Beat Up Mills DCE

The Upper Manya Krobo District Chief Executive (DCE), Joseph Tetteh Angmor and the constituency organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ebenezer Kwabitey, were allegedly given the beatings of their lives on Monday when they went to a town in the district to restrain the youth from digging trenches across the main Koforidua-Asesewa road.

The youth, who are said to be mostly sympathizers of the ruling NDC, popularly known as foot-soldiers, decided to teach the DCE and his organizer a bitter lesson, after Mr. Angmor went there to ask them to stop the illegal digging. According to the youth, the digging was to help slow down speeding vehicles plying the road, after a private motorist ran into some school children.

The DCE was seen on Tuesday at Koforidua with a puffed face and blood-shot eyes, which confirmed the attack by the NDC foot-soldiers.

The incident happened around 4pm at Mensah Dawa, a farming community near the district capital, Asesewa.

According to DAILY GUIDE sources, the DCE also suffered the beatings because government had allegedly neglected the town.

The youth of the town said the DCE ‘brought himself at the right time’ because they had persistently asked for speed ramps in the town to slow down speeding vehicles but their request had fallen on deaf ears.

Sources told DAILY GUIDE that when the DCE arrived at the scene around 5:15 pm, he tried to let the youth know that their action was illegal but his intervention incensed them the more.

The angry youth therefore rushed on him and physically attacked him. He was alleged to have been beaten severely until he managed to escape into his car, leaving behind some of the party executives who had accompanied him to the scene.

When the DCE left, the angry youth visited their anger and frustrations on the constituency organizer who was also given serious beatings until a Good Samaritan came to his aid.

The area manager of Plan Ghana in the district, one Mr. Appiah, also became a target of the youth’s anger after he tried to question the rationale behind their action when he got to the scene in his car.

The angry foot-soldiers were said to have beaten the man mercilessly, leading to the loss of one of his teeth.

The Plan Ghana man is said to be on admission at a hospital.

When the DCE was contacted on phone yesterday, he told DAILY GUIDE that it was not true that he was attacked.

“I heard of the incident and the illegal action of the youth so I went there around 5:15 pm to talk to them and ask them to stop the illegal digging of the trenches across the road but the youth looked very incensed and aggressive so I quickly left the place to avoid any problem,” the DCE said.

He however confirmed that he left behind the constituency organizer who was assaulted by the youth.

He told DAILY GUIDE that the situation was terrible and the youth were uncontrollable so he reported the incident to the police who, according to him, had arrested one person in connection with the incident.
The DCE attended the national best teachers’ awards on Tuesday at Koforidua with a swollen face and red-shot eyes.

He was seen sitting quietly among the dignitaries and after the ceremony, friends sympathised with him for the ordeal he suffered at the hands of the angry youth.

At the residence of the regional minister, where a reception was held for the award winners and invited guests, he was also heard explaining his ordeal on phone to a friend.

The Upper Manya Krobo area is a known stronghold of the ruling NDC and the youth there are said to be very disappointed with how the government is handling development issues there.

From Thomas Fosu Jnr., Koforidua

Kwesi Pratt Jnr : NPP “Stole” State Bungalows And Lands

The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., says as a result of the wanton “thievery” and “pillage” of state bungalows and lands by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), the current NDC administration is being forced to spend huge sums of monies on provision of accommodation for public and civil servants.

He accused NPP bigwigs of “stealing” state lands under the pretext of having bought them, and yet whine and carp that the ruling government is spending too much money on public and civil servants’ accommodation.

Contribution to a panel discussion on Radio Gold’s ‘Alhaji and Alhaji’ program, the radical social commentator pointed out that the laws of Ghana gives the original land owners the right or first option to buy back any landed property, if the government, for any reason expresses disinterest in the lands again, but the NPP simply ignored the land owners completely during all of the transactions.

The National Security Coordinator, Col. Anthony Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), who spoke on the same platform in an earlier interview, said his outfit is ready to ensure that state properties are properly safeguarded in the supreme interest of the people of Ghana.

Col. Gbevlo-Lartey was emphatic that all state lands which have found their way into private hands without legal basis and authorization, would be retrieved and put into proper use for the benefit of the whole nation.

It would be recalled that in the early part of September this year, a three-member Technical Committee set up to probe into the Re-development of Government Residential Properties in Accra during the previous administration, presented its final report to the National Security Coordinator. According to the report, the due processes under which state properties were sold to individuals and government officials were not followed and described it as illegal.

The three-member committee, comprising Mr. Richard Dornu Nartey, Dr. Lennox Kwame Agbosu and Mr. John Opoku, tasked the government to terminate the processing of the documents to the individuals and former government officials who bought the properties.

According to the committee, Cabinet should review the lease agreement of each of the sixty-seven allottees, to incorporate cabinet decision that frowns on the transfer of interest in grants made by the government to third parties.

The committee further recommended the immediate termination of the demolition of government bungalows, and the development of all the affected allocations, under what they called phase 2 of the Redevelopment Scheme, protocol, and in-filling allocations.

In addition, the committee called for the immediate withdrawal and termination of the processing of all leases, transfers, conveyances and instruments executed by the Lands Commission in favour of persons allocated the lands.
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