Armed Robber Burnt To Death

A robber, who together with a colleague attempted to snatch a bag from its owner but could not succeed, has been lynched and burnt to death by an angry mob on the Spintex Road in Accra.

The robber, who was said to be riding an unregistered motorbike with his colleague, initially slashed the left hand of a phone card dealer on the Spintex Road, close to the On the Run restaurant, when they attempted snatching the dealer’s handbag from him and he resisted with a sharp butcher’s knife.

Briefing DAILY GUIDE, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Michael H. Addae, the District Crime Officer at the Sakumono Police Headquarters, noted that Solomon Amu Blay, a phone card dealer, at about 4:30pm reported his ordeal in the hands of the robbers to the police, after which he was issued with a police medical report form to attend hospital.

He stated that at about 7pm the same day, his outfit again received a report that the same gang who attacked the phone card dealer had spotted at the First Avenue Chemical Shop in the same area.

According to the ACP, the robbers attempted snatching a handbag from a lady, but the pillion rider fell from the motorbike they used in the failed operation. The other robber riding the motorbike managed to speed off.

ACP Addae further stated that since the scene of the first incident was not far from the second one, some unknown persons identified the robbers as the same gang who attacked the first victim.

He added that the police had a distress call from an unknown person informing the police that an armed robber who attempted to rob someone had been arrested and lynched by an angry mob.

He stated that he quickly deployed his men to the scene to rescue the suspect, adding that at the time of their arrival at the scene, they spotted the lifeless body of the said robber surrounded with lorry tires and dry wood set ablaze.

ACP Addae noted that the police personnel quickly scattered the fire, after which they put it out and retrieved the lifeless body.

He said when the body was removed, it was burnt beyond recognition, noting that it has since been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue pending autopsy.

ASP Addae advised pedestrians to be wary of such people and also ensure that their bags are secured.

He also entreated them to always walk in pairs since such robbers attack persons who always walk alone, adding that businessmen and women should also desist from keeping huge sums of monies on them since such miscreants are always very observant.

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NDC Chases Judges

Irate activists and some senior members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have turned their anger on the judiciary over the abysmal performance of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, in the face of recent series of legal defeats that has been trailing her.

Following the defeats suffered by the NDC government in court in their bid to jail some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, the NDC members, led by their National Women’s Organizer, Anita de Souza, have made scandalous statements that seek to incite the party’s foot-soldiers against the entire judicial administration of the country.

Ms. De Souza, as a panelist on Asempa FM’s ‘Ekosii Sen’ programme yesterday, openly attacked Chief Justice Georgina Wood and Justice Samuel Marful-Sau of the Court of Appeal, the judge who stopped the NDC government from prosecuting Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby and Kwadwo Mpiani, President Kufuor’s former chief of staff, for their roles in the Ghana @ 50 celebrations.

Anita said they knew some judges who “are pro-NPP” and called on the President to remove them.

She claimed the judges were thwarting the efforts of the NDC government to prosecute NPP appointees who were perceived to be corrupt.

Another panelist, whose name was given as Eben, from the Office of the President, said Justice Anin Yeboah of the Supreme Court was pro-NPP and went on to castigate judges for sabotaging President Mills and the NDC government.

Kwadwo Twum-Boafo, the defeated NDC parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso West Wuogon and acting Executive Secretary of the Free Zones Board, also called into the programme, describing the judiciary as “activists’ judiciary.”

He said, “They have tilted the balance of power to one particular party. They are using technicalities to throw away NDC cases.”

Twum-Boafo said the Chief Justice was rewarded with her current position by ex-President Kufuor, adding “the NDC government must sit up. Government for all is not working. If it is not careful, it will be removed for what it did not do.”

Already, some pro-NDC newspapers have started accusing Anthony Gyambiby, the Chief State Attorney who handled Dr. Wereko-Brobby and Mr. Mpiani’s case, of being in bed with the NPP.

According to the NDC activists, Mr. Gyambiby, who was brought back from the Eastern region, was now doing the biddings of the NPP, citing his comments on the ruling as an affront to the ruling party.

Mr. Gyambiby had said “this is a well-reasoned ruling. It goes to confirm that rule of law and democracy is deepening in Ghana.”

Kofi Adams, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC and aide to Jerry Rawlings, had also said he believed some elements within the Attorney-General’s Department had been sabotaging Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, which had resulted in the loss of several high-profile cases.

Mr. Adams, who was not willing to give out names, claimed “the authorities who are supposed to act know” those he is intimating, adding that the unnamed persons were “making sure that they do not succeed”.

The NDC Deputy General Secretary said in order for the government to win high-profile cases, its representatives would have to act. “If they do not act, then what is happening will continue to happen”.

On Dr. Wereko-Brobby and Mr. Mpiani’s case, Mr. Adams said “I am convinced that there were massive acts of corruption and it is the responsibility of government and, therefore, the Attorney-General’s Department to prosecute the offenders.”

A member of the NDC legal team, David Annan, confirmed Mr. Adams assertion, adding that the Attorney-General’s Department was already “stocked and filled” with personnel supposedly aligned to their political opponent.

Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Information, according to Joy FM, asked both the NPP and the NDC commenting on the issue to exercise restraint and avoid politicisation of such cases.

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Ga Mantse condemns REGSEC ban on 'open' Homowo

Ga Mantse King
(in photo)

The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah, has condemned a directive by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council (REGSEC), restricting the celebration of this year’s Homowo festival.

REGSEC has asked the police to ensure that the celebration is confined to family homes, and not on the streets as has been the practice.

The Security Council, chaired by the regional minister also decided that none of the feuding factions should be allowed to use the stool rooms and palaces.

But the Ga Traditional Council is livid. Spokesperson for the Ga Mantse Nii Boye Abbey tells Joy News the traditional council might be compelled to defy it.

"The Ga Mantse sprinkles kpokpoi in the stool house, the palace is also here; we will do the same this year," he said.

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Utility tariffs to undergo modest reduction

Utility tariffs in the country are expected to undergo a downward review following the presentation of a report by the technical committee set up by the government to consider concerns raised by the consumers.

The report of the committee was presented to the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, at the Castle, Osu, Friday.

Although the contents of the reports were not made available, Daily Graphic information has it that the Vice-President will formally announce details to the press on Monday.

A source said all the stakeholders were satisfied with the agreement reached and had appended their signatures, stressing that the reduction would give some relief to utility consumers.

A meeting between Vice-President Mahama and executives of labour and industry last month decided that a technical committee be formed to deliberate on how much increase in utility tariffs was reasonable.

The Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) have, since May 2010 when the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announced hikes in electricity and water tariffs, condemned the increases, explaining that they posed a serious threat to the survival of industry and jobs.

While calling for the suspension of the new tariffs, they also threatened demonstrations to back their demand. Following the development, the government urged the PURC to meet with stakeholders and agree on a common ground.

The source said notwithstanding the downward review, the PURC would, in October this year, take a second look at the tariff regime when the West African Gas Pipeline was expected to come into operation.

It said with the commencement of the Asogli Power Plant, substantial increases would be made in energy generation and supply at a relatively cheaper cost.

The source emphasised that the VRA had been facing significant financial difficulties following the failure of the previous government to fulfill its promise to absorb the 35 per cent increase in electricity tariffs announced by the PURC in 2007.

"The failure of the previous government to live up to its promise to absorb the 35 per cent increase in the utility price in 2007 has eroded the working capital of the VRA," the source stressed.

Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana

Web Photos That Reveal Secrets, Like Where You Live

When Adam Savage, host of the popular science program “MythBusters,” posted a picture on Twitter of his automobile parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of data providing the longitude and latitude of where the photo was taken. Hence, he revealed exactly where he lived. And since the accompanying text was “Now it’s off to work,” potential thieves knew he would not be at home.

Security experts and privacy advocates have recently begun warning about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; and they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online.

Mr. Savage said he knew about geotags. (He should, as host of a show popular with technology followers.) But he said he had neglected to disable the function on his iPhone before taking the picture and uploading it to Twitter.

“I guess it was a lack of concern because I’m not nearly famous enough to be stalked,” he said, “and if I am, I want a raise.”

Still, Mr. Savage has since turned off the geotag feature on his iPhone, and he isn’t worried about the archived photo on Twitter because he has moved to a new residence.

But others may not be so technologically informed or so blasé about their privacy.

“I’d say very few people know about geotag capabilities,” said Peter Eckersley, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, “and consent is sort of a slippery slope when the only way you can turn off the function on your smartphone is through an invisible menu that no one really knows about.”

Indeed, disabling the geotag function generally involves going through several layers of menus until you find the “location” setting, then selecting “off” or “don’t allow.” But doing this can sometimes turn off all GPS capabilities, including mapping, so it can get complicated.

The Web site ICanStalkU.com provides step-by-step instructions for disabling the photo geotagging function on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm devices.

A person’s location is also revealed while using services like Foursquare and Gowalla as well as when posting to Twitter from a GPS-enabled mobile device, but the geographical data is not hidden as it is when posting photos.

A handful of academic researchers and independent Web security analysts, who call themselves “white hat hackers,” have been trying to raise awareness about geotags by releasing studies and giving presentations at technology get-togethers like the Hackers On Planet Earth, or Next HOPE, conference held last month in New York.

Their lectures and papers demonstrate the ubiquity of geotagged photos and videos on Web sites like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Craigslist, and how these photos can be used to identify a person’s home and haunts.

Many of the pictures show people’s children playing in or around their homes. Others reveal expensive cars, computers and flat-screen televisions. There are also pictures of people at their friends’ houses or at the Starbucks they visit each morning.

By downloading free browser plug-ins like the Exif Viewer for Firefox (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3905/) or Opanda IExif for Internet Explorer (opanda.com/en/iexif/), anyone can pinpoint the location where the photo was taken and create a Google map.

Moreover, since multimedia sites like Twitter and YouTube have user-friendly application programming interfaces, or A.P.I.’s, someone with a little knowledge about writing computer code can create a program to search for geotagged photos in a systematic way. For example, they can search for those accompanied with text like “on vacation” or those taken in a specified neighborhood.

“Any 16 year-old with basic programming skills can do this,” said Gerald Friedland, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He and a colleague, Robin Sommer, wrote a paper, “Cybercasing the Joint: On the Privacy Implications of Geotagging,” which they presented on Tuesday at a workshop in Washington during the Advanced Computing Systems Association’s annual conference on security.

The paper provides three examples of so-called cybercasing that use photos posted on Twitter and Craigslist and a homemade video on YouTube.

By looking at geotags and the text of posts, Mr. Sommer said, “you can easily find out where people live, what kind of things they have in their house and also when they are going to be away.”

“Our intent is not to show how it’s done,” he said, “but raise awareness so people can understand their devices and turn off those options if they want to.”

ICanStalkU.com, developed by the security consultants Larry Pesce of the NWN Corporation in Waltham, Mass., and Ben Jackson of Mayhemic Labs in Boston, uses a more direct approach to warning about the potential dangers of geotags. The site displays a real-time stream of geotagged photos posted on Twitter; the person who posted the photo also gets a notification via Twitter.

“The reaction from people is either anger, like ‘I’m going to punch you out,’ or ‘No duh, like I didn’t already know that’ or ‘Oh my God, I had no idea,’ ” Mr. Pesce said.

In the latter category was Cristina Parker of El Paso, who sells appliances part-time at Kmart and also manages social media for small companies. ICanStalkU.com notified her last week that a photo she had posted on Twitter of her Chihuahua, Zipp, also revealed where she lived.

“I immediately tweeted back to find out what I can do about it,” said Ms. Parker. The site sent her a Web link to instructions on how to turn off the geotag function on her LG Ally smartphone. “It’s definitely good to know for me personally and because of my social media work, too,” she said

Because of the way photographs are formatted by some sites like Facebook and Match.com, geotag information is not always retained when an image is uploaded, which provides some protection, albeit incidental. Other sites like Flickr have recently taken steps to block access to geotag data on images taken with smartphones unless a user explicitly allows it.

But experts say the problem goes far beyond social networking and photo sharing Web sites, regardless of whether they offer user privacy settings.

“There are so many places where people upload photos, like personal blogs and bulletin boards,” said Johannes B. Ullrich, chief technology officer of the SANS Technology Institute, which provides network security training and monitors the Internet for emerging security threats.

Protecting your privacy is not just a matter of being aware and personally responsible, said Mr. Sommer, the researcher. A friend may take a geotagged photo at your house and post it.

“You need to educate yourself and your friends but in the end, you really have no control,” he said, adding that he was considering writing a program to troll the Internet for photos with geotags corresponding to users’ home addresses.

“I’m beginning to think there may be a market for it.”
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Govt Restricts Homowo

THE GREATER Accra Regional Coordinating Council has restricted the forthcoming annual Homowo festival of the people of Ga to designated areas.
The restriction was contained in a press statement signed by Fats Nartey, Chief Director of the Regional Coordinating Council on behalf of the Greater Accra Regional Minister.
The Regional minister has directed that the festival be restricted to only family homes where there are no disputes.
The sprinkling of “kpoikpoi” the directive went on should also be done in such family homes and not extended unto the streets at the trouble spots.
Persons the minister referred to as malcontents should not be allowed into any of the palaces or the stool rooms.
The Greater Accra Regional Police Commander has been requested to monitor the celebrations to ensure that peace according to the minister prevails in the region.
“The due process of law should be made to take its course to ensure that peace and harmony prevail during the celebration and any person who flouts the law should be dealt with in accordance with the dictates of the law,” the statement mentioned.
Continuing the minister said “government will not sit down for anybody to take the law into their own hands and that the security services have been put on full alert to deal with any malcontents according to law.”
The annual festival has been marred with what has been described by interference of people with vested interests in the Ga chieftaincy affair.
Last year the National Security Coordinator Gbevlo-Lartey put a stool house under lock and key in a fashion which drew opprobrium from many quarters. Some opinions described the action as a show of disrespect for the tradition of the Gas, a development made possible through the massive politicization of most issues in the country today.
In a related development, a spokesperson for the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah III has frowned at the use of the word “malcontents” in the statement.
The contents of the statement Nii Abbey went on is far from the truth given that it did not identify the trouble spots. The spirit of the statement according to him is disrespectful to the people of Ga. Such a statement he went on should have been preceded by a meeting with the relevant stakeholders.

By A.R. Gomda
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STX Deal To Create Jobs For 50,000 Ghanaians

The housing project between the government and STX Engineering and Construction Ghana Limited, will create jobs for more than 50,000 local artisans and stimulate the local economy, Vice-President John Mahama has reiterated.

Speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the Korean Parliament at the Castle, Osu yesterday, Vice-President Mahama said per the local content provision in the agreement, about 30 per cent of the contract value would be sub-contracted to Ghanaians.

He said the government was looking forward anxiously for the start of the project, which he said, would also address the accommodation needs of security personnel.

He said the project, would witness the construction of a total of 200,000 housing units over the next five years, 30,000 of which would be allocated to security personnel, to provide them with decent accommodation and boost their morale.

Mr. Mahama informed the delegation of the heated debate in Parliament which preceded the passage of the bill, saying, a process that the deal went through showed the beauty of democracy.

Since his visit to Korea in the early part of the year, the Vice-President observed that relations between Ghana and Korea had moved to a higher level, culminating in the visit of several delegations to Ghana, especially from the energy sector.

He cited on-going talks between the GNPC and the Korean National Oil Company on the possibility of further exploring Ghana's oil potential.

Vice-President Mahama said the country was looking forward to increasing its power generation from about 3,000 MW to 5,000 MW over the next five years and noted the Korean government's collaboration with the Ghana Grid Company to strengthen the country's transmission grid.

Lee Juyoung, leader of the delegation, said it was in the country to look at Korean Overseas Developement Assistance (ODA) to Ghana with a view to reviewing and increasing it.

The delegation is also to promote co-operation and have a shared development relationship, he said, and asked the government to indicate to the delegation specific areas it wants assistance so that it could be factored in future development support.

Mr. Lee lauded the government for its efforts in the realisation of the STX housing project and hoped that it would be consistent with the successful completion of the project.

Mrs. Zita Okaikwei, Minister of Tourism, who accompanied the delegation, said the Korean government had extended financial assistance for the purchase of billboards to educate people about various tourists sites in Ghana.

She said the Koreans have also provided micro loans for women in the she- nut and kente business and were also helping to train tour guides in the North under a Savannah Tourism Project.
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Regional Commanders To Sack Corrupt Cops

THE Inspector-General of Police, Paul Tawiah Quaye has empowered regional police commanders to apply summary dismissal of police personnel caught indulging in corrupt practices to safeguard the image of the service.
This is in line with the Police Administration s effort to weed out undisciplined personnel from the police Northern Regional Police Commander, Awuntogbuge Awumi, told senior police officers in the region at a meeting in Tamale on Thursday.
The meeting with district police commanders other regional officers and chief inspectors was to among other things enable personnel to re-orient themselves to discharge their duties more efficiently now that they are enjoying improved salaries.
He said the taxpayer demands the best services from the police. They must therefore show professionalism in the discharge of their duties. Where there is the evidence we must crack the whip by pressing for charges and subsequent prosecution of culprits, he stressed.
Mr Awuni charged commanders at the various levels to take the lead in the fight against indiscipline and not to be seen to be condoning such negative behaviours.
He commended government's efforts to provide accommodation for personnel of the security services and hoped that other logistics such as transport will be given attention to enable the police to effectively discharge their duties.
Mr. Awuni advised men and women of the service to take advantage of the revised pay to invest prudently towards retirement.
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Ghana@50 Trial : Mpiani, Brobby Discharged

Mr Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, the former Chief of Staff and Chairman of the National Planning Committee (NPC) of the Ghana@50 celebrations, and Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana@50 Secretariat, who were being tried for causing financial loss to the State were yesterday discharged from the charges by the Accra Fast Track High Court.
According to the court, the findings of a commission of inquiry set up under the Constitution constituted a judgement of the court, for which it had no jurisdiction to entertain and disturb.
It said the findings of a commission of inquiry ought to be recognised and respected by the Judiciary because of its constitutional backing.
It was only the Court of Appeal, it said, that had the jurisdiction to determine the appeals from the judgements of the High Court, as provided for under Article 280, adding, “This High Court has no jurisdiction to disturb the findings of the commission of inquiry, which are its own judgement.”
The court’s ruling was after it had struck out the charges and set aside the prosecution as unconstitutional and violating the defendants’ right of appeal under the 1992 Constitution.
The two were charged following the release of the government’s White Paper on the report of the Ghana@50 Commission of Inquiry into the activities of the Ghana@50 Secretariat and the entire celebration, which recommended their prosecution.
They pleaded not guilty to four counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the State and were each admitted to a GH¢35 million self-recognisance bail.
The commission recommended the prosecution of the two because although Parliament had approved GH¢29.31 million for the celebration, GH¢97,776,338.44 had been spent on it, out of which GH¢75,569,563.34 had directly been spent by the secretariat and the NPC.
The secretariat and the NPC, therefore, spent GH¢46,999,563 in excess of the amount of money approved by Parliament for the celebration, the commission said.
The prosecution further stated that the commission also found that, contrary to articles 176 and 178 of the 1992 Constitution, the NPC and the secretariat used all the internally generated funds, totalling GH¢19,352,498, without any approval from Parliament.
After the arraignment of the two public officials, their lawyers prayed the court, in a motion, for an order to strike out the criminal proceedings brought against them because it was unconstitutional, while the court also lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

Defence counsel argued, among others, that by Article 280 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, when a commission of enquiry had made adverse findings against a person, the report of the commission shall be deemed to be a judgement of the High Court and, accordingly, an appeal shall lie as of right to the Court of Appeal in respect of the commission’s findings.
“The election of the Republic to mount this prosecution offends the letter and spirit of Article 278 and other relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution,” Mr Yonny Kulendi, lead counsel for Mr Mpiani, argued, adding that the functions and powers of the Ghana@50 Commission of Enquiry ran equally with those of the court.
On the other hand, the State argued that the powers of the Attorney-General to prosecute under Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution could not be restrained by any court.
Mr Anthony Gyambiby, a Chief State Attorney, argued that the arraignment of the accused persons did not amount to incarceration without offering them the opportunity to a fair hearing, as provided for under the Constitution.
He said the accused persons would be afforded the opportunity to a fair hearing so that at the end of the prosecution's case if the court realised that no case had been made against them, it would so decide.
"They are not going through a kangaroo trial and be sentenced," he said, adding that the provision in Article 280 (5) destroyed the arguments of the defence.
According to Mr Gyambiby, that provision had a proviso that before the finding of a commission of inquiry became a judgement of the court, six months must elapse after the finding had been released and announced to the public.
He said within that period, the Attorney-General was mandated to take the action she had taken to prosecute the accused persons.
However, at its sitting yesterday, the court, presided over by Mr Samuel Marful-Sau, a Court of Appeal judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge in the matter, upheld the motion by the defence and ruled that the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 61 that set up the Ghana@50 Commission of Inquiry made the prosecution of the two unlawful and contrary to its terms of reference.
It said the way to go about punishing public officials for any wrong against the State was not the setting up of a commission of inquiry under the Constitution.
Rather, the State must make use of its traditional investigative machinery, such as the police and the SFO, before embarking on any criminal trial.
The Attorney-General, the court said, was not required by the provisions of articles 94, 62, among others, of the 1992 Constitution to take criminal action against persons against whom adverse findings had been made by a commission of inquiry because such findings constituted a judgement of the High Court.
It said the nature, effect and scope of the Ghana@50 Commission of Inquiry were deemed to be a judgement of the court in view of the fact that the government had issued a White Paper on the commission’s findings and also published those findings.
The government, it ruled, had elected to make the findings of the commission a judgement of the court, adding that since the report was published on April 21, 2010, the six-month period required to elapse to enable the accused persons to appeal had not expired.
It said Article 278 of the 1992 Constitution did not allow the A-G to institute criminal action in that regard and that doing that would lead to judicial absurdity if the two former public officials decided to exercise their right of appeal to the Court of Appeal, which they were guaranteed by the Constitution.
The court gave a chronology of some past commissions of inquiry, including the Yendi Events Commission, the Accra Sports Stadium Disaster Commission and others which erroneously made recommendations that persons who appeared before them be prosecuted and were followed.
“The Ghana@50 Commission erred when it recommended that applicants be prosecuted,” it ruled, and added that C.I. 61 which set up the commission raised issues that persons who appeared before it shall not be prosecuted under any enactment after being compelled to appear and testify,” it said.
The court said the requirements of appearance before the commission were such that anybody who appeared was compelled to testify and be in contempt of court for failing to appear, unlike in a criminal trial in which an accused could not be compelled to testify against himself.
It said a witness who appeared before a commission of inquiry was entitled to some immunity and privileges as the one who appeared before the High Court and, therefore, the provisions in C.I. 61 were contradictory to the Constitution.

It, however, disagreed with defence counsel that the applicants were the subject matter of the Ghana@50 Commission of Inquiry but only appeared as witnesses, since its terms were to investigate the Ghana@50 Secretariat.
The facts of the case are that Parliament approved $31.80 million, equivalent to GH¢29.31 million, for the celebration of Ghana@50 from January to December 2007 and the holding of the African Union (AU) Summit.
According to the prosecution, the amount was made up of a first tranche of GH¢18.29 million, which was approved by Parliament on July 20, 2006, and a second tranche, which was a loan of $11.80 million, equivalent to GH¢11.02 million, contracted from Fidelity Bank and approved by Parliament.
It said aside from those sums approved by Parliament, “huge sums of money appeared to have been spent on the celebrations”, adding that more than a year after the celebrations, many projects remained uncompleted and the government was saddled with huge debts.
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I Had No Twins

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has broken his long silence on the allegation that he had twins with the Iraqi-born American, Gizzele Yajzi.

At a media encounter organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to mark the 9th anniversary of the repeal of the criminal libel law, Mr. Kufuor stressed that he would never be ashamed of accepting the responsibility of fathering the twins outside his matrimonial marriage.

“That Kufuor had twins; I didn’t consider that a crime at all, supposing I was polygamist, our laws are not against polygamy.

Of course, I am a Catholic and naturally I am a monogamist, and that is what I am. They made the allegations and they were challenged to bring evidence but they couldn’t, so I was expecting the people generally to know that the people weren’t serious,” he said.

There was a hullabaloo in the media in 2005, especially among some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that former President Kufuor had an affair with the Iraqi-American citizen, and out of that had twin boys, Philip and John.

He said if he had indeed engaged in any extramarital affair with Ms. Yajzi and had twins with her, he would hastily have asked permission from his wife, Theresa Kufuor, sought forgiveness from her and gone for the kids because they would have been his ‘blood children.’

He denied ever dipping his hands into state coffers to furnish his private residence.

“I was also accused of dipping my hands in state coffers to furnish my home; it is the biggest lie that was told. Unfortunately, it was told by people who should have known better.

I lived in my own house throughout my tenure of office and I have lived in that house since 1984, not a chair in that house was acquired by the state,” he added.

The former president stressed that he had no regret in repealing the criminal libel law, explaining that freedom of speech was more valuable than the culture of silence which persisted in the country before the NPP came to power in 2001.

He said Ghanaians should always applaud the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for any democratic environment that they were enjoying.

He stressed that the bold decision by his party to repeal the law in the country had led to the current freedom of speech that the media in particular and Ghanaians in general were enjoying.

He emphatically stated that he had never regretted repealing the law in Ghana, as most Ghanaians including himself were victims of the said law.

According to him, the political and economic progress that sought to flourish in a climate of freedom and an environment where the press was free and independent of governmental, political or economic control, was based on the repeal of the law.

He stressed that over a 100 FM stations were licensed to operate during his tenure of office due to the interest he had in promoting press freedom and his efforts to make Ghanaians live in a democratic environment.

Former President Kufuor therefore urged the media to publicize all positive measures embarked upon by any ruling government in the country.

By Stella Danso Addai

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Nima Boys Fight MP

Some residents of Nima in Accra, yesterday vehemently protested against the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, Dr. Mustapha Ahmed and Minister of Tourism, Zita Okaikoi, over their decision to commission a library project at the Nima Cluster of Schools, during a stakeholders’ meeting.

The residents, who described Dr. Ahmed as an opportunist, have pledged to ensure that the commissioning of the library project becomes a fantasy.

They claimed the ceremony was only a platform for the MP to gain cheap popularity and nothing else.

Ali Halidu, who is a member of Nima Association of New York, (NANY) in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, explained that the action of the MP was very surprising.

“This library project that the Minister and the MP are planning to commission tomorrow is not one of the government’s projects but rather a project designed and started by the over 1,000 Nima residents living in New York,” he said.

According to Halidu, somewhere in 2007, the members of the Nima Association in New York came together to support a library project for children in the Nima area.

“We then came to a conclusion that all the members would contribute immensely towards the construction of a three-storey library block and an ICT centre at the Nima Cluster of Schools.”

He reiterated that Dr. Ahmed, a one-time friend of the members of the association, was happy about the idea of the members and regularly paid them visits anytime he traveled to New York.

Halidu aka Ali Zabari lamented that the two storey-building that would be commissioned tomorrow is the said three storey-building that the members were constructing for the school children at Nima.

He bewailed that because they were not in the country, they thought Dr. Ahmed was assisting them to work on the project only to be told that the uncompleted two-storey building had been roofed.

“Some of us decided to come down to find out the truth of the matter and surprisingly received the news that the project is being commission tomorrow”.

Halidu said the members had been planning to complete the project and come back into the country in their numbers to commission it in a grand style.

“We had wanted the people of Nima to realize the love we have for them and nothing else but look at how we have all been sidelined by our own MP,” he added.
When DAILY GUIDE contacted Dr. Ahmed for his side of the story, he explained that they were not commissioning any project.
He said the Minister of Tourism is going to commission part of the block to get access to stock up some books that had been donated to the Nima Cluster of Schools by some Koreans.

By Stella Danso Addai

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Headmaster Gives Students ‘Identification Hair Cut’

THE HEADMASTER of Ghana National College, Robert Koomson Barnes, last Friday incurred the wrath of parents when he decided to give students of the school a new hairstyle that observers would describe as an ‘identification haircut’.

Mr Barnes gave the students the trim before they left for vacation.

The headmaster, who subjected the students to harsh treatment and scraped their hair haphazardly, was alleged to have used just a pair of scissors for his operation without considering the health implications.

Some parents of the students who were given the new haircut, stormed the offices of DAILY GUIDE yesterday and stated that the headmaster does not allow the children to go on midterms, adding that they did not understand why he was so furious about the children keeping bushy hair.

According to a parent whose child was a victim of the headmaster’s ‘barbering spree’, she was confused and mad at how the headmaster carried out his actions on the students since they had not committed any crime.

She added that the very day the headmaster carried out his activity was a vacation day and could not fathom why he had to turn himself into a barber, knowing very well that the children were going home that day.

The parent stated that her ward has an eye problem and that the headmaster’s act has worsened her problem.

She told DAILY GUIDE that a teacher earlier barbered the hair of some students a week before the headmaster’s incident, indicating that the action of the teacher must have gingered the headmaster up.

She was angry that instead of the headmaster to query the teacher for his actions, he rather went further and barbered the hair of over 30 students on vacation day.

According to her, her ward reported to her that one of the students had sores on his scalp but the headmaster did not mind and went ahead to barber him and used the same pair of scissors for the rest of them.

She told DAILY GUIDE that she was dragging the headmaster to the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for maltreating the children.

All efforts to speak to Mr Koomson Barnes proved futile as his mobile phone was switched off.

DAILY GUIDE also gathered that Mr Banes was out of town.

From Sarah Afful, Cape Coast
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Massive Rip-Offs At Foreign Embassies

The burning desire by Ghanaians to travel abroad has turned foreign embassies in Ghana into ‘cruel slave kingdoms’.

Foreign embassies in Ghana were honest and trustworthy partners in times past. Instead, these embassies have now become substantive hubs for the continual exploitation of the poor.
The Chinese Embassy is the latest to join the gang while the German Embassy has been adjudged the most tolerant and good-human-relations-practising embassy.
Led in chief by the British and American Embassies who charge exorbitant visa fees, these outfits treat visitors with so much disdain that some have earned the tag ‘no-go’ areas.
A recent example is the refusal of visas by the American embassy to some Ghanaian diplomats and journalists on a mission for the country abroad, notable among them the Agric and Energy Ministers, Ato Ahwoi and Dr. Oteng Adjei respectively.
During the launch of United Airlines at the Kotoka International Airport recently, Donald Teitelbaum, US Ambassador to Ghana, noted in a speech that his outfit granted 24,000 visas to Ghanaians in 2009. He also said 20,000 visas were granted Ghanaians in 2008.
This paper has made countless efforts to reach Benjamin East, Public Relations Officer at the US Embassy over a month ago to know a few more things in relation to this announcement but all to no avail.
Nevertheless, going by Mr Teitelbaum’s assertion, 100 Ghanaians are purportedly granted visas to the US on each of the five working days of the week though it is very difficult to even get appointment date for interview.
As to how many were rejected visas and yet had their visa application fees forfeited, because the embassy would not refund them, is not known.
An amount of GH¢160 is charged by the UK Embassy in Ghana as visa application fee for a six-month multiple visa but most often, the embassy has granted visas covering less durations of stay without a refund.
Those who want to stay in UK for more than six months have to pay more than the aforementioned figure.
The US Embassy on the other hand charges $150 for nonimmigrant visa.
An interview with Kofi Kapito, CEO of the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA), on the subject last Wednesday, buttressed this exploitative situation prevailing at the foreign embassies.
“It has come to the knowledge of the CPA of various complaints that have been made to our office with regard to the unpalatable, inhuman and disrespectful treatment that are meted out to those that visit the foreign embassies in processing of visa applications.”
Indicating that visits by CPA’s research staff to most of the embassies clearly confirmed such reports, he said he had called the attention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs via a letter dated April 4, 2010, to the situation.
“However not even an acknowledgement letter from the Minister and his concern for the issues raised, merited a reply,” he emphasized.
Most of the embassies, this paper can reveal, do not even have a proper waiting space for people that visit their premises.
Thus, most visitors stand in the scorching sun for hours before they are invited inside the embassies to carry out their businesses.
When these reporters visited the UK Visa Application Centre at Labone in Accra, a 65-year-old woman was spotted in a queue from 6.00am to almost 12 noon before she could get the opportunity to just have her visa application form submitted.
After submitting a visa application for one week, the passport collection can also take an applicant about two good hours.
Again, at the US Embassy, visa applicants are made to stand almost 500 meters away from the embassy premises because they would not be allowed to stand or wait anywhere around the embassy.
Furthermore, all visa fees have been increased dramatically. The visa fee, once known as visa application fee, has now been renamed visa processing fee.
With the huge amount charged, one wonders what amount of ink and paper is used for this activity that warrants such a fee.
With the visa application fee, there was a specific amount that applicants paid and once their visa was approved, they were made to pay a visa processing fee.
Now applicants are supposed to pay upfront, a visa processing fee that includes both the application and processing fees.
In the event of a visa refusal, applicants’ money is not refunded. Applications vary between six months, 1 to 2 years, 3, 4 and 5 years depending on what legitimate business applicants are desirous to undertake.
There are unconfirmed reports that when people are refused visa, the embassies ask them to reapply and this is generating more revenue for the embassies.
The embassies send these monies to their respective countries who in turn give them back to Ghana in the form of aid.
Mr Kapito said the government must immediately correct this anomaly and robbery at the diplomatic level, stressing that “we think our fellow Ghanaians are getting a raw deal from these embassies and we want the right thing to be done.”
By Samuel Boadi & Felix Dela Klutse
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Okyehene Causes Top NDC Official’s Arrest…For Threatening Mayhem

                                                                                                                               
Barely 24 hours after some executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Abuakwa South Constituency, led by the Constituency Secretary, Shakespeare Ofori-Atta, chased out the newly appointed NHIS Manager and locked up the office, the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panyin, has caused a citizen’s arrest.

The Okyehene is said to have summoned the NDC Constituency Secretary to Ofori Panyinfie (the palace), and after rebuking him, handed him over to the Koforidua police.

Shakespeare Ofori-Atta, together with some other executives of the NDC in the constituency, in an interview on Peacefm’s “Kokrokoo”, threatened to visit violence, fire and brimstone on the newly assigned NHIS Manager to the area, Mr. Daniel Adjei Danjuma, should he dare enter his office to perform any duties.

According to him, they have "labored enough to bring the NDC to power and will not allow anyone to reap where they have not sown." “Besides,” he said, “since it is a political position the party has equally good qualified members who can perform the task of an NHIS Manager.
But perhaps what might have prompted the Okyehene into taking action was the statement by the NDC Constituency Secretary that until they get what they want; the office will not be opened and his threats that other NDC colleagues would burn the office down even if he (Ofori-Atta) was arrested by the police.
In an interview on PeaceFM News@Mid-day, Nana Nyarko, linguist of the Okyehene, confirmed the arrest of Mr. Ofori Atta and stressed that “the (NHIS) office is for the whole nation and not for NDC or NPP. Therefore no one can get up out of his own volition to close down a state property, even if he is a Goliath…,” he said.
According to him, the Okyehene is not going to turn deaf ears to some of these issues, adding that “the youth are trying to put the law into their own hands which is not good...We’re waiting for those who are going to burn down the office in 15 minutes,” he added.
In a related development, Mohammed Abass, a Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has blamed the actions by the irate NDC youth seizing state property on spillover of “dissatisfaction”.
Speaking to PeaceFM News, Mr. Abass said “most often when politicians are desirous of power they give all sorts of promises and members get hooked onto the promises and holds them accountable to it. But if we tell our followers the truth, incidents like this will not happen,” he surmised.
Source: Rebecca Quaye/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Institute of Journalism
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