Seventy-three ex-District Chief Executives to be charged
I now understand Ghana's problem better - Kwesi Botchwey
Kufuor urges international community to rescue Cote d'Ivoire
Quality Grain Project is viable - witness
Exporters
urged to meet tastes and demands of markets
Entrepreneurs
called to invest in Northern Region
Solar
energy for three districts
Reconciliation
Commission could have come earlier - official
President
withdraws Prof Kumado’s nomination
Heads
of schools increase intake
Farmer
jailed 20 years for defilement
Garu (Upper East) 16
October 2002 - The Attorney-General's Department is processing cases of 73
ex-District Chief Executives (DCE's) for court, following adverse findings made
against them during the special audit exercise involving all 110 districts last
year.
Hon Kwadwo Baah
Wiredu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development made this known when
he interacted with a cross-section of residents of Garu in the Bawku East
District at the weekend. He said 37 out of the 110 district assemblies came out
clean at the end of the audit exercise.
Quoting sub-section
five, section 17 of Act 584 (Audit Service Act), the Minister explained that
ex-DCE's who would be found guilty of misappropriating assembly funds would
automatically, forfeit their ex-gratia awards.
"You cannot
expect any payment from government when you are already indebted to the
nation," he pointed out, adding that all the necessary processes would be
followed to retrieve all funds embezzled in the districts.
Mr Wiredu said such
action would serve as a warning to the present DCE's, adding "we did not
come to power to enrich ourselves but to serve our nation." He said
government would strictly monitor all monies allocated to the rural areas for
development projects to ensure that those monies do not end up in the pockets
of individuals.
The Minister observed
that Ghana is not a poor country and that life could be much better if people
placed in positions of trust handled public funds with honesty. He reminded
assembly members in the Bawku District of their duty to those who elected them
to office, and urged them particularly to work at getting a substantive DCE and
Presiding Member to facilitate the area's development.
Also present at the
forum was the Independent Member of Parliament for Garu-Tempane, Mr Joseph
Akudibilla and Mr Abdul-Rahman Guman, the Regional Minister's Special
Representative for Bawku East District.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - The former Finance Minister, Dr Kwesi Botchwey has said that he
now understood the Ghana's socio-economic challenges better and how the
country's "tremendous potentials" could be utilized for accelerated
development.
"I now want to
devote my life to that course," he added Dr Botchwey, who is vying for the
presidential slot of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said after
resigning as a Minister of Finance about six years ago and being away from
government thought him many lessons.
Interacting with
journalist in Accra, the former Finance Minister said travelling through Europe
and other countries he felt there was a lot to be done about Ghana's
development, especially in the areas of poverty reduction, child mortality,
education and other sectors.
"I have come to
understand the more, challenges facing this country with its tremendous
potentials, which could make a break through to become the gate way to West
Africa". I will devote my life to this course and at the appropriate time
launch my campaign, he said, adding that, he would like to engage in debates and
outline his vision for the NDC and the nation.
Dr Botchwey who is
seeking the NDC slot with Professor J.E. Atta Mills, former Vice President
said, "I will like to applaud the great work the media are doing and I am
saying this not for political purposes but I must admit that the media is doing
a good job for the people of this country.
The media has played a
laudable role in making it possible for the people of Ghana to choose freely a
democratic government that moved governance from NDC to the New Patriotic Party
(NPP)".
He urged the
journalists to continue playing their watchdog role to ensure stability and to
deepen democracy in the country. Mr Mike Gizo, MP for Shai-Osudoku introducing
Dr Botchwey said, "he turned the 'Rawlings chain' into the Rawlings
coat" and likened the former Finance Minister to the biblical David who
killed Goliath.
He urged Ghanaians not
to underrate personalities with the potentials of "turning the nation
around".
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002-President John Agyekum Kufuor has appealed to the International
Community to help in finding quick and lasting solutions to the crisis in Cote
d'Ivoire, where mutinous soldiers are fighting to overthrow the government of
Laurent Gbagbo.
President Kufuor made the
plea when Philippine's accredited Ambassador to Ghana, Masaranga R. Umpa,
called on him to request that Ghana be used as a temporary base for the
evacuation of 94 Philippinos stranded in Cote d'Ivoire.
Mediation efforts are
on-going in the Cote d'Ivoire, where dissident troops, who launched an uprising
on 19 September, have captured Bouake and Korhogo, two of the country's major
cities and also control much of the north. President Kufuor said, "I hope
we all work together to restore peace and stability to Cote d'Ivoire."
Philippines also
sought Ghana's support for her election as a non-permanent member of United
Nations (UN) Security Council and for the re-election of her national, Felipe
Mabilangan to the UN Advisory Committee on Administration and Budgetary
Questions.
The President acceded
to Philippine's request on the evacuation of her nationals and promised that
the other wishes would be considered in due time. On the establishment of a
Joint Commission on Political, Economic and Cultural Cooperation, which is
being worked out, President Kufuor said the relationship would be explored for
the mutual benefit of the countries.
He said countries
within the African, Caribbean and Pacific and the European Union (ACP-EU) must
strengthen ties for the benefit if their peoples. Mr Umpa, who is based in
Abuja, Nigeria, said his country was particularly interested in agriculture and
it had the requisite manpower to offer.
In another
development, President Kufuor held closed door-discussions with the French
Ambassador to Ghana, Jean-Michel Berrit and a three-member delegation. Mr
Berrit later told journalists in an interview that the talks were on
reinforcing Africa's capacity to maintain peace.
In pursuance of this,
Mr Berrit said Ghana had been asked to participate in a joint military
operation and a conference, to be hosted next year. The exercise, he said, was
hosted by Senegal four years ago, adding that other countries in Africa had
been beneficiaries in the past.
"France is very
committed to peacekeeping and is ready to assist other countries to maintain
peace," he said. He declined to answer question on the Ivorian situation.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoit@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - The Reverend Dr Samuel Asuming-Brempong, a lecturer of the
University of Ghana, Legon, has told a Fast Track Court (FTC) in Accra that the
financial analysis done on the Aveyime Rice Project showed that the project was
viable and very profitable.
Rev. Dr
Asuming-Brempong, who is the head of the Department of Agricultural Economics
and Agribusiness, said the farm could have fetched a high return on the capital
invested.
He added that the
project could have yielded the initial investment capital of 27 million
dollars. Rev. Dr Asuming-Brempong, a defence witness, was giving evidence in
the Quality Grain scandal, involving two former ministers of state and three
former senior government officials.
Kwaku Baah, Counsel
for Kwame Peprah, led the witness in evidence. Rev. Dr Asuming-Brempong told
the court presided over by Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh, a Supreme Court Judge sitting
with additional responsibility as a FTC judge, that the viability and
profitability of the project "is robust to changes in the key variables
such as the price of milled rice, the yield per acre of rice and increases in
operating cost of the project".
"This implies
that the project remains profitable even under varying unfavourable
circumstances." According to witness, the farm was to produce its own high
quality long grain rice from irrigated fields in the project area and mill it
for sale on the local market.
He said rice
production was to begin with 2,000 acres in he first year. This acreage was to
be increased to 3,000 in the second year, 4,000 in year three, 5,500 acres in
year four and 7,500 acres from the fifth through the tenth year.
Those on trial are
Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwame Peprah, former
Minister of Finance, Dr Samuel Dapaah, former Chief Director, Ministry of Food
and Agriculture, Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff, and Dr. George Yankey,
a former Director of the Ministry of Finance.
They are charged with
conspiring and wilfully causing financial loss of 22 million dollars and three
billion cedis to the state. The amount comprised monies guaranteed and advanced
for the Quality Grain Company (QGC) project at Aveyime in the Volta Region.
The five have all
pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been admitted to self-recognisance
bail. The case was adjourned to Wednesday 16 October for Mr Osafo Sampong,
Director of Public Prosecutions, to cross-examine the witness.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - Design works on the extension of the dual carriageway from
the Military Firing range to Teshie in the Accra metropolis has been completed
and construction would start by the end of this year.
Procurement for
feasibility studies and detailed design has been initiated for the rest of the
link within the corridor. This includes the widening of the coastal road from
the Teshie Catholic Church to Sakumono Estate Junction and access to the
motorway.
Dr Richard W. Anane,
Minister of Roads and Transport said this at the first sitting of the third
meeting of Parliament in Accra.
Mr Emmanuel Adjei
Boye, NPP-Krowor asked the Minister as to what plans the ministry has for the
construction of the trunk road linking Teshie and Tema through Nungua in order
to reduce the current traffic congestion.
There would be the
creation of a major turn to the north between the Lighthouse Chapel to the
Police Barracks on to link Teshie a major by-pass to the Teshie Township.
Dr Anane said a local one-way
scheme would also be implemented near La Scala using the existing coastal road
and Martin Sowah road to ease the local congestion by the end of this year.
The implementation of
works would follow the priority ranking established in the feasibility studies
and would be programmed from 2003, he added.
Dr Anane explained
that the extensive development of residential estates in the past decade-and- a
half resulted in an increase in commuter traffic in the corridor lying between
the Accra - Tema Coastal Road in the South and the motorway in the North.
He said however,
improvement of the Arterial network and access to the Motorway has not kept
pace with the increase in traffic demand and this has resulted in traffic
congestion on the Accra - Tema coastal Road.
Alhaji Amadu Seidu,
NDC- Yapei-Kusawgu asked the Minister whether he was aware that part of the
congestion on the trunk road was caused by the illegal use of articulated
trucks and what steps the ministry had to rectify the situation to which the
Minister said the issue would be considered to arrive at a suitable solution.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Exporters
urged to meet tastes and demands of markets
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - The Chief Executive of the Federation of Ghanaian Exporters
(FAGE), Augustine Adongo has urged Ghanaian exporters to meet the high and
sophisticated tastes and demands of their target markets and consumers.
Augustine Adongo,
Chief Executive of the Federation of Association of Ghanaian Exporters (FAGE),
warned that the country's exporters would be edged out if they believed that
they could simply survive on the fact that they have the markets and would do
well because they have cheap labour.
Speaking at the annual
Merchant Bank/Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) Seminar in
Accra, Adongo stressed that studies had proved that countries who followed the
over-reliance on basic factors of production, "fail to develop a culture
of innovation and become imitators of other people's ideas."
"Nations then
become over dependent on exporting abundant primary goods, making their export
strategy easy to imitate; and with easily imitated advantages, prices for their
products and services tend to decline rendering such types of advantages
unsustainable."
His topic was:
"Developing Exports for the International Market. The seminar, under the
theme: Export Financing: Challenges and Prospects" is one of several
collaborations between IFEJ and other organisations to develop the knowledge
base of financial and economic journalists in the country.
Adongo urged exporters
not to produce goods before looking for markets, noting that more efforts
should be placed on market research programmes that would make them understand
the changing customer needs.
He said firms need to
understand whether its basis for competition is hinged on costs, or as a
differentiated player, who could charge more for a product by adding unique
value.
"If the basis of
the competition is cost then relative cost position analysis is most critical.
If the basis is of differentiation, then a survey or focus group analysis of
customer satisfaction relative to the competition's ability to satisfy
customers is most critical."
Adongo said Ghana has
several comparative advantages, but must know that these advantages could be
quickly eroded since other countries also have similar advantages.
"What we must do
is build on competitiveness, which can create a market niche for the
country." Chris Nartey, Managing Director of Merchant Bank Ghana Limited,
charged financial journalists to lead the debate on how to increase earnings of
not less than one billion cedis for the non-traditional export sector.
He urged journalists
to continue to draw the attention of all stakeholders to current realities.
"May we constantly cultivate the habit of monitoring the broad economic targets
outlined through impact assessment reports as a way of promoting effective
performance reviews."
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Entrepreneurs
called to invest in Northern Region
Tamale (Northern
Region) 16 October 2002 - The Tamale Municipal Chief Executive, Iddrisu Adam,
has called on entrepreneurs to avail themselves of the conducive business
environment in the Northern Region and invest in the area.
Adam made the call at
the opening of a furniture and electronics outlet of Melcom, an Indian
commercial firm operating in the country, at Tamale. The outlet offers for sale
refrigerators, air conditioners, television sets, executive chairs and tables
for offices, sewing machines, weighing scales and wooden and metal counters,
among other items.
The Municipal Chief
Executive commended the management of Melcom for taking up the challenge to do
business in the Tamale Municipality. "Your initiative has opened an
employment avenue to the people and brought relief to customers, who would
otherwise have to travel to the South to purchase these items," he noted.
Adam assured Melcom
management that the Tamale Municipal Assembly would support their efforts to
make their business to flourish. He hinted that the Tamale Municipality is to
be elevated to a metropolitan status soon saying, "a lot of work on this
issue has already been done, and it is only a matter of announcing it."
The Municipal Chief
Executive appealed to members of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU)
to be disciplined on the roads. "It is a common thing in the municipality
to see motorists, and drivers flouting traffic regulations with impunity,"
he said.
Davis George, Manager of
the Tamale branch of Melcom, said the company was working out a hire-purchase
scheme for workers to enable them to acquire some of their basic needs. Melcom
operates in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tema, Hohoe, Cape-Coast, Sunyani and
Tamale. GRi…/
Send your comments viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Solar
energy for three districts
Akropong (Eastern
Region) 16 October 2002 - A private solar energy provider, Terrasolar Ghana
Limited, has began negotiations with three districts in the Eastern Region to
provide them with solar power.
The districts are
Akuapem North, East Akim and Suhum/Kraboa/Coaltar. The Chief Executive of
Terrasolar, Nana Yaw Boakye Asante, told the GNA at Akropong-Akuapem that the
company is collaborating with its US counterparts.
It has begun a pilot
project under which it is providing power to 500 households within the Kwamoso
and Timber-Nkwanta area of the Akuapem North District.
He said the first
phase of the project covering 100 households that began in September would be
completed early next year. Nana Asante said his company's objective in
undertaking the project was to prove that solar power is not only meant for
lighting homes but could also be used to promote rural industrialisation and to
speed up the government's rural development and wealth creation programme.
He said residential
consumers use 54 percent of electricity generated in the country and the rest
46 goes to commercial users. "Our position is that we can't move our
nation forward into a second world status with that ratio by the 2010 target
but to change it to boost industrialisation."
''The economy can
register substantial gains if the government adopts solar energy-based rural
electrification and encourage rural dwellers to use the power for
small-to-medium scale enterprises.''
Nana Asante referred
to pressure on the Public Utility Regulation Commission (PURC) to raise
electricity tariff to economic rate and said consumers and the nation could make
savings in the long-term if solar power would be adopted "more
aggressively."
He said his company
was encouraged to embark on the pilot projects because of the government's 2002
budget statement in which it declared its intention to cover 2,000 villages
with solar power for its rural electrification programme.
"Unfortunately,
the government did not set the time or the area to be selected for
implementation. However, we have
identified the three districts in the Eastern Region as initial target to
promote the programme," he said.
Nana Boakye Asante
referred to the last week's agreement signed between the Energy Ministry and
the Dutch government under which 15 government buildings are to be fitted with
energy saving gadgets to save the country 1.2 billion cedis annually and called
for the policy to be extended to cover all government offices.
He said that since the
Ministry had already taken the lead by integrating solar power alongside
hydropower supply at its head office, it should be possible to ask other public
offices to adopt the policy.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Reconciliation
Commission could have come earlier - official
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - Dr Ken Agyeman Attafuah, Executive Secretary of the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC), attributed 'the delay' in the establishment of
the Commission to partisan politics and said had the New Patriotic Party (NPP)
come to power earlier than 2001, the Commission would have been established
sooner.
He told personnel of
the Ghana Police Service at an awareness creation seminar in Accra that the
government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) "had no interest in
creating a special statutory agency to pursue the goal of national
reconciliation." The Public Affairs Secretariat of the NRC organised the
seminar.
Dr Attafuah said
"on two occasions during his second term in office, President Rawlings
publicly apologised to Ghanaians for any 'excesses' which might have taken
place during the convulsive reign of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC) in the aftermath of the June Fourth Uprising and the turbulent years of
the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.
"The main
opposition party-the New Patriotic Party (NPP) viewed the apology as hardly
inadequate in reconciling the nation, and in its Political Manifesto, the NPP
promised a National Reconciliation Committee 'to heal the festering sores
within our body politic' and promote national reconciliation."
Dr Attafuah recalled
the inaugural address of President John Kufour in January 2001, and in his
maiden address to Parliament in February the same year, in which the President
reiterated the establishment of a National Reconciliation Committee to provide
a forum for aggrieved persons to air their grievances, in order to promote the
goal of national reconciliation.
Dr Attafuah chronicled
a list of human rights violations in the nations post independence history and
said the picture of Ghana being a relative peaceful country was a 'partial one
concealing many terrible episodes of ethnic and political violence and
hostility and crass human rights violations.'
The NRC Executive
Secretary said the AFRC and the PNDC were not the main target of the
reconciliation exercise but was looking at human rights violations and abuses
in their entire spectrum spanning different regimes in post independent Ghana.
He said the Commission
would maintain its integrity as an independent body and it would dismiss any of
its investigators who would be found to be unfair and incompetent.
The investigators are
mainly retired Police personnel. Dr Attafuah said the Commission would make a
recommendation on the complaints it were not able to investigate and added that
it was carrying out extensive education before setting a deadline for the
filing of complaints and petitions.
On reparations for
victims, Dr Attafuah said victims might not necessary be paid monetary
compensation. He said reparations would be in the form of psychological
healing, state apology, scholarships and erection of monuments for victims,
among others. He said the Commission would establish a special fund into which
individuals and organisations would contribute to cater for reparations when
that became necessary.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
President
withdraws Prof Kumado’s nomination
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002- President John Kufuor withdrew the nomination of Professor
Kofi Kumado, A lecturer at the University of Ghana, as a Supreme Court Judge.
In a statement addressed to the Speaker, the President asked the House to act
accordingly. No reason was given for the withdrawal.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - Yaw Baah, 43, a lawyer has been sworn in as 200th member
of Parliament. He won the Kumawu constituency parliamentary bye-election on the
ticket of the New Patriotic Party polling 13,664 votes representing 76.85
percent of the votes cast.
The Kumawu
parliamentary seat became vacant following the death of Reo Addai Basoah, the
Member of Parliament (MP) on July 30, 2002 at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
The official oaths
were administered by Freddy Blay, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament amidst
heckling from the minority. After the short ceremony, he was taken to his seat,
next to Nitiwul, who got sworn in some few months ago.
Papa Owusu Ankomah,
Majority Leader and Leader of the House, asked the new member to study the
rules, conventions and programmes of the house in order to make meaningful
contributions. "I am optimistic that you would not misplace the confidence
that the people of Kumawu have placed in you." A minute of silence was
observed by members in memory of late Bosoah.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Elmina (Central
Region) 16 October 2002 - The Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child
(GNCRC) last year helped to withdraw 350 people engaged in child labour
including prostitution in the Cape Coast municipality and the
Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) district.
Out of the number 169
were males and 181 females aged between 12 and 17 years old mostly school
dropouts. Mrs Baaba Brew Fleischer, Regional Coordinator of the GNCRC, speaking
at a seminar on child-labour at Elmina on Tuesday said 250 of the children had
been re-enrolled and linked to their families.
The seminar was
organised by the district assembly in collaboration with the International
Labour Organisation/International Programme On the Elimination of Child Labour
(ILO/IPEC).
A total of 65
participants including assembly members, religious groups and traditional
rulers, attended the workshop aimed at educating and equipping them to join the
fight against child labour.
Mrs Fleischer said the
NGO had set a target of sending 100 such children to school during the
2002/2003 academic year, adding that, it would help in the payment of their
school fees and provide them with uniforms and books.
She said 93 siblings
of the children known as the "preventive group" had been sent to
school to help them avoid "falling victim to the sex trade".
Mrs Fleischer said 52
mothers of the children, had been given micro-credit to engage in income
generating activities to support their families.
The NGO had spent a
total of 232 million cedis on the programmes and catering for the education of
the children. Mrs Sylvia Hinson-Ekong, National Programme Manager of the
ILO/IPEC, in a speech read for her, described child trafficking as "contemporary
form of slavery" and said everything must be done to stop it.
She regretted that
child labour and commercial sexual exploitation were prevalent in the Central
Region. Cape Coast and Elmina as major tourist destinations, "has come
with a price of commercial sex exploitation, especially of children and drug
trafficking," she added.
Child labour has
physical and psychological effects on the victim and was worse when the one was
forced out of school to join the labour force, condemning them to "life
long poverty". She called on district assemblies to formulate policies and
pass by-laws to help in combating the problem.
Mrs Stella Ofori of
the Child Labour Unit of the Ministry of Employment and Manpower Development
said about 35 and 15 per cent of the country's children were engaged in
hazardous labour. She expressed concern about the spate of child trafficking to
engage in activities such as fishing and mining and called on district
assemblies to put in measures to eliminate it.
Kwaku Akpotosu, District
Coordinating Director, said the Assembly would enforce by-laws to protect the
rights of children.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Heads
of schools increase intake
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo)
16 October 2002 - The Headmaster of Sunyani Secondary School (SUSEC), Joseph
Awuah has advised parents, guardians and the general public to be wary of
people who offer to assist their children to gain admission into Senior Secondary
Schools.
Such elements are only
out to enrich themselves at the expense of unsuspecting but anxious parents, he
said. Awuah, who was speaking to the GNA at Sunyani on problems facing school
authorities and parents in the SSS admissions exercise, said some of the
"admissions contractors" were charging as much as three million cedis
per student.
The general public,
especially parents and guardians should be wary of them, the Headmaster
cautioned, adding "they are dubious characters who have taken advantage of
the anxieties and worries of parents and guardians to dupe them".
Awuah who described
the stress, pleas and other problems associated with the SSS one intake
exercise as "usual" said SUSEC had exceeded its intake capacity from
400 to 500 students this year.
Awuah explained that
out of 3,400 students who chose SUSEC as their first choice, 2,375 qualified to
be admitted with an aggregate range from six to 30.
He said 400 students
were the normal intake capacity for the SSS one but pressure necessitated the
need to admit up to 500 students, comprising those who obtained aggregates six
to 12.
The Headmaster said
female students admitted out-numbered their male counterparts this year. The
Very Reverend Father Matthew Gyamfi, Rector of Saint James Seminary/Secondary
School at Abesim, near Sunyani also told the GNA that 599 students picked the
school as their first choice, but the school intake capacity is 160 students
for the first year.
"Since majority
of the students passed well with good aggregates, we have been compelled to
increase the intake from 160 to 200", the Rector added. Rev. Gyamfi,
expressed regret that the situation had made the school to flout its boarding
policy in order to admit day students to cater for the excess number this year.
Jarvis Reginald
Agyemang-Badu, Headmaster of Twene-Amanfo Secondary/Technical School (TASTECH)
in Sunyani, said the influx of parents and guardians to the school to seek
admission for their wards was overwhelming.
The Headmaster said he
had admitted 200 students for both secondary and Vocational/Technical courses
and the school had the capacity to admit 400 students because of the
availability of classrooms and other necessary facilities.
Agyemang-Badu
explained that since the essence of the vocational/technical course was to
develop the talents and potentials of the people to equip them with some form
of expertise and employable skills, his policy on admission into the first year
was not restricted to the brilliant and well-qualified students with very good
aggregates of six and below 20 ranges.
"We are also
admitting those who are 'drop-outs' and cannot gain admission into the normal
main stream secondary education because of their relatively very weak
passes", he said.
The Headmaster added
that some of such students obtained aggregates ranging from 26 to 36 and above
but they could also be helped to acquire practical skills to become
self-employable.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Farmer
jailed 20 years for defilement
Dormaa-Ahenkro (Brong
Ahafo) 16 October 2002 - A Dormaa-Ahenkro Circuit Court has sentenced Kwadwo
Tabiri, a 21 year-old farmer of Dormaa-Akwamu to 20 years imprisonment in hard
labour for defiling a 14 year-old schoolgirl.
The Court presided by
Mr Victor Gerald Kwasi Ayimey, sentenced the farmer on his own plea of guilty
of the offence. Detective Chief Inspector Asare Bediako, prosecuting, said on
27 September this year, the victim's mother sent her to a farm, which shares a
common boundary with Tabiri's to harvest pepper.
Chief Inspector
Bediako said whilst on the farm, Tabiri invited the victim, who was accompanied
by her junior sister to assist him trap a rat on his farm.
The victim obliged but
after trying in vain to trap the rat Tabiri pushed her down and forcibly had
sex with her. After the act, the farmer warned her not to tell anybody else he
would slash her throat.
Chief Inspector
Bediako added that on 6 October, this year, the victim informed her mother that
she was bleeding from her private part. When the mother questioned her, she
narrated her ordeal with the accused and the mother reported the matter to the
police.
A medical report from
the hospital showed that the victim had been sexually assaulted.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Food
and Drugs Board issues new directives
Accra (Greater Accra)
16 October 2002 - The Food and Drugs Board has issued directives for the
embossment of registration numbers on all manufactured products, with effect
from 1 January 2003.
A statement issued on
Tuesday by Mr Ben. K. Botwe, Deputy Chief Executive, said labels of all
products regulated under the Food and Drugs Law, PNDCL 305B as amended, must
bear the product registration numbers issued by the Board.
It reminded all local
manufacturers of food, drugs, cosmetics, household chemicals, medical devices
and the general public that the Board "cannot guarantee the safety,
wholesomeness, quality and efficacy, as the case may be, of any products not
bearing the registration numbers from that date."
The Board asked for
the cooperation of all stakeholders to ensure the protection of the health of
consumers.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com