Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Vice-President, has announced that, work on the upgrading of the first batch of 31 Senior Secondary Schools in the country will begin this month.
According to him, the African Development Bank had extended a credit facility to the government for the second phase of the project to commence in the second quarter of next year.
He was speaking at the annual Ngmayem Festival at Krobo Odumasi at the weekend.
He said the government would take appropriate action on the report of the committee set up to examine petitions and proposals for the creation of new districts.
2. 2 ARRESTED FOR DESTRUCTION OF WORK ON YA-NA’S TEMPORARY PALACE – PGS. 1 & 3
According to the paper, the Yendi police yesterday arrested two persons following their alleged involvement in the destruction of the foundation work on the temporary palace being put up for the Ya-Na.
The suspects, Kparishe-Na and Kulkuldoo, have since been granted bail to enable the police carry out further investigation.
According to the police, there was tension in Yendi after the arrest of the two persons.
The palace is being put up to enable the widows of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani take residence in it in preparation for the final internment of the King’s remains.
3. AFRICANS URGED TO AIM AT SELF-SUFFICIENCY – PGS. 16 & 17
Chief Executive Officer of Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited, has called on African countries to work tirelessly towards self-sufficiency as the surest way to restore their confidence and self-respect.
This, he said, was due to the threats to funding from the donor community.
He was speaking at a fund-raising dinner organized by the Accra North Rotary Club.
According to him, donor inflows to developing countries were shrinking rapidly because after the September 11 terrorist attack, developed nations were re-channelling their resources to fight terrorism at home and abroad, while others were either fatigued or facing increasing pressure from their electorates for better utilisation of their taxes.
The situation, he said, called for a more serious effort to confront the reality, adding that addiction to foreign goods, whether they were consumer products, cars or capital items, must be discouraged.
The paper reports that, the Ministry of Energy last Friday, asked the management of Mobil Ghana Limited to suspend its decision to start a “cash and carry” system with its dealers this month until next year.
The Ministry’s request followed a careful study of a petition to it by the dealers to the effect that the system should be scrapped because it was intended by Mobil’s management to boot them out of their businesses.
A source disclosed this to the paper in Accra.
According to the source, the Mobil management are expected to respond to the request today, based on which the dealers would decide on what to do.
2. JUSTICE ANNAN PROVIDES TIPS FOR PEACEFUL POLLS – PGS. 1 & 3
Mr. Justice D. F. Annan, former Speaker of Parliament, has asked media practitioners to be objective in their reportage in respect of the forthcoming elections, to make them peaceful and successful.
According to him, journalists needed to re-organise their thoughts and actions for them to get in tune with the ground rules for the conduct of the 2004 elections.
He was speaking at a press soiree organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to strengthen the relationship between the institute and the media.
He said it was about time the media played a very critical role to minimize the politicization of issues which had become too much.
Mr. Justice Annan was not happy that every issue in Parliament was being politicized to the detriment of proceedings in the House.
3. TWN SCEPTICAL ABOUT ANGLOGOLD – ASHANTI PACT – PG. 1
Dr. Yao Graham, Director, Third World Network, has observed that, the merger between Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited and AngloGold will not play any meaningful role in the development of mining communities.
He explained that the presence of mining companies in the country had rather worsened the plight of people living in those communities.
He was speaking at a public discussion orgainised by the Socialist Forum of Ghana.
Dr. Edward Mahama, leader of the PNC is palpitating with anger over the stance of the only three Members of Parliament of the party in their overt support for any bill and proposal presented to Parliament by the government.
According to the paper, the party’s leader has on many occasions confronted the MPs on their stance, which he perceives as blind support for the government.
However, Hon. David Apasera, PNC’s MP for the Bolgatanga Constituency, said an understanding was reached during the 2000 elections that the PNC MPs would in the event candidate Kufuor won the run-off, support the NPP in Parliament.
2. US MOVE CONSITUTES BLACKMAIL – MP – PG. 1 & BK. PG.
Mr. Ken Dzirasah, second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for South Tongu, has lambasted the government of the USA over its move to lobby some nations to enter into a treaty of no surrender with it.
According to him, the conditions attached to the ratification of the treaty constituted blackmail and coercion in disguise, which has the tendency to twist the arms of less developed nations into ratifying it against their avowed principles.
He was contributing to the debate on the motion to adopt the report of the joint committees of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Interior and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, on the Federal Government of the USA regarding the surrender of persons to the International Criminal Court.
According to the paper, Telekom Malaysia has not relented its quest for a $166.965m in compensation from the Government of Ghana in respect of its investment in Ghana Telecommunications Co Ltd.
It says, $103.100m of the amount is representative of the fair market value of Telekom’s shareholding in Ghana Telecom as at December 3, 2002 while a further $54.125m represents the deposit paid to the Government of Ghana in 2000 for the proposed acquisition of an additional 15 per cent equity interest in Ghana telecom. They attribute the final $9.740m to consultancy fees due the Telekom International Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telekom for consultancy and management services rendered to Ghana Telecom.
The paper reports that, a document released by the World Federalist Association on the internet suggests that the Government of Ghana was blackmailed into signing an agreement which grants immunity to American citizens from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
According to the document, Ghana is among 32 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Lartin America, which were being threatened with sanctions by the USA.
It said, the US is threatening to withhold $89.28m worth of military aid if the countries fail to grant American citizens immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
All the countries were given up to November 1, 2003 to grant the immunity to US citizens or lose this chance to benefit from US military assistance.
2. I CANNOT PROVIDE EVIDENCE ON 34 WOMEN - RAWLINGS – PGS. 1 & 3
Former President Rawlings has called on Ghanaians living in Europe to use their influences to draw the attention of international human rights orgainsations such as amnesty International to thoroughly investigate the killings of the 34 women during his tenure of office.
According to him, if nothing was done to find a lasting solution to the problem, which he insisted was politically masterminded by some high ranking members of the government, the problem would immediately resurface when NDC assumes power in 2005.
The ex-President was speaking at a fund-raising dinner/dance to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the UK and Ireland branch of the NDC in London.
3. POLICE PROBE MOB ATTACK ON DCE – PG. 1 & BK. PG.
Western Regional Police Command has dispatched a team of investigators to Juabeso in the Juabeso-Bia district to carry out an on-the-spot investigation into last week’s mob attack on DCE Benjamin Armah, who is currently on admission at Bibiani hospital.
The investigators from the regional command are to complement the efforts of their colleagues from Asawinso and Juabeso to unravel the motive behind the attack on the DCE and the latest report that the district assembly was also vandalized during the attack.
Deputy regional commander, ACP Agyeman, who disclosed this to the paper in an interview, said already 17 suspects who were rounded up in connection with the attack had been remanded in prison custody by Sekondi circuit court.
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