Ghana ranks 2nd in Guinea-worm infection
1963 bomb blast revisited at Reconciliation Commission
The
nurses association says government is not been proactive to negotiations aimed
at improving the conditions of service for nurses.
A
statement issued at the end of an Executive Council meeting expressed dismay at
government’s delay in finding a solution to the high exodus of nurses. The
Executive Council says government appears not to have any urgent need to
tackling the problem. It however commends government for improving the
transportation problems affecting the health sector, but adds that distribution
of the vehicles must take into cognisance the different categories of health
workers.
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According
to a high ranking source within the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Dutch Ambassador to
The
Ghanaian Chronicle quotes its sources in
In
By
last Friday, the Dutch Embassy distanced itself from commenting on the matter.
The Press officer of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in
Even
though the Dutch Embassy has not named the diplomat involved, Chronicle sources
in
''This
incident is very unfortunate, especially coming after the successful
celebration of the 300 years of diplomatic relations with
It
would be recalled that on 8 January 2003, The Ghanaian Chronicle broke
the story of how a Dutch diplomat and his wife who launched a brutal assault on
25 year old Musah Issifu, a
Safeteck security guard stationed at their residence.
According to eye witness accounts, the Dutch diplomat and his wife used a the
smooth side of a locally made cutlass to lash the security guard resulting
screams of terror and calls for help by the security guard.
In
his own account of the incident, Mussah Issifu, a native of Bawku- Upper
East region who lives at Mamobi, a surburb of
He
said that dog began to disturb and threaten him so he pushed the dog. Coincidentally,
the wife of the diplomat who was about to go out spotted the guard pushing the
dog so he approached him furiously and said that if the guard did not take care
she would cause his dismissal.
In
his own words, Musah said the diplomat’s screamed at
him saying ''When your supervisors come, tell them to change you because I
don’t want to come back and meet you here. Musah said
when the diplomat’s wife came back and saw him in the house she pulled out her
mobile phone and spoke to someone and dashed straight into the sitting room.
Enter,
the diplomat ''about 20 minutes later, her husband also blew the horn so I
quickly rushed and opened the gate. On hearing the noise of her husband’s
vehicle the woman came back from the room and said something to her husband
which I did not hear,'' she said.
Mussa continued that after listening to his wife, the diplomat turned and
yelled ''hey black dog, come here!!!. I did not mind because I thought he was referring
to his dog. but he repeated it and said ‘you security man come here’''.
Musah said at this time the diplomat’s wife had begun shedding tears, so her
husband asked him, ''what happened to madam?” Before he could explain, the
diplomat slapped him and hooked his neck, Musah said
he also held the diplomats neck and he and his wife grabbed the cutlass from
the garden boy and began lashing him with it.
“In
the ensuing struggle, the Dutchman lost one of his shirt buttons and I also
lost my shirt button. The husband was then shouting, you will pay for my shirt
and the wife continued to hit me with the langa langa -the cutlass''. At the time of the incident, the
Embassy pleaded ignorance to the incident and refrained from any comments.
The
Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ghana has also not issued any statement on the
issue Observers say they are watching how the case will unfold but hoped that
the investigation by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not be that of
a whitewash. – The Ghanaian Chronicle
The
Speaker, Peter Ala Adjetey, said the Minister had written to his office
explaining that the CI was being withdrawn for further deliberations and
possible revision. The Minority earlier criticised the office of the Chief
Justice for implementing the likeness of the CI when it had not matured.
Lawyers
in parts of the country also boycotted the courts last in protest against the
fees which they described as unconstitutional.
Minority
Spokesman on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni asked whether the withdrawal was a compromise or
just for repackaging. But Papa Owusu Ankoma said
government was not to blame on the issue. "Government has not faltered in
any way on this matter." he said.
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Gbungbaliga (Northern Region)
Speaking
at a durbar of chiefs and people of Gbungbaliga and
its surrounding communities in the Nanumba District
of the Northern Region, he said
Dr Korkor said the programme is in a critical situation
despite the enormous support it has received in the past and continues to
receive now. He noted that while all the other nine regions recorded decreases
in guinea worm cases, the Northern Region alone recorded an increase and
accounted for 80 per cent of all the cases reported in the country.
The
region, he said, recorded 3,698 cases last year, representing an increase of 28
per cent over the 2,666 cases reported in 2001. Nine of the top 15 endemic
districts in the country were also in the region with the Nanumba
District occupying the third position after
Dr Korkor noted that 145 cases were recorded at Gbungbaliga community alone and the 296 cases registered in
other communities within the area are a drawback to the programme.
He
said the programme was faced with many challenges, which were completely
outside its control, pointing out that the common feature between us and
Dr Korkor said the non-identification for involvement of other
sectors and especially the affected communities in the activities of the
programme has made people see the eradication effort as purely an activity for
the Ministry of Health. He, therefore, urged the people to treat the issue of
guinea-worm as an economic and developmental one and not merely as a medical
issue, saying that "there is a lot we can do as individuals, families and
communities to accelerate the eradication effort".
Dr Korkor reminded the people that guinea-worm is transmitted
through drinking water that has been contaminated by an infested person and not
caused by witches and wizards
as
being rumoured.
Madam
Nwando Diallo, Resident
Technical Adviser of Global 2000
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1963 bomb blast revisited at Reconciliation Commission
Madam
Elizabeth Asantewa, 55, told the Commission that she
lost one of her legs through a bomb blast during a march past at the Accra
Sport Stadium in 1963. She said she was 15 years and a member of the Young
Pioneers founded by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, then
President of Ghana. The blast occurred right in front of the podium where the
President took the salute.
"I
was admitted at the 37 Military Hospital and the then First Lady Madam Fathia Nkrumah brought me a present after which the late
President visited me in the hospital and promised to build a house for me, buy
me a car and take care of my medical bills," she said.
Madam
Asantewa said her left leg, which was badly damaged,
was amputated and she was sent to
Madam
Asantewa said when the General Kutu
Acheampong's government came into power she was taken
back to London for treatment and assured of efforts to build the house and buy
the car for her. ''It remained a promise until the Rawlings government came and
took it up. I was given to one Major Smith to provide everything for me and a
team was sent to my hometown to acquire the land and start the project but it
has never materialised till date."
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The
Norwegian Telegraph Administration (Den Norske Telegrafadministrasjonen) established
The
first telegraph line was between
Alexander
Graham Bell demonstrated his telephone set at the Stock Exchange in
The
first telephone exchange was automated in
The
telex service was established in 1946 and the expansion of direct distance dialing began in 1951. The telephone gradually became
common property, but over 100,000 people were still on the waiting list for
telephones in the mid 50s. The mobile telephone service was introduced in 1966
and this was the forerunner to the automatic NMT system, which was introduced
in the 80s. The digital successor, GSM, was launched in 1993.
When
data transmission via the telecoms network was introduced in 1969, the
Norwegian Telegraph Administration changed its name to Norwegian
Telecommunications (Televerket). The deregulation of
the telecoms monopoly began in 1995 and during a reorganization of operations,
changed name to
During
the late 1990s, Telenor expanded extensively abroad
and after two attempts concluded negotiations for the merger with the Swedish
company, Telia, in 1999.
Telenor is part privatised on
In
April 2002, Jon Fredrik Baksaas takes over as CEO
from Tormod Hermansen, who
had then held position as Telenor’s chief executive
for 11 years.
Telenor is an international telephony and communications group with its head
office at Fornebu outside
At
the beginning of 2002, Telenor had in excess of
22,000 employees. Revenues in 2001 were NOK 46 billion. The group had
operational activities in 14 countries, and was present in more than 30
countries. From the second half of 2001, the company's activities have been
organized into four business areas Telenor Mobile, Telenor Networks, Telenor Plus
and Telenor Business Solutions.
Telenor is
Telenor has an extensive international company portfolio. The largest
operations are in mobile communication, via companies in 12 countries in
Telenor - ideas that simplify
Telenor shall create values - for shareholders, customers, employees, joint
venture partners and society in general.
Telenor operates in an international market alongside global players. As a
medium-sized telecommunications company in Europe, the company has to compete
on the basis of expertise, quality and the ability to innovate, in order to
achieve its vision. The company's philosophy, therefore, is to be in the
forefront of developments.
Telenor's core values are:
Dynamic
Innovative
Responsible
Telenor continues its strategy for improving the profitability of the company
with a clearer focus on the core activities, in addition to utilizing the
growth potential in the portfolio.
Telenor has developed and implemented an integrated management model, the
purpose of which is to strengthen the group's ability and power to realize its
strategic objectives.
The
management model identifies the primary financial and non-financial factors
(value drivers) at a group and business area level, and shall contribute to the
long-term optimisation of shareholder values.
Effective
from
At
group level, Telenor is managed by an elected Board
of Directors, consisting of ten members, and group management. The managers for
the four business areas are part of the group management. Board meetings are
held on average every 3-4 weeks, and the group management meet once a week.
Åshild M. Bendiktsen (acting chairman)
Hanne de Mora
Thorleif Enger
Einar Førde
Jørgen Lindegaard
Bjørg Ven
Harald Stavn
Per
Gunnar Salomonsen
Irma
Tystad
Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) - Jon Fredrik Baksaas
Senior
Executive Vice President - Arve Johansen
Senior
Executive Vice President and CFO -
Torstein Moland
Executive
Vice President and CTO - Berit Svendsen
Executive
Vice President - Stig
Eide Sivertsen
Executive
Vice President - Morten
Karlsen Sørby
Executive
Vice President - Jan Edvard
Thygesen
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003 - The
Minister for Communications, Felix Owusu Adjepong,
has in radio reaction to a lead story in The Daily Dispatch newspaper
wondered why he or the officials of Telenor
Management Partners (TMP) were not contacted before the publication.
The lead story, ‘Bombshell…TMP will cost
Telecom ¢2.6bn a month’ had hinted about certain problems with the agreement
between the government of Ghana and TMP on Ghana Telecom (GT).
Commenting on a radio station, the editor of
the paper, Ben Ephson, said the story was based on an
18-page agreement which was duly signed by a representative of TMP, awaiting
the signature of the government of Ghana’s representative.
As the minister prepares to respond to the
article under reference, and others, on the TMP agreement, The Daily
Dispatch would like him consider these issues: (a) adverts placed were for
strategic investments, were any adverts placed for a management contract? (b)
TMP may have tendered for a strategic investment or did they submit for
management consultancy? (c) can the Government of Ghana say that in selecting
TMP, she had access to other business plans for comparative analysis and study?
Analysts believe that statements by certain
government appointees to the effect that the abolition of the criminal Libel
Law did not mean journalists should be irresponsible is unnecessary and
ill-placed. What such appointees need be reminded of is that the law “Causing
Financial Loss to the State” is not for any particular group(s) or person(s).
Nevertheless, The Daily Dispatch investigations into the TMP continues.
Source: The Daily Dispatch
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003-
President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday said the good governance, maintenance
of law and order and the respect for human rights embarked upon by government,
were to create self-confidence in the Ghanaian.
He said this would in addition make
President Kufuor also commended the
He said about 240 Ghanaian troops would be
sent to
She expressed the appreciation of the
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003-
President John Kufuor on Tuesday commended the Cuban medical officers who were
determined to work in the remote areas of Ghana to improve on health care
delivery.
He said the Cuban government had in the
past offered more than 1,000 scholarships to Ghanaians to study in Cuban
Universities. President Kufuor made the commendation when receiving the Letters
of Credence of the Cuban Ambassador to
He called on the new Ambassador to
endeavour to put the cordial relationship that had existed between
He appealed to President Kufuor to honour
an invitation from the Cuban President Fidel Castro to visit
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They were Mrs Mary Carlin Yates, the
President Kufuor urged them to endeavour
to improve on the cordial relationship that had existed between their countries
and
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003-
Vice President Aliu Mahama on Tuesday appealed to Water Aid, a British Charity,
which supports the water sector with eight billion cedis annually, to help
Ghana eradicate guinea worm.
The Vice President, who said this when he
received a delegation from Water Aid at the Castle, Osu,
said it was worrying that the water-borne disease was still endemic in many
parts of the country, in spite of serious efforts over the years to eliminate
it.
The delegation, led by Alan Machin, is in the country for two weeks, to assess the
impact of their support on the health and quality of life of people in the
beneficiary communities.
Vice President Mahama made reference to a
statement in the media by Dr Andrew Seidu Korkor, National Co-ordinator of Guinea worm Eradication
Programme, that
According to a GNA story, published by
other networks, Dr Korkor said the programme had
stagnated for the past 10 years with very little or no yearly case reduction.
For instance, Dr Korkor
said,
The government, he said, was also
supporting the de-silting and rehabilitation of dams to ensure year round
agricultural production to improve the standard of living of farmers.
He stressed the importance of water to the
well being of humans, animals and plants, saying the support of Water Aid was
laudable. He urged the charity to increase its support to cover all the crucial
areas and advised the eight local NGOs through which the charity operates to
use the money judiciously.
"We must ensure the cost
effectiveness of all our projects to make our benefactors appreciate that their
efforts are not in vain," he said. Water Aid at present supports the
provision of potable water, sanitary and hygiene facilities and their related
health education programmes, in the three northern regions, Greater Accra,
Eastern and
Ambrose Dery,
Chairman of the Partner Round Table of NGOs, said their projects targeted at
the rural poor would be extended to the Volta Region and urban poor
communities.
So far 51,000 hand-dug wells and 4,600
ventilated improved household latrines have been provided. Dery
said Water Aid also provides technical assistance and helps the beneficiary
NGOs to build their capacities to eventually become independent in raising
funds.
Gordon Mumbo, Country Representative of
Water Aid, said the organisation would start a pilot project for the urban poor
in the
He said a correlation between lack of
potable water and poverty had been established, adding that their projects
would, therefore, prioritise its assistance to very poor communities. Mumbo
said officials of Water Aid were impressed with its operations in
However, the two-week visit, he said,
would enable them to gain a better insight and understanding of their
activities to convince donors to the charity to do more. He said a documentary
would be made in addition to write-ups in the media to create a greater
awareness on the situation in
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He therefore, called for an exchange
programme between the private sector, the Chamber of Commerce and scholarships
for Ghanaian entrepreneurs to learn the industrial sector of
President Kufuor said this when receiving
the Letters of Credence of Dr Heide Keller, the
Austrian Ambassador to
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President Kufuor made the pledge when Moezdan,
He said Ghana and Indonesia share a lot in
common especially in the agricultural sector since both of them were tropical
countries and Indonesia could offer more assistance to Ghana in refining gold
to add value to the mineral.
President Kufuor said with the advent of
Information Technology (IT) the distance between the two countries should not
be a barrier but efforts should be made to improve on their relations for the
mutual benefit of the people.
Razak said
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003-
City planners in Accra on Tuesday took part in a workshop to discuss the Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Bogota, Colombia, which
reduces travel time and eases congestion in the city.
The project when executed would be the
first Bus rapid Transit system in
The BRT system, initiated by Enrique Penalosa, Former Mayor of
The bus system also has a brand name that
promotes its image and drivers are paid per kilometres travelled. Dr Richard
Anane, Road and Transport Minister, said at the workshop that the endorsement
of the application was the first step for
Dr Anane said given the major role that
road transport plays in the socio-economic development of any country it was
the most patronised and accessible mode of transport among various modes.
He noted that in
According to Dr Anane, roads and transport
infrastructure are a catalyst to economic growth especially in agriculture,
industry and commerce and tourism delivery. Statistics indicate that a 10
percent reduction in transport cost is associated with a 25 percent increase in
trade and commerce.
Dr Anane said these and other benefits of
improved transport system in
He said so far information available to
the team indicates that there are 50 kilometres of cycle lanes in
Quarshie said the project would also ensure that
the surface of roads, especially, these for the bicycles are smooth. The team
in conjunction with the AMA has begun a sensitisation project and one of them
was implemented last week for about 300 cyclists. It is expected that the pubic
would through this awareness appreciate the need to travel short distances on
cycle, Quarshie said.
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Tema (Greater Accra)
The items were made up of 193 beds with
mattresses, 15 cots, blood pressure machines, foetal monitoring machines and
medical books as well as journals. Mrs Georgina Kumah,
who made the presentation on behalf of her husband, explained that in 2001 she
did research at the hospital and was moved by the plight of the mothers in
deplorable conditions.
When she went back to
Mrs Kumah
expressed concern about the cumbersome procedures donors had to go through
before clearing goods at the port for charity saying this could discourage
people who intend to bring in items for donation. She said it took her 29 days
to clear the goods and appealed to the government to review the procedure for
quicker clearance.
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The former police officer, a Mechanical
Engineer told the Commission of his unlawful dismissal from the Service in
1983, accused of inefficiency. He said the accusation was a ploy to get him out
of the Service because he had established, and been in direct supervision of a
number of Police workshops in
"I entered the Service with a rank of
Constable Class One in 1962, and rose to the position of Chief Superintendent,
and for the 21 years that I worked with the Service, I was never brought before
any disciplinary committee for any form of negligence, Okyere
said.
He said under police regulations, an
officer had to appear before a disciplinary board and had the chance to explain
his position on an accusation before a premature retirement or dismissal is
effected but that had never happened to him before he was dismissed on
The audience, including some of the
commissioners fanned themselves with sheets of paper to cool themselves from
the heat in the hall, as the ex-cop narrated unsuccessful attempts he made to
seek redress from several quarters.
Okyere said his name was included in a list of
names of police officers mentioned on the national radio as having being
dismissed or retired on
He said as he waited for an official
letter to confirm his dismissal from the Police Headquarters, a wireless
message from the Head quarters, again listed him as one of the affected police
officers.
He said he first appealed to the
reconstituted Police Council, chaired by Justice Daniel Francis Annan, but had
no reply. Okyere said he then petitioned the
Ombudsman, seeking to know what actually went wrong and the re-instatement, but
the Ombudsman said it had no jurisdiction over such cases.
He said he later went to the Police
Headquarters for his gratuity, but was not allowed to enter and a lady
collected his letter and asked him to come after a fortnight only to be given
an amount of ¢50,000.
The ex-police officer said he refused an
official order to join the Workers Revolutionary Council, later christened
Workers Defence Council (WDC), and suspected strongly that, junior officers in
that revolutionary organ masterminded his premature exit from the Police
Service.
He said although he got monthly pension,
he felt cheated by his dismissal, and if he had been in the Service, he would
have been due for retirement in the year 2000. He said he lost everything, and
was thrown out of his bungalow, in addition to selling all his possessions,
Life, he said, was very difficult with him
and he could not educate the last two of his eight children to the secondary
school. Okyere said he applied and was engaged by the
Ashanti Regional Development Corporation, but "the work was not
promising", so he left and entered into farming.
He said his attempts to raise loans from
the banks to engage in large-scale farming had been unsuccessful because he was
not having enough money to open accounts with them.
Another complainant, sixty-seven year old
Alexander Saka Ansong, who
used to be a building contractor with the Workers Brigade
told the Commission of his demotion, with a payment of half of his salary, and
subsequent dismissal without the necessary entitlements paid to him. He said he
was not in for any compensation, but "to voice his pain out", for
government officials and organisations to handle dismissals and demotions with
care.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003-
Madam Elizabeth Adongo, unemployed, on Tuesday told
the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that she lost a job as a teacher
after she had lost her voice as a result of seven months of torture by a
police, military and Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) officers in 1985.
Madam Adongo, a
native of Tamale, who spoke with much difficulty, as she had to literally
strain her voice to be heard, also had difficulty turning her neck to look in
the direction of counsel for the NRC who led her to give evidence.
She also told the Commission that she had
difficulty hearing clearly, adding that she was still undergoing medication at
the 37 Military Hospital, where she has been told that it would only take a
miracle for her voice to become normal again.
In her statement to the Commission she
said sometime in 1985 she was at her home at Tamale with her mother when news
got to them that her brother, John Adongo had been
admitted to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
She said her mother could not come so she
bought some items for her to bring to the brother in the hospital. On her
arrival at the hospital she was refused entry but the items were collected from
her to be given to her brother.
"I then returned to Tamale and a few
months later a certain man came to my home and said he had a parcel for me so I
followed him to where he said the parcel was. "On
our way we passed through the BNI office in Tamale where I was given a seat and
the man entered the office and returned to me."
She said the man then asked her to follow
him to where the parcel was, but on their way seven policemen with guns
surrounded her and the man disappeared. Madam Adongo
said the policemen took her to the Tamale Charge office where she was literally
pushed into the male cells and kept there for a night, adding that whilst there
some of the detainees molested her and attempted to sexually abuse her.
She said from the Charge office she was
taken to the Tamale Prisons where she spent another night and then sent to the
airport and flown to
"From the BNI office, I was moved to
and fro between the BNI cells and the Legon Police Station cells for a period
of seven months and some weeks and during this period I was molested and
interrogated about the whereabouts of my brother, which I did not know,"
she said,
Madam Adongo
said at the BNI office, she was made to fill a form and put in a small cell where
she could not see anything, adding that for over a week she was starved, and not allowed to bath or change clothes.
"Anytime I requested for anything
they shut me down by either shouting on me or hitting me with the barrel of the
gun," she said. "At a point the policemen at the Legon Police Station
made sexual advances at me and when I refused they used my refusal as an excuse
to molest me more."
She said in the course of time I was
brought before a 12-member panel made up of men and women who questioned him
about my brother. She said he told them she was not allowed to see him at the
hospital and had since not heard from him.
Madam Adongo
said one night she was at the Legon Police cells when Peter Nanfuri,
then Director of BNI, called for her and apologised to her for the torture she
had gone through. She said she was then sent back to Tamale on a State
Transport bus and has since then been receiving medical care regularly at the
37 Military Hospital for her throat, neck and ears without support from
anybody.
"I used to teach in a school at Nwani in Bolga but due to the
loss of my voice I have lost my job and currently I am unemployed," she
told the Commission.
In another case, Madam Elizabeth Asantewa, 55, told the Commission that she lost one of her
legs through a bomb blast during a march past at the Accra Sport Stadium in
1963.
She said she was 15 and a member of the
Young Pioneers founded by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,
then President of Ghana, adding that the blast occurred right in front of the
podium where the president took the salute.
"I was admitted at the 37 Military
Hospital and the then First Lady Madam Fathia Nkrumah
brought me a present after which the late president visited me in the hospital
and promised to build a house for me, buy me a car and take care of my medical
bills," she said.
Madam Asantewa
said her left leg, which was badly damaged, was amputated and she was sent to
Madam Asantewa
said when the General Kutu Acheampong's
government came into power she was taken back to London for treatment and
assured of efforts to build the house and buy the car for her.
"It remained a promise until the
Rawlings government came and took it up," she said. "I was given to
one Major Smith to provide everything for me and a team was sent to my hometown
to acquire the land and start the project but it has never materialised till
date."
Edward Yeboah Abrokwah,
an ex-Police Corporal, now a farmer and father of eight children, also told the
Commission about his unlawful dismissal from the police service in 1980 without
any offence.
He said he had sent several petitions to
subsequent government, IGPs, Ministers of the
Interior, Chairmen of Police Council and Special Tribunals for redress, but all
to no avail.
Abrokwah said as a result of his dismissal, two of
his 10 children died out of sickness. "I plead with the Commission to
ensure that I am either reinstated into the police service or I receive my
pension benefit to be able to make ends meet."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003- An
Accra Fast Track Court hearing the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL)
divestiture case will on Tuesday, 4 February rule on an objection raised by defence
counsel praying the court to withdraw a prosecution witness.
David Lamptey
who made the objection submitted that by the nature of his work, Superintendent
Alhaji Bukari Yakubu,
document examiner at the Police Forensic Laboratory, was an expert in his field
who was in court to give opinion evidence.
Lamptey is defending Hanny
Sherry Ayittey, treasurer of the 31st December Women's Movement who
is being tried together with three others for their alleged involvement in
bribery and corruption in connection with the privatisation of GREL.
The three are, Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, former Executive
Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), Ralph Casely-Hayford, businessman and Sati Dorcas Ocran, housewife.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the
charges and have been admitted to bail in their own recognisance by the trial
judge, Mr Justice J C Amonoo-Monney, Appeal Court
Judge with an additional responsibility on the case as a High Court Judge.
Continuing with his submission, Mr Lamptey told the court that since Supt Yakubu
was an expert, it was only the court that had the prerogative to subpoena him
to give evidence, adding, "he is not here by any
order made by this court."
Counsel therefore, described his presence
in court, which was at the instance of the prosecution as "unlawful and
illegal". He asked the court to withdraw him, adding, “when the proper
procedures have been carried out, he may probably come back."
Making a contribution on behalf of his
other colleagues, Rodney Heward-Mills, counsel for Casely-Hayford said, "we
associate ourselves very closely with submissions made by our learned
friend."
Replying to counsel's submissions, Ms
Gloria Akuffo, Deputy Attorney-General and leader of
the prosecution team, described the objection as being misconceived and not
grounded on law.
Ms Akuffo
submitted that counsel's objection suggested that an expert could testify in
court only when he was ordered to do so. She, however, submitted that "an
expert witness is an expert witness who can testify when not ordered by
court," and she prayed the court to over-rule counsel's objection.
Supt Yakubu,
sixth prosecution witness who made his second appearance in court on Tuesday,
was to prove which of the three persons, Ayittey, Dr Albert Owusu-Banarfo, third prosecution witness, and Mrs Georgina Okaitey, member of the 31st DWM and yet to testify, was the author of a written note allegedly sent to
Dr Owusu-Banarfo through Mrs Okaitey.
GRi.../
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Ho (Greater Accra)
He was addressing the opening session of a
one-day training workshop for enumerators and supervisors of the traditional
and alternative medicine practitioners at Ho.
The workshop was to update and strengthen
the skills of the 48 practitioners drawn from all 12 districts of the
He called for continuous policy and
programme reviews regarding the practice of traditional medicine. "I
believe this can only be done effectively by knowing the exact number of
practitioners, where they are and what they do", Dr Ako said.
Dr Anthony Noamesi,
President of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners
(GHAFTRAM) said traditional medicine constituted an integral part of the
culture and tradition of the people, which affected their social, moral and
spiritual lives.
He urged all stakeholders to support the
exercise towards its success. Frederick B. Asare,
Deputy Volta Regional Director of Pharmaceutical Services said the exercise
would ensure that practitioners' activities are harmonised and integrated
towards adding value to their products for local and international consumption.
He called for collaboration among
Traditional Medicine Practitioners, Food and Drugs Board and
GRi.../
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