GRi Press Review 20 – 03 - 2003
Ya-Na’s murder: Two For Court
Land management in Ghana to be computerised
Denmark to build abattoir for ostrich farmers
Wulensi-type fraud cannot happen at Navrongo - Baba Jamal
Presidential Spokesman In Trouble
Institutional fraudulent deals exposed
Ya-Na’s murder: Two For Court
Accra
The
two are Yidana Sugri and Iddrisu Jahinfo. They were
arrested after being implicated in a government White Paper on the Wuaku Commission Report. According to a police source, the
two have been on remand at the James Fort Prisons since
The
two will be put before the District Magistrate Court B at the Community Centre,
presided over by Mrs Elizabeth Edusei.
Sugri and Jahingo were among 30 persons implicated
by the government White Paper in December last year. The White Paper ordered
their arrest and prosecution for various offences including murder, attempted
murder and arson.
Among
those implicated are Iddrisu Iddi,
also known as Mbadugu, an ex-Zalaukola
Na, Mohamadu Abdulai Karim, also known as Samansama
and Shaui Moro, who were to be prosecuted for
conspiracy to murder.
Sulemana
Baba, otherwise known as Baba Kroga, Abdulai Karim, also known as Cheke, Alhassan Alhassan, also known as Baku, and Kwame Alhassan,
alias Achiri have been were mentioned and billed for
prosecution for attempted murder.
On
However,
at its sitting on 13 August, the commission vacated the order saying the
earlier action “was in excess of its jurisdiction”. – Ghanaweb
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Land management in Ghana
A
computerised Lands Commission Management Information System (LCMIS) would soon
be in place, Hamidu Ibrahim Baryeh, Executive
Secretary of the Lands Commission, told an annual review meeting being attended
by 40 officers of the Commission on Tuesday at Sogakope,
in the Volta Region.
The
system would automate some of the public land management functions including
rent assessment, billing, and recording of payments and consent processes. It
is also envisaged that all the relevant land documents would be scanned for
storage under the system.
Baryeh said consultants have recommended that the LCMIS be developed on an
industry standard software platform, such as Oracle, adding the report of the
consultants had been forwarded to the Sector Minister for approval for work to
commence on the project.
On
revenue generation, he said a new separate revenue unit was being created
within the Greater-Accra office, which would be provided with the full
complements of staff and logistics and would be responsible for all rent
administration issues.
He
said the unit would be replicated in Sekondi and
Baryeh said the Commission would have to go beyond the plotting of land
documents, consent and concurrence processing, which had engaged "our
time" for so long. "We must begin to define pragmatic strategies to
carry out some of our other mandates that we have left largely unattended to
since the passage of the Lands Commission Act in 1994," he stressed.
Baryeh said the Commission was obliged to actively participate in land title
registration in the country, which was mandatory, adding, "so far the
modalities for performing this role had not been clearly defined".
He
reminded the participants that their focus for the year was to restore public
confidence in their work through focused improved service delivery.
During
the five-day review meeting participants would deliberate on proposals for
2003-Policy Directions and Operations, National Report, Presentation of
Regional Reports and would take a field visit to the Keta
Sea Defence Project Site. – Ghanaweb
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Denmark
Dahwenya (Greater Accra)
The
Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) would build the facility by
the end of this year, Dr Bernard Kwasi Glover,
Executive Director of the Ghana Ostrich Products Company, told a group of
journalists during a visit to his four hectare ostrich farm.
The
farm that he started two years ago at Kpotame-Tefle
has 500 birds and he is building a restaurant to make the farm to serve as an
eco-tourism attraction.
He
said the skin of the ostrich is used to manufacture ladies bags and sandals
while an ostrich egg serves 30 people at a meal.
Dr
Glover, who is also the Executive Director of Villa Cisneros Resort, said the
meat is good because of its low cholesterol content. ''Currently the company
supplies ostrich sausages to super markets and restaurants in
Dr
Glover praised the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for developing special
interest in ostrich farming and provided two incubators at a cost of 24,000
dollars for the company. – Ghanaweb
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The
Director General of the Ghana Prison Service, Richard Kuuire,
announced this at a four-day seminar organised in
The
seminar, which is aimed at equipping chaplains and volunteer chaplains with
skills to effectively minister the Word of God towards the reformation and
re-integration of ex-convicts, has the theme, “Ministering to Transform Lives.”
A
total of 50 participants from SDA churches all over the country are attending
the seminar.
He
said there has not been effective collaboration with key players of the
criminal justice system to build the capacities of the Prisons and the Police
Service, the Attorney-General’s Department and the Judicial Service.
This,
he said, is because the system is faced with shortcomings, including
corruption, insufficient compliance with constitutional standards,
non-adherence to established investigation procedures, slow investigation,
cumbersome file handling and transfer procedures and case withdrawals as well
as frequent case adjournments, unrealistic bail terms, missing dockets and
disproportionate ratio for remand/convict prisoners.
Kuuire stated that irrespective of the harsh conditions of the prisons and
the numerous challenges facing the service, it has made some progress by
opening up the prisons to the media, including TV cameras, to enable the people
to have an insight into the prison system.
He
disclosed that a new Prisons Act that will address present inadequacies as well
as restructure the Prison Service will soon be put before Parliament.
He
said although non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been formed to improve
upon the prison system, there are still outstanding areas of concern such as
prisons staff training, poor health delivery, inadequate conditions of service,
public non-acceptance of ex-convicts into the society and little attempt being
made to reconcile victims with perpetrators.
He
urged voluntary organisations to assist prisoners to integrate into society.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior, Kwadwo Affram-Asiedu,
said religious organisations have to collaborate with the state to ensure the
effective rehabilitation of convicts.
The
Chaplaincy Director, Pastor N.L. Thompson, in a welcoming address, said the
Adventist Chaplaincy Ministry focuses on nurturing people within a correctional
setting. – Ghanaweb
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Wulensi-type fraud cannot happen at Navrongo - Baba Jamal
He
said the party was working hard to ensure that the Navrongo
Central seat comes back to them in the by-election, and that while the ruling
New Patriotic Party (NPP) had hoisted flags all over the place, the NDC was
concentrating on working underground.
"Every
party has its own strategy so the fact that we are not raising flags does not
mean that we are not on the ground, as claimed by a section of the media,"
said the deputy General Secretary.
Baba
Jamal said this in an interview with this reporter on the preparations so far
made for the Navrongo Central election and his views
on the Wulensi elections.
Jamal
repeated the now-famous NDC excuse that, but for the electoral malpractices
perpetrated by the ruling party at the Wulensi by-elections,
his party would have won the seat.
According
to the secretary, the NDC had learnt their lessons from Wulensi
and as such, would make all efforts to block the sort of abuse of the electoral
process that went on there from happening again. He stressed that the NDC has
its men on the ground who are working hard enough to make sure everything goes
on well.
He
stressed that it was clear from all indications that the NDC had been on top of
the Wulensi election but were not too surprised when
the results were released, because it was difficult to believe that within a
day, Wulensi was provided with electricity, and a
classroom building was also built within three days.
He
said that the NDC would be glad to continue to lose and lose honourably and
fairly rather than to win by any other means, which makes the electorate lose
confidence in the electoral process, which in the long run, undermines the
development of the country.
Baba
Jamal therefore appealed to the government not to allow the love of power to
destroy the electoral process of the country, stating that, "I do not
think it is in the interest of this nation that we try and make the electorate
believe that when you are in office you can take any means to win power. It is
not in the interest of the country," he added.
He
advised that the country looks out for an electoral process, which is free and
fair so that everyone has confidence in it.
It
would be recalled that in 1992, the NDC member, Godfried
Abulu won the Navrongo
Central seat. But he died in 1995, and in a by-election, Achiwulor
won as an independent candidate.
In
1996, he lost to the NDC candidate, Clement Bugase.
And in 2000, Achiwulor stood on the ticket of the NPP
and won and was the MP until his death. A maximum of 43,838 voters are expected
to vote, and five people are standing on the tickets of the NPP, NDC, CPP, PNC
and DPP. - Chronicle
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Presidential Spokesman In Trouble
But
Presidential spokesman, Kwabena Agyepong denied the
story on JOY FM’s Morning Show when asked if
The
Palaver story sought to create the impression that contrary to appeals the
world over for the
The
story cited the
President
Kufuor was said to have telephoned the White House to pledge support for US and
British plans to launch a military strike against Saddam Hussein. He was also
quoted by the Palaver to have offered to use his influence as ECOWAS Chairman
to ensure that
But
the Presidential Spokesman’s denial of these happenings seems to have upset big
wigs in the Office of the President.
The
Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpianim issued a statement late
Tuesday evening saying his attention had been drawn to the Presidential
Spokesman’s comments on the matter, as well as the cancellation of the
President’s state visit to the
Mpianim said Agyepong’s statements were made without
consulting the President or government. Neither did he have the authority to
make that statement.
Even
before the import of the statement sinks in, questions are being asked as to
whether the spokesman’s denial contradicts what the President actually did. But
the swift action from the castle, still leaves the
question about whether
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Institutional fraudulent deals exposed
The Crusading Guide gathered in the course of investigations that in 1999 a 5bn cedis Government of Ghana Grant made available for distressed vocational institutes at a time that the Department for International Development (DFID) had put equipment in all the NVTI schools, was embezzled.
It was also learnt that Internally Generated Funds (IGF) from the tests since 1999-running into billions of cedis-had been embezzled. As a result of these and other allegations, a source to the NVTI urged the security agencies to investigate its activities. “I think the National Security Council should investigate these and other allegations so that the perpetrators could be brought to book”, the source advocated.
The crusading Guide can reliably say that the Minister of Manpower Development and Employment has been asked to interdict the Director of the Institute as well as the Budgeting, Planning and Procurement Manager, who have been cited in the allegations.
The Minister is also to suspend forthwith all transfer
effected since August 2002 “as they appear to have been done with the intention
of muzzling some officers the Director suspects will be crucial in assisting
the Auditors to arrive at the truth”. – The Crusading Guide
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