House on Wednesday petitioned the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), sitting in Accra, for an increase in his monthly pension from the present 169,000 cedis.

 

He told the Commission that at best his unlawful arrest and detention for nine months, following the military coup in 1966 that ousted Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) reformed him into a more religious person who does not play with his church activities.

 

“Those hard experiences and prison life transformed me into a new creation. I've been a new creation since then. I don't play with my church activities anymore,” Abbia- Kwakye said when the Commission asked what impact torture and prison life had on him.

 

After his narration, the Most Revered Charles Palmer-Buckle, a member of the Commission wished Abbia-Kwakye, who turned 72 on Wednesday, 22 January, 2003, a belated happy birthday, with a prayer of long life and strength from God to carry on with the rest of his life.

 

Abbia-Kwakye, told the Commission that on 25 February the day after Afrifa and his men ousted the CPP in 1966, one army officer by the name Zaleringu, in-charge of the Army Guard Regiment collected all guns from all the security men including their personal items.

 

Abbia-Kwakye said they were then taken to the Burma Camp, and kept there till the following morning, and sent to the Police Headquarters at about 0800. "Later the soldiers made us lie straight on the ground facing the sun, and also sprayed hot tea into our eyes. Because of the beatings, one is forced to urinate on himself in the open."

 

Abbia-Kwakye said they stayed at the Police Headquarters for four days before they were sent to the Nsawam Prisons, where they spent nine months. He said most of the detainees had since died when they were released on 15 April 1967.

 

General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the Commission, said those who died on duty after the 24 February 1966 coup would be remembered for their loyalty.

GRi…/

 

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Repeal Police Service (Amendment) Law - ex-ASP

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- Francis Murphy Anane, a former Assistant Superintendent of Police, on Thursday appealed to the Attorney General to repeal the Police Amendment Act, PNDC Law 194 A of 1988.

 

He made the appeal in a statement to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in Accra while giving evidence to the Commission regarding his unlawful dismissal from the Ghana Police Service under the guise of that law in 1988.

 

Anane, now an employee of the Ghana Employers' Association, read the three paragraph law to the Commission, saying that it was passed as a cover up for the "unlawful dismissals" carried out by the PNDC administration in the Police Service.

 

The Law states that the PNDC in consultation with the Police Council shall have the power to dismiss, remove or take any disciplinary action, as it may consider necessary against any member of the Police Service.

 

“No court or tribunal shall entertain any action whatsoever or take any decision, make an order or grant any relief in any proceedings in respect of any claim arising from any dismissal, removal or disciplinary action taken against a member of the Police Service...”

 

He said the law at that time, vested power in the Chairman of the PNDC to dismiss police personnel in consultation with the Police Council. However, he was reliably informed that in carrying out the dismissals, Justice Daniel F. Annan, the then Chairman of the Police Council, was sidelined.

 

He claimed that the Chairman of the PNDC, Flt. Lt Jerry Rawlings, the head of security, Captain Kojo Tsikata (Rtd) and the then IGP, Dewornu drafted the law.

 

“That law was an afterthought, which came into effect only after we had been unlawfully dismissed for no apparent offence and when we challenged our dismissal we were slapped with this law, which was gazetted on 29 December, 1989 though it was passed on 18 March 1988,” he said.

 

He said several police officers were dismissed under the law, but most of them are now dead, adding that the earlier it was removed from the law books the better it would be for the nation.

 

Anane told the Commission that since his dismissal he has lived with extreme hatred for former President Rawlings to the extent that Rawlings' photograph makes him angry.

 

“Anytime I see Rawlings' picture I get annoyed,” he said. “As a result of shock from the news of my dismissal, my wife gave birth to a still born baby after seven months of pregnancy.”

 

He said he has done everything he could to seek redress for his unlawful dismissal but to no avail and therefore, requested the Commission to either ensure that he was reinstated to serve his remaining 10 years or given his entitlements.

 

Narrating circumstance that led to his dismissal, Anane said sometime in 1988, whilst serving as the Head of the Nima Police Unit, he was accused of signing an insurance report for someone to collect insurance benefit in the United Kingdom.

 

He said he denied the allegation but he was transferred to Bimbilla pending investigation. Anane said whilst at Bimbilla, his mother died and he came to Kumasi for the funeral, adding that whilst in Kumasi his name was mentioned on the radio as among other dismissed police officers.

 

“I retuned to Bimbilla, handed over my district to the officer in charge of Yendi and came to Accra to find out the reasons for my dismissal. “At the police headquarters no one could tell me anything so I proceeded to the Castle where I was told the order had come from Chairman Rawlings. I was told that Chairman Rawlings called for the files of some police officers and all those whose files were presented to him had been dismissed,” he said.

 

Anane said he sent separate petitions to Chairman Rawlings, the then Ombudsman, Andoh, Justice Annan, Chairman of the Police Council and recently to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), but all to no avail.

 

He said he was not charged with signing any insurance report as was alleged, adding that since his dismissal he has not received any end-of-service benefits. In another case, Madam Rose Apedoe told the Commission that 400 bags of cement worth 20,000 cedis and other properties including break fluid, soldiers led by one Mary Tay confiscated clothes, detergents and other items worth about 300,000 cedis. The items were seized from her uncompleted building in Nii Boi Town in 1982, during the PNDC era.

 

She said additionally she was assaulted and held in detention at the Gondar Barracks for two weeks before being released to go home without any of her confiscated items. Madam Apedoe said she has not sought redress anywhere because her late father advised her not to jeopardise her life fighting for those things. Now, however, she thinks the environment is conducive for her to seek redress.

 

Rev. Father Palmer-Buckle, member of the Commission, assured the complainants that the Commission would make the appropriate recommendations for redress. He urged them to make use of the counselling session of the Commission to ease the inherent anger they have developed against the perpetrators of abuse against them.

GRi…/

 

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Doing politics wasn’t for our enrichment -Debrah

 

Bole (Northern Region) 24 January 2003- Ernest Debrah, Acting Northern Region Minister, has said that members of the NPP did not enter politics to enrich themselves but to serve the nation.

 

He said it was wrong for a section of the public to think that people go into politics because they want to enrich themselves. “Politics is not a gold mine but a responsibility for those elected to serve their people and the nation.”

 

Debrah was reacting to a query from a contributor at the People’s Forum at Bole that people go into politics to enrich themselves. He urged Ghanaians to be courageous to fight injustices, indiscipline and corruption in the society that had eaten deep into the very fabric of the daily lives of the people.

 

Debrah called on the people not to allow politics to divide them but to be united and pool resources to develop their communities. He said the government would improve roads, agriculture, health and educational infrastructure and would complete good projects initiated by the past government in the district.

 

He assured the people that the national cake would be equally distributed and appealed to all ethnic groups in the district to co-exist peacefully to ensure development.

 

People, who took terms to ask questions at the forum, urged the government to build the Bui Dam, the Bamboi road and improve on television reception in the area. They called on the government to create a separate region for the Gonja people to enhance the rapid development of the area, noting that they had been denied development as a result of the crisis in Dagbon which they said they were not part of.

 

Some of them also urged the government to fill ministerial vacancies as soon as possible to enable such ministries to function effectively and efficiently. In reaction to the creation of a separate region for Gonja people, Debrah told them that the Dagbon crisis was not affecting Bole alone but the whole country. The Minister also explained to the people the rationale behind the increases in fuel prices and urged them to bear with the government.

GRi…/

 

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I was redeployed from P&T without benefits

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- John Kweku Mensah, a former Telecommunications Inspector at the defunct Post and Telecommunication Corporation (P&T), Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission that he was redeployed from P&T without any end-of-service benefits.

 

He said after working with the corporation for 24 years, between 1960 and 1984, he only saw his name in the People's Daily Graphic newspaper among two hundred other people as having been redeployed for various reasons.

 

The reasons assigned for the redeployment included, corruption, inefficiency and thefts, among others. "I used to work with the engineering department and I was never given a query for inefficiency, neither did I have the opportunity to do any of the things assigned as reasons for the redeployment," he told the Commission.

 

In his statement, Mensah said he got employed in P&T, Takoradi in 1960 and was transferred to Tema in 1961, where he worked as Telecommunications Inspector till 1 December 1984 when he started his leave.

 

He said whilst on leave, he was told by friends on 28 December 1984 that his name was among several people who have been redeployed. Mensah said when no reasons were given for the action taken against him, he wrote several petitions through the P &T Workers Union, the Trades Union Congress and to the Tema branch management to the headquarters but all to no avail.

 

He said, he then sent a petition to the then Ombudsman, Justice E. K. Andoh, Ebo Tawiah, formerly of the PNDC era, PNDC Secretary for Transport and Communication, Secretary-General of the TUC and P&T workers union, but nothing good came out of all that.

 

“I later got to know that the exercise was carried out nationwide but every individual was left on his or her own to seek redress,” he said. Mensah said he received his Social Security benefits but was denied his end-of service-benefits though others on the list of deployed persons received theirs.

 

In a related development, Joseph Yaw Koblah, a former driver at the State Transport Corporation (STC) told the Commission he was denied his end-of service-benefits on his retirement due to an alleged theft.

 

In his statement he said he retired from STC in July 1988 at age 60, and in September he was invited to the Nima Police Station. “When we got to the station the officer in-charge told me my name had been mentioned in connection with the diversion of several gallons of diesel oil between Accra and Tema in 1985-86.”

 

“Though I denied the charge, I was made to sign three statements before I was pushed into the cells where I met some colleagues who said they were also there for the same reason.”

 

Koblah said his wife then sent petitions to the IGP following which an order was given for them to be allowed bail only after the presentation of an indenture covering a landed property.

 

He said on 24 January1989, he and his supposed accomplices were arranged before the Greater-Accra Regional Tribunal and charged with the offence and sentenced to six months imprisonment.

 

“One Agbeshie requested that we be freed because there was no evidence to charge us, but some characters in the system disagreed. “Two years after my release from prison STC served me with a letter of dismissal although I had retired from STC long before those accusations were framed against me,” he said.

 

“Since then I have been denied my end of service benefit.” Koblah, who is obviously old and weak, therefore, appealed to the Commission to investigate the matter and ensure that he was given what was due him.

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Mogae and Kagame leave

 

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- President Festus Mogae of Botswana and the Rwandan leader Major-General Paul Kangame left Accra on Thursday for their respective countries after participating in the Global Coalition for Africa Forum, which ended on Thursday.

 

The forum under the theme: “NEPAD and Security,” was also attended by other African leaders, including President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, ministers, civil society organisations and the private sector. The Senior Minister, Joseh Henry Mensah and the Foreign Minister Hackman Owusu-Agyemang saw off the presidents at the airport.

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EGLE Party to be rejuvenated

 

Madina (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- The EGLE Party is to be rejuvenated to contest the 2004 elections on its own, thus effectively breaking with the Progressive Alliance with the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

 

An official of the party told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that a national re-organization team has been formed to see to the effective rebuilding of the party's structures nation-wide.

 

The official named members of the team as Danny Ofori-Atta, Alhaji Jamatutu, Alhaji Hassan Benneh, Ben Bediako, Nana Opoku, Ms Cecilia Akwetey and Hajia Ayishetu.

 

The team under the chairmanship of Ofori-Atta is mainly tasked to tour the entire country and reorganize its members at the branches, constituencies, districts and regional levels. This is in preparation for a National Congress this year. The Party urged Ghanaians living at home and abroad to join them.

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