Accra (Greater Accra) 09 March 2002 - Mr Tsatsu, former Chief Executive of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), was on Friday discharged when he made his third appearance before an Accra High Court, on a charge of willfully causing financial loss to the state.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Julius Ansah, an Appeal Court Judge, upheld the preliminary objection raised by counsel for Tsikata, who argued that the charge levelled against his client was unconstitutional, when he first appeared before the court on March 1.
The court declared that the prosecution’s charge sheet is legally not acceptable. “The offensive charge sheet should be struck out, and it is, hereby, struck out. Mr Tsikata is discharged,” it ordered.
The court said the law dealing with the offence allegedly committed by Mr Tsikata, came into force on July 6, 1993, but the statement of offence said Mr Tsikata committed the act “in or about February, 1993”.
“I must tell the Director of Public Prosecutions that, our laws are stable and under no stretch of imagination could in or about February mean July,” said the presiding judge.
The court, however, maintained that it had the powers to deal with the matter, in respect of the objection raised by Mr Tsikata’s lawyers, and will, therefore, not refer the matter to the Supreme Court for interpretation, as sought by the lawyers. The ruling was preceded by submissions by the prosecution and defence teams to strengthen their positions.
Ms Gloria Akuffo, Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, who first led the prosecution team, referred to previous sittings and said since Mr Tsikata did not enter a plea, the arguments by his counsel should be dismissed by the court.
“Legal arguments are not admissible before pleas are taken,” she added. Ms Akuffo said it is mandatory for the accused in criminal matters to enter a plea, and if the accused does not enter a plea, a plea of not guilty should be entered on behalf of the accused by the court.
She said Mr Tsikata’s stand of not entering a plea was an irregularity of proper arrangements before the court. Asked by the court why she replied to the arguments by Tsikata’s lawyers, if they were not admissible, Ms Akuffo said, “it is because we were compelled at the time”.
The court upheld Ms Akuffo’s submission and asked the court clerk to read the particulars of offence again and take Mr Tsikata’s plea. At his juncture, Mr Tsikata openly told the court that he could not plead to a charge which was unconstitutional.
The court, however, entered a plead of not guilty on behalf of Mr Tsikata. Prof. E.V. Dankwa, leading counsel for Tsikata, had argued that the application and submissions of the prosecution were not only unmeritorious, but also incompetent.
He said the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and if inconsistencies erupt between the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code, it is the Constitution which prevails. Counsel said a plea by the accused was not an essential part of the arrangement, and that in this particular case, his client could not plead to a charge which was null and void.
Counsel described the prosecution’s application as “a ploy to cure a fundamental error in the charge”. He said, if the court grants the prosecution’s application, “we will be rewarding blatant violations of the Constitution, and we will be providing an incentive of future violations”.
A desperate and a last-minute request by Mr Osafo Sampong, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), who later led the prosecution team, to make amendments to entertained by the court.
It would be recalled that counsel for Mr Tsikata, on March, 1, raised a preliminary objection to a charge of willfully causing financial loss to the state leveled against their client, when he was arraigned before court.
Prof. Dankwa had argued that the charge was unconstitutional, and urged the court to stay proceedings and refer the case to the Supreme Court for interpretation. The accused did not enter a plea. The court, however, granted Tsikata a 500 million cedis self-recognisance bail and fixed Friday for ruling.
The prosecution team declined to talk to the press after the court session. Mr Tsikata’s counsel also stopped short at saying “our client has been set free by the court”. – Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 09 March 2002 - A jealous wife has burnt the house of the late Joshua Kwabena Siaw, a Kwahu business magnate, at his hometown at Akwasiho, near Nkawkaw in Eastern Region.
The house is the only non-confiscated landed property of Mr Siaw, who was the former Managing Director and owner of Tata Brewery, now part of Ghana Breweries Limited.
The Ghana News Agency reports the head of the family Wofa Kofi Donkor on Thursday as appealing to the Inspector General of Police to intervene to get the Police at Nkawkaw to prosecute the arsonist, Adwoa Fordjour.
Wofa Donkor said Adwoa, who is the second wife of Mr Kwame Ebo, a teacher and a tenant in the house, committed the offence out of jealousy. Adwoa did not approve of the romance between her husband, who was determined to take a third wife and decided to incinerate his property when he visited the house of the rival on the day of the incident, he said.
He said Adwoa went to her husband’s house at about 11pm when she knew that Ebo had gone to the other woman's house. She opened his door, entered the room and poured kerosene across the room and set it ablaze and fled, he alleges.
Eyewitnesses are said to have raised the alarm when they saw the flames and some people assisted in putting out the fire before the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) got to the scene.
Wofa Donkor said three months after the incident the Nkawkaw Police was dragging its feet and seemed not to be interested in prosecuting the woman, adding that the situation had heightened tension between the youth in the town, who want to see justice done and some elders they perceived wanted the matter settled out of court.
Mr Wesely Gbogbo, Nkawkaw Police District Officer, in a telephone interview with the GNA said his outfit was waiting for a report from the Nkawkaw GNFS before sending the docket to the Attorney- General's Office for advice. He, however, said that the Police would not hesitate to send the suspect to court since she had admitted that she committed the offence.
GRi../
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 09 March 2002 - The Medical Administrator of the Cape Coast Regional Hospital, Dr Martin Morna on Thursday warned that the prolonged and abusive use of paracetamol tablets could cause chemical hepatitis (a disease that can damage the liver).
He said it has been the normal practice of people to just walk to the drug store and buy the drug over the counter without due regards to its implications. "Like any other drug, paracetamol also has its harmful effects. It can destroy the liver and eventually cause one's death if it is abused ", he stressed.
Dr Morna, who is also head of the Diabetes Centre at the hospital, was educating market women and other women's groups in the Cape Coast Municipality on diabetes and hypertension diseases as part of activities to mark the International Women's Day.
It was organised by the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) and the Ministry of Health to educate women to be careful with their health. He advised hypertensive and diabetic patients to seek regular medical attention and also take their prescribed drugs regularly as a measure to help prevent crisis and to prolong their life.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 09 March 2002 - Professor Kasim Kasanga, Minister of Lands and Forestry, on Friday said the government's ambition of creating an enabling environment for private sector development would only be achieved if land acquisition and titling process were made less expensive, speedy, transparent and less complicated.
In a speech read on his behalf at the 33rd annual general meeting of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, Prof. Kasanga said it was vital that safe and secure land was made available for the envisaged private capital inflow.
"In the past many investors, upon the invitation of government, came with the intention of investing in Ghana but soon realised the inherent difficulties in the land acquisition procedure.
"They gave up on the system and repatriated their vital investment capital and expertise to the detriment of the nation," he said. The theme for the meeting is "Land Acquisition and Compensation in the Golden Age for Business".
Prof. Kasanga said many years after those painful lessons, the acquisition process has not seen much improvement. "The state institutions established to infuse professionalism into the land delivery system have themselves become the subject of public disparagement for being slow and insensitive to the needs of the public.
"The land documentation and registration procedures are still manual and convoluted even in this age of technological advancement."
Prof. Kasanga reiterated that the government was reviewing the land acquisition process to ensure that request for public land acquisition would only be sanctioned after funds for the payment of compensation had been deposited in a specified account. "This would ensure that no new compensation debt would be incurred," he said.
The current outstanding compensation, Prof. Kasanga said, would be treated as part of the domestic debt for which its management strategy had been spelt out in the domestic debt repayment strategy in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).
GRi../
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 09 March 2002 - Ministry of Health (MOH) would not manage community Health Insurance Schemes (HIS) or Mutual Health Organisations (MHOS) being established to replace the cash-and-carry system, Dr Isaac Kofi Asare, Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of Health Services, said at a day's consultative seminar on Thursday.
The seminar was organised by the Sunyani District Assembly to prepare the grounds for the scheme to take off in the district. It was also to ascertain the understanding and knowledge of the people about the scheme as well as their willingness to operate it.
Dr Asare explained that the communities or organisations would manage the insurance schemes whilst the ministry would give the guidelines for their effective management. Participants at the seminar included representatives of public and civil service organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and traditional rulers.
Dr Asare explained that monies generated by the MHOS would be used strictly to guarantee and promote members' health security and cautioned against the money being used to promote social activities like the payment of funeral donations to members.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 09 March 2002 – The government says it would support individuals and institutions ready to make inputs into the development of agriculture, especially mechanisation.
Mechanising agriculture at all levels of production and processing was important hence the need to source new machinery and technologies or adapt already existing ones to remove the constraints farmers face.
It was in this connection that the government was facilitating the establishment of mechanisation service stations in six selected centres to encourage private participation in the provision of mechanised services, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd) said.
In a speech read for him at the launch of VARI Multi purpose mini tractors system at the Eight International Trade Fair in Accra, Maj. Quashigah said the country was making efforts to attract investment into agriculture and expressed the hope that the new technology would help stem the tide of waste in tractor utilisation, in which large capacity tractors were used for smallholdings.
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