Thirteen before
court for possessing weapons
Anthrax breaks out
in Hohoe district
Regulate
importation of chainsaw machines
Assembly steps-up
revenue collection
Pay allowances
quickly – urges Best farmer
Relatives of Yaw Sene asked to report
Son tells
Commission how soldiers robbed his mother
Canadian investors
to establish Spa Centre at Aflao
Vice President to
visit Volta Region
Athletics coach
appears in court for defilement
Stop the anonymous
letter writing- Kuenyehia
People of Nkwabeng appeal for Secondary School
Civil Organisations
urged to merge
Thirteen
before court for possessing weapons
Kpando (Volta Region) 25 June 2003 -
Thirteen people, who were arrested by a combined police and military team at Nkonya for possessing leaves suspected to be Indian hemp
and guns and ammunition were on Tuesday remanded by a Kpando
Circuit Court.
The plea of the accused persons,
charged with possessing Indian hemp and firearms, were not taken and they will
reappear on Wednesday 3 July.
The prosecution told the court
that police have invited the Omanhene of the Nkonya Traditional Area, Nana Okoto
Kofi III, in whose room three guns were found to
assist the police in their investigations.
Police Inspector Francis Ayiglo told the court that during a police/military
exercise on 21 June, at Nkonya and Alavanyo, all in the Volta Region, 13 fertilizer bags
containing some dried leaves and a half bag of some seeds, all suspected to be
Indian hemp were found with eight of the accused persons.
The prosecution said eight cap
guns and one short gun were also found with the other five accused persons.
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Anthrax
breaks out in Hohoe district
Hohoe (Volta Region)
He said 47 sheep and goats have
died of PPR at Gbledi and 35 goats have died of
anthrax at Fodome Amle. Dogbe advised livestock farmers in the two communities to
bury dead animals and refrain from eating the carcass as the disease could
affect human beings.
Samuel Dzebu,
Hohoe District Director of Ministry of Food and
Agriculture, confirmed the outbreak and said vaccination had been organised in
the affected areas to contain the disease.
Speaking on the rehabilitation
of roads in the District Mr Dogbe said 131.5
kilometres of feeder roads had been awarded on contract and that work would be
completed at the end of the year.
The roads include Hohoe - Lolobi Kumasi; Golokwati-Fodome Helu; Liati Agbonyra
- Ahor; Wegbe - Alavanyo and Akpafu Mempeasem - Akpafu Todzi.
Dogbe said out of the locally
projected revenue of 1.2 billion cedis for 2003 only
eight per cent had been collected during the first quarter of the year. He
called on the Assembly and unit committee members to help step up revenue
mobilisation in the District.
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Regulate
importation of chainsaw machines
Elmina (Central Region)
They also called for a body to
be set up to be responsible for the distribution and use of the machines and
suggested that they should be given to only timber contractors.
The forum was organised by the
Forest Services Division of the Forestry Commission as part of its 'Forest
Sector Development Project.'
About 80 assembly members,
chiefs and officials from the Ghana Tourist Board drawn from six districts in
the Central and Western Regions attended.
They also called for the
re-introduction of checkpoints and to give firearms to officials, who would be
manning these checkpoints to stall the activities of illegal chain saw
operators who were most often armed.
The forum recommended the
setting up of a fund for the preservation of sacred grooves and forest reserves
and appealed to chiefs and opinion leaders to ensure that such areas were not
included in concessions granted to timber contractors.
John Assabil,
District Forest Manager, told the GNA in an interview that the project had been
initiated to facilitate efforts at protecting the forests. ''It has become
difficult for my outfit alone to check the activities of illegal chainsaw
operators, who are depleting the forest at a very fast rate.''
He said interventions such as
the formation of taskforces have "never worked but rather turned out to be
a milking avenue for some people". Assabil
suggested that timber contractors should be encouraged to buy mobile mills so
that off-cuts from their businesses could be milled.
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Assembly steps-up
revenue collection
Obuasi (Ashanti Region)
Measures put in place to achieve
this include doing away with non-performing collectors as well as employing the
district GPRTU personnel as revenue collection agents at the lorry parks.
Joseph Kwadwo
Boampong, the District Chief Executive (DCE) who was
addressing the Second Ordinary Meeting of the Assembly, said ''the end of the
second quarter of 2003 has been set as the decision point to overhaul the
revenue collection system of the Assembly.''
He said the assembly's performance
in revenue collection for the first quarter of the year ''was generally poor
especially in the areas of rates and investments.'' Out of estimated revenue of
576.2 million cedis for the first quarter the
assembly collected 247.5 million cedis, representing
43 percent.
Boampong told the Assembly that the new
formula for the disbursement of the District Assemblies' Common Fund is ''
anti-urban'' and, therefore, the need for the assembly to raise its revenue
base.
The Presiding Member, Nana
Stephen Kwarteng, called on the assembly members to
approach their duties on non-partisan basis for the public to cooperate with
them.
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Pay
allowances quickly – urges Best farmer
Nkawie (Ashanti Region)
This, he said, would curb the
misappropriation of monies meant for the purchase of cocoa. Nana Kusi, who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News
Agency, (GNA) commended the government for the increase in the producer price
of cocoa as well as the payment of bonuses and the mass spraying exercise.
Nana Kusi
again commended A.K. Frimpong-Manso, Nkawie District Cocoa Officer for actively getting involved
in the mass spraying exercise.
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Relatives of
Yaw Sene asked to report
Accra (Greater Accra) 25 June 2003 - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
requests the relatives of Sene Yaw, resident in
Spain, to report at the Legal and Consular Bureau, Room 310 of the Ministry for
an important message.
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Son tells Commission
how soldiers robbed his mother
Tamale (Northern Region)
Testifying before the
Commission, Abdulai said his late mother was an agent
of Goil Company, which used to supply her with fuel
at Gbemsi in the West Mamprusi
District and that during the 1979 Uprising, soldiers came to her house and took
away the pickup, which was given to her by a white lady friend.
Abdulai, who petitioned the Commission
on behalf of his mother, said the late Madam Tia used
to buy straw hats for her friend for export while long vehicle drivers mostly Burkinabes en route to
The Petitioner said her mother
was asked to appear before the then Upper Region Investigation Committee at Bolgatanga where she was asked how she came by her wealth.
He said the question angered her
mother, who in turn asked them why they had not gone round Bolgatanga
to question the poor people how they became poor. Abdulai
said her mother was sentenced by the Investigation Committee to a jail term and
was sent to the Navrongo Prisons where she served for
some years.
The Witness said her mother was
also fined by the Committee and asked to pay that money into PNDC Account
Number 48 at the Agricultural Development Bank in Bolgatanga.
He said while the soldiers were
using the pickup it got involved in an accident so they parked the vehicle at
the Kamina Barracks in Tamale. It was later released
to her in a very deplorable condition.
He said during the same period,
some Policemen came to Gbemsi and invaded his
mother's house and carried away two pillowcases full of foreign currencies
including dollars given to her by her friend and CFA she earned from the fuel
she sold to the Burkinabe drivers.
Abdulai said the Police ordered his
mother to walk about three miles from Gbemsi to Walewale but while she was on the way she met some
soldiers, who took her in their vehicle to the Walewale
Police Station.
At the Police Station, he said
the soldiers put sand into her eyes before she was ordered into Police cells
but was later released and sent to Kamina Barracks
with the money.
The Witness said Corporal Peter Tashiru also stormed the village and started firing and
collected all the fuel drums at the filling station and took them away to Bolgatanga while other soldiers also came to the station
and fuelled their vehicle free of charge.
He said his mother later sold
some of her cattle to defray the fine imposed on her by the Regional
Investigation Committee. Adam Salifu, now unemployed,
said he owned a shop at the Tamale Old Market, where he sold shoes, travelling
and school bags, as well as other assorted goods but lost all in the 1982 fire
outbreak at the market.
He said he was at home when his
father told him that the market was on fire and when he rushed to the scene the
fire had not yet reached his shop so he returned to the house and fetched a
bucket of water and returned to the market to try to put out the fire that had
then engulfed his shop but a soldier prevented him from doing so.
The Petitioner said the soldier
told him that they burned the market and that he should run away or else they
would kill him. He said the loss of his shop and goods had brought hardships to
his family adding that he had not been able to educate his children and had
been making a living working in people's farms.
Abdul-Rahman
Abdulai, now unemployed, said he was a tailor at the
Tamale market where he sold bicycle parts, which were all destroyed in the
fire. Alhassan Wulana, who
used to sell plastic containers, said he lost everything in the 1982 fire.
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However, thunderstorms might
kick off over several places in the northern and the hilly areas of southern
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Canadian
investors to establish Spa Centre at Aflao
Aflao (Volta Region)
Speaking to the Ghana News
Agency Togbe Midadje
explained that Spa, which means "health by water" and health resource
system was a multi-tourism programme catching on well in
He said with a highly stressful
and competitive work environment Europeans had started to appreciate the value
of alternative methods of promoting good health and "optimum personal
rejuvenation."
''Spa and Health resorts are
becoming sanctuaries where people visit to rejuvenate themselves and it is very
important
Other facilities to be provided
include pharmaceutical production and distribution units, a research and
development centre and an education and manpower-training unit that would be
put at the disposal of educational institutions.
Togbe Midadje
and Dr Joseph Levy, a York University Professor and Consultant on International
Spa Resource Centres are facilitating the project. He said the project would
occupy between 20 hectares and 40 hectares and the Traditional Council had
earmarked two sites to be considered by the investors.
He said Togbe
Amenya Fiti, V, the
Paramount Chief of the Aflao Traditional Area, would
visit
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Vice
President to visit
Ho (Volta Region) 25 June 2003 - Vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama would begin a three-day working visit to the Volta Region on Thursday 26 June.
According to a programme the
Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council (VRCC) released the Vice-President would
pay a courtesy call on the chiefs of Asogli
Traditional Council and inspect the Ho Market Project on Thursday.
Vice President Aliu would cut the sod for work to begin on the second
phase of the
Other engagements of the
Vice-President, who ends his visit on Saturday, include courtesy calls on
chiefs and prayers at the Tapa-Abotoase Mosque.
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The Vice President told Colin
Ball, who called on him at the Castle, Osu, that the
State of the Union was too loose, and that the United Kingdom, particularly,
should be able to play a similar role as France was doing for Francophone
countries.
Vice President Mahama also called for stronger integration among
Commonwealth countries, saying citizens should have tighter bonds and have
freer access to the respective countries for their common benefit.
He welcomed the initiative to
have civil society groups participate more actively in the Commonwealth and
said this would help to shape the association for the better.
Vice President Mahama reiterated
He also praised
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Athletics
coach appears in court for defilement
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 25 June 2003 - Madam Beatrice Agnes Baidoo, mother of the 15-year-old girl allegedly defiled and impregnated by George Daniels, Brong Ahafo Regional Athletics Coach, on Monday told the Sunyani Circuit court that the accused was not related to the victim.
Daniels had made the woman to
believe that he was a brother of the girl's father, which convinced her to
agree to his request to live with the girl to attend school. Daniels, 54, one
time international sprinter, is standing trial before the court charged with
defilement and is on bail.
Madam Baidoo
said during cross-examination by counsel for the accused that she got to know
that Daniels had deceived her when the girl's father returned to
She said the accused once
introduced himself to her in
Madam Baidoo
said she obliged and entrusted her to Daniels' care. Madam Baidoo
said the accused visited her again at
She said after sometime the girl
came to her at
The mother said she asked the
daughter to go back to Sunyani because she had heard
the accused would be attending a funeral at
On the funeral day she went to
the grounds to look for the accused but could not see him and did not hear
again from either the accused or her daughter until sometime last year when she
heard the news about the incident on the radio and was invited by the Sunyani Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) for her statement.
In another development the court
remanded a self-styled herbalist, Mallam Ali Issah, 54, for defiling a 12-year-old girl in Sunyani.
The accused is said to have been
on the police wanted list for allegedly supplying juju to young men and women
in the town to assist them in stealing. His plea was not taken and would
re-appear on
Assistant Superintendent of
Police (ASP) Alex Yartey Tawiah
said the victim and the accused lived in the same vicinity at Nana Bosoma Market, otherwise known as Sunyani
Wednesday Market.
He said in June 2003 the accused
invited the girl in the evening as she passed by his house under the pretext
that he wanted her to buy something for her but when she got near him he pulled
the victim into his room and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.
ASP Tawiah
said the accused warned the girl not to disclose her ordeal to anyone else he
would use juju on her to be mad. He said on 11June at about 1 pm the accused
once again invited the girl and asked her to have sex with him promising to
give her ¢5,000.
The prosecutor said the victim
refused and informed her brother who invited the accused person but he failed
to honour the invitation and was not seen again in the area.
ASP Tawiah
said the victim was sent to the hospital where after an examination it was
detected that she had been defiled and the matter was reported to the police
but the accused denied the offence during interrogation when he was arrested.
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Stop the
anonymous letter writing- Kuenyehia
He said the NMC was disturbed
about the tendency of these letters some of which tried to court the executive
to interfere in the day-to-day operation of the agency adding that this does
not augur well for its development.
Kuenyehia was inaugurating the new Board
of Directors of GNA that has Rex Owusu-Ansah, former
Clerk of Parliament, as chairman.
The members are Dr. A.B.K. Anane, a lawyer, Nanayaa Tina O. Prempeh, a business executive, Joshua S. Awindor, an information technologist, Abdulai
Musa, a chartered accountant and Kafui
Johnson, General Manager of GNA.
Government would later appoint a
journalist to replace Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, a member of
the former board, who was retained but said could not take up the job because
of other commitments.
Kuenyehia said what GNA needed was peace
and tranquillity, devoid of sectional, parochial and selfish interest adding
that it was only under these circumstances that GNA would progress. "Those
who profess to be workers' leaders must always be humble and place the interest
of the workers above their own."
He said workers should be bold
enough to channel their grievances through the NMC that was mandated to handle
such issues and urged management to create a communication channel to address
these grievances.
Kuenyehia said GNA like other state
institutions, suffered quite apart from inadequate finance and non-release of
approved funds, adding, "it was a miracle to see
it make a modest gain and progress as evident in the last two years".
Andrew Awuni,
a Deputy Minister of Communications and a former journalist of the Agency, who
recounted his working experience with the Agency, said the GNA was one big
peaceful family and it was disturbing to hear about these anonymous letters.
He said the Agency should try and
nib this phenomenon in the bud adding, "this
thing must stop and it must stop now." Awuni
said workers must respect authority and channel their grievances through
accepted laid down procedures. He urged the new Board to investigate whatever
gave rise to this unpleasant phenomenon and address it effectively.
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People of Nkwabeng appeal for Secondary School
Nkwabeng (Brong
Ahafo)
Sammy Asumah,
an elder of the area made the appeal through the Brong-Ahafo
Regional Minister, Nana Kwadwo Seinti
who was on an official visit to the area. Asumah said
the people of Nkwabeng on their own started an SSS,
10 years ago but all efforts made to ask the Government to absorb it into the
public system had proved futile.
Since a number of parents from
the area find it difficult to enrol their children as boarders in the SSS at Nkoranza, the community has decided to establish the school
to address the problem, he said.
In response, Nana Seinti promised to confer with the Regional Directorate of
Education and find out how best the Nkwabeng SSS
could be established.
He called on parents to invest
their resources in the education of their children since that was the only
legacy they could bequeath to them. The Regional Minister also urged parents to
have children that they could care for in order to build responsible and
healthy families.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 25 June 2003 - Alhaji Mustapha Ali Iddris,
Minister of Works and Housing, has appealed to the Management of the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to take steps to protect
all properties belonging to the Corporation to stop the numerous litigation
cases against it.
He said the insecurity of the
Corporation's properties had resulted in encroachment on its lands and was
facing litigations at the law courts. The Minister made the call during his
maiden working visit to the Corporation.
Alhaji Iddris
called for effective monitoring of the Corporation's properties so that any
encroachment could be checked from the onset before the situation got out of
hands.
He said the establishment of the
Tema Export Processing Zone (EPZ) enclave posed a
great challenge to TDC and appealed to the Corporation to come out with modern
and qualitative buildings to house the investors, who would work in the
enclave.
Touching on used car dealers,
who still operated at unauthorised places in the
Ms Elizabeth Mansa
Banson, Acting Managing Director of the TDC, said the
Corporation was saddled with several court cases and this thwarted efforts at
implementing schemes.
She called for government intervention
to protect acquired lands by ensuring that the legal process was not abused to
advance the course of a few selfish citizens. Mrs Banson
gave the assurance that the Corporation had the capacity to continue to develop
Tema as envisaged by the originators.
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Civil
Organisations urged to merge
Mamponteng (Ashanti Region) 25 June 2003 - Isaac Takyi-Banie, Kwabre District Facilitator of Co-operative League of United States of America (CLUSA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in the District, has called on Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) to support each other.
This, he said, would enable them
to have a common front not only to assist members but also advocate for their
interests socially and economically. He was opening a workshop organised by the
Organisation for Representatives of CSOs in the
District at Mamponteng.
The workshop was to enable the
Representatives to discuss a constitution, election of district executive
members, civic education and mobilisation of resources for the District
Assembly.
Farmers' Association, Ghana
National Association of Teachers (GNAT), nurses, hairdressers, dressmakers,
wood carvers and market women attended the workshop.
Takyi-Banie said CLUSA was to promote good
governance, strengthen CSOs and also make the
Assembly more responsive to the needs of the people.
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