Witness causes stir at Wuaku Commission
Kufuor would visit Yendi "at the appropriate time" - Govt
Flood victims evacuated in Accra
Torrential rains affect normal business in Accra
Dormaa citizens in the Netherlands donate to
hospital
Italian Ambassador calls on Regional Minister
Demolition of unauthorised structures underway at Aflao border
Report on health situation in Volta Region
Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs to pay a visit Ghana
NPP joins International Democratic Union (IDU)
Journalists to attend workshop on reconciliation coverage
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 15 June 2002- Kwaku Donkor Montana, a farmer at Tusani, near Yendi on Friday caused a stir at the Wuaku Commission of inquiry when he retorted in reply to a question by counsel for the Abudu gate that the lawyer should not subject him to irrelevant questions. Donkor, in his 70's and who identified himself as chief warrior of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, appeared before the Commission as the 24th witness.
Nana Obiri Boahen, counsel, had asked the old warrior if he bled when he was shot on Tuesday, 26 March as he had told the Commission. When the interpreter translated the question to him in Dagbani, Donkor suddenly became angry and replied: "if I did not bleed how would I have felt dizzy"?
Donkor also rebuffed a question from the commission with a question "is it possible to see somebody who has shot you from behind?" The Commission wanted to know why he had said in his evidence that he could not identify the one who shot him out of four attackers, but told the police in his statement that one Adam Sumani shot him.
Donkor, who said he took the title "Montana" as the chief warrior, told the Commission that he arrived in Yendi at noon on Tuesday, March 26, when the Gbewaa palace was under siege by combatants of the Abudu Gate.
The chief's servants and elders were under the pavilion in the palace when I entered there, he added. Donkor said he despatched a messenger with his motorbike to inform his family in Tusani about the precarious situation of the Ya-Na and the entire members of the Andani Gate.
Following the message, four of my children arrived at the palace with the eldest of them, called Asaafo, carrying four locally manufactured guns, he said. Witness added that it was when he decided to go and greet one of the Andani elders at a nearby house that four persons, one of whom he identified as Adam Sumani, fired at him from behind.
The chief warrior said he did not meet anybody in the house, so, after waiting for a while, "I removed the bullets and returned to the palace." Donkor said on the Ya-Na's advice, he was sent to the Yendi Hospital by three persons whom he named as Mohammadu Wofa, Mahamadu Billa and his own son, Iddi.
At this point, Donkor stood up from the witness sent, removed his smock and singlet and showed the mark (scar) of the bullets to the Commission. Asked by the Commission's counsel about how long he was at the hospital, he replied, "three days".
He denied that he spent seven days at the hospital, even though he had said so in his police statement that was read to him by the Commission. When asked by counsel for the Abudus how he managed to identify Adam Sumani when he was shot, the old warrior replied, "I recognised him by the uniform he was wearing, a black-coloured jumper."
To another question by the counsel as to why he did not go to the police station to report when he saw the palace under siege, Donkor responded, "I am not under the police but under the Ya-Na."
Witness told the commission that members of the Andani gate were counting on divine intervention for their rescue in answer to a question as to the reaction of the Ya-Na and his elders at the palace, notwithstanding the hail of bullets. Donkor, born in Koforidua, told the Commission that he used one of his hands to remove the bullets from his body when he was shot.
Another witness, Abdulai Ziblim, a 37-year-old farmer, corroborated the evidence of the old warrior about events on Monday, March 25. He said on that day, he was pelted with stones and assaulted by a group of Abudu youth as he was returning to the palace from an errand in the morning.
Ziblim said as his assailants chased, he fell from his bicycle and one Imoru Kyeampong hit him with a block as he lay on the ground. I managed to rescue myself when I drew a knife from my pocket, as that scared them away, but in my anxiety to save my life, I fled leaving my sandals and bicycle behind, he added. Ziblim alleged that when he reported at the hospital for treatment a clerk turned him away because he could not pay 20,000 cedis, cash down.
This was after he had made a report about his assault to the police. He corroborated evidence given by earlier witnesses concerning the firing-exchanges and the burning of some houses around the Gbewaa palace. Ziblim, however, stated that on Wednesday morning when the firing intensified, the Ya-Na proposed a cease-fire and asked that the information be communicated to the attackers.
"The Ya-Na called for dialogue to end hostilities since there were women and children at the palace, but our attackers did not budge and continued firing." He said the Ya-Na, therefore, asked him (witness) to deliver 'SOS' message to the military detachment at Yendi, but as he scaled a wall to proceed on the errand, he was shot in the hand.
Ziblim said when he got to the barracks, some solders on parade shouted at him: "my friend, go back, my friend, go back." He said he then knelt before the Yendi District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Mohammed Habib Tinjani, who was there, to use his influence to get some soldiers to go and rescue the Ya-Na.
He alleged that an army officer retorted: "the Ya-Na is very stupid" and barked at him to go and sit down. According to him evidence by the Guntangi-Na, Alhassan Shahadu, the 22nd witness, who testified on Thursday, that they were made to remove their talismans, charms and amulets on the orders of the soldiers to be burnt in the presence of the DCE.
He said a second appeal to the DCE to ensure the despatch of soldiers to the palace for the rescue mission received the reply from the DCE: "when we wanted to impose a curfew, you people rejected the idea." Ziblim said when Shahadu also arrived at the barracks with the same rescue message from the Ya-Na, the DCE posed the question: "what is happening and the curfew, which is better?"
Ziblim could only identify four of his attackers he named as Imoru Kyamong, a teacher at Yendi, one Oklos, Musah and Ayoma. Asked further if Ayoma did something to him, he replied in the affirmative. "They chased and pelted me with stones while shouting "kill him, kill him." Ziblim said they used locally made guns at the palace when counsel for the Abudus asked him about the type of guns they had at the palace.
At this juncture Mr Justice Wuaku, chairman of the commission reminded witness that the commission was only interested in the truth of the tragedy. "If you tell lies, that cannot help the commission to know the truth of the matter," the chairman said. "It is the truth I am telling you," Ziblim replied through the interpreter.'
Ziblim, like some of the previous Andani witnesses, denied the existence of an armoury at the Ya-Na's palace. On how the Abudus retreated on 26 March, witness replied that, "we used our single-barrelled guns to repel them."
When the Commission suggested that he had eight cartridges on him at the time that he was asked to remove his talismans at the military camp, Ziblim insisted that he had only one on him. Alhassan Yakubu, a Junior Secondary School two student at Yendi, who also appeared as a witness, added his voice to the narratives by his co-witnesses about events on Wednesday, 27 March.
Yakubu, 23, and a resident of the palace and son of the Ya-Na's younger brother, told the Commission that he slept in his school in the company of other frightened students on both Monday and Tuesday. He said on the Wednesday morning he mustered courage and secretly left the school for the palace.
Witness said at a point when the going became tough for those in the palace, he jumped over a wall to join five other youth from the palace who had sought refuge behind a heap of firewood at a nearby prison quarters.
He named the five as Mitawakil Iddrisu, Imrana Shaibu, Nantogmah Alhassan Andani, a cousin Abubakari Amadu and Shaibu Abdulai. Yakubu recounted how he watched proceedings from his hideout and saw jubilant Abudus celebrating their 'victory' with drumming and dancing.
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Kufuor would visit Yendi "at the
appropriate time" - Govt
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 June 2002-The government on Friday said President John Agyekum Kufuor was in constant touch with the situation in Dagbon, is very well briefed and would "at the appropriate time visit the area to show the people his fatherly commiseration and concern".
This was contained in a statement signed by the Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs on the call by the NDC Minority Group in Parliament on President Kufuor to visit Yendi to commiserate with the people over the Yendi crisis in which the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, Paramount chief of Dagbon was assassinated.
The statement said government's moves and actions on the Yendi incident do far belie the attempt to create the impression that the President did not care about what was happening in the area.
It said the President had made a Radio/TV broadcast sent a Ministerial Team led by Senior Minister Joseph Henry Mensah to the area on two occasions to study the situation on the ground and console the people.
The statement said the President had also invited to Accra representatives of the two Gates in the conflict and had serious discussions with them and constituted a three-member team of eminent chiefs to find an amicable and lasting solution to the conflict.
The statement said the Wuaku Commission currently sitting at Sunyani was yet another concrete expression of the President's desire to ensure peace based on truth and justice in Dagbon. "When it comes to such matters of tradition and protocol, the Minority in Parliament, especially, and the NDC as a whole may do well to exercise patience and learn from President J.A. Kufuor."
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Flood victims evacuated in Accra
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 June 2002- The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has started emergency evacuation of victims of the floods that hit Accra on Friday morning.
Residents of flood-prone suburbs such as Banana Inn, Sakaman, Odawna and Alajo would be temporarily accommodated at NADMO disaster lodging point at
Mateheko. A member of the Greater Accra Flood Committee, Mr Michael Forson, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency, advised the victims to exercise restraint and co-operate to find lasting solution to the perennial flooding.
Mr Forson, who is also a Sanitary Engineer at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), told the affected residents of plans by the central government to improve upon the drainage systems in their areas.
A survey by GNA at some of the flood-prone areas revealed signs of desperation, disappointment and anger among residents whose property had been soaked or destroyed by the rains. Some of them accused their Members of Parliament and officials of AMA for not doing enough to solve the problem.
They alleged that the MPs had not even visited them to see the gravity of the situation. The heavy rains, which started on Thursday night, have flooded roads and other properties within the metropolis, displacing hundreds of households and forcing early morning commuters to detour their regular routes.
The Meteorological Services Department said as at midday on Friday, 119millimetres of rain had fallen at the Accra Airport area. Total rainfall for only 14 days in June amounted to 288.7 millimetres, compared with a normal June average of 221 millimetres.
MSD said they expected the rains to continue throughout the day and even more rains during the month. Heavy rains from Sunday night to Monday morning caused severe flooding and loss of property in several areas of Accra.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 June 2002- Twelve hours of intermittent rainfall in Accra on Friday affected commercial business especially the agile street vendors who go all out to exploit the heavy vehicular traffic on a normal day to make a living.
A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency along the Adenta-Ashally Botwe, Madina-Accra roads revealed that the brisk business of hawkers, head porters, popularly called 'Kayayee' remained absent on the roads while most stores around Adenta-Madina, were closed.
The normal vehicular traffic on the Main Accra-Adenta road on Friday's was not present. As at 11 hours about 10 tro-tro vehicles were packed at the main Adentalorry station, an indication that it was not business as usual. The usual flooding that accompanied heavy downpour in the Metropolis was, however experienced by most residents.
At the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, especially around the overhead and the Odawbridges there was heavy flooding. Stranded passengers waded through the water to find shelter, while some anxious traders were seen searching through the water to recover their wares that had been carried away by flood.
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Dormaa-Ahenkro (Brong Ahafo) 15 June 2002- Dormaa citizens based in the Netherlands and two organisations in that country have donated items valued at more than 90 million cedis to the Presbyterian Hospital at Dormaa Ahenkro in Brong Ahafo.
The items include 18 beds with mattresses, two incubators, a deep freezer, a generator with installation materials, second hand clothing and children's footwear. The two Dutch organisations are Albert Schweitzer Hospital and Bergchenhock.
Mr. Jonathan Berko, Chief Personnel Officer of the hospital told newsmen at Dormaa Ahenkro that the management of the Albert Scheitzer Hospital had been a foreign partner of the Presbyterian hospital for a long time. He said last year, the Dutch hospital donated a Hyundai vehicle to help improve operations at the hospital.
Dormaa citizens in the Netherlands bore the freight cost of the container and the items to Ghana at a cost of 28 million cedis, he added. Mr. Berko thanked the donors and appealed to other individuals, churches and organisations to come to the aid of the hospital.
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Italian Ambassador calls on Regional
Minister
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 15 June 2002- The Italian Ambassador to Ghana, Giancarlor Izzo, has identified lack of human resource development as one of the major problems hampering the development process of the country.
He said there was the need to always develop the skills of entrepreneurs, especially those in the small and medium-scale industries to improve on their capacity for effective industrial and commercial growth of the country.
Mr Izzo stated this in Kumasi on Friday, when he paid a courtesy call on the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo at his office. The visit was to enable the Ambassador to identify areas that the Italian government could support in the region.
Mr Izzo mentioned in particular the need to develop the human resource base of artisans at the Suame Magazine and said his government was prepared to commit resources to that area. He announced that a number of Italian businessmen were prepared to come to the country to establish a gold refinery and appealed to the government to facilitate their establishment.
Mr Boafo said the Regional Co-ordinating Council had set up an investment desk to promote business in the region and pledged the support of the Regional
Administration for individuals and organisations that were prepared to set up genuine industries in the Ashanti.
He said he would work hand-in-hand with the leadership of the Ghana National Association of Garages to work out modalities to enable the artisans to benefit from the training programme envisaged by the Italian government.
Mr Izzo, who was accompanied by the Consular Correspondent for Ashanti and Northern Regions, Mr Stefano Ramella, also paid a similar call on the KMA Chief Executive, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah.
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Aflao (Volta Region) 15 June 2002- Unauthorised and shanty structures within the security zone at the Ghana Togo Border at Aflao are being demolished. The exercise is aimed at improving security and sanitation as well as to decongest the border parameters to enhance the activities of security personnel at the border.
The structures include those that housed the former State Construction Corporation (SCC) workers during the construction of the now abandoned border complex in the 1970's, workshops, saloons lotto kiosks in areas including the barracks and seashore.
Some property owners were hurriedly removing their structures to beat the extended deadline given them to avoid demolition. Mr Kow Amissah-Koomson. Assistant Commissioner, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), in charge of the Aflao sector, told the Ghana News Agency that the structures, apart from being dilapidated, had become hideouts for smugglers and criminals, posing serious problems to the work of the border security personnel.
Mr Amissah-Koomson said some of the structures on the adjoining beach of the border had become warehouses for smugglers who swim with the goods into Aflao from Lome and deposit them in the structures. He said besides, the dilapidated nature of the structures gave negative impressions about the country to foreigners visiting Ghana through the border.
On the SCC structures, he said if for 30 years that the job had been pending and the temporary structures of the workers served only as dens for criminals then there was no reason for keeping them. Mr Amissah-Koomson added that the measures were necessary to make the border area conducive for the 24-hour opening.
Meanwhile the CEPS personnel were filling waterlogged areas around the frontier. The Aflao branch of the Freight Forwarders Association have donated two wheel barrows, two shovels and standing brooms at the cost of 1.5 million cedis to the CEPS for the filling exercise.
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Ho (Volta Region) 15 June 2002- One out of every five children between the ages of and five in the Nkwanta District of the Volta Region is malnourished making stunted growth, a common affliction among children there.
A district health management team research report put general malnourishment among children in the district at about 50 per cent but said 30 per cent of the number were in the less severe category.
Miss Pamela Quaye, a Technical Officer of the Disease Health Management team, who presented the report at the final day of a five-day workshop at Ho on
Friday attributed the situation to ignorance and poverty among other problems.
The workshop was the second to be organised by the Volta Regional Health Directorate under its health systems research capacity building programme initiated by the health sector support office.
Miss Quaye said while 57 per cent of respondents in the 30 communities sampled said they could prepare Weanimix, a recommended balanced weaning food, some 84 per cent did not know the correct proportions of the components. She said families in the district were skimpy on food and also sold strategic food stock to cope with cost of living.
The research findings recommended intensified education in the use of local food for the preparation of balanced diets and also called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the health management team to reverse the trend.
All the six participating districts Nkwanta, Jasikan, Keta, Kete-Krachi, Kadjebi and North-Tongu, had met in January this year for a proposal development seminar at which each selected a priority area for enquiry. North-Tongu tackled low patronage of health care service at Mafi-Kumase. Health Centre and recommended the transfer of the Medical Assistant there.
Krachi researched into the late arrival of patients to the district hospital and suggested to communities to adopt measures to get patients most of whom were suffering from obstetric cases to the hospital early.
Keta district worked on late submission of returns from the sub-districts to the district directorate. The work revealed that non-availability of forms, unclear handwriting of doctors and the lack of funds affected report writing in the district.
Jasikan, which researched into level of acceptability of the scheme by the people, suggested that government and NGOs should support in building skills of managers of the schemes. Dr Nii Akwei Addo, the Acting Volta Regional Director of Health Services, said the health sector had moved away from "hunch to evidence based decision making."
He said research was crucial for health management, noting that where it was lacking and decisions were based on assumptions it often resulted in the selection of inappropriate lines of action.
In a speech read for him, Mr Steve Selormey, Regional Co-ordinating Director, said inadequacy of resources to facilitate health delivery system required the health management team to carry out research to determine appropriate options.
He noted that while all stages of research were important, data analysis was crucial. Mr Selormey said if data were collected but not correctly analysed, the result of research could be dangerous to apply, particularly in health related issues. He, therefore, cautioned researchers against allowing their emotions to influence their work.
Mr Selormey said: "There should be objectivity and a scientific approach to data analysis if we are to come out with dependable reliable and useful results." Twenty-Four participants from the six districts and some staff of the various divisions of the regional health directorate attended the workshop.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 June 2002- Mr Wang Wenchang, China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, would pay a three-day working visit to Ghana from 15 to 17 June.
Mr Wenchang, who is in charge of Western Asian and African Affairs, would as part of his itinerary hold a meeting with Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, after which they would sign an agreement on debt cancellation.
An official statement said the Chinese Vice Minister would also hold bilateral talks with Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Foreign Affairs and lay a wreath at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum.
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NPP joins International Democratic Union
(IDU)
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 June 2002- The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been formally accepted as a full member of the International Democratic Union (IDU) at its bi-annual party leaders meeting in Washington D.C., USA.
Seven Heads of States, Foreign Ministers and senior government officials from around the world that shared the ideals of the union attended the three-day conference.
A statement issued to Ghana News Agency by Mr Ivor Agyeman-Dua, Minister Counsellor-Information, Ghana Embassy, United States, said Mr Harona Esseko, Chairman, NPP and Mr Joe Baidoe Ansah, Member of Parliament for Effia Kwesi-Mintim, represented the party.
"United States President George Bush, who addressed the meeting, expressed faith in the IDU and said all members upheld the centre-right ideals."
He said in the past, there was a lot of balance between the centre-right and centre-left but now the balance has shifted to the centre-right and 60percent of global leadership today were centre-right. President Bush said it should not be taken to mean that the world was a secure place - "there is terrorism and there are a few people still around, who want to destroy the progressive majority. It is left to the world to search and crush them otherwise we are going to suffer evil."
Mr Esseko told the delegates that democratic development in Ghana was taking roots and said long before the IDU was founded, the late Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah, Founder of NPP tradition was preaching the ideal of free enterprise in the 1950s.
"Danquah like the NPP believed that the ideals of the IDU could only be sustained in the developing world if the developed countries helped the poor since democratic ideals hardly survive in the face of poverty, diseases and disillusionment." The IDU believes in "democracy and development"
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 June 2002 - About 35 journalists would attend a workshop on the coverage of the reconciliation process, in Accra on Monday organised by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development and the Civil Society Coalition on National Reconciliation.
The workshop, which would be sponsored by IBIS/DANIDA, is aimed at exposing the participants to the best practices in reporting proceedings of the national reconciliation process.
A statement in Accra on Friday by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD), said it would consider the experience of journalists who covered reconciliation commissions elsewhere and suggest ways of avoiding pitfalls.
It said international and local experts would give presentations and share experience on various aspects of Truth and Reconciliation with reference to the process in South Africa, Nigeria and Kosovo.
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