"I did not receive the
severed head of Ya Na" – Witness
The committee, chaired by Ms Ama J. Banful, Chief State
Attorney, would look into all problems associated with the Company's
properties, especially lands, and make recommendations to the government within
three months. Specific terms of reference for the committee
includes investigation into the manner in which lands and properties
were leased and developed.
The committee is also to identify all GRC
staff involved in the leasing of the lands as well as payments that have been made to the GRC and others in respect of the
leases granted.
The Committee is to recommend actions to
be taken on leases granted, investigate any other issues and recommend
procedures that would discourage any further leasing and development on the
lands.
Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi,
the sector Minister, who inaugurated the committee, said the government was
committed to the concession of the railway with the view to bringing in the
required capital injection to improve and expand the railway system.
The projected programme for the railway
sector is to improve the old facilities, extend the lines to the northern
sector of the country and reactivate and develop a suburban railway for the
Accra-Tema metropolis to facilitate the mass
transport system.
According to the programme, a
concessionaire would be selected through a bidding process by the end of
February 2004 for the existing railway. Meanwhile, other development partners,
such as the Chinese government, have also expressed interest to assist the
government to undertake feasibility studies for possible rail extension to the
north.
Ameyaw-Akumfi said in view of the future plans it was
imperative for the government to streamline activities and bring sanity into
the sector. Problems identified in the sector include the allocation of railway
lands and encroachments that have led to permanent developments that are
expected to impede future projects.
Already, allocations to market women and
traders, particularly in
"We however, believe it is with the
connivance of various people in authority both in and out of GRC. People cannot
build, for instance, without development permits from authorities in the
city."
He noted that it was in view of these
developments that the Ministry had set up the technical advisory committee,
"It must be noted that if current assets are not safeguarded, future
assets may face the same fate to the detriment of our railway", he said.
George Mensah of
the Town and Country Planning Department on behalf of members of the Committee
said they had accepted the challenge and promised that they would dedicate
themselves to the task and make workable recommendations.
Other members of the committee are A. Appiah-Adu, Lands Commission, Okyere
Darko Ababio, Ministry of
Local Government, D. K. Osei, Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Albert Adjei, Shama Ahanta
East Metro Assembly. The rest are Asiedu Poku, Kumasi Metropolitan
Assembly and S. Essuman-Ocran, Coordinator of the
Committee.
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"I did not
receive the severed head of Ya Na" - Witness
The first Defence Witness, Iddrisu Iddi, Ex-Zalankulana of Dagbon told the
court that he did receive the severed head of Ya-Na Andani. The Ex-Zalankulana, who
was led in his evidence by Nana Obiri Yeboah, Counsel for the accused persons, said further that
he did not recite any incantations over the head.
Yidana Sugri and Iddrisu Gyanfo, both farmers, are
charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder of Ya-Na
Andani. They have earlier denied the charges at the
court presided over by Justice Yaw Appau.
The Ex-Zalankulana
said he knew Sugri and Gyanfo
since their infancy and that, their fathers used to visit his house with them,
but on
He said he knew the Bolin Lana with whom
he lived in the same Palace, saying on
The Ex-Zalankulana
said as the opposing faction advanced towards the Bolin Lana's Palace, the Abudus prevented the Andanis with
whatever implement they had at their disposal. Witness explained: "If
someone attacks you and you want to defend yourself, you simply use whatever
implement that you have. This could be a gun or a knife."
During a cross-examination by Anthony Gyambiby, Principal State Attorney, the Ex-Zalankulana said he heard the news of the death of the Ya Na on a radio in his house. Witness said that there was
a counter announcement on the radio by Ibrahim Mahama, a Tamale-based Legal Practitioner, that the Ya Na was not dead.
Witness insisted that he knew the two
accused persons when they were kids but he could not tell if they also
remembered him. He was emphatic: "I did not see Sugri
and Gyanfo during the violent hostilities."
The Ex-Zalankulana
disagreed with the Prosecution that Gyanfo went to
the Bolin Lana's Palace with the head of the Ya Na Yakubu, which was on a spear for him to recite incantations
on over it. Mahamadu Abdulai,
an Environmental Health Officer, who was the Second Defence Witness, told the
court that on the day of the incident, he did not drag the mutilated body of
the Ya Na.
Led in evidence by Nana Boahen, Abdulai, who is the
former Presiding Member of the Yendi District
Assembly, denied that he and his brother, Sanni Tuse tried to burn the Ya-Na Andani's body with lorry tyres. Abdulai,
alias "Samansaman", said on that day he was
sick and did not go to the town, while his brother was in Tamale.
During cross-examination by Gyambiby, the Witness said he was aware of the chieftaincy
dispute between the two factions, but he did not support it. He said he used
his position as the Presiding Member to try to settle the dispute by writing a
letter to Ya-Na Andani.
Before adjourning the case to Thursday,
the trial judge appealed to the two factions to help maintain peace in the
area. He said peace was the most essential ingredient that promoted progress
and development, and that they should let the "bygones be bygones."
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The 50-minute meeting held at the suite of
President John Kufuor, Chairman of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was attended by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria;
President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
of Sierra Leone; General Abdulsalam Abubakar, Mediator in the Liberian conflict and Dr Moahammed Ibn Chambas,
Executive Secretary of ECOWAS.
The others were the Ivorian Foreign
Minister Mamadou Bamba and
the Foreign Minister of Guinea, Francois Fall. Busumuru
Annan and the leaders had arrived in
Speaking to Journalists after the meeting,
Busumuru Annan said they
were working hard to ensure a peaceful and stabilised
"The meeting at this level is
focused, it is an action to push the peace process forward", he said.
ECOWAS Chairman, President Kufuor said it was an
informal meeting of the three Presidents, the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS,
the Mediator in the Conflict and the two Foreign Ministers, to work at a
timetable to move the peace process in
"President Charles Taylor has agreed
to go and we are making a headway to solve the
Liberian conflict", he said.
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President Bush made the pledge at a day's
meeting with eight West African Heads of State in
It would in addition, help promote other
Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, Press Secretary to President John Agyekum Kufuor, briefing newsmen
after the meeting held behind closed doors said,
President Bush expressed the desire of the
On the Liberian conflicts, President Bush
said there was the need to maintain ceasefire for peaceful transfer of power
and whatever happened, the UN would be involved in the peace process.
Agyepong said President Bush commended the ECOWAS
Chairman, President Kufuor in his efforts towards
solving the conflicts in
He said President Bush gave the assurance
that the
He said the
Agyepong, who is also the Presidential Spokesman,
said President Kufuor in his contribution, said the
centrepiece of world politics was the dividends of democracy, which should be
seen in the many sufferings inflicted on the African.
President Kufuor
said there should be more discussions on conflicts resolution, education on
better terms of trade, modernisation of agriculture as the means to reduce
conflicts on the Continent.
He said international terrorism could be
the breeding grounds for most of the conflicts and called for a review in the
manufacturing and proliferation of small arms in the West African Sub-Region.
President Kufuor and President Bush later held
discussions.
President Bush had since left
President Kufuor
is scheduled to leave
It would also discuss the draft protocol
on African Court of Justice and the implementation of the New Partnership for
Joseph Henry Mensah,
Senior Minister, Papa Owusu Ankomah,
Minister of Justice and Attorney General and Lieutenant-General Seth Obeng, Chief of Defence Staff are
accompanying President Kufuor.
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Opening an international conference of the
Institution and its international partners in
The five-day conference, attended by more
than 100 Quantity Surveyors, Project Managers and Cost Engineers from Ghana,
Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and the United States, is under theme:
"Contemporary Issues in Cost Management and Quantity Surveying."
Vice President Mahama
said the theme of the conference was relevant to
He said the government was committed to
providing adequate social infrastructure and services to improve the quality of
life of Ghanaians and had, therefore, initiated many roads; health; education
and other projects.
However, he said the high level of shoddy
works seen in the execution of projects and indiscipline in the construction
industry should be addressed immediately.
He said: "We are executing these
projects in the face of serious financial constraints. With such massive
expenditure, it behoves on us, as a government to procure works, services and
goods optimally and manage efficiently with adequate cost consciousness to the
advantage of the country."
But, he noted, "in a situation where
you find a Civil Engineer performing the functions of an Architect and an
Architect undertaking planning schemes or a planner preparing valuations for
work done by a contractor, or a Quantity Surveyor designing building projects,
there are bound to be problems."
The Vice President said the practice of
paying contractors for no work done or being overpaid was unacceptable.
He appealed to international consulting
firms and contracting organisations to partner local ones to enable the latter
to build their capacity, benefit from modern
technology and also to create jobs on the domestic scene.
Vice President Mahama
advised the GIS to explore financial and technical means of undertaking
projects on the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer System in line with project
management models.
Kenneth Krampah,
President of GIS, said the conference would seek best practices in cost
management of national and private resources through prudent procurement
practices and make recommendations for improving the Public Procurement Bill.
"By virtue of the magnitude of the
funds spent on procurement in our national budget, it becomes the single most
important area of financial management that calls for the highest attention if
the economy is to be properly managed."
Krampah said Quantity Surveyors, Cost Engineers
and Project Managers had a crucial role to play since their daily practices put
them directly in charge of procurement of works and services, and also involved
them in the procurement of goods, hence the theme of the conference.
The African Association of Quantity
Surveyors and the International Cost Engineering Council are co-organisers of
the conference, which would look at Property Development and Cost Management,
World Bank Method of Procurement among other issues.
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Baby Nii was
re-arrested together with his girlfriend, Regina Asiwome
and two other accomplices who aided him in his escape. The two accomplices were
David Tetevi, a Togolese and Frank Kwame Amoah.
The Police said Emmanuel Malm, alias Paa Nii, a brother of Baby Nii and
his wife, Charlotte, who assisted Baby Nii to escape,
were still at large. Baby Nii a convict at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, escaped about two weeks ago
when he feigned sickness and was taken to the
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Koforidua (Eastern Region)
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at
Koforidua on Monday, he explained that it was only
after the Unit Committee members had been trained under the proposed law, that
they could perform such function under the Decentralisation Act.
According to Karim,
since the births and deaths certificates served as important landmarks in the
life of every person, including issues such as parentage, citizenship,
travelling documents, voting, inheritance, among others, for both the person
involved and the state, the Registry had to be very circumspect before
divesting its functions.
Additionally, he said the question of
competence of recorders, security of documents and allowances for the
Committees were among the necessary matters to be considered and said the
Registry was collaborating with the staff of the Ministry of Health, especially
the Community Health Nurses, to assist in performing the function in
communities where it has no staff.
Karim who announced the government's waiver of
birth registration fee of ¢10,000 for children under one year cited the
slumping trend of registered ones in the
He hoped parents would take advantage of
the waiver to register their children and stressed on families to register the
death of their relations to enable the Department to compile reliable
demographic data to facilitate efficient development planning by the District
Assemblies and the state organs.
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Opoku Agyemang Prempeh, Executive President of the Centre for Moral
Education, a non-governmental organisation, said this when he addressed a forum
of various youth groups in
He said MPs were legislators mandated to
make laws but not to get directly involved in the provision of social
amenities. ''If MPs contribute to projects they do so voluntarily to complement
the work of the District Assemblies.'' He said the provision of basic amenities
was the responsibility of the Assemblies and the Central Government and they
should be held liable for any lapses.
He expressed regret that the misconception
about the role of the MP had resulted in many constituents accusing MPs of
doing little in terms of physical development. "The pressure on MPs and
the wrong notion that they are responsible for development of their areas has
compelled most of them to divert their attention from their traditional role of
law-making to initiators and implementers of development projects."
To address the problem, Prempeh suggested that government should resource the
National Commission for Civic Education to enable it to carry out education
programmes on the responsibilities of MPs and the Assemblies.
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Nana Lithur was
speaking during a roundtable seminar on Packaging the Achievement of Women
Members of Parliament organised by the Friedrich Nuamann
Foundation in collaboration with the
Speaking on "Participation of Women in
Parliament; the South African Experience," Nana Lithur
said South African had shown how a higher representation of women in their
parliament (29.8 per cent) as compared to Ghana's (9.6 per cent) had
facilitated a more effective participation and its impact on society.
She said both
However, in
She cited a South African Women's
Committee, which, according to her, played an important role by examining the
gender impact of bills and policies in Parliament and made significant impact
and contributions on legislations. On the other hand, no institutional changes
had been made to the debate format, session and times of committee meetings in
Nana Lithur said
statistics indicated that although Ghanaian women had shown interest in
political issues, they had been prevented from active participation.
She suggested that the nature of our
parliamentary institution should be changed to make it more female-friendly and
specific actions should be adopted to secure women's continued and enhanced
access to the legislations. Nana Lithur urged women
parliamentarians to network across party lines, whilst mechanisms were adopted
to encourage women to speak on the floor. She said topics for the debate should
be expanded to include issues relevant to women.
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He told the Commission that he was then in
prison under the Preventive Detention Act without any charge when he lost his
father.
He said he wondered why he was given an
additional five years after serving a first full term of five years.
France, who said he suspected that one Ahimah, who sold banku in front
of their Bukom House, reported him to the
authorities.
He said after reporting himself, one Quartelai Quartey, a local organiser
of the then Convention People's Party, and three others came to the Police
Station. Quartey began insulting him and told him
that he and the others named in the list would definitely go to jail for five
years and serve five extra years.
According to
They were brought back to the Ussher Fort Prison where they spent the next five years.
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