Convention People's Party holds conference
Tamale (Northern Region) 27 March 2002 – Reports reaching Ghana Review says the Paramount Chief of Dagbon Traditional Area, Ya Naa Andani has been beheaded and his body burnt.
According to Superintendent A. Awuni, Publications Director of the Ghana Police Service, the incident occurred overnight in the ongoing clashes between the Andani and Abudu chieftaincy gates of Dagbon, which started on Monday.
Unconfirmed reports also said about 25 people have been killed and set ablaze and many wounded. Sporadic gunshots have been going on at Yendi in the Northern Region since Tuesday morning despite the presence of armed soldiers and policemen.
By 6pm on Tuesday three persons: Musah Abdulai, Yakubu Mahama alias Fuu Mahama and Abdulai Issahaku alias Bona Yuu had received gunshot wounds and were on admission at the Yendi Government Hospital. A dusk to dawn curfew was imposed on Yendi on Monday because of the tense situation there.
The Northern Regional Security Committee deployed armed soldiers and police to the area and banned the celebration of this year's annual Bugum (Fire) Festival at Yendi that was expected to take place on Monday night.
Tension had been mounting between the two gates since last January over the celebration of the Muslim Eid ul-Adha festival.
The Andani Gate that is currently occupying the Dagbon Skin was said not to have been happy when the rival Abudu Gate celebrated the festival in the traditional way at the house of its regent.
Since then, there had been rumours of an imminent attack and counter-attack by the rival chieftaincy gates, which boiled over into an exchange of gunfire on Monday morning. The clash was precipitated when one of the factions allegedly attacked a young man from the rival camp and destroyed his bicycle.
The GNA reported the District Chief Executive of Yendi, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani as saying in a telephone interview on Monday that the two sides exchanged fire for about five minutes. There has been a long-standing dispute over the succession to the Ya-Na Skin.
GRi./
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2002 - Tuberculosis is estimated to take an annual economic toll equivalent to 12 billion dollars from the incomes of poor communities, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report said on Tuesday.
The report said on average three to four months of work time is lost as a result of TB, resulting in an average loss of potential earnings of 20 to 30 per cent of annual household income.
The report, released in Accra as part of World TB Day, which fell last Sunday, noted that for families of those that died from the disease, there was the further loss of about 15 years of income because of the premature death of the TB sufferer.
"Globally, low and lower middle income countries account for more than 90 per cent of TB cases, " the report noted. The WHO estimates that one-third of the world's population is infected with TB. The disease is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is spread through droplets when a patient with tuberculosis of the lungs coughs out.
TB has been described as a disease of poverty as it is widely recognised that the poorer the community, the greater the likelihood of being infected with the TB germ. "A lack of basic health services, poor nutrition and inadequate living conditions all contribute to the spread of TB and its impact upon the community," the statement added.
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Takoradi (Western Region) 27 March 2002 - Mrs Yaa Agyeman, a senior legal officer of the Women In Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), on Tuesday called for the abolishing of widowhood rites, child labour and child trafficking. This she said would enhance peace and social development in all sectors of the economy.
In an interview, she said, these practices were dehumanising, unproductive, an abuse of the fundamental human rights of women and children and a violation of the 1992 Constitution. The recent murder and attacks on women in certain parts of the country should be condemned and the culprits prosecuted, Mrs Agyeman stated.
She called on the security services, neighbourhood clubs, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), churches, district assemblies and non- governmental organisations, to adopt modern methods of education aimed at empowering women to fight for their rights.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2002 - The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on Tuesday expressed its displeasure over the low public turnout for the on-going review of the voter's register by the Electoral Commission, inspite of continuing public education.
In a statement signed by Mr N. K. Agboada, Director of Public Education, the Commission urged Ghanaians to take the exercise seriously, saying that the success of elections in the country would depend largely on a clean and credible voter's register.
"A citizen's vote is his passport to make choices in the governance of this country," the statement added and asked all those who could not register in the past, those whose names could not be found in the register and those who have just attained the age of 18 and above to make it a point to attach much importance to the revision exercise, which ends on Sunday.
The statement further urged registered voters to cross check information and also notify electoral officials about dead relatives and friends for their names to be deleted, when the voter's register is put on exhibition between April 17 and 21.
It also urged chiefs, opinion and religious leaders, patrons and members of civic education clubs, teachers, workers, farmers, Traders and civic society to take active interest in the exercise to ensure its success.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 27 March 2002 -Past national executives of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS), has appealed to polytechnic students to call off their boycott of lectures while their leadership negotiated with the government to find an amicable solution to the problems that had bedevilled the polytechnics.
A statement issued in Kumasi on Tuesday and signed by the former secretary, Mr Henry Jackson Nsiah, called for a well-constituted committee comprising all stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the Polytechnic problems once and for all.
It asked the government to ensure that the concerns raised by the polytechnic students such as the new grading system, academic progression and job placement are properly addressed to forestall any future boycott of lectures by the students.
On job placement, the statement asked that the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and other stakeholders should all be involved in defining the appropriate job placement of the Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates.
The past executive cautioned the so-called "concerned students group" emerging from the various polytechnic campuses to be very careful in their pronouncements as it did not augur well for the union.
The statement noted that pronouncements from such splinter groups put the entire students into a state of confusion and therefore, advised such groups to channel their concerns through their local Student Representative Councils (SRCs) for proper action to be taken.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 27 March 2001--The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned parents, teachers and communities to be wary of the new trend of illicit drug business which is being conducted by the internet.
The WHO representative in Ghana, Dr Melville George, who gave the warning said young people were at greater risk from drug dealers in cyberspace and appealed to stakeholders to be extra vigilant to ensure that the youth were not lured into such activities to ruin their future. Dr George gave the warning in a speech read for him at the final of finals of inter-school debate competition on drug abuse held in Kumasi on Tuesday.
The competition, which was under the theme: "youth against drugs --I am drugs free", was organised by the National Health Learning Materials Centre (NHLMC) of Kumasi Health Education Unit in collaboration with the WHO and the Kumasi Metropolitan directorate of education.
The four competing schools were, Yaa Asantewaah Girls Secondary School, Opoku Ware School, Osei Kyeretwie Secondary and Technology Secondary School.
Dr George said peer pressure among the youth together with easy availability had made substance use one of the greatest challenges to the developmental process and thereby, threatening the very fabric of society. He pledged the WHO's support to the Ministry of Health to extend the sensitisation and peer youth educators programme throughout the country.
The programmes manager of the Kumasi Health Education Unit and Co-ordinator of the programme, Mrs Jemima Dennis-Antwi, said the campaign covered 16 out of the 18 senior secondary schools in the Kumasi metropolis as well as 10 SSS's in the Sunyani district.
She expressed concern about the increasing advertisement of drugs and alcohol in the media and called on parents and teachers to intensify their educational campaign to prevent the youth from entering into drugs.
Opoku Ware School, which came first in the competition, received quantities of assorted books and a cash of one million cedis to set up a drug-free club in the school as well as a shield.
Yaa Asantewaah and Osei Kyeretwie schools, which placed second and third respectively also received assorted books and shield while the Technology Secondary School, which placed fourth received books.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 27 March 2002 - Dr. J. A. Amoateng was elected the first Ashanti Regional Vice-chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), at the party's Third Regional Conference in Kumasi.
Mr Abbass Salifu was elected second regional vice-chairman, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Johnson, regional youth organiser and Madam Shirley Collingwoode-Williams, the acting regional treasurer.
The positions became vacant as a result of the decision of the regional executive committee to dismiss the former officers, who flouted the directives of the Central Committee of the party to report and work at the Kejetia office of the party.
Addressing the delegates, Mr Osei Tutu Bonsu, the Ashanti regional chairman, said the conference was to evaluate the activities of the party since the 2000 elections and also elect members to fill the vacant positions in the regional steering committee of the party.
He observed that the current talks of Nkrumaists have delayed unduly and called on the parties to speed up negotiations in order to form one formidable party to enable them to organise effectively to meet the challenges of the 2004 elections.
The conference approved the formation of a special committee to revive the party branches in the universities and the higher institutions in the region. It also approved the formation of six sub-committees, party organisation, welfare, education, women affairs, youth affairs and finance. The conference also resolved to appoint electoral agents to ensure fairness in the current registration of voters in the constituencies.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2002 - Work on an overall implementation strategy for public sector pay and specific enhancement schemes to raise the commitment of public servants is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Mr Kwadwo
Mpiani, Chief of Staff, said in Accra on Wednesday.
In line with the pay reform, a comparative survey of public and private sector salaries would start next month. In addition, a census to determine the actual size of the public service would be conducted.
Mr Mpiani announced this at a ceremony at which the government signed contract agreements with six public institutions to make them achieve financial success, improve their performances, productivity and effectiveness.
The institutions are the Ghana News Agency, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Controller and Accountant-General's Department, Office of the Head of Civil Service, Public Services Commission and the National Theatre of Ghana.
Mr Mpiani said the pay reform was in line with the government's commitment to reward hard work and productivity in the public service, adding that, public servants were expected to reciprocate this by respecting their work ethics.
"The government of President John Agyekum Kufuor has taken these matters seriously in order to raise the commitment of public servants to give up (sic) their best in providing service to our dear nation," he said.
"We would be glad, therefore, to receive in return increased discipline, accountability, transparency and productivity”, Mr Mpiani said, adding that work had started on a new regulatory framework to govern the public service. The draft would be submitted to the Cabinet by August.
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