Former deputy minister, 25 others, arraigned before tribunal
Ghana Post
workers call for review of operations
Okyenhene institutes honours list
Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- Professor Evans Atta Mills, former Vice President of Ghana, on
Thursday said Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, former Finance Minister's entry into the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) race for the party’s Presidential underlined
the democratic tradition of the party.
Prof. Mills, who is
who contesting said Dr Botchwey's intention to join the race would help to
strengthen the party. A statement issued in Accra and signed by Mr. Ekwow
Spio-Garbrah, Chairman, Communication and Media Committee of Mills 2004
Campaign Team, urged Dr. Botchwey to emulate the high standard of campaigning
begun by Prof. Mills of keeping the campaign clean and free of acrimony.
The former Vice
President said the ultimate objective was to unseat the National Patriotic
Party (NPP) from office in 2004, and provide a better alternative government
and urged their supporters not to lose sight of this, and should be constantly
conscious of the importance of keeping the party united.
Prof. Mills also
urged sections of the mass media to avoid misreporting statements from either
camp so as not to sow seeds of discord amongst the candidates.
In another
development, Mr. Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, also Mills Campaign Team member, said
"it is remarkable that the media has not found it worthwhile to comment on
the fact that the NPP has only one presidential candidate for the 2004
elections, whereas when the NDC was in power the media used to comment about
the party's preference for producing consensus candidates.
"Maybe, this is
another lesson President Kufuor has learnt from the NDC for which a confession
should be expected," he added. Prof. Mills is currently touring the
Northern and Brong Ahafo regions to solicit supports from delegates.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- The ECOWAS Youth and Citizens League (EYCL), a non-
governmental and non-partisan organisation, on Thursday appealed to the Cote
d'Ivoire government and the rebels to lay down their arms and use dialogue to
resolve the issue to save the lives of children, women and the poor.
An official statement
issued in Accra said: "in such wars there are no winners.... it is only
the children, women, the poor and the needy that will be killed." The
statement said "it was very painful that after 27 years of the ECOWAS
community, still few selfish people calling themselves rebels could take arms
against a constitutional government in a member state and the remaining
countries stand by and watch the painful acts."
The statement urged
the youth in the West African sub-region not to allow them to be used on
useless ventures. It also urged the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Dr. Mohammed
Ibn Chambas, to use his office to unite the community and that anything that
happens in any member state affects the rest "so that we can jointly solve
it."
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Bawku (Upper East) 11
October 2002- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday tasked the Bawku East
District Assembly to get itself a District Chief Executive (DCE) and a
Presiding Member within the next one-week or risk his personal intervention.
He explained that Act
462, Section 43; Sub Section 2 empowers him as President to suspend or dissolve
any District Assembly if the need arises, but that he had no intention of
exercising those powers in the Bawku area because he wants good reason to
prevail.
President Kufuor said
the decentralisation concept was introduced by the 1992 Constitution to make
governance efficient and meaningful to the people. However, from the conduct of
members of the assembly so far it appeared they were trying to make the
administration of the District difficult and thus deny the area the opportunity
to develop alongside the rest of the country, he said.
President Kufuor was
addressing a well-attended durbar of the chiefs and people of the Bawku
Traditional Area on the second day of his three-day official visit to the Upper
East Region at Bawku.
President Kufuor
observed that for far too long the Bawku area had suffered from negative
partisan politics and ethnic conflicts and that the time was ripe for the
people to abandon their rigid positions so as to co-exist peacefully.
He said under the
present circumstances it would be difficult, if not impossible for the area to
benefit from the government's laudable development policies and urged the
elders of Bawku to think deeply about the future of their children and renounce
conflicts.
President Kufuor said
under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, each district
assembly would receive one billion cedis for development project but without
peace and the right structures in place he did not see how Bawku could make use
of its share profitably.
He said his
administration would stick to its principle of fairness to all Ghanaians and
non-interference in chieftaincy matters, adding: "We believe that any
issue pertaining to chieftaincy should be handled by the National House of
Chiefs".
Of all the 110
districts in the country only Bawku East remains without a DCE and Presiding
Member. Several attempts over the past one and a half years to meet and confirm
the President's nominee for the position of a DCE had failed.
Mr Kwadwo
Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said 700
million cedis belonging to the assembly was lying down unutilised because of
the absence of an appropriate authority to disburse the money.
"These monies
would have helped to reduce poverty among the people of the District if peace
were allowed to prevail, he said, adding that the absence of proper
administrative structures in the district did not augur well for development.
He urged the people to
put the past behind them and help the government to bring development to the
area. Mr Baah-Wiredu said the people of Bawku should blame no one but
themselves for the exacerbation of poverty and suffering if they continued to
stick to the way of violent conflicts.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- The Ministry of Education has approved a new design for the
construction of classrooms all over the country as part of measures to avoid
sight impairment among school children.
Ms Christine
Churcher, Minister in charge of Basic, Secondary and Girl-Child Education, in a
speech read for her at this year's World Sight Day in Accra on Thursday, said
the new design would ensure adequate light in the classrooms.
She said under the
School Health Education Programme and with assistance from the Ministry of
Health, an eye screening exercise had been initiated for all schools. The
distribution of vitamin A to children under five throughout the country had
also been established to help improve their sight, she said.
This year, Sight Day
is being celebrated under the theme, "Children, our future, the right to
sight." The day, an annual event celebrated every second Thursday in
October, focuses on the problem of global blindness and aims at raising
awareness that 80 percent of blindness could be prevented or cured.
Ms Churcher noted
that most people in the world took normal vision for granted. Consequently, the
tendency is that very little care, protection and attention is paid to the eyes
until things go wrong.
Dr Melville George,
the World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in Ghana, in a speech read
for him, said about 180 million people world-wide were visually disabled, with
around 60 percent of the world's blind residing in Sub-Saharan Africa, China
and India.
"It has been
estimated that there are about 1.5 million blind children in the world today,
of whom, one million live in Asia, and around 300,000 in Africa." Dr
George said in an effort to reduce the global burden of blindness, the WHO and
a broad coalition of international non-governmental organisations in 1999
launched a global initiative, Vision 2020 known as the Right to Sight.
He said the objective
of the initiative launched in Geneva, Switzerland, was to eliminate avoidable
blindness by the year, 2020. Dr Joseph Asare, Chief Psychiatrist of the
Ministry of Health, who gave the welcoming address, cautioned against the use
of milk, sea water, salt and other chemicals on the eye.
He also admonished
mothers who use objects such as brooms on the faces of their children when
punishing them. The Day was organised by Sight Savers International, the Health
Ministry and the Ghana Health Service. About 500 school children in Accra were
screened for sight impairment.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), on Thursday said
it would summon those who have suffered human rights abuses and have decided to
let sleeping dogs lie or have knowledge of abductions to testify before the
Commission during public hearings.
Speaking at a day's
seminar in Accra to sensitise men and officers of the Ghana Prisons Service on
the work of the Commission, General Emmanuel Erskine (RTD), a member of the
Commission explained that the Commission would not engage in any witch-hunting,
but would take proactive measures to ensure that the exercise had a deeper
meaning.
General Erskine told
the participants at the seminar the Public Affairs Secretariat of the
Commission organised, that as much as the filing of complaints was a person's
prerogative, the Commission would invite persons with information or documents
to testify, if such were of national significance.
General Erskine took
the officers through the functions and procedures of the Commission, statement
taking, counselling of victims, investigations and research, and added that
research and investigations were to verify the claims made in the statements
submitted to the Commission.
He added that
research had begun into the workings of some public institutions in human
rights violations under the periods being covered. General Erskine told the men
and officers of the Prisons Service that the investigators of the Commission
were all experienced Police officers, and they would collaborate closely with
the Prisons Service in the course of undertaking their functions.
Professor Henrietta
Mensa-Bonsu, a legal expert and also a Commissioner of the NRC speaking on the
powers of the Commission, said the Commission has the power to compel anybody,
and it would compel anyone who refused to appear before it to give information
relevant to the Commission's work.
She said this would
establish a pattern of abuse for appropriate redress. Where a person challenges
an invitation from the Commission to testify, Prof. Mensa-Bonsu said the matter
would be determined by the High Court.
She said the NRC was
not a court of law, and special immunity enjoyed by some people would not
extend to the investigation of facts. The Law lecturer said the investigative
powers of the Commission were akin to those of the police in respect of entry
onto premises, search, and seizure of any article relevant to its investigation
She said the
Commission might enter premises without a warrant if the consent of the
occupant of the premises was obtained in order to search, seize and remove any
article or document.
"Where it is
impracticable to obtain a warrant before entering, the Commission can enter the
premises on account of the fact that such delay might defeat the purpose for
which the warrant is to be obtained; the Commission can enter any premises
without a warrant, search, seize or remove any relevant document or article.
"However, within
24 hours after this has been done, a warrant had to be obtained to cover the
entry. "The decision to enter premises without a warrant would have to be
put before a Chairman of a Community Tribunal in the relevant magisterial
district to scrutinise whether there was reasonable grounds for such a
search", she said.
She said the
opportunity for judicial scrutiny for such act of entry, search, seizure and
removal of any article deemed relevant placed a responsibility on the
Commission to ensure that all such entries were absolutely necessary for the
achievement of all its objectives. Similar seminars would be held for the
police and the military.
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Koforidua (Greater
Accra) 11 October 2002- The Koforidua Circuit Tribunal has granted a trader
50-million cedi bail with a surety to be justified, for allegedly luring four
female teenagers from Ghana to Nigeria to indulge in prostitution.
Abena Djaba, who
pleaded not guilty on four counts of procuring the teenagers, will reappear
before the tribunal on 15 October. The tribunal, presided over by Mr. Gabriel
Simon Suurbaareh, ordered Abena to report every Monday and Friday to the Police
and also to hand over her Passport to the police.
Prosecuting,
Superintendent Elizabeth Allandu told the Tribunal that Abena is a trader and
runs between Ghana and Nigeria. The victims aged between 14 and 18 years were
serving as house-helps and a seamstress apprentices.
She said sometime in
April, this year, Abena met the victims at Somanya in the Eastern Region and
convinced them to accompany her to Lagos for lucrative jobs. She was alleged to
have told them not to inform anyone, including their parents.
According to the
Prosecutor, Abena took the victims to Lagos at her own expense and later hired
them out to an accomplice, Rejoice, at a cost of 50,000 naira each. The victims
were sent to a hotel and allocated rooms for prostitution.
Supt. Allandu said
the girls worked for a mistress, who charged the customers and collected the
monies, while the victims received a small amount for food.
She said they were
also molested and it was during such inhuman acts that one of them escaped to
inform a Ghanaian residing around, who also informed the Ghana High
Commissioner, leading to their rescue and repatriation to Ghana.
According to her
Abena was arrested and during interrogation admitted sending the victims to
Nigeria with their parents consent but not for prostitution.
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Elmina (Central
Region) 11 October 2002- Sam Pee Yalley, a deputy minister in the past government,
and four women from Ampenyi near Elmina were on Thursday granted a total of 13
million cedis bail by a community tribunal at Elmina when they appeared before
it for allegedly vandalising the chief's palace at Ampenyi on Tuesday night.
Yalley was granted
five million cedis bail and the women two million cedis bail each. In the dock
with them were 21 other men who were remanded in custody. Their pleas were not
taken and they will all re-appear on Thursday 17 October.
Chief Inspector
Keward Adjei told the tribunal that the chiefs and people of the town held a
meeting last Monday to deliberate on issues affecting their well-being at which
Yalley and the other suspects were present.
He said at the said
meeting, the youth accused their chief, Nana Techie Akyin IV, of burying 'juju'
in the town but Nana Akyin denied this accusation. However, one of the women at
the meeting insisted that she saw the chief burying 'juju' and that she could
lead them to where it was buried.
Chief inspector Adjei
said the following day at about 1600 hours the woman led some of the youth to
dig up the 'juju' and took it to the chief's palace to confront him with it but
he was not in.
He alleged that the
chief's absence infuriated the people who went on the rampage and vandalized
the palace, and in the process, destroyed some stools and personal effects
including a refrigerator. He said following the incident, Nana Akyin has taken
refuge at Elmina, and that some policemen have been dispatched to the town.
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Ghana
Post workers call for review of operations
Takoradi (Greater
Accra) 11 October 2002- Workers of Ghana Post have called on the management to
review the company's operations to enable it to compete favourably in the
growing technological market.
They made the call at
a workers' durbar organised at the main Takoradi branch on Thursday to
commemorate World Postal Day that fell on Wednesday. The workers noted that the
introduction of Internet services, information technology and other modern
communication methods had placed the GP at the crossroad.
They said though
there are Internet cafes in the Greater Accra and Takoradi main branches, all
efforts must be made to expand the facility to other post offices nationwide.
"With the
internet cafes, we can still maintain our business and commercial delivery and
attract the youth, to patronise our communication technologies", they
said. The workers pledged to improve upon their approach to work and to
contribute both materially and financially to the company if the need arises.
In an interview with
the Ghana News Agency, Mr. Augustine Chanayire, Takoradi District Manager,
hinted that the Aboadze Thermal Plant estates, Beach Road Estates, and Airport
Ridge estates have been selected as the initial beneficiaries of the
door-to-door delivery services.
He said the company
would expand the project to cover other well-planned residential areas in the
metropolis next year. Mr Chanayire said maps and the numbering of the houses,
have been completed and the project would begin as soon as the mailboxes are
delivered.
He said all post
offices in the Western Region would be computerised. ''This is meant to assist
us monitor the time of postage, despatch and delivery of letters and parcels,''
he added.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
11 October 2002- Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, the Okyehene, has instituted the
"Okyenhene's honours list" to honour personalities and institutions
who have attained very high level of achievement either in their profession or
in the service to humanity.
A statement issued in
Accra on Thursday said the award scheme, which would be an annual event, forms
part of the third anniversary celebration of the Okyenhene's ascension to the
stool.
The award winners
would be honoured at a ceremony at the Ofori Panin Fie this month, the
statement said. The list includes categories for sons and daughters of Okyeman,
three posthumous honourees and the Fred Yeboah Journalist of the Year which was
won by Loretta Vanderpuye, CNN Environmental Journalist of the year.
Other nominees are
Frederick Guggisberg Asante, Member of the Council of State, S.S. Omane, former
IGP, Margaret Darkwaa, first female Police Commissioner and Gytha Nuno, an
environmentalist. Nominees for the posthumous awards are Dr J.B. Danquah, doyen
of Ghanaian politics, Dr Susan de Graft Johnson, the first female medical
doctor and Mr A.L. Adu, a distinguished diplomat.
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