Special Assistants: Endangered Species?
Nigerians grabbed at Kotoka
Airport
Don’t sabotage us - Special Assistants
Government to finally sell Commercial Bank
Rawlings’ statue mysteriously falls down
Weija (Greater Accra)
Eleven of the residents have fled the town, while those left
behind live in constant fear. The attackers, mostly young men are believed to
be from Oblogo, near
Investigations by the “Times” indicated that the rampaging
youth wielded riffles, pistols, cutlasses, knives and clubs. They undertook the
attacks early in the mornings and evenings. Some self-styled chiefs of Oblogo who want to take over the
sale of
The worst of the attacks occurred on Saturday 15 March when about eight of the resident including women and children were injured. Giving an account of that day’s attack, an eyewitness told the “Times” that in the evening, the thugs blocked the road leading to the Weija main road.
The 15-member gang, wielding three assault riffles and cutlasses, ordered passengers of commercial vehicles, especial “trotro”, that plied the road, to alight. “They ordered the passengers to surrender everything in their possession or they would be shot”.
A victim, Ayaa Ayi, tried to resist, and his left hand was chopped off and his ø2.5m taken away. A lady, Awura Adwoa was shot in the eye, while other passengers were beaten with sticks.
The eyewitness said the gang also destroyed some vehicle and forced the residents of the town to seek refuge in the nearby bushes. A source at the Dansoman Police Station confirmed the incident when contacted on Friday.
He said the police got to the scene after the gang had fled, but managed to arrest four people suspected to be involved. The police source declined to give their names, because investigations were on-going. They have, however been released on bail.
Another source at the Odorkor Police Station where the incident was first reported, also confirmed the incident. According to the source, the Divisional Command was instituting measures to enhance security in the area considering the rampant reports of attacks and clashes.
Some of the victims the “Times” spoke with blamed some the chiefs in the area for the situation. “The way things are tempted to believe they have a hand in the attacks”, Ayaa Ayi alleged. Efforts to get the chiefs for their comment were not possible as they were not available.
Ayi also complained that after two days on admission at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, he reported the incident to the Odorkor Police Station who promised to invite the chiefs and elders of Weija for and amicable settlement of the matter.
But the chiefs, he said, refused to attend a meeting by the
Divisional Commander. The victims have called on the government to intervene
since the situation in the town was not the best. – Ghanaian Times
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Consequently, it has been recommended that media houses should endeavour to intensify their coverage of the commission’s proceedings as their contribution towards the reconciliation process.
This was contained in an executive summary of the report
covering February, made available to the press at a second stakeholders’
meeting organised by the National Media Commission (NMC) in
The monthly report, which was conducted by Media Watch, a media consultancy outfit is an NMC media monitoring project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It reiterated the call on media practitioners covering and commenting on the sittings of the commission to adhere to the fundamental principles of journalism.
The report said some headlines are sensational and unreflective of facts, and cautioned that with the passage of time, there is the likelihood that there will be more controversial and sensitive stories from the public hearing.
It added that in this respect, it behoves the media to exercise a high sense of circumspection in order to separate-facts from opinion, cross-check facts, spelling and pronunciation of names, while non-news programme hosts should also be guided by the “Spirit of Akosombo”, guidelines for reporting on the commission.
It commended Uniiq FM and GTV for devoting much airtime for radio and television and noted that GTV is the only television station that continues to telecast live the NRC’s sittings, adding that in a total percentage rate, GTV had 92 per cent while TV3 and Metro TV had 6.1 and 2.2 per cent respectively.
In the print sector, the Evening News emerged as the newspaper that allotted the largest amount of space — 17.9 per cent, followed by the Ghanaian Times and the Daily Graphic with 5.3 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively among 15 newspapers covered, with the Pioneer devoted the least coverage of 0.4 per cent.
On radio coverage by seven stations, the state owned media allocated a fifth of their airtime to the reconciliation process, Uniiq FM 27.7 per cent and Radio II 27.2 per cent with Peace FM allocating 15.6 per cent while Radio Universe apportioned the least airtime of 5.1 per cent to the process.
Participants expressed concern about the lack of interest shown by editors and executives of media houses in the meetings of the NMC on matters concerning the NRC. - Graphic
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Special Assistants: Endangered Species?
Accra (Greater Accra) 31 March 2003 - Following last Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle, investigations conducted by the ''Independent'' has revealed that one group of people who find themselves in a fix are Special Assistants/Advisors. They do not know whether to stay or move with the Ministers who have been reassigned.
Though some of the reshuffled Ministers are yet to come to terms with what hit them last Thursday, the case of Special Assistants/Advisors is said to be one of utter confusion.
One Special Assistant was overhead saying that President Kufuor should have informed them before announcing the reshuffle.
"The Independent" quotes sources at the Presidency as saying that a number of Special Assistants have been making discreet calls and enquiries to the Castle on their fate.
In the case of Ferdinand Ayim, Special Assistant at the Ministry of Information, his outgoing boss has requested that he moves along with him to the Ministry of Tourism whereas incoming Information Minister, Nana Akomea has expressed interest in working with him.
The sources however told the paper that the Special Assistants were appointed by the President and any changes will therefore have to be done with him. - Independent
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Nigerians grabbed at Kotoka
Airport
One of the suspects, Collins Okorie Elendu, 40, was arrested last Tuesday with 2.91 kilogrammes of a substance suspected to be cocaine concealed in a false compartment of his hand luggage.
Okorie Elendu,
who was on his way to
They are John Chiwakwe, 32, Felix Ugochukwu, 37, Theodore Onwuaeze Aguguo, 33, and Christian Onyeka Offiah, 38. They are all in police custody
In an interview in
It said Elendu was in possession of two pieces of hand luggage, one of which contained only the drugs concealed in the false compartment of the bottom of the bag.
The source said Elendu, who
claimed to be a second-hand clothes dealer based in
Elendu, according to the source,
claimed that he missed the Ghana Airways bus which picks up its passengers in
He further said that when he got to the
Elendu claimed that it was on his
way to
On the four other suspects, the source said they were on board a Middle East Airlines flight which arrived at the airport on Wednesday.
Although they claimed they did not know one another, they
told the security agents that they were all on their way to the Ivorian
capital,
The source said when Onyeka Offiah was interrogated, he said he went to
Although Onyeka Offiah told security personnel that he had swallowed 55 pellets of the narcotic substance, he had expelled 79 pellets by Friday.
The source said Aguguo also
claimed he was invited to
According to Aguguo, Jude
convinced him to send the drugs to a contact in
The source said Ogu, who claimed
to be a refrigeration engineer, alleged that he went to
Ogu claimed that he was convinced
by a friend, whose name he only gave as Ezah, to take
the drugs to a friend in
On his part, Chiwakwe, who claimed
to be auto parts dealer, informed the security personnel that he travelled to
Chiwakwe said he got stranded
after he had lost $3,000 and was promised $2,000 by a friend, Effahi Oliseh, if he could
deliver the drugs to a contact in
Although the suspect confessed to have swallowed 55 pellets, he had expelled 59 pellets as of Friday. The source said the four are currently being monitored to ensure that they expelled all the drugs they had swallowed.
In a related development, during a post-mortem, 84 pellets were retrieved from the stomach of the 31-year-old Nigerian banker, Mang Orji Ude, who was in transit to London, but died last Saturday, March 22, after the drug burst in his stomach.
A post-mortem examination revealed that 43 of the pellets
were stuck in his intestines while 41 in his stomach. Ude
started behaving abnormally in the transit lounge of the
He was rushed to the Aviation Clinic for medical aid and on arrival; he started shouting for help while vomiting a whitish substance.
His condition started deteriorating and he was rushed to the
37 Military Hospital in
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Even though that could be described as a career move,
Both Minority leader Alban Bagbin and the high profile
Member for Lawra-Nandom have described
MP Kumbuor continued that “as the
Minority spokes person on energy it was expected that
But
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Don’t sabotage us - Special Assistants
“Our operations are highly political in character (meant) to counter any attack from the highly experienced NDC opposition and the vibrant Media on the government and also serve as a diversionary tactics for Government and Ministers of States to concentrate on governance.”
A Special Assistants told the Network Herald on Wednesday following our story “Castle to Gag Special Assistants and Government Spokespersons” last Tuesday, stressing that most of our Ministers would have been found wanting “if they are picked on the spot to speak on topical issues”.
Referring to Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani as the most probable source of the story, they advised him to keep quiet and learn from the adage that those who live in glass houses should avoid throwing stones at outsiders-whatever that means. This is our advice to the Chief of Staff and his collaborators, our contributions had saved the government and other inexperienced Minister from public ridicule and embarrassment.
Our efforts need to be commended instead of it being met with abuses and accusations through the Media. The Network Herald last Tuesday reported that the Office of the Chief of Staff had expressed grave concern about recent statements by Government Spokespersons and Special Assistant without due authorization and consultation.
The report was emphatic that Kwabena Agyepong and Amponsah Bediako should have been fired for speaking to the press without due consultation but for strategic reasons. The strategy according to the Castle Source is to confine them to the original concept of their operations and made to operate within a defined scope. He had contended that “even though they are not officially recognized as Civil/Public Servants, they would now be compelled to operate mostly within the scope of the Code of Conduct for such officers.”
The Code among others categories the powers and functions of scheduled officers, type of information to handle and pass on to the general public and also to respect the services official Oath of Secrecy. He said an administrative memo on their mode of operations would soon be issued out to ensure sanity in information flow, stressing, “we need to operate within defined parameters to ensure that through acts of omission and commissions we do not undermine the very government we seek to work for.”
The Castle Source said originally Government Spokespersons and Special Assistant were to assist the government and ministers behind the scene with relevant information as well as monitor media trends and offer suggestions. They were not supposed to be front line men who speak or deal directly with the Media without prior authority. - Network Herald
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Government to finally sell Commercial Bank
Though government is yet to announce the details of its search for a strategic investor to buy the bank’s shares, the Tema Oil Refinery debt is reducing its attractiveness to potential strategic investors.
This has remained a critical issue that government, a majority shareholder with 47% shares and SSNIT the second largest shareholder with 17% have to deal with.
Managing Director of GCB, Mrs Matilda Obeng Ansong in supporting government’s intention says it would be prudent for government to give adequate time and establish a strong working relationship with management of the bank when it secures a strategic investor willing to take up the shares.
Analysts are not particularly in favour of transferring
majority ownership of GCB to foreign investors and point out that for a bank
that had given tremendous support to local businesses, government should keep
its shares. Issues of concern are the likely job cuts and refocusing of the
bank’s mission should foreign investors take over the affairs of the bank. - Business
and Financial Times
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He said, the NDC’s continuous failure in by-elections could not be attributed to the perceived feud between him and the ex-President Rawlings, founder of the NDC.
“Even if I were to eat from the same plate with President Rawlings in the morning, afternoon and in the evening, but we do not have funds to run the party we would still have problems, and I believe that is one of the main problems of the party, so people should do a deeper analysis and stop using our individual differences as the reasons for our problems,” he told Chronicle in an interview.
“We had differences on who should be the chairman and that one was resolved at the congress. We had differences on who should be the leader and that one too was resolved by a congress, so I do not have any problem with him. Certainly we have individual differences but that cannot affect the running of the party.”
The NDC chairman was reacting to allegations put to him by Chronicle that the wrangling between him and Rawlings were ruining the party.
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) had won four by-elections in two years after it took power from the NDC. Two of the parliamentary seats – Bimbilla and Wulensi used to be occupied by NDC members.
Dr. Asamoah also did not have the slightest suspicion that the ruling NPP had a hand in Kofi Asante Abraham’s decision to resign from the Amenfi West parliamentary seat.
But, he rather blamed some members of the party who
manhandled Kofi Asante at the NDC national delegates’
congress, held at Legon,
“What I know is that he was physically attacked at the congress and has not been happy ever since…” he has been kind of withdrawn and quiet but I have not been able to talk to him to establish why he resigned. I tried to call him yesterday to find out from him but I could not get him,” he said.
“Well, I really do not have such information, nobody knew he was going to do that but he has been quiet because of the way some people treated him at the congress and as to the possibility of the NPP having a hand in it I do not know.”
As to whether he was surprised about the four defeats the NDC suffered in the by-elections, he replied, “I was very much surprised about the Wulensi because that was our seat. As for the Navrongo my surprise and worry is the margin.”
Minority leader, A. S. K. Bagbin, deputy general secretary
Baba Jamal and Hon. John Mahama have expressed surprise over Kofi Asante’s resignation. They have not ruled out NPP
machinations into it, but said that
When Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, Electoral Commission (EC) chairman, was asked whether
“That would be interesting but no law in this country can prevent him from contesting either as independent or on the ticket of another party,” he said.
Pieces of information reaching Chronicle indicate that about four or more NDC MPs might resign to give way for more by-elections, something Kwadwo Afari, press secretary of the NPP confirmed.
But, Afari emphatically denied his party’s involvement in such moves by the main opposition party MPs, adding that the party would always contest by-elections with the view to winning to ensure absolute majority in parliament.
The only time by-elections cannot be held when a parliamentary seat becomes vacant is when the time is six months or less away from the general elections in December 2004, according to EC chairman, Afari Gyan. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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He was alleged to have caused financial loss to the state. Insha Allahu, as he was popularly
called, claimed that $45,000.00 meant for the senior national football team,
the Black Stars, was stolen and his conduct was perceived as an abomination; he
was dragged before the
The Kufuor administration is believed to be pursuing that objective. Over the past nine months, the Volta River Authority (VRA) has paid ¢45.2bn (US$4.5m) representing nine months’ rental fees for the Strategic Reserve Plant (SRP), which has been lying idle at Tema.
The monthly rental payments of $500,000 began in July, last year and up to date, the plant, which presence is to complement hydro electricity produced from Akosombo and the Kpong dams as well as the Aboadze thermal plant, cannot function.
Information pieced together has it that the chief executive officer (CEO) of the VRA himself, Dr. Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby, alias ‘Tarzan,’ went to negotiate for the plant to be brought down without any engineer accompanying him.
Reports are that the fuel that was imported into the country
but was rejected by the consultant because it was of wrong specification has
been sent to
Take note that as of 1 April, this year, a number of transfers are going to take place at the VRA, which are personal decisions of Dr. Wereko-Brobby.
Expect Harriet Wilson, director of Human Resource to Material and Procurement, while the director of Systems Transmission, a certain Wiafe, goes to head Transport and Surag becomes director of Systems Transmission. Ike Aidoo, from Transport, becomes the Human Resource boss.
Some of these transfers are seen as the CEO’s show of gratitude to some ‘loyal servants,’ a few described as square pegs in round holes.
His ‘closeness’ to Harriet Wilson, for instance, comes to focus and her being put at sensitive Material and Procurement could become a conduit for many things.
The Public Affairs will be merging with Management Information, totally crippling the already toothless department.
As morale among VRA staff all over the country dwindles, ‘Tarzan’ who boastfully proclaims that VRA is like his bedroom, which he can lock, put the key in his pocket and open it back, as and when he likes and not even President Kufuor can say anything, has thrown procedure of doing things to the dogs.
The norm is that only senior staff and management personnel are given official cars and drivers but a telephone operator, for reasons best known to the CEO, has an official vehicle and a driver assigned to her to the fury of even senior staff, but who can comment?
As the feeling among staff of the power generators is for government to immediately interdict ‘Tarzan,’ who abandoned his United Ghana Movement (UGM) political party and is now prospering at the expense of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, paving way for forensic audit into his ‘empire,’ as the sun rises and sets, strange things continue to happen at the place.
The VRA is said to be sponsoring, at the
Is it also true that having been treated ‘fairly’ by a lady when he visited Takoradi recently, the VRA boss has ignored employment regulations and employed her without an interview?
While staff remain in fear and intimidation as a result of alleged ‘informant system’ that operates at VRA at a fee, there is the general tendency that a state of uneasy calm reigns supreme and that the consequences could be anybody’s guess.
At the beginning of the year, 10,000 pieces of calendars were printed and distributed to schools and hospitals.
People whose lands were acquired to construct the two dams
are wallowing in abject poverty, yet to receive even a pesewa as compensation.
Halting most of their ward’s education, it is strange to learn that scholarship
packages available at the elite
School fees for day students at the school, our investigations revealed, were unilaterally raised to ¢800,000 per term by Tarzan without consulting the board, and thus compelling most VRA staff to withdraw their wards to other schools because they cannot afford the high fees.
Recently, an
Did we hear a report that the VRA main telephone
switchboards at Akosombo, Akuse,
Tema and
The CEO was quoted in that media report as refusing to talk to the press and simply dropped the line.
Like in all cases, there is total silence on every bit of information at the VRA where people being paid to do that job, especially the director for that outfit, are always too busy to answer to questions from reporters.
When Ghanaians are battling with load-shedding, forcing
companies like VALCO, to reduce its pot lines from four to only one, the VRA
has constructed a substation at Sawla to supply
Reports from the
A bother to insiders is the ¢1m salaries each of the nine
board members have been put on, aside of their sitting allowance. Information
gathered has it that, at the end of last year, each of them received from
‘Tarzan’ ¢8m as Christmas bonuses. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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Tema (Greater Accra) The management of the Central Medical Stores (CMS) has denied reports that tonnes of drugs of have been exposed to heat and rain as a result of the deplorable nature of the place.
It also denied that the roof of the stores leaked and had thereby affected goods there. It described the allegations as absurd since no “hazardous item have been mixed with proper goods.” Samuel A. Donkor, Senior Supply Officer, Administration was responding to findings made in the draft report on Contract Management, as published by the “Times” on 24 March.
He admitted that the CMS, like any other government facility, had problems, but said that things were not as gloomy as claimed in the Country Procurement Assessment Review (CPAR) 2003 document.
He denied any knowledge of the said report or any comprehensive study commissioned by the World Bank and the Government of Ghana into the separation of the CMS. According to Donkor, the CMS had nine warehouses which separately stored surgical, x-ray materials, drugs and stationery, among others.
It also stored medical equipment and other items on behalf of organisations like the World Health (WHO), United States Agency for International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF).
Donkor took the “Times” on a tour of the warehouses, and impressed upon the reporter that there was no way items could be mixed up at the stories since there were separate storage facilities for different items.
Those that needed to be stored in cool places were also taken care of. Donkor said he was aware that the Health Sector Support programme initiated by the government and the Nordic Development Fund Credit number 261 had come out with a Proposal Improved Infrastructure that aimed at improving the facilities at the stores.
According to him, another consultant has recommended the
breaking down of the individual units and reconstructing them into one large
open facility to store all their items. Donkor said
that items that were kept outside the main warehouse were those on “transit” at
the place, awaiting onward transportation to their various destinations. – Ghanaian
Times
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Rawlings’ statue mysteriously falls down
Koforidua (Eastern Region)
Unlike suicide bombs and other attacks akin to the Far and
However some observers suspect that sympathizers of the aggrieved persons may have pushed the already titled figure down, while others think the collapse of the statue was natural but just coincided with the Chronicle’s story.
On Thursday 20 March the paper reported a call by victims of the AFRC and PNDC brutalities on the Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Osafo-Mensah to remove the statue of the former President which was situated near the main entrance of the regional co-coordinating council office at Koforidua.
According to them, the statue reminds them of the inhuman treatment they suffered at the hands of the AFRC and PNDC soldiers. “Anytime we set our eyes on it, nothing but sorrow and grief fill our hearts, so we believe if it is removed, it will assuage our pains,” they held. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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