Raid pulled a gun on me – Col Amuah
Soldiers sized my 1,000 cartons of fish - Witness
AIDS consortium begin campaign in Brong
Ahafo
Duncan-Adanusa now Education International
President
Defence Minister calls for US assistance
Lake Bosomtwe development committee formed
I investigated theft at GREL - ASP Yakubu
Tamale (Northern Region) 04 June 2003 - Brigadier Richardson Edwin Baiden, Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), on Tuesday advised personnel of the Service not to allow their personal gains to supersede the national interest.
He said public perception about CEPS had not been positive and appealed to the
personnel to change their attitude towards work to win public confidence.
Brig Baiden was addressing personnel of the Service in
Tamale on Tuesday as part of his three-day tour of CEPS stations in the
Northern Region to interact and learn of their problems. He said any officer
caught in any malfeasance or condoning and conniving with traders would be
punished and urged them to adopt innovative ways to enhance revenue collection
while management looked into the staffing and logistics problems facing the
Service.
The Commissioner said CEPS was being restructured, adding
that, courses at the training school of the Service had been changed "to
give a good outlook to personnel after graduation." Brig Baiden said an
automation system and Internet services would be provided to the Regional
Offices to enhance their operations.
R. K. Lanyon, Northern Regional CEPS Commander, said
the Service collected 9.048 billion cedis between January and April this year
out of a target of ¢10.9bn in the region.
He said the remoteness and the terrain made it difficult to
maximise revenue collection since traders used several unapproved routes to
evade tax. The Regional Commander said the low water level of the Volta Lake
hindered the transport of petroleum products by boat to the north, also
affected revenue collection.
Lanyon expressed the hope that with hard work and dedication
the personnel would exceed the target this year. The Regional Commander
commended Management of CEPS for providing ¢840m to buy two blocks of flats
allocated to the Service by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust
(SSNIT) to solve the staff accommodation problem.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Liberia's President
Charles Taylor arrived in Accra on Tuesday at the head of a 62-member
delegation for peace talks on his country.
He told reporters that a peace deal would have to be brokered before he leaves Ghana. The peace talks open on Wednesday at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) and would continue at Akosombo and Akuse for two weeks. President Taylor said there was no need for him to step down in order to facilitate peace in his country because he was democratically elected.
"I was democratically elected by 80 per cent of the people while 20 per cent
took to the bush. Whether you are in the country or outside, I am still the
President of Liberia," he said. He said as a sign of compromise he had
granted amnesty to a number of prisoners, who were arrested while fighting his
government.
President Taylor noted that the idea that people took to the
bush and then demand the removal of a sitting President should be
discarded. "If you a have a problem with the sitting President, there
is a process which must be followed," he said.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Emmanuel Yaw Blessie, a
former Deputy Superintendent of Police, on Tuesday told the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that he was arrested and detained for two years
without trial during the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC)
era.
He said soldiers who arrested him on 6 September 1983 at
0200 hours at Wa alleged that he had collected bribe in a gold case he was
investigating.
Blessie said though no formal dismissal letter was issued to
him, he heard his name being mentioned on radio together with a number of
senior police officers as having been dismissed a few hours before his arrest.
He said he was neither formerly retired, dismissed, charged for his arrest nor paid
any compensation.
Blessie appealed to the NRC to properly place him at par
with his colleagues, properly retired and paid all his benefits. He said he
enlisted into the Police Service in 1961. He was the Eastern Region Crime
officer in 1983 before he was posted to Wa in the Upper West Region to
establish a crime office there.
Blessie said the soldiers said they were driving him to Accra where was allegedly wanted, but they deposited him at the Navrongo Prisons. He said he spent one week there after which he was sent to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) in Accra where he spent another one week.
Blessie said he was sent to the Usher Fort prisons where he
spent two years before he was discharged in 1984. Whilst in detention he called
on Okudjeto and Obeng Menu to serve as his counsel but an Executive Instrument
of 1984 said he was being detained in the interest of national security.
Blessie said he felt helpless after the Executive Instrument
was passed but on August 5, 1984, there was a publication that people who were
in prison without any charge should be released.
He said while in prison, the then Inspector General of
Police asked him to work on a murder case he was investigating before his
detention but he refused saying he was thinking about his wife and children.
Blessie said his detention had brought hardship and poverty
to his family. Bishop Palmer-Buckle, a member of the Commission, commended him
for his courage and called on Ghanaians to demand that the right thing be done
when their rights are being trampled upon.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Colonel George Emmanuel Amuah, former Commandant of the Ghana Nautical College, on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission that Raid pulled a gun on him during an ejection exercise.
According to Col Amuah said someone wrote to former
President Rawlings pleading for clemency for him and for some of his assets to
be de-confiscated. He said his wife came down to pursue the de-confiscation of
his house. She applied to the Assets Confiscation Committee and was asked to
give the occupant six months. The time elapsed but Riad who was occupying the
house on the instructions of Flt. Lt Rawlings would not move out.
When a bailiff brought an ejection notice, Riad pulled a gun
on him. Col. Amuah said the house was given to a sister of Riad and questioned
the position of Riad in Government.
He said former President Rawlings entertained his friends in
the said house and the time Riad left the house when the NDC lost the
elections, he owed a total of ¢64m in telephone bills.
Col. Amuah challenged the former boss of the Divestiture
Implementation Committee to release one of his companies taken over by the
Management Development and Productivity Institute. He also asked for the
whereabouts of one Victor Asare who was picked by the security agencies in
1992.
Colonel Amuah also said the only way the country could be
reconciled was to bring former President Jerry John Rawlings, Major Boakye Djan
and all living collaborators of military coups to trial and punish them
accordingly.
"The right thing must be done; that's the only way the
country can be reconciled to its past," Col Amuah said. He told the
Commission's public hearing in Accra that Flt. Lt. Rawlings was present in
1979, when a Tribunal failed to grant him the permission to attend his mother's
funeral. He said he was brought from detention to attend that trial.
Tearful Col. Amuah said his mother died in distress and as
the only child, he was in a position to bury her, but "I did not see the
face of my mother before she was buried."
"My mother was buried by my wife and strangers after
all her toil to make me what I am today. It is very difficult, this episode in
my life", he said. Colonel Amuah said he felt relieved for being given the
chance to mourn her mother by weeping, and expressed the hope that his request
of a good report would be a guide to posterity.
"I'm worried about my children and grandchildren,"
he said. Col Amuah, also former Technical Director of the Border Guard
Headquarters, said he went into business when he retired from the Army in 1966
following the coup that toppled the government of the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
He said after a return from a business trip in May 1978 he
was picked by the Special Branch. He was detained for one month on a number of
charges including illegal transfer of money and tax evasion involving, G. E.
Amuah and Associates, one of his six companies.
He was later released on a self-cognisance bail. He said he
was kept under investigation for six months and taken to court but all the
charges against him were dropped, and he was acquitted and discharged.
One Vashi Khubchandani, an Indian Manager of the Company,
who was implicated in the investigation, ran away. Col. Amuah said he had
been a friend of the Agyeman family, the family of the Mrs Nana Konadu Agyeman
Rawlings.
He said gunshots were heard on 4 June 1979, which turned out
to be a coup involving Flt. Lt. Rawlings, the husband of Nana Konadu. Col.
Amuah said he visited Nana Konadu and suggested that they went to the Christian
Council and the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference to prevent
bloodshed because of the imprisonment of Flt. Lt. Rawlings at that time.
He said if the coup failed Flt. Lt. Rawlings could be shot without trial.
He said five people - he and his wife, one Mrs Felicia
Boateng and Mr and Mrs Agyeman, Mrs Rawlings parents - went to the Secretary of
the Catholic Bishops Conference, Rev. Father Senoo at Osu Kuku Hill, but the
place looked deserted.
They followed to Asylum Down, where they finally found the
Rev. Father who took their message, and promised to act within his powers to
prevent any bloodshed.
Col. Amuah said on their return Nana Konadu, who before their
mission sat sadly shouted, "Uncle George, Revo, you ain't see nothing
yet." He said he suspected that Nana Konadu herself was involved in the
coup.
He said three days after the coup he was called on radio to
report to the Air Force Guardroom and he obliged. Col. Amuah said he was
expecting to be thanked for his peace mission, but he was rather ordered into
the guardroom after he had told his driver to leave.
He said Captain Michel asked him to roll on the ground. He
was also shaved, but another soldier asked Michel to stop the torturing.
Col. Amuah said he kept shuttling between the Air Force
Guardroom and the Military Hospital under guard, and he was in detention from
that time till the day after Rawlings handed over power to the Limann
Administration.
He said no one asked him a question during that period and
whenever he asked why he was in detention, he was told, "You are Rawlings'
Special Case."
Col Amuah said on hindsight, he suspected he was arrested
and detained because he was quite affluent with luxury cars and described
Rawlings "as man who detested affluence." According to Col Amuah, he
met a number of business people, including Nana Batamahene, Benjamin Yemo,
alias Kojo Sardine and Ben Eshun on the death roll.
Col. Amuah said during his detention, soldiers kept
tormenting his wife telling her that he would be killed. He said Major General
Robert Kotei and Col Roger Felli were brought in from Nsawam Prisons, placed in
the guardroom and later taken out and executed.
He said he hardly recognised a man who was taken out and
tortured. He was brought back with his head swollen and his eyes buried in his
head. He himself was hospitalised twice in prison.
Two children of General Yaw Boakye who slaughtered their
father's goat for a meal were arrested brought to the guard room and made to
walk on their knees on gravel until their skin peeled off to the bone.
He said he had forgiven Capt Michel, who had since
apologised for his atrocities. According to Col. Amuah, one Capt Korda hit him
in the face. "I wish I were strong to beat him also. Then I would forgive
him".
Col Amuah said the experiences he went through during his
detention had caused him a lot of trauma. He said after his release he went to
his office the next day, but he was arrested that same day on the orders of J.
E. Appiah, the Special Prosecutor.
He was detained in the Ussher Fort Prison and the same
charges that a high court had dropped were again levelled against him. A letter
from the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council also confiscated all his business
concerns and personal property.
He was convicted by a tribunal and had no right of appeal.
Eventually, he was incarcerated in Nsawam Prison, but escaped and went into
exile for 22 years and returned after the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
lost the election in 2000.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Madam Mercy Adams, a
fish seller who said 1,000 cartons of fish were seized from her by soldiers in
1982 shortly after the coup on Tuesday appealed to the NRC to compensate her to
re-establish her shop.
She said the fish was sold at the "controlled
price" and the soldiers took proceeds away. This she said had collapsed
her trade and brought hardships to herself, her husband and eight children.
Madam Adams, a resident of Swedru, said one Asante also in
the neighbourhood was shot and killed by a soldier who he had asked to
accompany him to send his five bags of cement to a block factory.
She said another woman, Adwoa Buakwa, who was sending half
piece of cloth to a relative that had given birth was also shot by the soldiers
that same day because they said she was dealing in cloth.
Madam Adams said it was sad these crimes had tarnished the
history of the country and pleaded with the Commission to ensure that these
things never happened again.
She said shortly after the coup in 1982, about four soldiers
came into her shop claiming that she was hoarding fish. After interrogation,
they seized 1,000 cartons of fish, one carton of which she sold at seven cedis.
Madam Adams said according to the soldiers, they were going
to sell the fish at the price approved by the State Fishing Corporation.
However, she could not get in touch with them to find out how much they sold
it.
She said luckily for her when she was ordered to report at
the Swedru Bungalow, where they normally caned the people on a big table, the
soldiers did not beat her but asked her to return to her shop and wait for
them. Madam Adams said they never came back, adding that she did not make any
formal report to anybody due to fear.
GRi…/
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AIDS consortium begin campaign in Brong
Ahafo
Goaso (Brong Ahafo) 04 June 2003 - A consortium of three non-governmental
organizations with financial support from the GARFUND has started an HIV/AIDS
educational campaign in 20 communities in four districts of the Brong Ahafo
Region.
The consortium made up of the Centre for the Empowerment of
the Vulnerable (CEV), Women's Concern Foundation (WCF) and the Rural Youth
Service (RYS), would complement development strategies in five communities each
of the Tano, Sunyani, Berekum and Asunafo districts.
Launching the campaign in the Asunafo District at Goaso,
George Boakye, District Chief Executive, called for an "all-embracing
approach" to the fight against HIV/AIDS and commended the for adopting
house-to-house information dissemination in the project.
He described the pandemic as a national disaster and called
for behavioural change among the people to curb the spread of the disease,
which was having an effect on the economy.
Boakye appealed to organisations involved in the fight
against AIDS to be transparent to justify the "huge government expenses on
the campaign". Dr Badu Sarkodie, Asunafo District Director of Health
Services, called on the youth to go for voluntary tests to ascertain their
status.
Michael Mensah, Executive Director of CEV, called for
compassion for persons with HIV. He advised the people to be careful with their
lifestyles to avoid the disease from unsuspecting persons.
GRi…/
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Duncan-Adanusa now Education International President
Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Mrs Irene
Duncan-Adanusa, General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers
(GNAT) has been elected Acting President of the Education International
Regional Advisory Committee (EIRAF).
Mrs Duncan-Adanusa was elected at the end of a three-day
meeting of the EIRAF in Accra, which reviewed the organisation's activities in
Africa with particular reference to quality education and the effect of the
HIV/AIDS scourge on the educational enterprise.
She succeeded John Katumanga of Kenya who has retired.
Education International has 66 affiliates in 46 African
countries.
Closing the meeting, Ms Christine Churcher, Minister of State responsible for
Basic, Secondary and Girl-Child Education urged African governments to give
priority to girl-child education because; "If you educate a mother you can
be sure all her children will receive good quality education."
Ms Churcher said it was only through quality education that
one could eradicate poverty and earn a good and respectable living. She
emphasised the importance of the role of teachers in the education delivery
system and advocated an improvement in teachers' service conditions.
In a communiqué, members resolved among other things to
ensure; "Equitable distribution of available and obtainable resources for
African nations to invest more in quality public education for all."
The communiqué urged African countries to endeavour to
obtain well-trained, adequately remunerated and motivated teachers who would
provide quality education. The three-day meeting also appointed Madam Assibi
Napoe, General Secretary of the Federation of Teachers' Unions in Togo as the
new Chief Co-ordinator of Education International (Africa Region). She took
over from T. A. Bediako.
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Defence Minister calls for US assistance
Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Dr Kwame Addo- Kufuor, Minister of Defence, on Tuesday appealed the United States to provide a medical team that would help to upgrade the 37 Military Hospital to undertake Post-Graduate Medical training.
He said the brain drain by the country's medical personnel had affected the
manpower needs of the Hospital hence the need for US support to help in the
training of postgraduate doctors.
Dr Addo-Kufuor was speaking when the Deputy Commander In
Chief, US European Command, General Charles F Wald, called on him in Accra.
General Wald, the eighth American General to visit the
country was on a two-day familiarization tour. Dr Addo-Kufuor acknowledged the
long-standing bilateral relations between Ghana and the US and said both
countries had benefited form it in diverse ways.
He said the two countries had had international military
training, country training and joint military exercises. General Wald commended
Ghana for her participation in international peace keeping and pledged that
steps would be taken to possibly send medical experts from the US to help in
the training of medical staff in Ghana.
He also visited the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff
College (GAFCSC) and inspected the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping
Training Centre Project. Major Gen. Carl Coleman, the Commandant of GAFCSC,
called for the establishment of links with their European counterparts to boost
the training of officers to equip them with exceptional skills.
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Lake Bosomtwe development committee formed
Kumasi, June 3, GNA- The Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating
Council (RCC) in collaboration with the Asanteman Council has set up a
Technical Planning Committee for the development of Lake Bosomtwe.
This is contained in a press statement signed by the Ashanti
Regional Minister, Sampson Kwaku Boafo in Kumasi on Tuesday. The statement
said, all stakeholders including prospective investors should, therefore, liase
henceforth with the said committee in respect of development programmes and
activities in the Lake Basin.
It said, "prospective developers, traditional and local
authorities should desist from encouraging and causing haphazard physical
development of the area to ensure a coordinated development of this unique
natural resources for the benefit of the entire nation".
It hoped that this directive would be complied with by all and sundry in the interest of the region and the nation in general. The statement said the Lake has been identified by the Ghana's Integrated Tourism Development Plan (GITDP) as a major natural tourist product.
"It has also been recently designated by the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage site".
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - Mrs Gladys Asmah,
Minister of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), on Tuesday said though women
produced about 60 per cent of the foodstuffs in the country many of them were
illiterate and poor. She, therefore, called on Gender Desk Officers (GDOs) to
highlight the concerns of women, who had been marginalised for along time.
Mrs Asmah said GDOs must use their role as advocates in the
workplaces to influence issues concerning gender in the country. Mrs Asmah said
these when she met GDOs of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in
Accra.
The meeting was to review the activities of the GDOs in the
various institutions, learn about their challenges and how to chart the way
forward to achieve their stated mission and goals. The Minister asked the GDOs
to submit quarterly reports to MOWAC as an input to policy formulation as well
as programme planning, monitoring and assessment of impacts.
"Your role as GDOs should be seen as a complementary
responsibility, which ought to be given serious attention towards enhancing the
performance of our country with respect to the diverse gender related
conventions that Ghana is signatory to" she stated.
Mrs Mary A. Yamoah, Principal Accounts Officer of the
Accountant General Department, said the GDOs in the various departments and
agencies were not well equipped and also the majority of the people in the
Civil Service did not understand gender issues and as result posed a great
challenge to them. She called on MOWAC to come out with a policy document on
gender to make their work easier.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - The withdrawal of
services by State Attorneys entered its sixth working day on Tuesday as efforts
were stepped up to meet their demands. The Minister of Justice and
Attorney General, Papa Owusu Ankomah has been meeting the Attorneys to resolve
the issues.
The strike, which started on 26 May, has crippled the courts as more criminal cases were adjourned indefinitely. The Attorneys are on a sit down strike to back the demand for payment their allowances. All the High Courts and Regional Tribunals were again virtually empty on Tuesday.
State Attorneys on 28 May reaffirmed their resolve to continue to withdraw
their services to press demands for the payment of all arrears of allowances
due them from January to date. A statement signed by Augustine Obour, Acting
Secretary of the Association of State Attorneys, said the decision was taken at
a general meeting held in Accra last Wednesday.
The Attorneys said a statement by the Minister of Justice
and Attorney General that all their demands had been met since Friday had
created an erroneous impression in the minds of the public. The statement said
as at last Friday, there had not been any break in communication.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 June 2003 - A witness on Tuesday
told an Accra Fast Track Court that he was detailed to investigate a theft of
money involving Hanny Sherry Ayittey, treasurer of the 31st December Women's
Movement (DWM). Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ahmed Issa Yakubu, now
with the Regional Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Kumasi, was giving
evidence in the case in which four persons are being tried by an Accra Fast
Track Court for their role in the privatisation of Ghana Rubber Estates Limited
(GREL).
ASP Yakubu, who is the investigator in the case, said on
April 24, 2001 when he was assigned to investigate the stealing at GREL in
Takoradi, he interviewed a number of people. Among them were Dan Abodakpi,
former Minister of Trade and Industry, one Frimpong, Austin Gamey, former
Deputy Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Owusu Banafo, a consultant, Madam
Georgina Okaitei, a housewife, one Kwame Awuah Asante and R.G. Narnor.
ASP. Yakubu, formerly with the CID Headquarters, Special
Investigation Task Force Office in Accra, who was led in his evidence by Osafo
Sampong, Director of Public Prosecution, said he interrogated all the accused
persons. According to the witness, on 4 and 23 May 2001 he took investigation
caution statement in English from Ayittey, who wrote it by herself and signed.
Four persons are facing trial for their alleged involvement
in corrupt practices during GREL's privatisation. They are Ayittey, Emmanuel
Amuzu Agbodo, former executive secretary of the Divestiture Implementation
Committee, Ralph Casely-Hayford, a businessman and Sati Dorcas Ocran, a
housewife.
All the four were alleged to have influenced the DIC Board
to divest GREL in favour of Societe Industrielle Plantation Hevea (SIPH). They
have denied their various charges. The court, presided over by Justice J. C.
Amonoo-Monney, an Appeal Court Judge, with an additional responsibility on the
case as a High Court Judge, has granted each of them self-recognisance bail.
When ASP Yakubu, at this stage tendered all documents at
hand in evidence, defence counsel objected to some of the statements, saying
witness did not sign them. Witness had told the court that he was not available
when some of the accused persons wrote other statements, adding that he
collected them from one Sergeant Imoru, who signed them.
He said as the head of a three-man investigation team he
later read those statements. The court stated that witness was not competent to
tender such documents in evidence, because he did not sign them. The court
stated further that "the proper person who took the statement has to come
to court to tender them in evidence, so that he could answer questions in
cross-examination."
The court admitted in evidence caution statements that ASP
Yakubu collected and signed from the first accused on 3 September 2001; second
accused on 15 November 2001 and third accused on 4 September 2001.
In all these statements, the three accused persons wrote
them, signed and were counter-signed by witness.
The case was adjourned to Wednesday 4 June.
GRi…/
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