Tema Oil Refinery workers resume work
VAT Amendment Bill will not affect rates
Ghana Armed Forces must be regionally
balanced - Koi-Larbi
Victor Smith's case adjourned to 24 June
Government delegation signs Algeria book of condolence
Ya-Na wanted to get Bolin-Lana assassinated
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo Region) 08 June 2002 - Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, Paramount Chief of Dagbon Traditional Area, allegedly brought in warriors from Tamale to Yendi to ensure the assassination of the Bolin-Lana, the Head of the Abudu Gate, a witness told the Wuaku Commission probing the Yendi tragedy on Friday.
Madam Zenaibu Abukari, a Tomato Seller in Yendi and the 15th witness to testify at the Commission's sitting at Sunyani, spoke in Dagbani and was translated into the English Language by an interpreter. She said members of the Abudu family were also to be annihilated according to the plan.
Led in evidence by Mr George Owoo, a retired Chief State Attorney and
Counsel for the Commission, Madam Abukari narrated what she knew about the tragedy from the 24 to 27 March.
She said on 24 Sunday March, one of the Ya Na's three wives, whose name she could only give as "Litogo", came to buy 10,000 cedis worth of tomatoes from her in a house near the Gbewaa Palace.
Madam Zenaibu said in a chat, the Chief's wife declared the intention of members of the Andani Gate not to allow the imposition of a curfew by the Yendi District Security Committee (DISEC) in Yendi. According to her the chief's wife told her that even if the Ya-Na accepted the imposition of the curfew, they (other members of the Andani Gate) would not agree to it.
Witness said the wife quoted the Ya-Na as having said that if Yendi did not turn into Osama Bin Ladin's Afghanistan, then he could not be called the son of his mother.
She said the woman came again on the morning of Monday to purchase 20,000 cedis worth of tomatoes and informed her that Lawyer Ibrahim Mahama had telephoned the chief, from Tamale that he was sending some fighters to Ya-Na from Tamale.
Madam Zenaibu said when the King's wife left a man came from the Palace to buy 1,000 cedis worth of iced-water from her. When I asked this man the cause of a loud laughter by a crowd at the palace, he replied that the warriors, who had arrived, had given the Ya-Na the assurance that they would go and cut off the Bolin-Lana's head and bring it to him, she said.
Witness said the man advised her to flee with her dependants to safety. Not long after she heard the continuous sound of gunshots from the palace, she said. Madam Zenaibu added that all the fighters slept in front of the palace on Monday till Tuesday morning when they went into the palace to eat.
When asked by Counsel if she heard anything about the Ya-Na on Wednesday,
27 March, she replied in the negative. In an answer to a question by Mr Owoo if she believed what the man, who bought the iced-water told her, she answer in the affirmative.
The Chief Linguist of the Abudu Gate, Iddrisu Iddi, who testified earlier as a witness had also said that the Ya-Na brought warriors from Tamale and stationed them at his palace.
He said they (warriors) fired sporadically from the palace. When counsel asked if he saw the warriors, witness replied in the negative, saying that it was some members of the Abudu Gate who told him so. Na Iddi explained that though he did not believe it, he became convinced when firing started from the palace.
When counsel asked what happened at Yendi in the course of preparing to celebrate the fire festival, he alleged that the Ya-Na had said he would not allow the Abudu Gate to celebrate the festival.
"What I heard was that the Ya-Na had said if we (Abudus) were preparing to celebrate the "Bugum (Fire) festival unlike the Eid-Ul-Adha that he (Ya-Na) allowed us to observe, this time, they (Andanis) would carry out bodies because they would not forgive us".
Witness told the Commission that hearing the intention of the Andanis to attack them, he summoned the elders of the Abudu Gate to inform the District
Security Council (DISEC) about this development at the Divisional Police
Headquarters.
"We told the DISEC at the meeting that, since they were the government's representatives in the District, they should also investigate the allegation", he said. Chief Linguist Iddi alleged that the firing by the warriors in the Ya-Na's palace was directed at their (Abudus') houses.
When Counsel asked if on the Wednesday morning he heard of the Ya-Na, Iddi who gave his age as about 70 said, "I only heard that the Ya-Na had travelled to Tamale through a Radio Savannah announcement by Lawyer Ibrahim Mahama". (Radio
Savannah is a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation FM radio station in Tamale).
At this juncture Mr Justice Isaac Newton Wuaku, Commission Chairman, asked if the Abudu's fired back when the Andanis were firing from the Ya-Na's palace to which witness replied that they fired back on the Monday.
Asked about the number of Abudus, who were killed during the exchange of fire, witness said that only two persons - Mahama and Isahaku- were those he knew died.
He added that one Iddi, who also sustained gunshot wounds during the hostilities, later died at the Yendi hospital. Asked by the Chairman about the registration number of the vehicle that conveyed the warriors to the Ya-Na's palace, Linguist Iddi said he could not tell.
Counsel, however, pointed out to him that in his (witness) statement to the
Police, he gave the registration number of the vehicle, as AS 9694 C.Other witnesses who also appeared before the Commission were Mahamadu Zibrim, a farmer, Abdulai Iddiris, regent of Zehi, Madam Amaama Abdulai, a kenkey seller and 25-year-old Zibrilla Mahama, a farmer, all of Yendi.
The Commission adjourned sitting till Tuesday 11 June. Later, Counsel told the press that, all the six witnesses were from the Abudu Gate. He explained that they were given the chance to give evidence because a witness from the Andani Gate, who was expected to appear before the Commission, had not arrived in Sunyani.
Mr Owoo explained, however, that, the witnesses were not being called according to a specific order but rather based on whoever was available.
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Tamale (Northern Region) 08 June 2002- The Andani Gate in the Yendi tragedy has rescinded its decision not to go to Sunyani to testify before the Wuoku Commission of Inquiry into the Yendi tragedy in which about 30 people including the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, were killed.
In a letter dated 06 June, 2002 and signed by the Regent of Gulkpegu, Naa Ziblim Abdulai and the Yoo-Gbon-Lan, Kpema Mahamadu to President John Agyekum Kufuor and the Chairman of the Commission, they said they were going to Sunyani under protest.
"We want it to be placed on record that the government and the Wuoku Commission of inquiry into the Yendi events of 25th to 27th March 2002 would be jointly and severally responsible if any member of our family suffers any attack during their travel to Sunyani or after there", the letter said.
The Andani family had earlier petitioned President Kufuor to change the venue of the Justice Wuoku Commission of inquiry from Sunyani to Tamale, Kumasi,
Damongo or Nelerigu citing insecurity, accommodation, transportation and feeding problems of their witnesses and other members of the family who might travel to
Sunyani. The petition was turned down.
The letter alleged that during the Eid-Ul-Adha festival, the then Minister of the Interior, Alhaji Malik Yakubu and the Yendi District Chief Executive
Mohammed Habibu Tijani arranged for a contingent of military personnel from Sunyani to Yendi to support Abdulai Mahamadu of the Abudu Gate with the intention "to set up a parallel traditional authority in Yendi to celebrate the festival".
The letters said a Senior Police Officer, who was against Ya-Na Andani when he was in Yendi, had been transferred to Sunyani and that town was the second home of Major Abukari Sulemana, who the Andani Gate had accused of masterminding the assassination of the Ya-Na.
Notwithstanding, the government's assurance of their safety at Sunyani, the letter said; "for those reasons coupled with rumours that members of the Abudu family intended to attack our witnesses make us feel unsafe in Sunyani".
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Hamburg (Germany) 08 June2002- The World Bank has provided 220 million dollars to improve roads in the country, President John Agyekum Kufuor announced at Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday.
He said the government of Germany had provided funds for the repairs of the Sogakope-Aflao road while the African Development Bank (ADB) would assist in the rehabilitation of the Accra-Sogakope road.
President Kufuor was addressing the Ghanaian community on the second day of his three-day official visit to Germany at the invitation of Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder. President Kufuor said government would construct a 160- kilometre canal on the Accra plains to boast rice production for local consumption and export.
"This is part of government's efforts to ensure the production of high quality rice by the year 2010, he said. Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance said government's economic policies and programmes were geared towards an improvement of the current growth rate of 4.5 per cent to five per cent. "We want to ensure that Ghana grows at a rate unprecedented in Africa," he said, adding that government had drafted a bill on over aged vehicles imported into the country.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said under the new bill, 12 years has been stipulated, as the average age for vehicles and those above 12 years would attract special penalties. He said for passenger vehicles and trucks, the average age would be 15 years and those above the approved age would attract punitive measures.
The Minister said the Bill was aimed at controlling petrol consumption and protecting the environment from exhaust-fumes. Mr Osafo-Maafo said imported goods for clinics, hospitals or educational institutions would not attract any duty at the port of entry and reminded Ghanaians that those labelled in the name of people would attract duty. He said a special desk has been established to deal with people and institution that import goods to assist development in their communities.
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Hamburg (Germany) 08 June2002- A 160-kilometre canal would be built to carry water from the Volta River to irrigate the Accra Plains as part of a programme to increase rice production.
President John Agyekum Kufuor announced this in Hamburg when he addressed the Ghanaian Community on the second day of his three-day official visit to Germany at the invitation of the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He said: "This is part of government's efforts to ensure the production of high quality rice by the year 2010.
President Kufuor said the World Bank had provided 220 million dollars to improve roads in the country, adding that Germany had provided funds for the repair of the Sogakope-Aflao road while the African Development Bank (ADB) would fund the rehabilitation of the Accra-Sogakope road.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, said government's economic policies and programmes were geared towards an improvement of the current growth rate of 4.5 per cent to five per cent. "We want to ensure that Ghana grows at a rate unprecedented in Africa," he said, adding that government had drafted a bill on over aged vehicles imported into the country.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said under the new bill, 12 years has been stipulated, as the average age for cars and those above 12 years would attract special penalties. He said for passenger vehicles and trucks, the average age would be 15 years and those above the approved age would attract punitive measures.
The Minister said the Bill was aimed at controlling petrol consumption and protecting the environment from exhaust-fumes. Mr Osafo-Maafo said imported goods for clinics, hospitals or educational institutions would not attract any duty at the port of entry and reminded Ghanaians that those labelled in the name of people would attract duty. He said a special desk has been established to deal with people and institution that import goods to assist development in their communities.
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From: Patrick A. Firempong, Berlin
Hamburg (Germany) 08 June2002- Twelve years old vehicles could be imported into the country without attracting any penalty, when a bill the government is preparing comes into effect.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, announced this when President John Agyekum Kufuor met the Ghanaian Community on the second day of his three-day official visit to Germany at the invitation of the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Mr Osafo-Maafo, who is in President Kufuor's entourage, said government's economic policies and programmes were geared towards an improvement of the current growth rate of 4.5 per cent to five per cent.
"We want to ensure that Ghana grows at a rate unprecedented in Africa," he said, adding that under the new bill, 12 years instead of the present 10 years had been stipulated, as the average age for vehicles and only those above 12 years would attract special penalties.
He said for passenger vehicles and trucks, the average age would be 15 years. The Minister said the Bill was aimed at controlling petrol consumption and protecting the environment from exhaust-fumes.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said imported goods for clinics, hospitals or educational institutions would not attract any duty at the port of entry and reminded
Ghanaians that those consigned to individuals would attract duty. He said a special desk has been established to deal with people and institutions that import goods to assist development projects in their communities.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 08 June2002 - Workers of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) resumed normal work on Friday and began loading petrol tankers after a five-hour stoppage of work on Thursday.
The 590 workers of TOR suspended work in a show of solidarity with Dr Yaw Akoto, Chief Executive Officer, when rumours went round that he had been dismissed because of his differences with some members of the TOR's Board.
A visit to the refinery on Friday saw workers at the loading rag serving fuel to petrol tankers. The workers, however, wore red bands to signify that there was a problem at the refinery. Dr Akoto was said to be at a committee meeting at the boardroom with other members of the management so he could not be reached.
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Companies, NGOS given 15 July to submit
returns
Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June2002 - The Registrar-General's Department on Friday asked all companies and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to submit their annual returns to the Department by 15 July or face prosecution with their subscribers.
A statement signed by Mr J. K. Harley, Chief State Attorney for the Registrar of Companies said in addition the Department would strike their names off the Register by the close of business on 30 September 2002.
"All Companies Limited by Guarantee/Non-Governmental Organisations, which fail to deliver their arrears of Annual Returns by the said date shall further have their names published in the Gazette and local dailies." The statement reminded the public that under the law, every company must once at least in every year, submit annual returns to the Registrar-General's Department.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 08 June2002- Mr Ben Owusu -Mensah, Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, (GPHA), has said that the removal of a sunken fishing trawler from the Tema Fishing Harbour, which began a week ago, could cost about 547 million cedis (69,000 dollars).
Meanwhile Cactus Enterprise, owners of MV Bani, which sunk in February last year, who are expected to bear the cost of salvaging the vessel has deposited 100 million cedis to GPHA.
Mr Owusu- Mensah, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency on Friday at the operations site at the fishing harbour said the vessel was laid up about three years ago. It was among the six laid up vessels that had been earmarked to be dumped at high seas, and when it started taking in water, it sunk in no time at where she had been tied.
The Director-General said GPHA had engaged the services of Makkino Engineering, a diving company in Ghana to undertake the salvaging exercise. Mr Owusu-Mensah explained that when a vessel sinks at the port, it causes a problem to navigation of other vessels and blocks berthing space, thus creating economic loss to GPHA.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June2002- Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader on Friday explained that the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill would not affect the current tax rate. The Bill only seeks to correct some technical defects that the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo claimed to have been inimical to the operation of the VAT law.
Mr Bagbin was talking to the press in his office after he had moved in Parliament that the House should not take the second reading of the Bill in the absence of the Finance Minister.
This was when Papa Owusu-Ankomah, the Majority Leader moved that the Bill should be debated and that the Finance Minister, who had travelled outside the country, would be briefed on his return.
Mr Bagbin said the need for the Finance Minister to be present during the debate on the Bill was paramount since he had to explain the technical terms that the Amendment Bill was seeking to introduce.
"The VAT Law (Act 546) has been in operation for about four years now and that any inadequacies or anomalies that the Finance Minister has identified should be explained by Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo himself," he told the press.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah agreed with his colleague and the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Freddie Blay, who was presiding, consequently deferred debate on the Bill till the Finance Minister returned.
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Ghana Armed Forces must be regionally
balanced - Koi-Larbi
Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June2002 - Mr Agyare Koi-Larbi, Member of Parliament for Akropong, on Friday said a regionally balanced Armed Forces would be the most loyal, focused and nationalistic force needed for the country's constitutional development.
The member, who tabled a motion in Parliament in 2000 calling for regional balance in the Ghana Armed Forces, said if it were now the policy of the Armed
Forces to ensure national balance in recruitment then no one should be left in doubt about it, "they should be bold enough to tell the nation".
Mr Koi-Larbi told the Ghana News Agency (GNA): "What I sought to correct two years ago was not done with malice;" adding that an armed force based on ethnicity could wreak havoc.
The member's comments followed Former President Rawlings' assertion that recruitment into the Armed Forces was being politicised. Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, Minister of Defence, had reacted saying the government did not influence the recruitment policy of the Armed Forces.
Mr Koi-Larbi said the basic complaint during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration was that certain ethnic groups were being prevented from entering the Armed Forces.
"In my own area, that is Akwapim, the youth complained that they were being rejected for being the kinsmen of General Frederick William Akwasi Akuffo, an executed former Head of State." He said he felt it was dangerous hence the motion " and now the time has come for the Armed Forces to belong to all ethnic groups".
Asked if Akwapim youth were now serving in the Forces, he said; "I am yet to find out"Mr Koi-Larbi said the principle that must guide any recruitment policy of the Ghana Armed Forces should be: "Can this person ensure that the security of our nation is not compromised at all times?"
He said: "I am prepared to back any member even a Minority member, who has the facts to support a claim that the army is being politicised." In 2000 the NDC's overwhelming majority in the then Parliament defeated Mr Koi-Larbi's motion.
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Ghana marks World No-Tobacco Day
Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June2002-Ghana on Friday marked this year's World No-Tobacco day with a call on the authorities and other stakeholders to create an environment free of tobacco pollution to reduce its cost to health care.
Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, said the disease burden associated with tobacco products was very high and it was important that nite clubs, restaurants, bars and public places were made tobacco-free.
The celebration of this year's World No-Tobacco day, which fell on 31 May under the theme: "Tobacco free sports, play it clean " was held in Accra. It focused on sportsmen and women and the need to promote healthy living among them.
This year's world cup is the latest addition in the list of tobacco-free sporting event including the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics spearheaded by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
It is aimed at encouraging organisations associated with sports to voluntarily give up on tobacco sponsorship money. Prof Akosa noted that people who took to tobacco smoking ended up spending money to kill themselves.
He said they also posed a danger to those who inhaled the smoke and called for greater commitment to rid the country of tobacco pollution. Dr Meville George, the WHO Representative in Ghana, said the globalisation of the tobacco epidemic had propelled the need for global commitment and action to protect present and future generations.
"At the local level we must appreciate that the offensive by the multinationals is gaining momentum and poorly funded sports has become easy bait for tobacco companies to distribute free T-shirts, football attire and promotional gifts. We have seen the ravages of the tobacco epidemic and we know that it is our responsibility to stop the needless suffering of millions," he declared.
He said the tragedy and waste of the tobacco epidemic made the implementation of effective tobacco control measures and the adoption of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by May, next year, both "an ethical and public health imperative."
"Currently, WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health through the National Tobacco Steering Committe to review existing directives and legislation to come up with suitable laws within the FCTC," Prof. Akosa disclosed.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Health, in a speech read for him, said the National Steering Committee for Tobacco Control was inaugurated three months ago and among it's task was to develop a draft bill for Parliament to enact into a law to back public health campaigns and activities for effective tobacco control.
The Minister said the bill, to be drafted by the middle of the year, was in consonance with the FCTC. Dr Afriyie said an estimated number of more than eight million people would die by the year 2020 as a result of tobacco use.
He said about 70 per cent of these deaths would occur in the developing countries with about half of them occurring among the reproductive age group of 35 to 69 years. "Tobacco as you may be aware, is widely recognised as one of the major public health disasters of the 20th century.
"We live in an era when the spiralling rates of the tobacco consumption world-wide is affecting global health on an unprecedented scale,’ he noted. Dr. Afriyie noted that despite the numerous pieces of evidence, the issue of tobacco use and its consequences continued to be debated on by the international trade scene.
According to the WHO, the two global causes of death that were on the increase were HIV/AIDS and tobacco smoking, with tobacco smoke being closely associated with the increasing cases of non-communicable diseases such as cancer.
A football match took played between the Maamobi Youth and Stay Cool football clubs as part of this year's celebration. Ten individuals and organisations, including the Communicators Against Tobacco, a non-governmental organisation, were also honoured for their role in tobacco control in the country.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June2002 - A 54 year-old typesetter with the Commercial Associates Limited, a printing firm in Accra, on Friday appeared before an Accra Circuit Tribunal in connection with the leakage of this year's Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) question papers.
Daniel Poku, who pleaded not guilty to causing the leakage of the examination papers, thus causing economic loss to the West African Examination Council (WAEC), a public institution, was remanded in prison custody to reappear on 13 June.
Police Inspector Emmanuel T. Boison told the tribunal chaired by Mr Imoru Ziblim that last year, the WAEC, Ghana, entered into a contract with the printing firm, where the accused worked as a typesetter, to print question papers for this year's BECE. The Prosecutor said the accused was requested to typeset some of the questions and in the process got access to all the examination questions.
He thus took illegal possession of some of the question papers in English Language, Mathematics, Agricultural Science, General Science, Religious and Moral Education, Pre-Technical Skills, Pre-Vocational Skills and Social Studies.
Inspector Boison said, Poku later made photocopies of the exam papers and gave them to his son, one Benjamin Poku, who is on the run, to sell to a number of schools. Some of the leaked questions got to Dambai in the Volta region and other parts of the country.
He said following a tip off, the Police were able to arrest some people with the leaked question papers at Dambai, Hohoe and Accra, which also led to the arrest of the accused.
The Prosecutor said as a result of the mass leakage, the Minister of Education, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi cancelled the entire examination, which was conducted in April. The rewriting of the cancelled papers is estimated to cost about five billion cedis.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June 2002- A case in which Victor Emmanuel Smith, an aide to former President Jerry John Rawlings, was charged for allegedly threatening two journalists was on Friday adjourned to 24 June because defence counsels were not in court.
Mr Anthony Gyambiby, Principal State Attorney, however, informed the tribunal that Counsels for the accused had telephoned him that they would not be able to attend the court because they were presenting a paper in Parliament and, therefore, pleaded that the matter be adjourned for a fortnight.
The tribunal chaired by Mr Imoru Ziblim obliged. At the last sitting both Prosecution and Defence counsel agreed on a three-week adjournment for the matter to be heard but when the case was called Defence Counsels were absent.
The journalists, who were threatened are Mr Kweku Baako Junior, Editor of the Crusading Guide and Mrs Margaret Amoakohene, a social commentator and lecturer at the School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
Smith has pleaded not guilty to issuing a threat of death and is on a 50 million cedis bail. The tribunal was told that on March 18, the accused and Mr Abrampah Mensah, Interim President of the Action Forum, which is affiliated to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), wrote a correspondence to be handed over to Mr Baako Junior and Mrs. Amoakohene that, they would not sit down unconcerned over their criticisms of the former President.
The Prosecution said the accused also warned that if the two did not stop their criticisms after receiving the letters, members of the Action Forum would be given pick-up vehicles to track and crash them. They also said should these steps to silence the two fail, they would devise other means to kill them.
Mr Mensah, who is a witness in the case, was alarmed and revealed the plot to a friend and handed over the letter to him. This friend in turn gave it to Mr Baako Junior, who informed Mrs Amoakohene. Accused admitted being the author of the threatening letter on his arrest, the Police said.
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Future of Railway to be under scrutiny
Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June 2002 - A two-day workshop on "facing the challenges of railway privatisation and restructuring in West Africa" begins on Monday, 10 June Accra.
According to Mr Isaac A. Oboh, co-ordinator of the workshop, the event had become crucial in view of the important role railway could play in the economic development of West Africa and Africa in general.
It is being organised under the auspices of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) and the German Railway Union (TRANSNET).
Mr Oboh who is also the General Secretary of the Ghana Railway Enginemen's Union, said the workshop there would brainstorm towards finding solutions to some of the issues confronting the country's railway system and that of the sub-region.
A similar workshop would be organised for Nigeria next month and based on the outcome of the two workshops, Ghana and Nigeria would together hold another meeting with their South African colleagues in South Africa on railway privatisation and restructuring.
Mr Mac Urata, Secretary of the Inland Transport Section of the ITF, Madam Claudia Menne, International Secretary of the TRANSNET and Mr Randall Zuks
Howard General Secretary of the SATAWU are among resource persons to participate at the workshop.
Mr Oboh said on Tuesday the participants would travel to Takoradi to meet management and the executives of the Railway Enginemen's Union and the Railway
Workers Union and inspect Railway sheds and workshops.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 June 2002 - A government delegation on Friday signed a book of condolence in memory of Mr Mohamed Cherif Messaadia, Chairman of the Council of the Nation of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.
Mr Messaadia, 78, died after a long illness on 01 June. Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, led the delegation, which comprised officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The others were Mr Leslie Kojo Christian, Director, Africa and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and Dr W. M. G. Brandful, Chief of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr Messaadia was a freedom fighter in the "Glorious Algerian Revolution" of 1954 to 1962 and a member of the constituting Assembly at the independence of
Algeria.
Alhaji Idris said the government and the people of Ghana had learned with great sorrow the passing of one of the "eminent sons of Africa". "The trail that he left behind in the liberation of the African continent and Algeria in particular will be followed by those surviving him," he said.
Mr Hassane Rabehi, Ambassador of Algeria, thanked the government for the solidarity shown to Algeria during death of Mr Messaadia. He said Mr Messaadia invested his life in ensuring that Algeria reached where it stood today.He was nominated Senator in January 2001 by the President Abdelaziz
Bouterflika and became the Chairman of the Council of the Nation in April 2001.
Other dignitaries who signed were Professor Alexander A. Kwapong Chairman of the Council of State, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, the Chairmen of the People's National Convention, Dr Edward Mahama, the leader of the National Reform Party, Mr Goosie Tanoh and chairman of the Convention
People's Party, Dr Abubakar Alhassan.
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