Ghanaians Are Dying

Posted: Wednesday, December 15, 2010. Daily Guide
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) doubts whether existing conditions in the country supports President Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s promise of a ‘Better Ghana’, two years after they assumed the reins of government.

AFAG believes the NDC government has failed to fulfill several promises it made to Ghanaians which influenced them to vote for the party during the 2008 general elections.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, chaired by the former Member of Parliament for Lower West Akyem, James Apeatu Ankrah, spokesman for the group Steve Amoah aka Sticker challenged government to show a sense of commitment towards achieving those promises since Ghanaians were reeling under the shadows of economic hardship.

He recalled how President Mills and the NDC promised to neither increase nor introduce new taxes.

However, when the party assumed the reins of governance and in its 2011 budget statement, the government introduced a number of these taxes, AFAG said.

This, according to AFAG, “Clearly demonstrates to the nation, the heartless and wicked nature of the NDC government.”

AFAG believes that “the NDC government has reneged on its promises to deliver the so called Better Ghana Agenda”, insisting that “the NDC has worsened the quality of life of the average Ghanaian.”

Whilst noting that it was not against tax adjustment, AFAG said increases in taxes should be done in a way that would not increase the hardship of Ghanaians but boost private business growth and make them competitive.

Under the current economic conditions and business climate, they believed tax increases could hardly be a positive job creation strategy.

“Indeed, the wide range of taxes and tax increases levied on the private sector appears to be deliberate,” said Steve Amoah.

This, he said, was because the Head of Policy and Monitoring at the seat of Government (the Castle), Dr Tony Aidoo, recently described the private sector as a parasitic sector that deserved to be taxed for development.

AFAG stated, “This demonstrates that the NDC is not committed to the private sector”, adding, “It is important that the government recognizes that the market women, taxi and trotro drivers, shoeshine boys, cocoa and other farmers, carpenters, chop bar owners, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs, etc. are at the heart of the private sector.”

“Undoubtedly, the government is taxing the private sector to death. This would kill the entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector and bring the sector to its knees. It seems the government does not care. It has lost touch with reality as it continues on this tax epidemic,” it said.

The group stated that “tax stamps for the informal sector including Makola women, kiosks owners, Kejetia market women would make the poor Ghanaian poorer.”

Steve Amoah noted that the 300% increase in debt recovery levy had given rise to controversy as to whether the President was still committed to reducing fuel drastically, with the fear that this would have resultant increase in the price of petroleum products which the President promised to reduce drastically.

It could also not fathom why a whopping 20% tax had been placed on plastic products, which is targeted at companies using plastics such as those in the food, drinks, pharmaceutical and sachet water industries.

They noted that these areas of the economy, particularly the sachet water bus sector, employed mostly the ordinary Ghanaian, stressing that it was unacceptable and a clear aberration from the NDC’s mantra of not introducing new taxes.

AFAG has asked government to come out with a strategic solution to the challenges associated with the plastic or rubber waste management which could help employ more people in the society.

The leadership of AFAG could also not comprehend why talk tax had now been extended to all data and internet service companies since it would make internet browsing more expensive.

Steve Amoah said, “It is disingenuous or absurd for any government to claim that this policy would create jobs,” since “This tax would make internet browsing more expensive at a time the industry is struggling to survive.”

He said, “The internet service providers (ISPs) are finding it difficult to stay afloat and the last thing they need is another tax”, asking rhetorically, “Is the President Mills NDC government really aware of what is happening to the ISPs.”

“These taxation policies of this government are clearly dysfunctional to the aggregate performance of the private sector which plays key roles in economic growth and job creation in Ghana,” it stated.

Cocaine Barons Use VVIP Lounge

Published: Thursday, December 16, 2010. Daily Guide
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
While President J.E.A Mills was publicly submitting to a body search at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) shortly after assuming office, to signify his battle readiness for drug war, behind the scenes, he was bemoaning corruption within his own ranks and feared his appointees were seriously involved in Ghana’s burgeoning drug trade, new Wikileaks documents have revealed.

On Tuesday, the influential London Guardian newspaper published on its website cables from Wikileaks about the illicit cocaine trade in the country, especially at the Kotoka International Airport, stating that President Mills suspected some of his men might have become involved in the drugs trade and therefore wanted them searched ‘under cover’ outside the prying eye of the public.

The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, reportedly told the Americans that certain pastors, bank managers and their wives also used the VVIP lounge despite suspicions that they were trafficking drugs.

Mr. Sarpong, former National Democratic Congress (NDC) propaganda secretary, could not deny the leaks except to say that the publication was a “combination of truths, half truths and people’s own personal perceptions.”
He has threatened to no longer share intelligence with Western partners over drug trafficking between the two regions.

Mr. Sarpong wondered how confidential discussions he had with some US embassy officers over the worsening narcotics problem in Ghana, as well as leaked discussions between Ghana’s President and the Assistant Secretary to US President Barack Obama, would leak.

President Atta Mills had told Johnnie Carson in 2009 that he feared ‘a bleak future for the Ghanaian people’ since “Ghana is struggling with drug trafficking and increased drug use”, adding that traditionally, God-fearing Ghana was "becoming a user country."

Mr. Sarpong is also quoted to have asked "how $700,000 mansions could be built in the poor region adjacent to the main Ghana-Togo border crossing” and “how a single Nigerian woman could buy large parcels of beachfront property but that no one questions the source of her funds.”

In a US Embassy cable dated November 9, 2009, President John Atta Mills is quoted as telling the United States authorities he wanted equipment installed in the presidential lounge of the airport to screen his entourage for drugs when leaving the country.

“Mills wants these officials to be checked in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs,” the cables, released on December 14, 2009, read.

One of the leaked confidential document was dated Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 09:04, titled, CONFIDENTIAL ACCRA; SUBJECT: GHANAIAN CONCERN OVER DRUG SMUGGLING BY VIP PASSENGERS Classified By: Ambassador Donald Teitelbaum.

A British operation to stem the flow of cocaine through Ghana had been beset by corruption, with local drug police sabotaging expensive scanning equipment and tipping off smugglers to avoid detection, the leaked US Embassy cables revealed.

In June 2009, President Mills told the US Ambassador to Ghana, Donald Teitelbaum, "elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there."

Officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) working together with British officials were noted to have actively helped traffickers, even telling them the best time to travel to avoid detection.

In some cases, they were said to have channelled passengers, including pastors and bank managers and their wives into the security-exempt VVIP lounge despite suspicions they were trafficking drugs.

For this reason, smuggling was touted to have become so blatant that on one flight last year, two traffickers vomited drugs they had swallowed and subsequently died. Parcels of cocaine were also found taped under the seats of another KLM plane even before boarding.

US Embassy contacts in the Police Service and the president's office "have said they know the identities of the major barons," but "the government of Ghana does not have the political will to go after them,” a December 2007 cable said.

The cables said Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board believes the VVIP lounge at the airport had been a source of drugs leaving the country, while Ghana was increasingly becoming a hot area of concern in the fight against illicit international drug trade.

President Mills is said to have expressed interest in acquiring ‘itemizers’ [portable screening devices] for the Presidential suite at the airport in order to screen his entourage for drugs before boarding any departing flight.

This was when he had discussions with Roland O’ Hagan, the Project Manager of Operation Westbridge, a one million-pound sterling British-Ghana government initiative which was intended to clamp down on the use of Ghana as a drug trafficking point.

As narrated by O'Hagan, President Mills wanted these officials to be checked in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they were caught carrying drugs.

The itemizers, similar to those provided several years ago by the US Embassy through INL funding, are supposed to be sensitive, portable screening devices that can detect the drug content in droplets of human sweat, after recent external contact or for up to three weeks after ingestion.

All the four itemizers provided to the Government of Ghana to detect drug smugglers among airline passengers are now non-functioning.

O'Hagan believed that the itemizers at the airport were deliberately kept in a dusty, un-air-conditioned room that caused them to break down frequently.

He believed the machines were sabotaged because they were in a storage room, and the filters were removed since the knowledge required to remove the filters exceeded the basic knowledge of the operators.

The report also captured the Executive Secretary, Mr. Sarpong, also making an open admission on October 5, 2009 that though he was a staunch supporter of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), party politics had no place at the NACOB.

That notwithstanding, he indicated that traffickers were using the VVIP lounge of the KIA to avoid searches.

Passengers leaving the lounge, according to the reports, were driven directly to the plane and were not searched before departure.

While President Mills had been outspoken in his determination to combat drug trafficking, Sarpong said that the NDC government had failed so far to provide NACOB with adequate resources, and stressed that low salaries made law enforcement personnel highly vulnerable to drug traffickers.

He claimed to track all drug dealers, regardless of their political affiliation, yet simultaneously made disparaging categorical remarks about drug connections in the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

The United Nations estimates that up to 60 tonnes of cocaine are smuggled through West Africa, mainly to Europe, each year.

The previous Kufuor administration was also indicted for its lack of strenuous action against drug trafficking through Ghana.

As far back as October 2007, the document indicated that there were high concerns about the increasing drug trafficking through Ghana, charging the government as being “largely clueless as to how to combat it.”

“All sources agreed that if the present trend continues, Ghana would likely see a corresponding rise in crime and drug abuse present in most transit countries,” it noted.

O'Hagan said that he believed the airlines might be willing to pay for the itemizers to be repaired, and specifically mentioned KLM and Delta. In recent times, the drug couriers have allegedly been arrested in connection with the two carriers.

He noted that the cost of maintenance on the itemizers was less than the cost of diverting flights on which passengers suffered drug overdoses.

Within the last few months, said O'Hagan, KLM had diverted to Spain two flights from Accra to Amsterdam because passengers started vomiting drugs. In both cases, the passenger died.

The statistics from Operation Westbridge are quite striking. The ages of arrested persons ranged from 16 to 55 and hailed from Ghana, Nigeria, Romania, the Netherlands, the UK and New Zealand.

Many carriers swallowed pellets and one Ghanaian died in July when a pellet burst.

Others have attempted to conceal narcotics in herbal tea, pictures, hair gel, or suitcases.

Perhaps most disturbing was when Westbridge officials found, before passengers boarded the plane, 1.8 kg of cocaine taped under passenger seats on a KLM flight.

Seizures seem to occur daily when the Westbridge team was present. In total, since November 2006, the operation has seized 350 kg of cocaine, nearly 2,200 kg of cannabis, and 1.3 kg of heroin with a total street value of over $120,000.

Expert Fears For Ghana’s Oil

Posted: Daily Guide |dailyguideghana.com
hursday, 14 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Even before Ghana pours its first oil, many people have warned the country’s managers to avoid the Nigerian and Chadian experience since these countries have struggled for several years to overcome the various challenges in the oil and gas industry.

Tax Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEB), Dr Joe Amoako-Tuffuor has called for prudent management of revenue that would accrue from the oil industry.

Speaking in an interview with DAILY GUIDE after a roundtable discussion put together by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on the theme, ‘How Ghana plans to manage its petroleum revenues:

A step towards transparency, accountability and governance standards,” he urged the leadership of the nation to be cautious about the way they handle the oil resources and other issues.

“We have to be very cautious; we have to seek national consensus in every decision that we make because this is a collective asset,” he warned.

He stressed the need for revenue that would be generated from the oil proceeds to be invested into productive investments.

Dr Amoako-Tuffuor also talked about the Ecuador experience where they wanted to share the oil revenue among the citizenry depending on their abilities, noting, “They earmarked so much that the Ministry of Finance had nothing else to manage the economy.”

“If you rush… the oil will settle the economy, and before you know it agricultural will collapse and food will be a problem.

Nigeria used to produce cocoa, groundnut and even before they knew it, nobody was not growing cocoa anymore,” he noted, emphasizing that “Nigerian became a net food importer because oil money can be easy to get… so why do you want to go and grow cocoa?”

He warned the managers of the Ghanaian economy against over-dependence on oil as the main source of revenue for the country.

Dr Amoako-Tuffuor said Ghana should therefore learn lessons from countries such as Norway and Trinidad and Tobago which have managed to use oil and gas as a basis for development and good planning, disclosing that Botswana, which was so poor, has managed to use its diamond to break themselves to become a middle-income country.

He also talked about how Norway had successful used the oil revenue to transform its economy, adding, “What I like about Norway is their sense of prudence and caution.

They’ve been very methodical in planning and in the way they have managed their resources; even the way they have managed their national oil company is exceptional.”

He said, “All politicians in Norway have come to understand that when it comes to oil money the rules are very clear, everyone must follow the rules. You don’t have to debate it anymore.”

For this reason, he stressed the need to build consensus in Ghana to manage revenue that would be generated from the country’s oil.

“It is not up to politicians alone to decide, the whole society must build consensus and put down the framework along which everyone would walk,” he said.

Obed Roots For Konadu

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Thursday, 14 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Dr Obed Asamoah
Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, former chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who was compelled by very bitter circumstances to leave the party, has ridiculed the credentials of President Atta Mills, with regard to leading the NDC for a second term.

He believed the law professor, who is also the sitting President, had contributed very little or virtually nothing to the development of the NDC as a party and therefore did not come anywhere near the achievements of former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, who from all indications, was ready to snatch the position from Mills when the party goes to congress.

Dr Asamoah, who was the Attorney General in the Rawlings regime, believed that the former First Lady was more qualified to lead the NDC as its flagbearer than Mills.

He made the analysis when he spoke on Adom FM’s ‘Adwaso Nsem’ morning show yesterday, indicating that Mrs. Rawlings’ role in the country’s politics and the development of the NDC remained unquestionable since she had been crucial to the sustenance of the party up till date.

The veteran politician, who left the NDC to form his own Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), however declined to make any categorical statement on whether or not the former first lady would defeat the sitting president when the party goes to congress to elect a flagbearer next year.

This, he said, was because Nana Konadu had not formally made clear her intentions to run for the position, except for speculations in the media.

On the controversial issue of whether or not Rawlings was the founder of the NDC as some elements in the NDC had sought to portray him, Dr Asamoah, who played a crucial role in the formation of the party, said, “At the time the NDC was formed, Rawlings was still in the army and under the constitution he could not have been the founder of the party.”

He noted with emphasis: “He was not the founder of the party. In fact, his name being linked with the founding of the party did not arise until later, after his term of office was coming to an end and we felt that [look] let’s find a role for him after he left office…”

For this reason, he insisted that “he Rawlings cannot claim to be a founder as per the political party’s law”.

Contrary to this fact, he said the constitution of the NDC was amended to indicate that the party was founded on the ideals of former President Rawlings, adding that “it was founded to promote his ideals. But he was not a founding member in the sense of the political party’s law.”

That notwithstanding, he said Mr. Rawlings and other elements in the PDNC were not in favour of the formation of a political party, noting that “but people like myself felt that we should form a party…NDC was formed largely through the ideas of some of us.

The question arose as to whether we should just leave the scene and allow political parties to be formed or whether, in fact, there was something in the revolution itself which needed to be preserved.”

According to him, there was therefore a justification for setting up the party to promote some of those ideals of the revolution which he said became a matter of disagreement among members of the government of the day.

“I was virtually in charge of the party even though there were officials occupying various positions,” he noted, stressing that the relationship between him and Rawlings turned sour when the former president did not like the idea of another person contesting Mills for the presidential slot, as he (Obed) chose to support Dr. Kwesi Botchway.

He stressed that he supported Mills’ candidature when the man was chosen as the running mate to Rawlings in 1995 and therefore had no problem with him.

He said his tenure as the chairman of the NDC was difficult because he was constantly under attack by opponents.

“People who did not want to see me as the chairman of the party were doing anything to undermine my authority.”

Diplomats Visit Mayhem On Ghanaians

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Saturday, 09 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE CASE of 39 year old construction supervisor, Pierce Tay in which he was verbally and physically abused and assaulted by a project manager of the World Food Programme (WFP) under the United Nations Humanitarian Depot (UNHRD), Jimmy Green may be one of several which go unheard in the workings of the diplomatic community.

It also raises questions over how some foreign diplomats take undue advantage of their ‘diplomatic immunity’ to perpetrate all sorts of inhumane things against their Ghanaian hosts.

Somewhere last year, specifically April 28, 2009, Green who used to work under the WFP Depot Manager in Ghana, Martin Walsh was said to have made very despicable and racial comments against Pierce who was then supervising the construction of a UNHRD depot at the project site near the Kotaka International Airport in Accra referring to him as a “black monkey.”

It did not end there; he was also alleged to have used words such as stupid and idiot on his victim and eventually said “even animals are better than you” and proceeded to physically attack him.
Obviously offended by the use of such disparaging words on him, Pierce lodged a complaint with the Airport police who issued him with a hospital form to go for treatment.

Subsequently the police arrested Green and questioned him about the issue which he denied in his caution statement.

The police thus granted him bail with the WFP Depot Manager, Martin Walsh standing as the surety and Green being asked to report to the police periodically.

On several occasions, Green failed to honour his commitment to report to the police and when the police managed to reach Walsh (the surety) for him to produce the suspect, he had the guts to tell the police he was not answerable to them but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and thus asked the police to contact the Ministry if they needed him for any reason.

These were all contained in a police report filed by the Airport District Police Commander, Superintendent A. Ofosu Ackah dated July 8, 2009.

Later, a hospital report from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and signed by one Dr Daniel Lamptey on February 26, 2010 indicated that Pierce was first seen at the accident and trauma centre of the hospital on March 24, 2009 “with a history of inability to walk, abrasions and swelling on both knees as a result of an assault by a fellow worker.”

The injuries he sustained included abrasions on both knees, swelling at both knees and what the doctor said was a slight shift of the left knee cap.

It was later learnt that Walsh had managed to arrange for Green to sneak out of the country to Ireland in order not face prosecution since indications were that he was not covered by ‘diplomatic immunity’.

A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Progressive Nationalists Forum (PNF) which has Richard Kwesi Nyamah as its spokesman took the issue up and wrote two separate letters to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni for him to take action in the case but has since not heard from his office.

It later wrote to the WFP head office in Rome, Italy who promised to investigate the issue but has since not heard from them three months down the line.

Meanwhile, the PNF says it has received a complaint to the effect that Mr. Walsh had illegally connected electricity to his residence.

It thus managed to secure a copy of a debtor’s ledger on Walsh’s electricity meter from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) which confirmed the report.

For this reason, a Ghanaian house help at Walsh’s residence was sacked on suspicion that she might have leaked the information about the illegal connection.

PNF thus reported the issue of the lady’s involvement to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) since it thought it was an abuse of her fundamental rights considering the fact that she was only paid a month’s salary when she was sacked but CHRAJ indicated that they could not handle the case due to Walsh’s diplomatic immunity.

The Labour Commission also said same when PNF petitioned it to take action on the lady’s plight.

Meanwhile, the poor and innocent lady who was sacked by Walsh and his wife for supposedly leaking information about the illegal connection is struggling to cater for her daughter who attends one of the universities in the country.

She thus wants the authorities to take up the issue to enable her take care of her daughter.

NPP Warns NDC

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Thursday, 07 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has criticised the upsurge in the use of foul language by some members of the Mills administration.

It wondered why senior government officials and functionaries of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had developed a penchant for insulting political opponents and people they disagreed with.

A statement issued and signed by Communications Director of the party said it had observed that the NDC government had adopted a culture of insults and indecent language in public discourse, describing this culture as primitive and completely unhelpful.

Deputy Minister of Health Rojo Mettle-Nunoo is reported to have described the action of striking nurses and midwives at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi as a “complete nonsense” since according to him “they have not even written their residential exams to become nurses and midwives, they are interns so if they think their allowance is not enough, they should fight for that instead.”

“…It is different if you are working with someone and he decides to top up your allowance…It is nonsense for them to go to the Labour Commission because they are not (officially) employed and they do not have appointment letters,” he added.

The NPP said it found some of the remarks from government functionaries as reprehensible because “it pollutes the environment for national debate and hurts the country’s image internationally.”

It would be recalled that Dr. Tony Aidoo, director of research and monitoring at the Office of the President, recently described Christians who spoke in tongues as “mad people.” Speaking in tongues is a spiritual (Christian) way of communicating with God. It is referred to by scholars as glossolalia.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mettle-Nunoo has since said he was not aware that his comments were live on the airwaves of the Kumasi-based radio station.

“The phone dropped, I thought the line had cut so I was talking to some people in my office and I think I must have been heard on air. I was not in the specific context of the interview talking to them in that kind of language. I was extremely frustrated,” he told Citi FM yesterday.

The NPP wants government to spell out their strategies for improving the lives of Ghanaians in order to engage them on those strategies and offer alternatives since it believes that is the least political leadership can do for the country.

It has thus asked government to focus on how to solve the several challenges facing the country instead of engaging in trivialities because the livelihoods of ordinary people were being destroyed by the unavailability of basic amenities including LP Gas whilst parents are anxious about the re-opening of school for SHS students.

“There is discontent on the labour front. Businesses (of both formal and informal sectors) are suffering because purchasing power and consumption have dropped. The list is endless,” the NPP said.

With all these problems at stake, the statement said, “What Ghanaians are expecting from government are clear policies and measures to address the rising cost of living and worsening living conditions in the country.”

Instead, it said, the NDC misled itself when it imagined that by insulting its political opponents, the electorate would think better of them and think less of those political opponents. It added that “Ghana needs contest of ideas between government and those who seek to govern; not insults.”

The party’s Communications Director stated that they would not be dragged into this unproductive culture of insults but would also not relent in their efforts to keep government on its toes, stating “we will continue to criticise government when necessary and to appeal to Ghanaians for the opportunity to govern and improve our previous and better performance (compared to what is happening now).”

They have thus asked members of the Mills administration to govern with a high sense of decorum and not insults.

Mills Boys Attack Nana

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Wednesday, 06 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A group of National Democratic Congress (NDC) serial callers who identify themselves as the Media Analyst Group (MAG) met a stiff opposition from a journalist when they attempted to wage what some people have described as a ‘dirty propagandist war’ against the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo.

This was when the MAG, which has Accra-based legal practitioner Chris Ackummey as one of its leaders, organized a press conference at Kwesi Pratt’s Freedom Centre in Accra yesterday to outline a host of reasons they thought Nana Addo was not fit to be President of ‘Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana’.

Their emphasis was what they admitted in a statement read by Peter Ahmed Quarshie to be ‘speculations and supposed text messages’, which were sent to people by some faceless individuals and group of persons during the 2008 electioneering campaign.

Some of the messages alleged, among other things, that Nana Addo was addicted to alcohol and some illegal substances.

The group blamed Nana Addo for his supposed inability to exercise control and proper upbringing of one of his four daughters, Mary Fummy Gyankroma Akufo-Addo who was reported to have run her car into that of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Paa Amissah-Arthur last August and was subsequently charged for drunk driving.

They therefore asked, “If Nana Akufo-Addo has four daughters and if he cannot manage the upbringing of only four daughters, how on earth can we entrust the destiny of Ghana’s youth into his hands?”

But minutes after they finished addressing the press, Managing editor of the Bilingual Free Press newspaper, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Marzuk sought to know the essence of the press conference since he did not see it as something worth considering for an intellectual discourse.

The journalist did not understand why MAG said Nana Addo was not fit to rule the country, especially when most of the reasons they gave for their position was based on the actions of his 31-year-old daughter, a person old enough to take responsibility for her actions and inactions.

“I was expecting you to do a responsible analysis, out of which you will tell us that Akufo-Addo personally is proven to be a drunkard or proven to be a man of immorality. You have counted all the allegations,” he said.

As a group that claims to be media analysts, the Alhaji Marzuk said, “Contrary to your sense of analysis, you have just laid a very obvious contradiction.”

This, he said, was evident in the claim by MAG that a beach party was organized by Nana Addo at the La Pleasure Beach, where they alleged young men and women got drunk, smoked marijuana, sniffed cocaine, and had indiscriminate and unprotected sex, and the place was littered with condoms, “meaning there were still instances of protected sex.”

He asked, “How do you reconcile the two?” saying, “At anytime at all you come to raise these critical issues, the analysis must be responsible, must be critical, must be positive and must be concrete.”
The leadership of MAG did not challenge the editor’s criticisms of its analysis.

Meanwhile, aide to Nana Akufo-Addo Herbert Krapa, says what the NDC and MAG were doing confirmed their level of frustration in the Mills’s administration and the fact that they lacked ideas to manage the country to achieve the aspirations of the people.

This, according to him, was the reason they had resorted to such vile attacks on the personality of Nana Addo and those around him.

“If they think that they can be in office and fool the people with dirty politics, then they should know that they have more to lose than the NPP.”

“Our lawyers are looking at the document and what action has to be taken will be taken,” he said, adding, “but If the NDC feels that they are going to be re-elected by re-enacting a campaign of lies, insults and vilification, then the Good Lord and the majority of Ghanaians will show them the answer on election day.”

Mr Krapa said Nana Addo’s credentials in the various positions he had occupied in private and public service spoke volumes and that it would not be for the NDC or any of its groupings to tell whether he was fit to be President or not since Ghanaians would be the better judges in 2012.

According to him, Nana Addo was always guided by the three things that determined who could become President of Ghana or not, that is the “God Almighty, the Constitution of Ghana and the majority of the Ghanaian people.”

Mpiani takes a swipe at government

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Tuesday, 05 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The former Chief of Staff under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani has described the renaming of the Jubilee house to Flagstaff house as “very funny”.

The Flagstaff House, which once housed Ghana’s first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was rebuilt into a Presidential Palace and renamed Jubilee House by ex-president John Kufuor when the country celebrated its 50th independence anniversary in 2007.

Although it has not been officially confirmed, indications are that the Jubilee House built by former President Kufuor would be restored to its original name, the Flag Staff House. A metallic inscription to that effect has been embossed on the wall of the Presidential edifice.

Speaking to Citi Eyewitness News on Monday, October 4, Mr Mpiani said the name Flag Staff is not part Ghana’s history since that name was bestowed on the residence by the Americans. Mr Kwadjo Mpiani took a swipe at the Atta Mills-led government for what he sees as an attempt to obliterate the legacies of ex President Kufuor.

“How did we get Flagstaff House, who named it Flagstaff house, I hope you know the history of Flagstaff house, it is not part of our tradition or anything, it was named by the Americans during the war when they had their offices there. It wasn’t anything named by Ghana or Nkrumah or by any Ghanaian”.

“Nkrumah’s old residence is still there, the president took the decision that we should preserve it as part of the whole complex so that it could be sort of a tourist attraction so people can even go there and look at where the first President even lived…you know there is something funny going on in this country, we sit there and we hear assemblies renaming, facilities renaming because these facilities were named in Kufuor’s administration and we all sit there as if nothing is happening…I mean this thing is funny”

Asked whether there was any legislative instrument during the renaming of Flag Staff house to Jubilee House during the Kufuor administration, Mr Mpiani said he is unaware whether such legislative procedures were followed.

“I am not aware of that, I don’t know of any such legislative instrument”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Kobby Acheampong, says the name Jubilee house was unnecessary because there was no legislative instrument to that effect.

According to him since the renaming of the Flag Staff House to Jubilee House under the Kufuor administration was done by the word of mouth, the name Flag Staff still holds.

“The fact of the matter is this the flagstaff house was the original name and when the new Presidential complex was built the name was supposedly changed to Jubilee house, go into our records, there is no legislative instrument that allows that to be made. It was done by word of mouth and as long as it was done by word of mouth the name flagstaff house still remains”.

Arrest NDC Anita

- NPP gurus charge police
Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Saturday, 02 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Three key and influential members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie aka Sir John and Frances Assiam, have asked the police to arrest and prosecute the National Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Anita De Sooso who ran her vehicle into some youth of Abomosu, during the recent Atiwa bye-election.

They cannot fathom why the police have still not arrested Anita, after her vehicle ran through a mob at Abomosu, some of whom are still nursing various degrees of injuries.

“The evidence is there for all to see. Instead of this woman being hauled before the police to help in investigations, they are now calling on other people who are alleged to have… you know reported on that incident,” was how Mr. Owusu-Afriyie, a lawyer, put it.

Sir John made this remark when he and his two other colleagues honoured an invitation extended to them by the police over the issue.

National Chairman of the ruling NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, on the other hand failed to honour a similar invitation extended to him by the police for his infamous comments of ‘several ways of killing a cat’, following a complaint lodged by pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), in which they called for his arrest.

However, Attorney General and Minister of Justice Betty Mould Iddrisu, to whom the docket of the case was referred, has ordered the police to discontinue the case against Dr. Adjei.

The invitation of the three NPP gurus to the CID headquarters follows a complaint filed with the police by NDC serial callers group Media Analyst Group (MAG), which is led by lawyer Chris Akummey. The group filed the complaint against the 3 persons for supposedly making statements to the effect that two or more people died on the day of the recent Atiwa bye-election which allegedly later proved to be false.

They therefore asked the police to investigate the three NPP chieftains for making those comments.

At about 10:50am, the trio arrived at the CID headquarters in the company of some party functionaries and their lawyers.

Though they were asked to come in to take their seats, Jake and his colleagues said they preferred to hang around for sometime until 11am, the time they were asked to report.

They were ushered into the office of the Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dogbeda to assist the police in their investigations into a complaint by the NDC group.

The meeting was held behind closed doors.

But the accounts of the trio indicated that the meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere since, according to Superintendent Kwesi Ofori, head of Public Affairs of the Police Service, the NPP gurus gave them the needed co-operation.

The police have thus resolved to invite them when the need arose whilst the trio also indicated their preparedness to honour any such invitation at any point in time.

According to General Secretary Owusu-Afiriyie, they were interrogated on the said comments but denied ever accusing the NDC of killing anybody.

Meanwhile, Anita’s victims, including an 18-year-old student of the Koforidua Senior High School, Isaac Agyemang-Duah, 40-year-old Ebenezer Adomako aka Kwasi Willie, a farmer, 38-year-old George Abu, also a farmer and 20-year-old Seth Ampofo and their relatives, have still not come to terms with the issue and the spin being put on it.

Gbevlo Lartey Strikes At KIA

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Monday, 04 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE ACTING National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd) has finally succeeded in carrying out his intentions of terminating the contract of some private security companies providing security services at the Kotaka International Airport (KIA).

This follows a decision by the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) to terminate the contracts of two private security companies that had been operating at the airport for the past 3 years, without reason.

Somewhere in February 2009, Gbevlo Lartey issued a directive asking the various state institutions operating at the airport not to renew contracts they had with the various security companies operating there.

Though these companies had managed to maintain sanity at Ghana’s main entry point which was once bedeviled with serious thefts, the National Security Coordinator exerted pressure on GACL to terminate the contracts of the companies without reason.

He is thus believed to have influenced the decision to terminate the contract of the two companies since he was said to have forced the new Board of the GACL, which is chaired by Deputy Majority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman East, George Kuntu Blankson, to take the decision.

Subsequently, the Board also caused the dismissal of the Managing Director of the GACL, Elizabeth Annor Sackey and her deputy Yaw Kwakwa.

Both were relieved of their appointments without any specific reason since none was stated in their dismissal letters.

This, according to sources, was because they were appointed by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

The duo has since been replaced with Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianko and J. Q Amedior, who are said to have strong links in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), as the new Managing Director and Deputy respectively.

Sources close to the GACL said part of the reasons Mr. Kwakwa in particular was booted out was because he insisted on the strict adherence to tender processes as stated in the country’s Procurement Law and for the contract to be awarded to any security company that met the standards set for the job in spite of its political affiliation.

He was said to have made this suggestion at a time when the authorities including Mr. Gbevlo Lartey and the GACL Board were said to be making frantic efforts to circumvent laid-down rules in favour of their preferred choice of company, Sohin Security, a company which has virtually no experience in handling security issues at the airport.

But Mrs Fianko says there was nothing wrong with the termination of the contract of the two companies, though it was subject to renewal.

She made the statement when DAILY GUIDE contacted her for her contribution to the story.

“It’s not termination, the contract has ended. There was a tender whoever is…if they are not there then it means they didn’t win the tender,” she said.

Attempts to speak to Mr Gbevlo Lartey proved unsuccessful since his phone was said to be switched off or out of coverage area.

DAILY GUIDE sources at the Ministry of Interior have indeed confirmed that Sohin, which is owned by a strong member of the ruling party, Solomon Adelaquaye, managed to secure an operating license as a recognized private security company only three months ago.

Meanwhile, one of the basic requirements, as stated on the tender document, was for a company to have 6years experience before it would be awarded the contract.

Barely a month ago, a similar move was undertaken by the management of GACL which led to the termination of a contract with advertising company Alliance Media, which was operating advertising concessions at the KIA, because it was said to have been awarded the contract during the NPP regime.

The company has since sued the GACL together with Speedmasters Limited, a new company which has taken over the advertising concessions from the plaintiff.

According to Alliance Media, the GACL had acted in contravention of the Public Procurement Act to the extent that it paved the way for the second defendant, Speedmasters, to be in gross violation of the same Act and the terms of the request for proposal.

The company is therefore praying the court to give an order of mandamus to compel the GACL to award its advertising concession on contract to the plaintiff, for being the best offer and responsible tender.

Now that the contracts of the companies have been terminated, several employees of the affected security companies are expected to be laid off.

This is likely to have a telling effect on an economy that is struggling to be on its feet. The situation has compelled some individuals and group of persons operating at the airport to raise questions about the prudence of the decision.

I Had No Sex With Secretary

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Mubarak
Former Minister for Youth and Sports, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak yesterday made his first appearance at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) probing him, admitting that he introduced his supposed ‘girlfriend’ Edith Zinayela to his former Ministry as his secretary.

Muntaka however denied having any romantic or amorous relationship with the said lady, who was a secretary to Alban Bagbin at the time they travelled to Germany together. He also denied influencing the processes that led to her acquisition of the German visa which enabled her to travel with him.

CHRAJ is investigating him for allegedly “fraudulently acquiring a German visa for his girlfriend, Edith Zinayela, under the pretext that she was an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Ms. Edith is an employee of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana.”

He narrated the circumstances leading to the inclusion of the lady on the trip to Germany together with then acting Director of the National Sports Council (NSC), Charles Aryeh and one Kofi Kukubor, who facilitated the trip on behalf of the sporting kit company, Puma.

At the time he assumed the position, Muntaka said the Ministry was understaffed and so he could not have taken his secretary along on the Germany trip- a trip which was an all-expense one including flight, accommodation, food and others paid for by Puma with the exception of the visa application fee.

According to the embattled former minister, the trip, which was at the behest of Puma, was to explore avenues for the company to sponsor the national sports associations with kits, emphasizing that all the three persons who went with him on the trip went for a purpose.

The former Minister, who is also the sitting Member of Parliament (MP)for Asawase in the Ashanti region, said he followed established precedent and recommended Edith whose competence he could vouch for and therefore recommended her for consideration at a management meeting.

Edith, who was then secretary to the Majority leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, was to serve as their secretary while in Germany.

“It was agreed that if I take my secretary, what it’s going to mean is that my office is going to be closed. So if I take any secretary within the block because we didn’t have enough of them (sic),” he noted.

For this reason, he said, “I just said, okay can that be left with me to deal with and it was agreed at that management meeting. So when I talked to the Chief Director that….can I bring a Secretary from the Majority secretariat (sic).”

An obviously frustrated Muntaka added “and all I did, Mr. Commissioner I know I’m under oath, was to submit the name and the telephone number of this lady. That was all.”

The former Minister said he submitted her name to the Chief Director of the Ministry, stressing that it was the Ministry and not he who applied for Edith’s visa for her since a Deputy Director at the same Ministry, Allen Agbenator was given that responsibility.

He tendered in copies of letters which were sent to the German Embassy to provide the needed assistance to him and members of his delegation for the trip and a copy of letter requesting a visa for Edith as evidence.

Muntaka also denied claims that his supposed ‘girlfriend’ was paid any per diem since no such facility was available.

Instead, he said it was only him and Charles Aryeh who took what he described as ‘abated’ (not full) per diem, indicating that Kofi Kukubor was also not paid anything.

Asked whether it was a standard practice for people who are not staff of the Ministry to be co-opted to travel with the Minister on foreign trips, as in the case of Edith Zinayela who is now at large, Muntaka answered in the affirmative and cited an instance in the year 2007 where a similar thing was done for one Georgina Abankwa, a Marketing and Advertising Manager at the same Ministry.

Muntaka thus tendered in a copy of the request for visa for Georgina Abankwa but the issues that it generated alone made his lawyers, William Kissi Agyebeng, a criminal law lecturer at the University of Ghana, and Kwesi Baffoe Instiful, to withdraw it immediately as evidence.

Hearing has been adjourned to Monday, October 4, 2010.

Konadu House Wahala Deepens

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguide.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The controversy surrounding renovation works carried out on the private residence of the mother in-law of former President Jerry John Rawlings is far from over.

Yesterday, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah appeared before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to answer questions relating to comments he made about the renovation works on former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings’s mother’s house.

He virtually contradicted what his colleague deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng had earlier told the Commission that government indeed did some considerable renovation on the said building located at the Nyaniba Estates in Osu, Accra, to enable Konadu and her family to perch at her mother’s place after fire razed down the Rawlingses’ Ridge residence.

Whilst Mr. Agyenim-Boateng had claimed that government only did some painting works on the house, Dr. Omane-Boamah said there was more to it than the mere painting since “it was not just painting but something extra was also done.”

Though he could not give the details of what exactly went into the renovation works, Omane Boamah, a medical doctor-turned politician, told the Commission that apart from the painting, some security features were also put in place.

But sources close to businessman Herbert Mensah, who claims to have paid for the renovation works at the said house and had receipts to justify how much he expended on it, said he was extremely surprised at the spin that government was trying unsuccessfully to put on the renovation.

The source said Mr. Mensah was prepared to produce the receipts whenever the need arose and therefore challenged government to make any such receipts available to the Commission, if any, to back their claim of having painted the house and fitted it with some security equipment.

In a related development, the pressure group, Ghana Youth Movement (GYM) which petitioned CHRAJ to investigate the case has also asked the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate Herbert Mensah for what they claim to be ‘false misrepresentation’ in the same case for possible prosecution.

A petition presented to the SFO and signed by Nana Prempeh Agyemang, Kwabena Tandoh and Paa Kwasi Boateng said the statement by Mr. Agyenim-Boateng at the previous hearing to the effect that government did some renovation works on the house, contradicted Mr. Mensah’s claim.

GYM said “It will be prudent to investigate his said involvement in this matter and if proven to be false claim, then he should be prosecuted as stated in our criminal code that false misrepresentation is a crime.”

Mr. Mensah however declined to respond to any of these statements when DAILY GUIDE contacted him.

Kufuor Jet Lands

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The much-awaited Presidential jet, Falcon 900EX Easy aircraft whose inauguration was postponed because of a delay in its arrival, has finally touched down at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra.

Sources at KIA told DAILY GUIDE that the aircraft, whose acquisition became the subject of a heated debate between members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration and the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2008, arrived yesterday at exactly 5pm.

This was confirmed by Defence Public Relations (DPR) Director Colonel Akintande Mbawine.

At press time yesterday, the DPR was said to be preparing a statement to the media.

The aircraft is thus expected to be outdoored at what promises to be a colourful ceremony any time soon, after officials of the Armed Forces take delivery of it.

In the absence of President Mills, who is currently in Japan in search of financial assistance, Vice President John Dramani Mahama was expected to perform the inauguration of the jet. But it was cancelled at the last minute when the military authorities were not sure of the arrival of the jet.

The Falcon 900EX Easy Aircraft was purchased by the Kufuor administration to replace the Fokker 27, otherwise referred to as the ‘flying coffin’ that the Ghana Air Force had used for the past 37 years as a presidential jet.

It was scheduled to be outdoored on Thursday, September 23, but had to be postponed because the jet could not arrive in the country as earlier reported.

The acquisition of the jet by the Kufuor administration attracted criticisms from the then opposition NDC who questioned the rationale for the plane at a time when the NDC claimed critical sectors of the economy, such as health and education, were badly in need of funding.

However, when Professor Mills took over the reins of government, the plane was configured to his specifications.

President Kufuor refused to use a Gulf Stream Presidential jet acquired by the Rawlings administration because its transaction was shrouded in mystery. He therefore began the process of acquiring the US$37million Falcon 900 presidential jet and an Airbus for the Ghana Air Force in 2007.

We Painted Konadu Mum’s House - Minister

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
It seems there is some confusion in government or a deliberate attempt not to tell Ghanaians the truth about the renovation works carried out by the Mills administration on the private residence of the mother of former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.

This became evident when a deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng appeared before the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ) to answer questions about the issue which became a matter of public interest, when the Ridge residence of former President Rawlings was razed down by fire on Valentine’s Day, this year.

Mr. Agyenim-Boateng told CHRAJ yesterday that some works including painting were carried out on the private residence of the mother in-law of former President Rawlings at Nyaniba Estates, Osu, Accra.

But government, in a statement to the commission, said no state funds were used for the renovation, raising questions about the credibility of the deputy minister.

Agyenim-Boateng, in reaction to a statement that the former first couple was homeless after the February 14 fire, had said that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government had spent money to renovate the private residence of Mrs. Agyemang to enable Nana Konadu to stay with her.

This statement was greeted with a petition by a pressure group, Ghana Youth Movement (GYM), in which its spokesman, Kwabena Tandoh charged CHRAJ to investigate the use of state funds being used to renovate the said private residence.

The group said it was illegal and unacceptable for government to spend state funds on the private residence of the former First Lady or her mother.

CHRAJ Commissioner Emile Short sought to know the basis of Mr. Agyenim-Boateng’s claim during an interview he granted Joy FM, in which the latter stated that the government had indeed carried out some considerable amount of work on the said building.

CHRAJ had meanwhile received responses from the office of the President and the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing indicating that no state resources were used in the renovation works on the former First Lady’s mother’s private residence at the Nyaniba estates.

But Mr. Agyenim-Boateng contradicted this other official account, insisting that at least some renovation works were carried out on the said residence at government’s expense.

“I have said that at least painting was done. That I still want to stay on the records,” he told CHRAJ.

Herbert Mensah, a businessman and close pal of the former First family, had said that he paid for the renovation works on the said house after fire razed down their Ridge-based official residence but had not been reimbursed by government.

The deputy Minister of Information said he could not tell which office funded or carried out the painting on the residence of Mrs. Agyeman because “it’s a security issue.

“Even though I serve as deputy Minister of Information, I am clearly not privy to every single issue that borders on the security.

There are issues that sometimes depending on the situation that one may or may not know. I think that clearly in this case, it is a security issue and the security people would have handled that. I don’t want to believe that My Lord, it took the former First family to move on their own.”

He added “the security authorities would have done reconnaissance, what they call Recce to be sure that they were taking them to a place that was safe and reasonably guarantee their safety” and “maybe what we are yet to hear is what the security authorities themselves have said about this issue.”

At the time he made those comments about the renovation works on the building, Mr. Agyenim Boateng told the Commission he was away on a duty tour in the Brong Ahafo region and that he was completely out of touch with base (his office in Accra) and therefore told Ghanaians what he knew about the issue.

This, he said, was because the state was duty-bound to ensure the safety of the former First family.

When asked whether his comments were based on facts or assumptions and where he got the information from, the deputy Minister insisted they were facts, noting “as deputy Minister I’m privy to all sorts of information within the set up.”

Muntaka Disowns ‘Girlfriend’

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, has denied having any amorous relationship with Edith Zineuali, the lady he was said to have assisted to procure a German visa as alleged in the infamous ‘pampers and khebab’ scandal.

This was revealed when one of the lawyers representing him at the ongoing investigations by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Kwesi Baffour Intsiful was cross-examining his (Muntaka’s) accusers, the Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF), led by its spokesman Richard Kwesi Nyamah.

Muntaka, who was alleged to have ordered the release of over GH¢1.4million to the Sports Council without the approval of the Chief of Staff when he was the Sports Minister, was not at the hearing because he was said to have traveled to the United States on official assignment and scheduled to arrive yesterday evening.

Prior to the commencement of the hearing, Mr Nyamah and his lawyer, Anthony Namoo indicated the PNF’s discontinuation in pursuing 15 of the 16 allegations that they had earlier made against the former minister who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Asawase constituency in the Ashanti region, with the exception of one that has to do with the acquisition of a German visa for his supposed ‘girlfriend’.

This, he said, was because the witnesses on whom they were banking their hopes to prove their case, especially the former chief director and principal accountant of the Sports Ministry, Albert Anthony Ampong and Adim Odoom respectively, have all declined to testify before the Commission in order not to compromise the case they are currently pursuing against the state in court for their wrongful dismissal from the civil service, which is scheduled to be heard sometime in November this year.

During cross-examination, lawyer Intsiful asked Mr Nyamah the basis of his allegation, to which he indicated that the said Edith Zineuali was Muntaka’s girlfriend.

Mr Nyamah said his claim was based on the fact that President Mills had at a meeting with the media sought to ask whether Muntaka was the first government official to have travelled with a girlfriend; and the fact that the MP himself had indicated his preparedness to pay for any such liabilities was in itself an admission of guilt.

He tendered in as evidence a copy of the government white paper that was issued and signed by then Presidential Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga, after the National Security had conducted investigations into the allegations against Muntaka.

Though counsel for the embattled MP raised issues about the authenticity of the document because it did not bear the insignia of the Government of Ghana (the coat of arms), the chairman of the Commission, Emile Francis Short, admitted it in evidence.

Mr Nyamah also tendered in a copy of the petition sent to the President by Mr Odoom, in which he asked the President to cause investigations into the allegations he made against the Minister in question as evidence.

But Muntaka’s lawyer put it to him that his client had no such relationship with the woman, Edith Zineuali.

Aside that, lawyer Intsiful said his client (Muntaka) did not have anything to do with the lady’s visa application; let alone the processes that led to its acquisition from the German Embassy. And neither did he have the opportunity to vet the application since it did not come before him.

For this reason, he said his client might have been misrepresented, taking into consideration the fact that the officer who processed the visa application described her as a staff of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when she was indeed a staff of Parliament and specifically the Secretary to then Majority Leader in the House, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin.

The Commission has since adjourned sitting to Thursday, September 30, 2010, by which time Muntaka would have returned to the country to enable him cross examine his accuser.

Muntaka, who was barely four months in office, reportedly traveled with Edith Zineuali to the finals of the 1st CHAN tournament in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, under very unusual circumstances.

He was said to have presented the lady as an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Edith was indeed a staff of the office of Parliament.

Muntaka Faces CHRAJ

-Over Pampers and khebab
Posted: Daily Guide | www.dailyguideghana.com
Monday, 27 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
FORMER YOUTH and Sports Minister and Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is appearing before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) over the ‘pampers and khebab’ scandal.

All things being equal, CHRAJ boss Francis Emile Short and his team of lawyers will today start hearing the case in which the Minister was alleged to have blown over GH¢16,640 of the taxpayers’ sweat on his child’s pampers, food, oil and a host of other fleeting desires.

He was said to have ordered for the release of over GH¢1.4million to the Sports Council without the approval of the Chief of Staff.

Muntaka, who was barely four months in office, reportedly traveled with his girlfriend, Edith Zineuali, secretary to then Majority Leader in Parliament and now Minister for Works and Housing, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, to the finals of the 1st CHAN tournament in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and slept in a plush hotel, tossing the bills to the State.

Under the circumstance, Muntaka was said to have presented the lady as an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Ms. Zineuali was indeed a staff of the office of Parliament.

He is thus being investigated by the Commission on allegations of abuse of office and conflict of interest which has earned him the nickname ‘Muntaka pampers’.

This follows a complaint filed by a pressure group, Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF) dated January 11, 2010, in which it asked CHRAJ to launch full-scale investigations into the circumstance under which the then Sports Minister "personally arranged for the accommodation of the Black Stars and officials in Navaisha, Kenya, in a pre-match camping against Sudan, without the involvement of any other official of the Ministry."

PNF, through its Spokesperson Richard Kwesi Nyamah, also enjoined CHRAJ as an investigative body to look into the trip of the former Minister with his girlfriend to Germany with State support.

CHRAJ suspended investigations into the allegations on Monday May 31, due to a petition filed by PNF, asking for a stay of proceedings because witnesses for the case were unavailable.

The Commission granted the petition pending the outcome of the court case filed against the Attorney General by Albert Anthony Ampong and Adim Odoom, former chief director and principal accountant respectively of the Sports Ministry, both of whom are principal witnesses in the case.

Now that the case has been determined in court, they thought it wise to resume the hearing.

The group thus charged the Commission to cause the former minister to refund an amount of GH¢664.02 in respect of baby oil, baby food, mouth wash and other household items charged on the ministry’s imprest account.

PNF also alleged that the former Sports Minister requested GH¢1,000 per match for the services of a ‘mallam’ (spiritualist) and demanded cash immediately for the purpose, adding that “... a director, Alhaji Abdullai Yakubu, was asked by Respondent to authorize payment without passing through the director, who is the spending officer”.

Furthermore, the pressure group accused Muntaka of fraudulently using his office to acquire a German visa for his girlfriend, Edith Zineuali.

The group therefore wants criminal charges to be preferred against the former Minister for Youth and Sports where he was found to have engaged in any fraudulent act; and a declaration amongst others, that he abused the trust and confidence reposed in him by the good people of the Republic of Ghana and his oath of office.

It is also asking CHRAJ to declare that the former minister was fraudulent in obtaining a German visa for his girlfriend.

In spite of the fact that the National Security made adverse findings of impropriety against Muntaka when it investigated the case, President Mills only asked the former Minister to resign his position whilst no other punitive action was taken against him, except to be asked to refund money unlawfully spent.

The President and his advisors thought it ‘wise’ to interdict and later relieve the then Principal Accountant, Adim Odoom and the then Chief Director of the Ministry, Albert Ampong, on the grounds that they failed to ensure that laid down procedures were followed to guide the former Minister’s 'reckless' expenditure - a decision the Human Rights Court has overturned.

This was probably part of the reasons the likes of presidential aide, Stan Dogbe are still hanging on to their jobs even after blowing over GH¢169, 000 at the Ministry of Information on supposed hampers, when the money was meant for educational campaign on the 2010 budget whilst the wrong person, the Director of Information Services Department (ISD), Nee Agiri Banor had been made a ‘sacrificial lamb’.

Mills Sacks ISD Boss

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 24 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The dismissal of the Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), Nee Agiri Barnor, has sparked controversy at the Ministry of Information, with the late Dan Lartey’s Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) calling for a refund of the over GH¢169,000.00 (¢1.69billion) which has not been accounted for by the Ministry.

Nee Agiri Barnor was relieved of his appointment through a letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Bebaako Mensah, directing Information Minister John Tia to look for a new person to take over from him.

His budget for a whole year to disseminate government information was ¢450 million as against ¢1.69billion given to Stan Dogbe to buy hampers for some editors and reporters.

Though no specific reason was assigned for his sudden dismissal, it is believed that Mr. Barnor was sacked following DAILY GUIDE’s publication on the over GH¢169,000.00 (¢1.69billion) hampers’ scandal involving Presidential Aide Stanlislav Xoese Dogbe, with some pointing accusing fingers at Mr. Barnor as being the architect of the story.

This, sources said, was part of reasons why the ‘group of five’ deputy directors deliberately petitioned the President to cause the ISD boss’s removal, accusing him of displaying arrogance, incompetence and selectively vindictive style of administration.

Unfolding events at the Ministry and the ISD have made close associates of the dismissed ISD boss who worked under him at the department and the Ministry become nervous since they are also seen as ‘saboteurs’.

Prior to his dismissal, there was a frosty relationship between him and his superiors, including the Minister, his two deputies and Stan Dogbe, the Presidential Aide since he was not included in any decision-making process. John Tia had denied that Nee Agiri Barnor was not a team player, promising to work with everybody at the ministry.

However, a week after John Tia’s assurance, the ISD boss has been shown the exit, leaving Stan Dogbe, the man who squanderedthe taxpayer’s money on trivialities, to work at the corridors of power with his shoulders high.

This was because Mr. Barnor was said to be showing gross disrespect to his superiors, especially the two deputies, James Agyenim Boateng and Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, who, it was rumoured, Mr. Barnor referred to as ‘small boys’ since he could not fathom why an elderly person like him was made a director whilst these two young men would be made deputy Ministers.

He was otherwise considered to be an outsider since he was said to have left the NDC to join Goosie Tanoh’s comatose National Reform Party which was formed out of the NDC.

Obviously aware of the accusing fingers that would be pointed at him as the only ‘black sheep’ among the lot, Mr. Barnor was said to have assembled his staff immediately DAILY GUIDE broke the story about the hampers, to dispel the probability of it being linked to him as the architect.

Despite the several spins and the obvious denial that have been put on the story by John Tia to cover-up for Stan Dogbe, (the man who signed and acknowledged receipt of the 1.69billion cedi cash in a ‘Ghana Must Go’ bag) and the Ministry, he has not been able to produce any documentary evidence to show how the ¢1.6billion cash was supposedly used for its ‘intended purpose’- the educational campaign on the 2010 budget.

But Stan himself admitted the money was expended on its intended purposes on hampers, workshops and payments to journalists and sympathizers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who wrote articles in favour of the budget statement, as well as radio hosts.

Mr. Barnor has since responded to issues leading to his dismissal, indicating that he was consistently sabotaged in the department by those he described as elements who saw him as a nuisance.

In a statement he issued yesterday, the former ISD boss said he was suspected to have stepped on the toes of some people who were bent on removing him from office in the performance of his duties since “efforts at communicating government policies were consistently and systematically sabotaged.”

This, he said, was evidenced by the fact that the ISD as a department was given only GH¢45,000 (¢450 million) to carry out public education on government policies nationwide throughout the eleven months he served in office.

It is therefore not clear why over ¢1.69billion was given to Stan Dogbe to be spent on hampers and other fleeting purposes while the ISD, the implementing agency for government communication, received virtually nothing relative to what Stan wasted.

Mr. Barnor therefore could not fathom why when communications to the public on government policies failed, the scapegoat became the ISD. He described the petition submitted by five officers of the ISD to the Minister of Information as part of a larger vicious conspiracy against him.

Nee Agiri Barnor denied ever having any dealings with DAILY GUIDE or any other media house to thwart the work of the department and chided his detractors for using the Enquirer newspaper as a platform to discredit him.

For the over 30 years that he has been in politics and public service in Ghana, he swore, he had never caused any publication in DAILY GUIDE.

He believes the time and energy spent on sabotage and scheming in this matter against him could have been better applied to fixing the dismal state of government communications.

The GCPP cannot also comprehend why in the face of the several challenges confronting the nation including discontent on the labour front and lack of logistics for the security agencies, the government is unable to properly account for the over GH¢169,000.

A statement issued by the party and signed by its General Secretary, Ali Adam, said “the official explanation that the money was spent on the communication of the 2010 Budget Statement by journalists mostly through the Institute for Financial & Economic Journalists (IFEJ) has proven to be false” since IFEJ has come out officially to deny ever receiving even a pesewa from the ministry.

The GCPP identified with the general anger of Ghanaians about this reckless expenditure, noting “this government is becoming too eager to spend the nation’s resources on the wrong things while our development effort is starved of the needed resources.”

The party noted that the money could have been used to procure bullet-proof for policemen on patrol duty which could have saved the recent killing of a policeman in Kumasi in the line of duty.

It has thus called on the Mills administration to cause the refund of the ¢1.69billion to the Consolidated Fund without delay since “the GCPP will never allow this matter to be swept under the carpet unless this money has been restored to the public purse.”

Veep Probes Porno Saga

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 24 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Vice President John Mahama has instituted investigations into the circumstances under which ‘hot and spicy’ pornographic materials were posted on his official website www.viceprez.gov.gh by some unidentified persons.

This follows a publication in the Wednesday, September 22, 2010 issue of DAILY GUIDE headlined ‘Porno Hits Veep, in which the paper revealed the publication of nude pictures of men and women, both white and black, engaged in ‘hot’ sex on a webpage of the vice president that was supposed to be promoting farming.

These scenes projected the Vice President and the Republic of Ghana as promoting a different kind of ‘farming’ to the country’s youth on the website posted by one Kapmimb Asperee with the following email address terrakot@gaymike18.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with http://lionsearch.ru/swinger/1, http://lionsearch.ru/swinger/2 and http://lionsearch.ru/swinger/3 links, all in jpg format to the sex scenes.

But a statement issued by the office of the Vice President and signed by his spokesman, John Abdulai Jinapor said Mr. Mahama had since ordered the immediate suspension of the discussion forum on the website. Mr. Jinapor had earlier, on a number of radio stations, denied that there were such pornographic materials on the website.

Consequently, the Vice President has charged the Information Technology (IT) department of his office and those responsible for the website to conduct an audit of the security features of the site.

For this reason, the interactive section of the Vice President’s website has been suspended until the security features are enhanced.

The Vice President indicated that the intended purpose of the ‘Forum’ was to serve as an interactive platform for visitors to the website and to enable Ghanaians and all others to follow his activities as well as have direct contact with his office, stressing “the reported posting of unacceptable materials in the discussion forum is obviously a problem, and the Vice President has accordingly directed that the forum be removed.”

He has thus resolved “to activate the ‘Forum’ when we are assured that the security features on that section of the website have been enhanced.”

The Vice President said he was more than merely convinced that the story was published with the intention to alert the general public, stressing the need for the paper to have drawn the attention of his office to this anomaly instead of putting the unsavoury pornographic photo next to a picture of him in a pensive mood.

He has therefore apologised to all who might have been embarrassed by the offensive materials on the forum’s page.

His office however says it is happy with the level of co-operation between it and DAILY GUIDE following the publication. It assured the paper that its doors are always open for future co-operations in a bid to serve this nation.

Kufuor Jet No Show

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Thursday, 23 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The much-anticipated inauguration of the Falcon 900EX presidential jet in the country today has been cancelled as the military authorities have postponed the commissioning ceremony.

A statement issued by the Defence Public Relations (DPR) and signed by Flt. Lt. Francisca Aholo did not give any specific reasons why the ceremony could not be held today as promised.

The statement said the ceremony “has been postponed because the jet has not arrived.”

Attempts to get more details about the cancellation of the ceremony proved futile.

An official at the DPR told DAILY GUIDE that no reason was given and that a new date would be communicated to Ghanaians and the media later, probably when the jet finally arrives at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) where a hanger has been built for it.

The Falcon 900EX Easy aircraft was ordered by the Kufuor administration amidst scathing criticisms from the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

It was scheduled to be commissioned at what was expected to be a colourful ceremony at the Jubilee Lounge of the KIA at 3pm today.

When it finally arrives in the country, the Falcon 900EX presidential jet would replace the Fokker 27 aircraft ‘flying coffin’ that the Ghana Armed Forces have used for the past 37 years as a presidential jet.

Kufuor Plane Arrives

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguide.com
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The much talked-about Presidential jet which was ordered by the Kufuor administration amidst wild criticism from the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has finally arrived in the country.

The ‘Falcon 900EX Easy Aircraft’ purchased by the then New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is scheduled to be commissioned at what is expected to be a colourful ceremony at the Jubilee Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra at 3pm today.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Directorate of the Ghana Armed Forces and signed by Flt. Lt. Francisca Aholo, on behalf of the Director, said “the Ghana Air Force has taken delivery of the newly-acquired Falcon 900EX Easy Aircraft, spares and tools on behalf of the Government of Ghana.”

The Falcon 900 Presidential Jet would thus replace the Fokker 27 aircraft ‘flying coffin’ that the Ghana Air Force has used for the past 37 years as presidential jet.

Ghanaians would recall how the Kufuor administration was heavily criticized by the NDC for putting in the order for the purchase of the aircraft.

When the NDC eventually assumed power in 2009, there were widespread speculations in government circles about the intentions of the Mills administration to cancel the deal. It later ordered more jets.

A proposal was taken to Parliament by Defence Minister Lt. Gen. J.H Smith, in which the NDC government requested the approval of the House to purchase another jet for the exclusive use of the President.

This generated a heated debate between a former Minister of State at the Interior Ministry in the Kufuor administration, Nana Obiri Boahen and a former deputy Minister of Defence in the Rawlings administration, Dr. Tony Aidoo.

Nana Obiri Boahene was utterly shocked at the “quick u-turn” by the Mills administration to purchase an aircraft for the state after “harshly criticising” former President Kufuor when he attempted to acquire one for the same purpose.

Dr. Tony Aidoo, who is Head of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency, however denied the claim since according to him, the NDC in opposition did not describe the purchase as needless, but only complained about what he termed ‘proper procedures’ for the acquisition which were not followed.

He noted that the NDC also felt that placing orders for two planes was uncalled for, especially when neither of them could serve the Armed Forces and both were solely to be used by the Presidency.

He said the NDC in opposition then took into account too much expenditure at the time, including the construction of the Jubilee House and the celebration of Ghana@50 which made it unwise to spend that huge amount on the two jets.

However, Nana Obiri Boahene disagreed with Dr. Tony Aidoo’s justification for the purchase of the jets.

Nana Obiri Boahene, a Sunyani-based lawyer, said it was a “misplaced priority” for the NDC government to purchase an airliner in the face of high unemployment and general economic hardship nationwide.