Accra (Greater Accra)
30 October 2002 - Parliament on Tuesday, by a unanimous decision approved the
nominations for appointment of five persons as Justices of the Supreme Court of
Ghana. The motion for the adoption and approval of the five nominees was
deferred on last Tuesday, October 24 after the House failed to form a quorum.
The nominees are
Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, Justice Samuel Glenn Baddoo, Mrs Justice Georgina
Theodora Wood, Prof. Samuel Kofi Date-Bah and Dr Seth Twum all Justices of the
Supreme Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana-designate.
Eugene Atta Agyepong,
Vice Chairman of the Appointments Committee on Thursday moved for the adoption
of the fourteenth report of the committee and said no adverse reports, petitions
or objections were received on any of the nominees.
He said the Committee
noted that all the nominees have the requisite qualifications and experience to
be appointed to the high office as Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Agyepong said certain
pertinent questions that were posed to the nominees were the reality of public
perception of corruption within the judiciary, opinions about the death penalty
on the statute books, possible amendment to positions of the Constitution of
Ghana (1992) and the Public Tribunals system and views about its possible
abolition.
The Committee said it
was therefore, persuaded towards the conviction that the President's nominees
are severally excellent material, fine minds, balanced, very knowledgeable,
forthright, frank and articulate and recommends that the House approves of
their nominations.
Contributing to the
debate on the report, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, NDC-Kumbungu and ranking member
said the judiciary was an important building block in ensuring good governance
and must be handled with circumspection. He said there was the need for both
Parliament and the Judiciary to play complimentary roles so as to consolidate
democratic governance and for them to play their independent roles as
constitutional bodies to monitor appraisal roles.
Capt. Nkrabeah
Effah-Dartey, NPP- Berekum commended the nominees for exhibiting good judgement
and excellence and prayed that their experience and objectivity would come to
bear on the Supreme Court.
Cletus Avoka,
NDC-Bawku West said the report failed to indicate the background of the
nominees and suggested that future reports should give at least, a background
of nominees for others who are not members of the appointment to be well
informed of those to be approved.
Kwamena Bartels, NPP-
Ablekuma North said the capabilities of the nominees was beyond doubt, while
Francis Agbotse, NDC- Ho West said reservations was only the approval of Dr.
Seth Twum, who has openly shown his political bias and hoped that when he was approved
he would be non-partisan in his decisions.
Nana Akufo-Addo, NPP-
Abuakwa, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice commended the President for
nominating the five persons through a non-partisan stand, which was a good sign
for dispensation of justice.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra)
30 October 2002 - Members of Parliament expressed varied views about the threat
of terrorism attacks across the world and called for peaceful co-existence
global peace.
The Members were
contributing to a statement issued by Kwabena Adusa Okerchiri, NPP Nkawkaw and
Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee on the Moscow theatre hostage episode, in
which about 800 people were taken hostage.
Okerchiri said what
now posed a threat were intra-state conflicts engendered by xenophobia,
terrorist threats and HIV/AIDS pandemic that calls for concerted effort by all
to address the situation.
He condemned the act
of terrorism and terrorism in general and urged the House to express their
condolences to all those who lost their dear ones and to the Russian
government.
The member recounted
that a group of terrorist believed to be Chechnya separatists numbering about
50 stormed a Moscow theatre demanding an end to the war in Chechnya and for the
release of 50 people.
He said during the
said siege, the hostages were subjected to psychological abuse, while the
terrorists threatened to blow up the theatre and had, indeed gone ahead and
killed a woman hostage to press home their demands.
The Russian Special
Forces responded and freed the hostages and in the process 107 people died
while others sustained various degrees of injury. He said, "about a year
ago it was the Twin Towers in New York, just about a month ago it was Bali and
now it is Moscow. What is interesting is that in all these terrorist attacks,
the victims are not confined to the countries whom they have an axe to grind
with."
He said in the Moscow
siege, the victims included citizens of the United States, United Kingdom,
Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Belarus. "The Chechen separatist
must bear the full blame for this tragedy. They may be fighting for a cause but
their decision to take innocent civilians, among them women and children
hostages was unforgivable and absolutely deplorable".
Kofi Attor, NDC-Ho
Central said the danger about the situation was that it was likely that those
in Chechnya do not even know about the terrorists and urged the Russian
government not to relax but to "watch their security."
He cautioned world
leaders to take a cue from some of these attacks and find ways to prevent them or
else the unequal situations could ginger other groups from the fringes of
conflict areas to do the worse.
Victor Gbeho, Ind.
Anlo said the events in Moscow must be condemned and asked to what extent such
atrocities could continue to be allowed to continue when people could easily
take up arms to put their cases across. He said even though the activities of
the separatists must be condemned, certain actions by governments tend to fan
extremisms such as is happening in the Middle East where Palestinians are daily
being attacked by the Israeli forces.
Gbeho said the time
has come for all to refuse to rubber stamp the activities of the superpowers
who have different laws for different areas.
Kosi Kedem, NDC- Hohoe
South called on African counties to learn a lesson from what happened in Russia
and ensure that peoples freedom are not curtailed or threatened. He urged the
United Nations to have debate on the true meaning of terrorism and come out
with measures to treat each cases on their own merit, noting that state
terrorism is hardly talked about while might has now become a right in the
world.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra)
30 October 2002- Parliament on Tuesday unanimously approved the nomination of
Mr Joshua Magnus Nicol, a Chartered Accountant, as Administrator of the
District Assemblies' Common Fund.
Mr Nicol, who is also
Chartered Management Accountant, and a Marketing professional would take oaths
before the President to assume office. Mr Freddy Blay, Chairman of the
Appointments Committee, said nominee had the professional and academic
credentials to do the job.
He said the nominee
had pledged to stay out of politics in order to maintain the neutrality and
integrity of the fund. What endeared Mr Nicol most to the lawmakers is his
theory of emphasising on the "need factor" in the formula for sharing
the common fund to favour very poor districts. Members asked that the
nomination and appointment of such officers should not take too long to be
effected.
GRi…/
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Resolution
on Persistent Organic Pollutants convention
Accra (Greater Accra)
30 October 20002 - Parliament has passed a resolution paving way for government
to ratify the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
POPs are a group of
chemicals that are man-made and are synthetic. Apart from being toxic, they are
persistent and resistant and could stay in the tissue of the human body and
environment for a long time.
Nii Adu Daku-Mante,
Vice Chairman, Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs,
earlier on, said Ghana, as a member of the diplomatic conference in Stockholm,
Sweden in May 2001 appended its signature to the text of the convention.
In a report, he said
Ghana would be able to access funding from a multilateral fund set-up for the
convention, to combat the POP scourge. It advocates that all parties to the
convention prohibit or take the legal and administrative measures necessary to
eliminate the production and use of POP.
He said control
measures initially apply to 12 chemicals known as "dirty dozen"
including dioxins and furans. "A review committee set up will ensure that
the convention remains dynamic and responsive to current scientific
findings." The Committee observed that the convention would help Ghana to
protect her environment and health of her people from the dangers of POPs.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra)
30 October 2002 - The Ministry of Local Government and Rural
Development has
submitted a memorandum to Cabinet for the setting up a Presidential Oversight
Committee on decentralisation
The Committee is to
harmonise, review and amend conflicting laws, Bills and Service Acts to ensure
smooth implementation of the decentralization process, redefine
responsibilities, functions and structures of Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDA's) as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies,
Councils and Committees.
Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu,
the Minister said this in an answer to a question asked in Parliament on
Tuesday by Stephen Amoanor Kwao, NDC-Upper Manya Krobo on behalf of Joseph
Tsatsu Agbenu, NDC- Afram Plains North.
The Member asked what
action the ministry has taken so far to ensure that all Departments and
Agencies decentralise at the District level. Baah-Wiredu said a draft Local
Government Service Bill has also been presented to Cabinet and would be sent to
Parliament for promulgation as soon as Cabinet approval was received.
He said the ministry
has also set up an Inter-Sectoral Committee on Decentralisation comprising
policy makers from various MDA's including Education, Health, Lands and
Forestry.
Baah-Wiredu explained
that the policy of decentralisation seeks to radically re-structure government
machinery by devolving central administration authority to the Districts
through the process of institutional integration, manpower absorption,
composite budgeting and provision of funds from the decentralised services.
He said the ministry
was presently working in collaboration with other MDA's to ensure the
desegregation of their budgets to the district level as directed by the
Ministry of Finance in the 2003 budget guidelines.
In a related
development, Alhaji Issah Seidu Abah, NDC- Chereponi on behalf of Namburr
Berrick, NDC- Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo asked when the Bunkpurugu - Yunyoo constituency
would be given a district status and when the vast area would be split into
two.
Baah-Wiredu said there
are presently over 70 petitions for the creation of Districts from all parts of
the country and the request from the area would be considered alongside the
others.
He said the conditions
for the creation of District Assemblies are being reviewed, especially on the
issue of population. The threshold used to be 75,000 when Ghana's population
was 12 million but since it had risen to 18.8 million it has been proposed to
Cabinet to vary the absolute figure to a percentage of the national population.
GRi…/
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