Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2003 - The Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has an uphill task to establish how two out of 70 pellets of heroin found in the stomach of a drug courier allegedly got replaced with salt.
The unit, however, said it is awaiting a report from the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) before initiating investigations into the matter. Even before the report arrives, the unit has also found itself in a tango with the GSB over suspicions that the pellets have been tampered with.
A post-mortem on Joseph Boateng had revealed 70 pellets, one of which was burst, apparently causing his death at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra on 9 February this year.
Information available to the Graphic indicates that Boateng was rushed in a state of unconsciousness to the Emergency Ward of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital at about 10:30 p.m., on 8 February 2003, by some ‘good samaritans’.
Unfortunately, he died at 4.50 a.m. the following day and the officer in-charge at the time, Dr Isaac Archer, was accordingly called to inform the Korle-Bu Police about the death of the patient.
An autopsy was conducted on Boateng by Dr L. Edusei, in the presence of the Chief Executive of the hospital, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, on February 13, 2003 and the 70 pellets were found in his stomach.
The pellets were handed over to the Korle Bu Police the same day, to be forwarded to the GSB on the same day, and a report lodged with the Narcotics Control Board (NCB).
It is, however, learnt that the pellets were not sent to the GSB as instructed, neither was the Narcotics Control Board notified.
The investigator who was initially handling the case was during the period interdicted by the Police Administration for committing an offence and the case was handed over to Detective Sergeant Solomon Adjei.
The burst pellet, blood, liver and other tissues from deceased’s stomach were sent to the GSB on 24 February 2003, but the analyst rejected them on the grounds that the normal thing was for the police to bring all the exhibits (pellets), the tissues and the pathologist’s toxicology form “A” to the GSB for examination.
The Korle-Bu Police then complied and sent the 69 pellets and the toxicology form “A” to the GSB the next day. A visual examination at the GSB by the analyst revealed that the contents of two of the pellets were different from the rest.
It was after the technical examination that the two different pellets were found to contain normal salt.
Prior to this, information available indicate that Dr Edusei had complained about the delay in receiving the report on the contents of the pellets from the police to enable him issue a final pathological report.
The pellets were then repackaged and sent to the Drug Law Enforcement Unit for safe-keeping pending investigations into the case. It came to light during investigations that the NCB requested for a re-examination of the pellets so that photographs of the exhibits could be taken as is done in such cases.
When the pellets were sent back to the GSB, the analyst detected that the GSB seal and packaging material had been tampered with so the analyst refused to have anything to do with them.
Officials of the GSB said the chain of custody is very important in narcotics cases hence it was important that before the police, for whatever reason needed to notify and invite the GSB to be present before opening the exhibits and repackaging them.
The GSB maintained that since the agency would have to testify in court cases, the presence of its officials at the opening of the package at the Police Headquarters was very crucial.
The GSB said the exhibits were put in a clean container but it was returned to its office in a different container with a whitish substance smeared all over it.
The board said it was compelled to reject the exhibits outright because it did not represent what the police had signed for and taken to the Police Headquarters.
The Graphic learnt that the NCB, the central body which co-ordinates all narcotic cases in the country, was duly notified in a letter dated 18 March 2003, and copied to the Director of CID, about the GSB’s suspicions. Stephen Adjei of the Police Headquarters received the Director of CID’s letter.
However, Superintendent Alex Bedie, Officer in-charge of the Drug Law Enforcement Unit, said the fears of the GSB are unwarranted.
He explained that his unit was only notified after the GSB had done the first examination and the two pellets were found to be fake.
He said this was after the attention of the Director of the CID, David Asante-Apeatu, was drawn to it by the Executive Secretary of the NCB, Col Isaac Akuoku. According to Supt Bedie, until then, the unit knew nothing about the case.
He said the pellets were brought to the unit for safekeeping and that from experience, his staff decided to reseal the exhibits in plastic bags to avoid leakage. He said he was surprised to hear that the GSB had refused to have anything to do with the pellets because they “had allegedly been tampered with”.
Supt Bedie gave the assurance that as soon as the unit receives the report from the GSB, it will commence investigations to establish when and how the two pellets were submitted.
When contacted, Col Akuoku said he was aware of the case and that the Director of CID has given the assurance that the case will be investigated. – Daily Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2003 - Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the ex- chief executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Samuel Addokwei Addo, have finally spoken. Nana Konadu vehemently denied ever ordering the ex-AMA boss through a phone call to give a building permit to the Mormons, while Addokwei Addo also denied ever receiving such a call from Nana Konadu.
The two were responding separately to Chronicle inquiries. In her response to Chronicle inquiries through Victor Smith, the former First Lady was quoted as saying that she had never received any gift(s) from the Mormons neither, did she order Addokwei Addo to give the Mormons a building permit.
She described allegations against her as having received gifts from the Mormons and ordering the ex-AMA boss to give them a building permit as ridiculous.
The former First Lady has categorically denied these allegations and said that she never received any gift from the Mormons; neither did she receive any delegation from the Church. She said it is not true that she ordered Addokwei Addo to issue the Mormons any permit, Victor Smith quoted the former first lady as saying.
According to Victor Smith, the former first lady said that the only thing she remembers is that, during one of the disasters that hit the country, the 31st December Women's Movement appealed for support for victims of the disaster and the Mormons were among the group of many organizations who donated second hand clothes to the victims of the disaster.
Addokwei Addo also denied ever receiving such a phone call from the former First Lady, ordering him to give the building permit to the Mormons, and described the claim as laughable.
"I just laugh over some of these things. This is not true; the former first lady did not call me. You see, I, Addokwei Addo, cannot issue permit, I am only a chairman of the Accra Metropolitan Planning Committee (AMPC), and the committee consists of about seventeen other members, representing various agencies I only superintend," he said.
He noted that AMPC cannot issue building permits just on anybody's instruction, adding that building permits are very serious documents that is why the approval of permits goes through such a long and rigorous processes.
Addokwei Addo also noted that it is very difficult for anybody to interfere with the work of the AMPC because if the AMPC, which is a statutory organization, grants a wrong permit, the AMA will pull it down and this will cost the state a lot of money since compensation would have to be paid to the owner of such a property.
Addokwei Addo who was available for further comments said that there are two permits, which have to be granted before any construction can begin. He said the first permit was a planning permit, which, if approved, gave authorization to construct a structure.
The second permit was the building permit, which gives the green light for actual construction work to begin. He further explained that without a planning permit a building permit could not be issued.
When asked when the permit for the Mormons was issued, Addo said he could not remember the year and asked the Chronicle to contact the Secretary of the AMPC. He also noted that the Mormons' application for permit has had a very checkered history and that it began before he took office. When Chronicle contacted the office of the secretary to AMPC it learnt that he was on sick leave.
In a previous interview with other members of the committee, Chronicle recollects that it was said that the permit was issued on June 4, 2001.
THE ALLEGATIONS
The above allegations against the former First Lady and Addokwei Addo were made by the managing editor of The Independent, Egbert Fabille Junior, during Good Morning Ghana programme - a Metro TV newspaper review program. He said that former first lady, after receiving a gift from the Mormons, called Addokwei Addo via phone to issue the permit.
Following these allegations Egbert Fabille also dared the former First Lady and Addokwei Addo on the Media Review programme on Joy FM, an Accra-based radio station to come public and refute the allegations.
Fabille who claims to have done extensive investigations into the Mormon scandal also admitted before the Chronicle reporter that at the time he made the allegations against the former first lady former, he had not contacted her, nor the ex-AMA boss to ascertain the truth or otherwise of the allegations. He also said he hadn't spoken to the AMPC.
Asked whether he could prove these allegations against the former first lady and Addokwei Addo, he said he had no reason to doubt his sources, adding that his source heard the former first lady making that call.
THE COFFEE SHOP MEETING
Soon after Chronicle ran the story of the Mormons, Chronicle reporter Raymond Archer received a phone call one night from a source who told him that a group of what he described as "senior journalists" had met at the Coffee Shop about the story.
According to the source, the managing editor of the Independent, Egbert Fabille, had said that he will "go after" the Chronicle reporter who did the story. The source also mentioned the names of the journalists who were at the meeting.
Following this message, Archer called Egbert Fabille on his mobile phone the next day to ascertain the truthfulness or otherwise of the message. Fabille admitted making the statement, but said that he said so because the reporter had stated that his comments about the story were untrue.
Fabille told Archer that he knew the journalist who told Archer about the fact that he had said that he would go after him.
He said that they were only ten at that meeting and that the only journalist he suspected to have told Archer what he said was the managing editor of the National Concord who apparently was not present at that meeting.
Archer told him that the last time he saw the managing editor of the National Concord was about four days prior to the incident and that he was not the one who informed him.
THE COFFEE SHOP FIGHT
On Saturday, Egbert Fabille was reported to have confronted the said journalist over the issue, saying that he had evidence that he was the one who called Archer to tell him about the fact that he Egbert had said that he will go after him.
According to eyewitnesses, the verbal exchanges nearly resulted in an exchange of blows, but for the timely intervention of Kweku Baako of the Crusading Guide who promised settling the matter the following day. - Ghanaian Chronicle
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2003 - It has been about eight days since Chronicle published the story about Jake and the Mormons. Chronicle learnt that the Chief of Staff was planning to issue a statement to deny the story but the statement has still not been issued.
The Chief of Staff complained about the headline and what he said was a direct attribution to the President. He said the headline looked as if the President granted a direct interview to Chronicle. He said that the President was angry with the attribution, which sounded like we had a direct interview with him.
Nowhere in the story was it stated that Chronicle had a direct interview with the President. The story stated that the Chronicle officially interviewed an officer at the Office of the President who is mandated to talk. Indeed, the officer said he needed to contact the President before speaking to us, which he did, and we have no reason to doubt this.
Chronicle maintains that the officer spoke to Chronicle after speaking to the President. The Chief of Staff instead of addressing the issues raised in the story, was rather concerned about who Chronicle spoke to.
Chronicle maintains that it was officially told that the President did not have anything to do with Jake Obetsebi Lamptey's trip to Utah. Chronicle did not fabricate the story; neither did it concoct the President's response.
It must be stated that Chronicle used its discretion to attribute what it was told at the Office of the President, rather than to the individual officer who we spoke to, especially when the officer said he had to contact the President before giving any information.
We have no reason to believe that the officer did not speak to the President before saying that the President did not have anything do with Jake Obetsebi Lamptey's trip to Utah. It must be said that the officer concerned conducted himself in a very professional manner.
We dare the Chief of Staff to come out openly and say that the information we published was concocted, and did not represent what transpired. Chronicle will no longer waste time discussing unprofitable arguments about whether the permit was issued in 1844 or 1455.
We are going to concentrate on the fact that the minister has done a lot of things for the Mormons, chief among them was facilitating for the Mormons to get a land title certificate.
Very soon, the true story about the relationship, which existed between the Mormons and that political party, -PPN- when they were in opposition, will be told. Church A's tax exemption on the chopping board. - Ghanaian Chronicle
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2003 - After using the tax payer's money in hard currencies to buy the numerous oil rigs by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), with the view of using it to explore oil from Ghanaian waters, especially the Tano oilfields and beyond which unfortunately never materialized, the rigs are now being dismantled and the needed parts offered for sale as scraps to scrap dealers in Africa.
As you read this piece, engineers might have finished dismantling the K/S Asterie, one of the rigs, which has been abandoned in the Gabonese waters for some time now, with the scrap dealers struggling for the parts.
One Amissah Arthur has already been dispatched to Gabon by the new GNPC management headed by Boateng to supervise the dismantling exercise, after all efforts to get buyers to buy the entire rig had proved futile. Nobody actually showed interest, according to Chronicle sources.
Chronicle intelligence has also picked another information that one of the rigs, which has also been abandoned in Angolan waters for years, now is also being offered for sale, but nobody has so far shown interest in buying it, despite numerous adverts by the GNPC management. Sources within the corporation hinted the Chronicle that this one too may be dismantled and the parts sold as scraps to scrap dealers if management still finds it difficult to get a buyer.
Already, another rig, Production Pioneers that is also owned by the GNPC and hitherto anchored at the shores of Sekondi has been sold to an Indian company whose name is not available to the Chronicle yet. The new buyer has since towed the vessel away as it cannot be sighted anymore.
Investigations carried by the ubiquitous Chronicle into this sorry state of GNPC assets and its subsequent sale as scraps, the value of which may be far away from the actual value of the rigs, revealed that management took what appears to be a hard decision after the Gabonese and the Angolan authorities had brought severe pressure to bear on both the GNPC and the government of Ghana, to remove the vessels from their waters, or be prepared to face the consequences if they fail to carry on with their orders.
Chronicle learnt that after the Angolan and their Gabonese counterparts had issued the threat, GNPC quickly advertised for the sale of the vessels, but up to date nobody has shown interest in buying them. Management therefore decided to dismantle the vessels, especially the one in Gabon, for the parts to be sold as scraps to avoid trouble with the authorities over there.
This reporter again gathered from sources within the GNPC that the Co-operator and the Tender Rocket, which are the only vessels left in the name of GNPC, and currently anchored in the Ghanaian waters, are also being offered for sale even though no pressure has been brought to bear on management like the Angolan and the Gabonese authorities did. The reporter could however not gather whether they have been bought or not. D511 was another oil rig sold earlier by the new management.
When Mr. Boateng was contacted on his mobile phone last week, he confirmed that the aforementioned vessels are being offered for sale by his administration. He also confirmed that management has sent Amissah Arthur to supervise the dismantling of the K/S Asterie in Gabon for the parts to be sold as scraps after management had failed to get a buyer.
Commenting on why they took such a decision, Boateng said looking at the Act that established the GNPC, the corporation is supposed to be dealing in exploration only, but incidentally the Tsatsu Tsikata administration veered into production, which to him is very good, but an expensive venture. Boateng further told the Chronicle that because of this decision, the corporation bought a number of vessels including the Production Pioneer that has already been sold. This vessel, he continued, was bought about ten years ago but it was never used.
Boateng who was brought to the corporation by the government to use his experience in banking to direct affairs at the GNPC whose problems are more to do with finances, said at the time the vessel was being brought to Ghana, it broke one of its legs so the GNPC management at the time went and bought another vessel with the view of removing its legs to fix on the production pioneer. That rig also got stuck in Brazilian waters. "It is still there as we talk now," he added.
The managing director told this reporter that after the new NPP government had taken all these things into consideration, his management was directed to concentrate on the purpose for which the corporation was set up, which is the exploration work.
"You will agree with me that we have not gotten the oil, so why should we keep these rigs," he asked and added that even the giants who have made discovery of oil, usually go in to hire the rig to work for them and then return it.
He said his administration cannot continue to pay penalty on these rigs and at the same time spend a lot of money to repair them when the rigs are standing and doing practically nothing. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2003 - The Bank of Ghana has said that the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index for the period ending February 2003 stands at 29.1 per cent.
According to the bank, the sharp rise of 12.8 per cent for the month of February was well above normal cost-price expectations as a result of the fuel price adjustments.
At the end of January, the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index stood at 16.3 per cent and the cumulative effect of the sharp rise in the rate at the end of February brought the rate to 29.1 per cent.
Dr Paul Acquah, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said at a press briefing on the activities of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Accra that the rate for March should shed more light on the true rate of inflation.
According to the Statistical Service, the national index for February 2003 represents a rise of 29.4 per cent over the index for the month of February 2002.
It said this is not unexpected, given that no policy measure as significant as the price increases in petroleum products was taken in January 2003.
“The yearly inflation for February 2003 as a consequence, showed a relatively small rise from 14.6 per cent in January, 2003, to 15.6 per cent,” it said.
The service, the institution charged with the responsibility of dealing with the Consumer Price Index, explained that monthly change measures the rate of price change from month to month, while the annual change represents change in price levels over a period of one year.
Also, a decline of the rate of inflation from one period to the other does not necessarily mean that actual prices are falling. For, so long as the change remains positive, it means that price levels are increasing but at a decline rate.
Dr Acquah, however, stated that the government’s domestic revenue collection so far has been on track in relation to the established budget targets. He said domestic total revenue amounted to ¢2.7 trillion and that payments were kept at the same level.
On the foreign exchange activities, the Governor said the market activity shows a good degree of buoyancy with reduced volatility and that purchases on the interbank foreign exchange by deposit money banks and forex bureaux for the two-month amounted to $171.7m while sales totalled $183m.
He said these figures represent significant increases over the level close to $120m recorded over 2002.
He said inward private remittances, which include inward transfers by embassies, non-governmental organisations and non-resident, abroad totalled $252.2m for January and February.
On the value of the cedi against major international currencies, Dr Acquah said the cedi recorded a cumulative depreciation of 1.9 per cent against the dollar and 8.8 per cent against the euro.
He said gross international reserves declined from $640m to $603m at the end of February, which he said, is equivalent to 2.3 months of projected imports. – Daily Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 27 March 2003 - The Supreme Court has dismissed an application for a review of its earlier decision to revoke the probates granted by an Accra High Court in respect of the 1989 Will of the late Dr Ackah Blay-Miezah.
The court, presided over by Mrs Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, dismissed the case of the applicant, Dr John Robert Kells, an Irish confidant of the late Blay-Miezah, on the grounds that he did not satisfy Rules 54 of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 16 for him to successfully obtain a review of the court’s judgement in the case. No cost was awarded.
Other members of the seven-member panel were Justice A. K. B. Ampiah, Justice F. Y. Kpegah and Justice G. K. Acquah. The rest were Justice W. A. Atuguba, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood and Dr Justice Seth Twum.
The High Court, in May 1997, declared that the Will made by Dr. Blay-Miezah on 29 January 1989 and produced by Dr Kells was valid.
Dissatisfied with the judgement, the late Dr Ebenezer Ako Adjei and F. K. Mensah, a nephew of Blay-Miezah, went to the Appeal Court for a reversal of the decision and the nullification of the 1989 probate held by Dr Kells.
The court, by a 2-1 majority in November 1999, upheld the High Court decision and dismissed the appeal. The two appellants then went to the Supreme Court to seek redress and the court, on 2 November 2001 revoked the probates granted to Dr Kells.
It declared that the late Dr Ako Adjei, a Minister of State in the First Republic, and Mensah were entitled to the probate of the 1988 Will of Dr Blay-Miezah together with the testamentary documents that were tendered in evidence during the trial.
It also ordered that the statement of accounts of the administration of the estate of Dr Blay-Miezah on the basis of his said probates should be filed at the High Court Registry. – Daily Graphic
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