‘Kokonte Boys’ London Trip Hits Rock

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 25 March 2011
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A forum being organised by the UK and Ireland branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to enable some government officials, including newly-appointed Sports Minister Clement Kofi Humado, Deputy Tourism Minister James Agyenim-Boateng Presidential Aides Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and Stanislav Xose Dogbe, and a host of others to drum home support for President Mills, has suffered a major setback.

The government officials are expected to travel with party Propaganda Secretary and National Youth Organizer, Richard Quashigah and Ludwig Hlodze respectively to the heart of the United Kingdom this week for the stated reason.

But even before the government delegation sets foot on the Queen’s land, the UK and Ireland branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have declined to participate in the event, saying the organizers want to use them to claim legitimacy.

The NPP says organisers of the event have created the impression as though the programme is a‘collaboration’ between all the major political parties which have branches in the UK including the NPP, CPP and the Ghanaian community there.

According to them, a handbill on the forum, currently in circulation, is “calling all Ghanaian Youths NDC, UK & Ireland Chapter in collaboration with Ghana High Commission, Ghana Union, CPP and NPP invite you to Ghana Youth Forum Theme: Ghana’s Youth: Partners in National Development.”

The hand bill is also said to be carrying the logos of the NPP together with that of the NDC, CPP and the trade mark of companies such as Cadbury Chocolate and Vodafone.

This is what compelled the NPP to distance itself from the event since according to its Assistant Youth Orgnizer, Godwin Adjei-Gyamfi, “we, the NPP UK & Ireland Branch have not given our permission or have ‘collaborated’ with the NDC to hold such an event as described above.”

They also claim to have gathered information which suggested that neither the CPP nor the Ghana High Commission and the Ghana Union in the UK played any role in the organization of the said event, let alone Cadbury and Vodafone.

In a statement, Mr Adjei-Gyamfi admitted to being contacted by the NDC Youth Organizer in the UK on March 14, 2011 just to invite them to attend the upcoming event, indicating that “we informed him it is the policy of our branch and our national party to co-operate and furnish support on issues which touch and concern Ghanaians in general and on issues where we have common ground but we objected to such an event being organised by a political party.”

He claims to have told the NDC Youth Organizer that such a forum would best come in the form of a non-political event which should be organized by either the Ghana Union or the Ghana High Commission, which he obliged.

Mr. Adjei-Gyamfi said he was therefore taken aback when he received an invitation and a hand bill on March 16, 2011, as described above.

The NPP expressed surprise and bewilderment at the action of the UK and Ireland branch of the NDC which has now proven to be the architects behind the scheme in a purely NDC programme.

They further expressed shock at the fact that patented trademarks of established companies such as Cadbury and Vodafone could be used without their consent, noting, “We are very much concerned of the legal implication and should either Cadbury or Vodafone resort to legal action, it will certainly bring our government in disrepute.”

This, they said, was because “this will ultimately affect the pockets of the ordinary tax payer in terms of a heavy legal cost and compensation to the companies”.

“We are therefore writing formally to distance ourselves from this event and state categorically that the event is a political event organised by the Youth Wing of NDC UK and Ireland and that NPP UK and Ireland are not in any way involved, and neither have we collaborated with it in any shape or form,” the statement said.

They suspect the event has been deliberately planned to coincide with the Ghana-England friendly football match, so members of government and, to a large extent, foot-soldiers of the NDC can travel to the UK for pleasure and entertainment in the name of soccer at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer.

It is not clear who is funding these Ministers and party officials to embark on this expensive trip.

They are scheduled to meet with members of the UK and Ireland branch of the party.

A memo informing and updating the UK members of the visit has been dispatched to London.

DAILY GUIDE sources in London have hinted of a planned protest against their visit by some local members of the NDC.

Sack Ministers: Bishop Tells Mills

Posted: Daily Guide | Thursday, 24 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church and President of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), Reverend Prof. Emmanuel Asante, wants President John Evans Atta Mills to sack his appointees who have cultivated the bad habit of insulting their political opponents.

Bishop Asante believes such individuals and group of persons do not set good example for the youth to follow as they have little or nothing to offer the country.

Rev. Asante was speaking on Accra-based Oman FM in reaction to recent insults heaped on the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s standard bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and other people by the Deputy Ministers of the Interior and Works and Housing, Kobby Acheampong and Hannah Louisa Bissiw respectively.

The President has been calling on Ghanaians to shun politics of insults, but strangely, insults seem to be part of the daily assignments of his appointees.

The two deputy ministers are on record to have made very disparaging remarks about their political opponents in the NPP when they addressed members of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi.

Kobby, who is notorious for making unsubstantiated allegations, was caught on tape describing Nana Akufo-Addo as a ‘fruit cake,’ and later addressed him (Akufo-Addo) as an untidy person.

Dr. Bissiw, a Cuba-trained veterinarian, on the other hand, described leading NPP activist Ursula Owusu as a ‘disgrace to womanhood’ and Nana Addo as a ‘sexy old fool’.

Both initially denied the comments but when the tape was played to them, they were found wanting.

“People like this should all be sacked because they have nothing to offer us. That’s why I keep saying that people in government, whether members of the ruling NDC or the opposition or whichever individual who describes himself as a politician and would stand on a platform to trade in insults, politics of invectives…we should not think about such people,” he said.

He said it was high time government and especially President Mills stamped his authority and brought such people to order since their utterances did not only augur well for government and the country’s politics in general.

He identified the incidence of insults, threats and lying as the three main issues affecting Ghana’s politics and therefore admonished the country’s politicians to desist from indulging in them.

The Bishop likened governance to a person selling a product, noting that one only had to advertise the product and tell people why they needed to buy it.

“But, if you go and stand somewhere and insult a friend, or excuse me to say, a person who can give birth to you, it doesn’t bring anything, it doesn’t bring development but violence.”

The reverend Minister stressed that it was time Ghanaian politicians stopped these despicable practices since it did not inure to the country’s development, emphasizing, “Anyone who does that does not understand politics.

As pastors, these are the very things we say and people say we are doing politics but there is national politics and party politics.”

“What I want to say is that anybody who wants to use insults to look for power or wants us to vote for him, we will plainly tell our people that they should understand issues and that such people have nothing to offer them.”

NDC Power Struggle:

Kokonte Boys Storm London
Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 22 March 2011
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
DAILY GUIDE has picked up information that a couple of the young appointees in the Mills administration who were recently captured eating bowls of Kokonte, including National Youth Organizer of the NDC Ludwig Hlodze, Deputy Tourism Minister James Agyenim-Boateng, are travelling sometime this week to London to whip up support for the beleaguered NDC leader.

DAILY GUIDE sources said the young lads, as well as newly-appointed Sports Minister Kofi Humado, will use the trip to watch the historic Ghana-England football match at the weekend.

The rest include Presidential Aides Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and Stanislav Dogbe and Propaganda Secretary of the NDC, Richard Quashigah.

Their mission, according to our source, is cut out and simple: ‘to mop up support’ for President John Evans Atta Mills in his second term bid which promises to be a bare-knuckle fight between the Castle and Ridge.

This trip comes on the heels of a recent one to the Eastern region by the young appointees, where they devoured bowls of palatable kokonte.

It is not clear who is funding these ministers and party officials to embark on this trip to meet already disgruntled members, some of whom are said to be planning a protest against the visit.

They are scheduled to meet with members of the party in the UK and Ireland. A memo informing and updating the UK members of the visit has been dispatched to London.

A member of one of the branches in UK told DAILY GUIDE, "Our party is dying. For me, I have nothing to lose. I am very angry with the government so I will verbally attack them."

Even before the government officials set foot on English land, information coming in indicates that an active and long-standing member, Jamal Abdul Rahman, has resigned from the party.

The reasons he was said to have given for his resignation were that he had lost confidence in the government and the fact that the party’s founder, former President Jerry Rawlings was being treated as though he was an outsider.

In one of his most recent comments on the social networking site Facebook, NDC Youth activist Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak aka Ras Mubarak said he "will not support President Mills even if the party founder Jerry Rawlings steps out to campaign for him."

He added, “We cannot put up with four more years of paralysis. It would be worse than the seven years of painful drought in biblical times. They talk about Mills’s humility when he is not listening to his own party founder and they talk about admitting mistakes and yet no one is ever held accountable for those mistakes."

The Mills-Mahama government has gained notoriety for brazenly refusing to tell Ghanaians how government was spending money on party activity.

The most recent case of chicanery is the flying of NDC supporters, popularly referred to as foot-soldiers, to the World Cup tournament in South African where thousands of dollars were spent on them.

The government has failed to give a full disclosure of how much it spent on the exercise, despite calls to give a full account of the trip.

Police Hunt Boxer

Posted: Daily Guide | Friday, 18 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The police at James Town in Accra have begun a search for a boxer by name Nii Aryee Bruno popularly called Gbese Bruno.

Gbese Bruno, a super middle weight fighter, is being hunted because he has been on the wanted list of the James Town police station for his involvement in a series of issues concerning the Gbese stool, with the latest being a shooting incident on Tuesday night.

James Town District Police Commander, Superintendent Benjamin Bakomora, who confirmed the story to DAILY GUIDE SPORTS, narrated that in their statements to the police, the victims including 28-year-old Joseph Armah Tetteh, Joseph Tagoe, 20, and 22-year-old Kwaku Sadat claimed the boxer shot the three persons with a locally manufactured pistol without provocation.

Some were hit on the face, abdomen, chest, legs and hands whilst others run for cover.

The incident was said to have taken place at Bukom around 8.00pm near the Sukumo Wulomo (traditional priest) stool house where the victims had gathered and were having a conversation.

The police believed the shooting incident had something to do with a chieftaincy dispute over the Gbese Stool. According to Superintendent Bakomora, a fight had ensued between two factions after a court hearing in the course of the day.

He noted that the shooting incident could have been the rippling effect of a scuffle that began earlier in the day, since the victims claimed Gbese Bruno had come to the area in the company of some of his friends whose names were given as Braka, Ampah, Larbi and Saban to confront some members of one of the disputed factions in the Gbese stool case.

They were said to be holding broken bottles, cutlasses and other offensive weapons when they went to the area.

In the heat of the event, the boxer was said to have shot the three persons and fled.

A complaint was lodged with the police who issued the victims with medical forms to go for treatment at the accident centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where they were treated and discharged.

Each time he commits any such heinous crime, Gbese Bruno is said to go into hiding for a long time and later resurfaces to commit another one.

The boxer and his accomplices have since gone into hiding with the police mounting a manhunt for him.

He is believed to be hiding in Nungua or Teshie in Accra. Superintendent Bakomora therefore urged members of the public who have any information on his whereabouts to assist the police with such information.

Drama Over GBC Boss Dismissal

Posted: Daily Guide | Thursday, 17 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The sudden decision by President Mills to remove one of government’s two nominees serving on the National Media Commission (NMC), Samuel Appiah-Ampofo has raised eyebrows.

Mr Appiah-Ampofo was the Chairman of the committee set up by the NMC to investigate William Ampem-Darko, the dismissed Director-General of the state broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).

Mr Ampem-Darko’s appointment was terminated by the NMC on Tuesday after he was asked to proceed on indefinite leave some months ago following allegations of impropriety and tension at the GBC.

But even before he could make the findings of his committee available to the entire membership of the NMC, he was withdrawn and replaced by one Kodzo Batse, a long standing lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).
The development has raised eyebrows, since according to sources, the findings of his report would have exonerated the dismissed GBC boss of any wrongdoing.

A statement issued by the Commission and signed by its chairman, Kabral Blay-Amihere dated March 16, 2011 which communicated the decision to the media, said the decision follows deliberations on the recent impasse.

Another statement by the NMC and signed by Executive Secretary, George Sarpong dated March 16, 2011 announced President Mills’ decision to withdraw one of his nominees serving on the Commission.

The decision also affected the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation, Professor John B.K Aheto who has been at loggerheads with Mr Ampem-Darko since his appointment to the position.

Mr Appiah-Ampofo was also the Chairman of the Finance and Administration of the committee.

According to the former GBC boss, in spite of the fact that the findings of the committee were not communicated to him, the decision to end his contract was made without the chairman of the committee.

He could not fathom why a decision was taken to withdraw Mr Appiah-Ampofo from the Commission eight hours before his dismissal as GBC boss, thereby raising suspicion of underhand dealings.

Speaking on Joy FM yesterday, Mr Ampem-Darko said he suspected foul play in the termination of his appointment since according to him, the decision to end his contract was taken without the chairman of the committee who sat on the case.

“So the chairman of the committee that investigated the GBC affairs was withdrawn eight hours to the time they were supposed to take a decision on the findings.

Even Mr Appiah-Ampofo never had the opportunity to affirm the final meeting that took the decision to terminate my appointment,” he wondered.

He stressed that there was more to the decision to terminate his appointment than merely explanations given so far.

The former GBC boss however denied any wrongdoing during his tenure at GBC, indicating his preparedness to go to court to clear his dented image and reputation which he managed to build over the past 35years.

He has since asked the NMC to institute forensic investigations (audit) into the allegation of financial impropriety leveled against him by his accusers within the next two weeks.

TOR In ‘Messy’ Oil Deal

Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 16 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Questions are being asked at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) over the ownership of some 600,000 barrels of brass crude oil worth $48million supplied to Ghana last year.

Currently, three or more companies including Refinee Petroplus, Diamond Shipping Company Limited and another one are all claiming ownership of the oil and its proceeds.

DAILY GUIDE’s investigations show that one of the companies has even succeeded in imposing a court injunction on TOR.

Though the management of TOR, headed by former Managing Director (MD) of Ghamot Ghana, Ato Ampiah, is not forthcoming with details about the transaction, one Nigerian shipping company, Diamond Shipping, has alerted the police and the Bureau of National investigations (BNI) of what seems to be a well-orchestrated scam.

The original officials of Refinee Petroplus have since denied having any interests in Africa, let alone Ghana and the lady whose name was presented as their local representative here in Ghana has proved to be a worker of Sahara Energy Ghana Limited whilst the address of the company is non existent.

Mr. Ampiah and Alhaji Awud Ariff Abubakar, the Board member who sat on the committee that nominated Diamond Shipping Company for the lifting of the oil cargo, were tight-lipped on the issue when contacted on Monday.

But General Manager In-charge of Commerce at TOR, Dr Alphonse Dorcoo, however denied TOR ever dealing with Diamond shipping company and its CEO, Dr Maureen, though the company still insists it was mandated by TOR, through a letter of nomination which requested them to load the oil onto a vessel, MT VERGINA II.

Based on this, the company, through its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Maureen Nwangwu-Iduh, began to source for the product in August 2010 and eventually succeeded in lifting the product to Ghana.

Before then, Dr Nwangwu-Iduh was said to have been contacted by one Prince Solomon to be allowed to lift the product with his vessel, MT Jacksonville, and sent her a request to enable him to load same.

Dr Nwangwu-Iduh was however said to have called to inform him that MT Vergina had already been engaged for that purpose and therefore could not strike a deal with Solomon.

But even before Dr Nwangwu-Iduh and the oil could arrive in the country for the product to be inspected and offloaded by TOR, Mr Solomon had succeeded in convincing officials of the oil refinery that the cargo on board the vessel was his.

He was then said to have conspired with an official of TOR, one William Wade and another Board Member of the company, Alhaji Awud Ariff Abubakar, to discharge the product without documentation in relation to the vessel or the cargo delivered.

Solomon was said to have subsequently attempted to sell the oil cargo to a company by name Eagle Eye Resources but it backfired.

He was later said to have called Dr Maureen Nwangwu-Iduh, claiming that Alhaji Ariff had decided to pay Refinee Petroplus, thereby recognizing them as the suppliers of the product.

Alhaji Ariff was part of the committee that nominated Diamond Shipping for the right to supply the oil cargo to TOR.

This compelled Dr Maureen Nwangwu-Iduh to cause officers at the Airport police station to arrest Solomon.

Officials of Diamond Shipping have since managed to secure a court injunction against TOR, making it impossible to make any payment through anyone or the banks to anyone else until the investigations or litigations were concluded.

Though the issue was reported to the National Security (Blue Gate), it is currently being handled by the BNI.

Ken Agyapong Faces Police

Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 10 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday besieged the Police Headquarters in Accra in solidarity with the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin-North, Kennedy Agyapong, who had been invited by the police for questioning.

The supporters, some of whom were in party T-shirts, went to the headquarters of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to give moral support to the man who was invited for questioning for allegedly threatening to kill Alhaji Bature, an apologist of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and publisher of The Al-Hajj newspaper.

Mr. Agyapong was alleged to have threatened to kill Mr. Bature during a radio interview on Asempa FM after the latter allegedly insulted the former’s mother and accused him of being a drug baron.

Moments after the MP arrived at the headquarters, his supporters rushed to his car and started shaking his hands.

After exchanging pleasantries, Mr. Agyapong and his three lawyers, including Kwame Gyan and Andy Appiah-Kubi, went to meet the police investigators.

At a point, the crowd became impatient with the attitude of the policemen manning the gate since they prevented close aides of the MP, including his father, from going pass it.

Journalists who wanted to enter the premises with their vehicles were equally asked to return.

About an hour-and-a- half later, Mr. Agyapong and his lawyers came out of the meeting with the police, wearing broad smiles.

They were however compelled to address journalists outside the main gate leading to the CID headquarters since the police would not open the gate for any individual or group of persons to enter the yard.

When they got there, Mr. Agyapong said they met two senior police officers who asked him to write his statement.

Though he admitted “they were very nice,” the Assin-North MP said “but I don’t underestimate anything.”

“I just told them I will meet him in court that’s all,” he said.

Generally, Mr. Appiah-Kubi said, the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and that the police had commenced investigations into the allegation of ‘threat of death’ as claimed by Alhaji Bature.

Mr. Agyapong has not been charged since the officers only took a caution statement from him.

His lawyers wondered whether or not the police could sustain the allegation but stressed their preparedness to defend their client should the police decide to prosecute the case after gathering evidence.

They however declined reading political motives into their client’s invitation by the police.

Asked whether they were also contemplating on filing a civil suit against Bature, who alleged that the MP was a cocaine dealer, Mr. Appiah-Kubi said they would only take such a decision when their client mandated them.

Public Affairs Director of the CID, Chief Inspector Joseph Benefo Darkwa, said evidence was being gathered as part of the entire investigation since their duty was to protect lives and respect the human rights of every individual.
“Our encounter was very cordial and friendly as we will do to every individual.

We are conducting the investigations and whoever needs to be invited to give evidence in this matter will be invited accordingly. The ultimate is to find out the truth and protect life and property so we will do all that,” he told Citi FM.

Asiedu-Nketia Dragged To CHRAJ

Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 10 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, is expected to meet members of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) anytime soon to answer questions on his conflicting role in the execution of the Bui Power Project (BPA).

This follows a request by a pro-governance organization, the Coalition of Democratic Forces (CDF), asking the Commission to investigate the circumstances that led to Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah’s block manufacturing company being awarded a contract to manufacture blocks for the project site, whilst he continues to serve on the company as a Board Member.

As a Board member of the BPA, the group said, “We strongly believe that Mr Aseidu Nketiah used his position to influence the contract being awarded to his company.”

This was what informed the decision of CDF, which is chaired by Michael Omari Wadie, to file a case of conflict of interest against the NDC scribe.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah, who is popularly referred to as General Mosquito, has denied any case of conflict of interest. According to him, the sub contractors who bought blocks from his company for the project did so on their own volition, without any compulsion.

He has since instituted a legal action against the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BPA, Fred Oware, for defamation since he made the issue public.

CDF wants the Commission, which is currently headed by Anna Bossman, to establish whether Mr. Asiedu Nketiah’s block manufacturing company followed the laid-down procedures in securing the contract for the supply of cement blocks to the BPA at very exorbitant prices.

It also wants CHRAJ as an institution to investigate whether or not it does not amount to conflict of interest.

Furthermore, they also want the Commission to ascertain whether General Mosquito indeed used the proceeds of his controversial block-making company to build his mansion in Oyarifa, within the short period that he secured the contract.

I Was Coached

Posted: Daily Guide | Tuesday, 08 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The man at the centre of a raging controversy over claims that some influential members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) advised him to lie about the ‘Amina bus sex’ story, Michael Ofosu Frimpong, has made another revelation about the ongoing trial.

DAILY GUIDE has stumbled on an audio recording in which Michael Frimpong, who is now at the CID cells at the Police Headquarters, was overheard telling someone in a telephone conversation that state prosecutors made him lie against the NPP chieftains he named, during his appearance in court as a witness for the prosecution in the Amina Yutong bus mass rape saga, as those who bribed him to corroborate the Amina story.

The NPP bigwigs named in the alleged saga were party chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Assin North MP Kennedy Agyapong, former Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo and a private legal practitioner, Professor Ken Attafuah.

Frimpong related that he was picked up from his cells at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the Police Headquarters by the investigator handling the case, whose name he gave as Issa Mohammed.

According to him, Mohammed took him to the office of the prosecutor, Paul Asibi Abariga, where Mr. Abariga, in-turn took him to the office of Attorney General, Martin Amidu.

At the office of the Attorney General, Frimpong said he was told that the only condition under which he could be let off the hook was if he discounted his earlier claims of being on board the said bus at the time of the incident and mentioned the names of the NPP stalwarts as those who asked him to go and make those claims on Adom FM.

Though efforts to reach Martin Amidu have proved unsuccessful, the prosecutor handling the case, Paul Abariga, has denied ever taking Frimpong to the AG’s office to cook up a story for him to tell, describing it as untrue.

“The AG does not know him by face but by the offence. He gave his evidence on his own volition and in his own handwriting which he dully signed himself,” was what he said in an interview with DAILY GUIDE last Friday.

But Frimpong insists on his claim, saying that “he (Martin Amidu) even told me that when they take every case to the court, they lose so I should help them to win this case.” Frimpong insisted that even what he said in court was written for him to rehearse before going to court.

According to the suspect, the NPP gurus had done no wrong and that his testimony was influenced by the prosecutor.

He claimed that Kennedy Agyapong was roped into the matter because they said he was a thorn in the flesh of the NDC administration.

Frimpong had earlier told DAILY GUIDE in previous conversations while at Nsawam Prisons that the police investigator had taken him to Mr Abariga’s office twice, urging him to testify for the state.

Frimpong said he was compelled by circumstances to tell the truth because he was still being held in custody despite an assurance to release him if he would implicate the NPP gurus.

“I have also been childish; I will disgrace them and I will…I am ready to face any death and I am ready to put every incident that took place at the Attorney General’s office out,” he said.

Michael Frimpong had made claims on Adom FM that he was onboard the Yutong bus on which passengers, including Amina, were made to have sex with one another at gunpoint by suspected armed robbers.
Amina was saved because she claimed she was in her menses.

Frimpong was subsequently arrested by the police after telling Great FM, an Achimota-based private radio station, the same story for allegedly ‘causing fear and alarm’- a case in which he is being prosecuted.
However, under inexplicable reasons, Frimpong later became a prosecution witness in the Amina case.

He claimed that his appearance in court was at the instance of the Attorney General who had promised dropping the charges against him if he would implicate the NPP chieftains.

The last time he appeared in court, Frimpong, among other things, alleged that he was offered GH¢90,000 (¢900million) by the named NPP men to go and corroborate Amina’s story- a claim they have all rubbished and treated with contempt.

Mr. Abariga told DAILY GUIDE “he wanted to go and get the ticket from Kumasi for the Amina case but when police sought to accompany him, he broke down and confessed that what he sought to do initially was a lie and that he was sponsored and coached by his two lawyers and those he gave their names.

“He also said when he went to Adom FM, he was going to negate Amina’s account but, upon reaching Adom FM, his sponsors asked him to rather go and corroborate Amina’s story.

I will never cook up a story because it will not only be unprofessional but also unethical because I’m not conviction-minded but a justice officer,” said the state prosecutor.

He stated, “I will not want to engage in any media trial because I know the consequences of such actions.

All I have or I believe in is that I will never want to engage in any conduct that tends to bring the authority and administration of the law into disrespect or disregard, because it is essential to maintain the existence of the legal system of any state that the court should have ample powers to enforce its orders and to protect itself or its procedure.

I desire to recognize and uphold this principle at all times as a legal practitioner and a prosecutor for that matter.”

On this basis, the state prosecutor said, “I cannot be seen to have cooked up a story in respect of the instant case because I do other cases as well and irrespective of the geographical, ethnic or partisan origin, all I do is to study a case, advise on it and possibly do prosecute where it is prosecutable as allowed by law.”

Asiedu Nketia’s Plush Mansions

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 02 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who have always demonised the New Patriotic Party’s property-owning philosophy seem to have been caught by their own deeds as many embark on a ‘property-grabbing’ mission.

Latest among several others who have been captured by DAILY GUIDE’s investigative team is none other than the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, popularly called General Mosquito.

Apart from his block-manufacturing company which has landed him in a controversial case of conflict of interest regarding his dealings with the Bui Power Authority (BPA), the NDC General Secretary is believed to have simultaneously put up two big mansions in Accra and Kumasi within the last two years.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah however declined to answer queries regarding the alleged properties when contacted by DAILY GUIDE yesterday, because he claimed the newspaper had published twisted stories about him.

“I’m not talking to you because anytime you call and I tell you the truth about what I know, you still go ahead and publish things against me so you may go and publish what you want to publish,” he said amidst threats that “I will take my decision. If it is libelous, I will deal with you.”

In spite of his refusal to speak on the issue, residents of Oyarifa, a developing community along the Accra-Aburi highway where one of the imposing two-storey buildings is located, are convinced that the house belongs to the NDC General Secretary since he visited the place each day to see the level of progress of work.

Painters were busily whitewashing the edifice when DAILY GUIDE visited the site last week.

Sources say actual work on the two-storey building commenced somewhere in November 2009 and within the space of a year, it has been completed.

The only thing that is probably left would be the interior decoration since everything seems set for its owners to move in.

The house, which is touted as one of the finest in the area, is fitted with a number of air conditioners, water reservoir and satellite dish, with street lights around it.

It also has a security post attached to it. At the time DAILY GUIDE visited the site, workers were busily putting finishing touches to it, with painting almost near completion.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah, a native of Seikwa, who currently lives in the centre of Accra, visits the project site each day.

Residents of the area, which is sprouting with new buildings, expressed surprise at the speed with which the building was completed, considering the fact that several of such types of buildings in the area which began long before that of General Mosquito’s were nowhere near completion.

Most of these residents said they did not know the owner of the building until they started seeing General Mosquito when the work started moving at a fast pace.

He is also said to have put up another plush mansion at Daaban Panyin, a suburb of Kumasi.

This other two-storey building is believed to have taken six months to construct and it is almost near completion, with a boy’s quarters. Landscaping is already being done at top speed.

Residents alleged the materials used for the construction of the building, including bags of cement, were usually sent to the project site in articulated trucks, with a man suspected to be his brother supervising.

General Mosquito was said to have usually visited the Daaban building site in the night, probably to avoid prying eyes.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that the land on which the building is situated was initially owned by government but later on reverted to the Kaase stool, the original owners of the Daaban Panyin lands.

Due to the lavish nature of the building, residents told DAILY GUIDE, several developers trooped to the site to take photographs of the building, with the view to replicating the plan.

When DAILY GUIDE visited the site, the watchman in whose care the building was, was busily working on the lawn outside the house.

DAILY GUIDE was told the needed materials had already been brought in, expected to have been fixed by now.

Rawlings Flares Up

Posted: Daily Guide | Friday, 25 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Former President Jerry John Rawlings yesterday broke loose at the Constitution Review Commission’s sitting scheduled for him when he was heard shouting.

His attitude therefore broke the code of silence associated with the high-profile personalities’ (including former and incumbent Presidents and their Vices) sessions with the commissioners to make their inputs into the review of the country’s 1992 constitution.

When Mr. Rawlings arrived at the Commission’s office at Cantonments around 11:30am in the company of his special aide, Kofi Adams, he exchanged pleasantries with the commissioners before the hearing, which was a closed session, began.

All seemed to be going well until Mr. Rawlings, under whose tenure as a military dictator the current constitution came into being, was overheard shouting at the meeting.

It is not clear what might have triggered his sudden outburst since details of the meeting were not made public.

After almost two hours, the former President, also the founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), came out of the meeting with members of the Commission and had a brief interaction with the media before driving away.

His aide declined to answer questions from the media and also drove off.

Though speculations were rife that some comments by some members of the Commission could have startled Mr. Rawlings, CRC’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Raymond Atuguba, said the former President was not provoked and that the raising of his voice was his usual way of talking.

“You know the man. That is the way he talks,” was what he told DAILY GUIDE when contacted.

However, it was generally rumoured that the mention of the ‘Indemnity Clauses’ in the constitution might have ruffled his feathers. The indemnity clauses are a part of the Transitional Provisions of the Constitution which provide blanket protection for all coup makers in the various military administrations which toppled constitutionally and democratically elected governments.

Mr. Rawlings said the meeting went well and members of the Commission were very receptive.

Asked whether the country’s Constitution had been tried and tested enough to warrant a review as being done, he said, “This happens once in a while as a result of changing circumstances, okay and if there is the need for something to be altered, it would be okay, if there is no need for it, it would not. But I think the opportunity ought to be created for it and I believe this is what has been done.”

The commissioners met President Mills at the Castle yesterday even though it was not clear if they took his views on the review or not.

Meanwhile, the Commission is expected to hold a week’s national conference from Tuesday, 1st March 2011 at the Accra International Conference Center.

The conference, which would be addressed by President Mills, is expected to serve as a representative national platform where the over 75,000 submissions received and processed will be tabled for national debate.

It is also expected to bring together persons with expert knowledge on the various thematic areas gathered by the submissions to assist the conference to arrive at options for constitutional redesign.

The submissions received so far have been synthesized into 12 thematic areas. These have been further broken down into some 77 sub themes and about 548 issues and would be tabled for a national debate.

Participants at the conference are being drawn from the public, private and civil society organizations.

Identifiable groups such as political parties, youth groups, gender groups, persons with disability, children, professional bodies and associations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), private sector as well as eminent persons, facilitators and national and international consultants are expected to participate.

One Killed

In Accra flood
Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 24 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Several residents of Accra have been displaced by Tuesday’s torrential downpour with one person reported dead.

A young man whose name was given as Abubakar Barwuah was reported to have drowned in the Odaw River.

A visit to some of the affected areas including Glefe, the Kokomba market, and Kwame Nkrumah Circle showed a gloomy picture of the aftermath of the rain.

Though officials are yet to quantify the extent of damage, it is believed that the rain which started around 9:30pm and ended around 2am, destroyed properties running into several millions of cedis.

Several low-lying houses around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle were submerged.

At the time of the visit, some residents were seen removing their water-soaked properties including mattresses, sound systems, computers and other personal effects from their rooms to dry them outside, with signs of the water level marked on the walls.

Reports say Dansoman and its surrounding areas including Sakaman was the one of the hardest hit due to the ongoing road construction works in the area, coupled with the spillage of water from other water bodies nearby.

In areas like Korle Gonno, roofs of some buildings were also removed whilst houses were flooded, making it virtually impossible for some residents to come out of their houses until later in the day.

In some areas, the water was high up to the knee and waist levels whilst properties had been washed away.

At the Kokomba market and Glefe where a lot of slums have sprung up, people were finding it extremely difficult to clean the debris since their houses were still flooded.

Tuesday’s rain was the second in the month of February 2011.

Some residents of the Madina Redco Flats who called into Joy FM also reported of extensive flooding in the area.

One of such persons said after about two hours of rain, water levels in his home had reached the waist level forcing him and members of his household to move upstairs to safety.

“At the west point, the water level was above the windscreen level of my 4x4 vehicle. We had three 4x4 vehicles parked outside and they were all almost completely submerged,” he said.

The victim added that other homes in the area were not spared the fury of the floods.

A journalist at Alajo also had his residence flooded.

His only fear was of losing his Boer Bull dogs; but fortunately for him, they were rescued.

Flooding in Accra has become a perennial phenomenon with experts grappling with ways and means of containing it.

Over the past decade, floods have claimed several lives, and destroyed public infrastructure and property.

The rainfall of 4th July 1995 was the highest recorded in one event since 1936.

The 1995 floods caused damage to lives and property, disrupted infrastructural services like water supply, telephone, electricity, roads and railways. Seventeen (17) lives were lost in that flood while commercial and industrial activity was disrupted.

The most affected areas were those located within the flood plain of the Odaw and Onyasia rivers.

Experts attribute most of these floods that hit Accra to urbanization, reduced capacity of drainage systems, poor drains and culverts, maintenance, erosion and sediment delivery, obstructions, damming of water bodies, high rainfall intensities and tidal effects of the Korle Lagoon.

IC Quaye Spits Fire

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 22 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central, Sheikh Ibrahim Cudjoe Quaye, has said that he and members of his family would not sit idle for any group to intimidate and take them for a ride.

The warning came a day after a group of marauding youth, suspected to be members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), attacked his family house and those of his other family members at Alajo, a suburb of Accra.

“Nobody sits in the comfort of his house for people to go and beat them and go scot free,” he said.

At a press conference at the family house yesterday, I. C. Quaye warned that the next time any group of persons would make any such attempt on their lives and property, he and his family members would be ready to face them squarely.

According to the MP, the attack took place at a time he was having a meeting with about 700 members of his party at his private residence at Roman Ridge.

The attackers, suspected to have been organised by the Assembly member-elect of the area, Abdul Aziz Sununu, and one William Quacoo Affum aka Obama, an NDC parliamentary hopeful in the constituency, allegedly vandalized five houses and vehicles in the house, broke into rooms and smashed glass windows including the office of Mohas, a company owned by Mohammed Quaye, a brother to the MP and chairman of the Alajo Town Development Association.

When news of the violence got to him, Sheikh said he immediately called in the police at Kotobabi who acted swiftly to stop what could have been a possible carnage if his people had decided to fight back.

But, Sheikh I.C. Quaye said their own investigations had led to the identification of ringleaders of the violence including Sadat Razak, Sumaila Victor, Mohammed Victor, Sani and Nurudeen Tetteh.

He hoped that the police would take the issue up for the law to take its course on the violent actions of the aforementioned individuals.

He also described as ‘stupid and nonsensical’ claims that his family house was attacked because he was keeping a cache of arms there, asking rhetorically, “So did they collect any weapons in my house?

Are they policemen who can just take the law into their own hands and conduct a search? Who sent them? They should tell me so that we take action against them.

"After causing all the damage thinking that there was no one here, when they were going, God made it possible for people to see the numbers and other details of the car that they used. We know and we are going to see the police with that information,” he said angrily.

“It is my sincere hope that this time around, the police will do everything possible to arrest the perpetrators of this violent act,” he said.

The MP had since called for calm and prevailed on family members and his numerous supporters who trooped to the house to commiserate with them when they heard news of the attack, to let the police do their work.

Meanwhile, the Assembly member of the area Abdul Aziz Sununu has denied being part of the vandalization that took place at I.C Quaye’s family house, indicating that what happened was an internal strife among members of the Quaye family.

NDC Gurus Fight Over Chop Chop

Posted: Daily Guide | Monday, 21 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A big fight has broken out in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) between the Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa-Doe and the party’s communications director in the region, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, over the award of building contracts.

Ms. Doe, a former National Women’s Organizer, accuses Mr. Jacobs of hatching a plot to get her removed from office because she refused to give him contracts.

Media reports suggested that some individuals and groups have petitioned President Mills to remove Ms. Doe claiming she was the most inefficient government representative of all time in the Central Region.

But Benyiwa Doe, nicknamed ‘Ama Chavez’, believes “Allotey is behind all this”.

“If you read the newspaper story very well, it gives lead to Allotey Jacobs as the source of the story.”

The Central Regional Minister told Peace FM that this could be the result of strained relations between her and Jacobs, a Board member of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

According to her, she believed Allotey, who claims to be a contractor, was behind the negative reports on her “because he wanted a contract that does not exist and I couldn’t get it for him.”

She added, “He has gone to almost everybody who matters from the Central Region to the capital Accra, petitioning them that I should be removed from my position” –a claim Allotey Jacobs has since denied.

Apart from that, she said “he has gone to Mr. Quayson, the Chairman of the Revenue Agencies Board, he has come to Kwesi Ahwoi and Ato Ahwoi with the same allegation; so I have ample evidence that he is behind all this… this is his handiwork. Meanwhile, he was a CPP man and this is a CPP newspaper so the links are there.”

Allotey Jacobs, who calls himself an ‘educated fisherman’ however thinks Benyiwa Doe is only trying to create unnecessary attention for herself because he has done no such thing as she claims.

Though he admitted having a strained relation with the Minister, he denied having anything to do with the newspaper publication since his accuser could have equally planted the story to make it look as though some people including himself wanted her out.

Mr. Jacobs declined to comment on whether or not he had any such discussions about the possible removal or reshuffle of Benyiwa Doe, with the Ahwoi brothers, who are said to be the de facto leaders of this country.

He also declined to comment on whether or not Benyiwa Doe was competent enough to occupy the position of Central Regional Minister.

He rejected suggestions that he was eyeing Benyiwa Doe’s position, hence his alleged interest in seeing her out.

On the issue of the contract, the ‘educated fisherman’ said “it’s so funny that the contract came from the Ministry of Education and not from the region,” noting, “The person who helped me in getting that contract was George Lawson, our Deputy General Secretary who was then the Special Assistant to the Education Minister, who gave me that contract.”

For this reason, he said “it was not her who gave me that contract.”

Cocaine Arrests Snuffed

Posted: Daily Guide | Monday, 21 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) believes that President Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) government have not been telling Ghanaians the truth about the fight against the drugs’ trade in the country.

In the ‘state of the nation’ address last week, President Mills said his government had acquitted itself very well two years after declaring war on the drugs’ trade in the country, noting “we will not relent in our fight against the narcotic trade and I believe (that) the majority of Ghanaians are happy that these days they don’t wake up to daily stories of cocaine here, cocaine there, cocaine everywhere.”

But Buabeng-Asamoa, who is a deputy Communications Director of the party, says the President appeared to project the fight against drug trafficking through Ghana as a political battle against the NPP.

He made these comments when he appeared on Joy FMs news analysis programme ‘Newsfile’, alleging that the Mills administration has been deliberately suppressing information about drug arrests for political purposes.

Mr Buabeng-Asamoa, lawyer, quoted paragraphs 841 of the 2011 budget statement which stated “…the Board (NACOB) recorded 32 cases of narcotic drugs, arrested 38 culprits and seized a total of 483.6 kilograms of various narcotic drugs” to support his claim, noting that “these seizures were in 2010 alone and could be the tip of the iceberg.”

He therefore asked “where are the 483.6 kilograms of drugs?” since according to Mr Asamoa, the NPP government passed two very important laws in the fight against drug traffickers which the NDC government seemed to have ignored.

“Because of influence, there is a suspicion that cocaine suspects on bail either run away or bribe their way.

When the law was passed under then Attorney-General Joe Ghartey, 20 suspects were convicted in 2 months. It is alleged that against this law, the prosecution is said to have demanded bail”, he stated.

According to him, another law was passed which made it obligatory for cocaine to be destroyed as soon as it was seized after a sample had been shown to the court.

That was also to avoid the situation where the exhibits could get missing being transported to court daily for hearings, asking “so has the government destroyed the 483.6 kilos of cocaine?”

Other panelists on the programme bemoaned the fact that drug cases and arrests were not being reported in the media thus giving the impression that the NDC had created that since it came to power the drug trade had suddenly stopped.

Editor-in-Chief of the ‘New Crusading Guide’ Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako Jnr indicated that if the government continued to play politics with sensitive issues such as that of drug control, then the fight against the menace would not be successful.

Between 1994 and 1999, Kwaku Baako alleged that over 300 cases of cocaine-related drug issues were not clearly dealt with, an indictment on the NDC.

He stressed the need for the issue of cocaine to be dealt with in a nationalistic manner so that everybody would be involved.

Otherwise, he said the NDC’s attempt to paint NPP black would only worsen the problems of enforcement.

Whilst welcoming the President’s announcement of his decision to re-open investigations into the infamous MV Benjamin cocaine case in which 77 parcels of the drug got missing from a vessel, he said it was sad that the President seemed misinformed that the suspects in that case had been tried, convicted and jailed.

‘Crucify Me’

-Asiedu Nketiah
Posted: Daily Guide | Saturday, 19 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Barely 24 hours after coming under severe criticism for an alleged conflict of interest in the ongoing Bui Hydro Power construction project, General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia also called General Mosquito, has gone on the defensive, trying to justify his role and that of his block manufacturing company.

Asiedu-Nketia said if his company was supplying blocks to the Bui Dam Project, and some Ghanaians did not understand why, they should crucify him. The NDC chief scribe’s conflict of interest situation had generated a furore, with people accusing him of abusing his position.

This was after the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bui Power Authority (BPA) and First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Fred Oware, exposed how a block manufacturing company owned by the NDC General Secretary had been awarded a contract to supply blocks for the entire resettlement project of the BPA, though he was and continued to serve on the company’s Board.

General Mosquito had earlier threatened to expose former President Kufuor for allegedly failing to implement the hydro power project and particularly in the funding of the Bui City project – a claim both individuals had vehemently denied.

But on Thursday, an obviously bruised General Mosquito had a hell of time defending himself, hopping from one radio station to the other denying any wrong-doing in securing a contract with the BPA though he himself admitted not informing the Board about his decision to do business with the organisation.

Mr Asiedu-Nketiah told Peace FM he could not fathom why people were trying to make his contract with the said company look awkward since, in his opinion, it was not the first time somebody serving on a company’s Board had managed to secure a contract with the same company.

He however admitted establishing a branch of his block manufacturing company at the Bui project site only three months ago.

He said he noticed the seeming difficulties by sub-contractors of the Bui project in procuring blocks and therefore decided to extend his block factory, which was originally in his hometown, Seikwa, closer to the project site for the benefit of the subcontractors.

In the face of the probing questions he was being asked, he said anybody who felt he had done something wrong should go and crucify him.

His defence was that he did not source the contract directly from the Board and could therefore not be cited for conflict of interest, since he got the contract from some of the companies subcontracted to work on the resettlement project, after which the board, of which he is a member, would then supervise.

That notwithstanding, the NDC General Secretary boasted of having been able to create jobs for the residents of the area, especially the youth, most of whom were currently into the block manufacturing business.

He therefore could not fathom why Mr Oware and his colleagues in the NPP who had been pushing for the inclusion of local companies in the construction of the STX houses, were raising issues with the award of contract to his company and citing him for conflict of interest.

This, he said, was because as a Board member of the BPA, he was not under any contractual obligation to provide blocks for the project, neither were the contractors under any compulsion to buy the blocks from his company.

That aside, General Mosquito said his blocks were of higher quality and therefore higher priced than those of his competitors, hence the wide patronage.

He later accused the Kufuor administration of not doing proper work on the Bui project, saying they either failed to conduct feasibility studies on the project, claiming nothing was left behind for the new managers.

But Mr Oware stood by his claim that prior to leaving office in May 2009, they had made provisions for funding for the Bui City with $28million set aside, of which $5million goes into employers permanent facilities, $12million for irrigation structures and $11million for facilities for resettlement as contained in the Bui Hydroelectric, EPC/Turn-key project contract volume 1 schedule of payment, subsection scheduled no. 17 provisional sum, which means that there wouldn’t be any need for extra cost as the government was pushing for $118million.

Additionally, Mr. Oware indicated that “there was a sum of $12million under schedule no. 2 road and bridge works which was to be applied to road works within the proposed city”, noting with emphasis, “A copy of the business plan (on the planning and development of Bui City) was handed over to the new Chief Executive Officer as part of the materials I left behind.”

He could therefore not fathom why the current government had approached Parliament with a request for additional funding of $118million to complete the hydroelectric project and submitted that “as an EPC/Turnkey contract, any additional funding to complete the project should have been out of the question”.

At the time of leaving office, Mr. Oware claimed there were three other passed certificates totaling over $97million which were unpaid, attracting penalties and therefore increasing the project cost, indicating that “the late payment has also led to delayed completion date”.

But the Bui Hydro Power Project which was started by previous NPP administration to build and operate an efficient hydroelectric plant that would generate electricity at base price to spur industrial and agricultural revolution in Ghana, impacting the lives of millions, is currently cash-strapped.

Mr. Oware however blamed the NDC government since adequate measures were put in place by the previous administration to forestall any such drawbacks which had led to government demanding an additional $118million to complete the hydroelectric project.

Asiedu Nketia Sells Blocks To Bui Dam

Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 17 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, appears to have bitten more than he could chew after issuing threats on former President John Agyekum Kufuor over the latter’s handling of projects relating to the construction of the Bui Dam.

The NDC General Secretary, popularly called General Mosquito, was badly exposed for transacting business with the Bui Power Project while serving as a Board member.

Asiedu-Nketia confirmed allegations that he was now a high-flying contractor who also supplied cement blocks to the Bui Power Project, of which he is a member of the Board of Directors.

The NDC boss however disagreed with suggestions that his relation with the project constituted a conflict of interest, insisting he was a supplier like others who supplied building materials for the project, which was started under the Kufuor administration with funding from the Chinese government.

He was compelled to reveal his business relations after Fred Oware raised red flags over a company purported to be owned by the NDC chieftain, which he said was the only block manufacturing company for the entire resettlement project.

He stated that “the higher prices charged by him (Asiedu-Nketiah) ultimately affect the project cost.”

Yesterday, Asiedu-Nketiah, former manager of the Seikwa-based Nkoranman Rural Bank, clashed with the leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after he urged the power authority to invite the former President to answer for his stewardship regarding the project.

According to him, the former administration failed to leave behind any document that could help with the implementation process, especially regarding the Bui City Project.

Mosquito had, among others, alleged that the former President as Chairman of the Bui Power Authority, together with the Board and management, failed in the implementation of the hydro power project and particularly in the funding of the Bui City Development project – a claim former Chief Executive Officer of the Bui Power Authority (BPA) and current First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Fred Oware, vehemently denied.

Asiedu-Nketia, a former teacher at Seikwa Presbyterian Middle School, alleged that no funds were made available either as part of the hydro funds or other financial arrangements initiated for the Bui City project.

He therefore suggested that President Kufuor should be made to appear before a body for questioning.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Mr. Oware said, “Such irresponsible statements can only come from one who does not read materials sent to him or if he plainly chooses to be mischievous.”

Mr Oware told journalists how a block manufacturing company owned by the NDC General Secretary had been single-handedly awarded a contract to supply blocks for the entire resettlement project, indicating that “subcontractors who make their own blocks risk their contracts being terminated”.

Mr. Oware dared General Mosquito to do his worst by, as it were, telling the whole country what wrong either he or President Kufuor did regarding the Bui project.

Though Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah admitted ownership of the said block manufacturing company in Kabrono which sells blocks to companies working on the Bui dam project, he denied that it was the only one supplying blocks to the project site saying there were about four others.

Prior to leaving office in May 2009, the former CEO of BPA said, they had made provisions for funding for the Bui City with $28million set aside, of which $5million goes into employers permanent facilities, $12million for irrigation structures and $11million for facilities for resettlement as contained in the Bui Hydroelectric, EPC/Turnkey project contract volume 1 schedule of payment, subsection scheduled no. 17 provisional sum.

Additionally, Mr. Oware indicated that “there was a sum of $12million under schedule no. 2 road and bridge works which was to be applied to road works within the proposed city”, noting with emphasis, “A copy of the business plan (on the planning and development of Bui City) was handed over to the new Chief Executive Officer as part of the materials I left behind.”

He could also not fathom why the current government had approached Parliament with a request for additional funding of $118million to complete the hydroelectric project and submitted that “as an EPC/Turnkey contract, any additional funding to complete the project should have been out of the question.”

At the time of leaving office, Mr. Oware claimed there were three passed certificates totalling over $97million which were unpaid, attracting penalties and therefore increasing the project cost, indicating that “the late payment has also led to delayed completion date.”

He said the current Board of Bui had appointed a number of subcontractors to undertake the resettlement housing with charges higher than the Chinese rates, in the name of enhancing local content, whilst the Chinese continue to supervise the resettlement project.

Furthermore, the new Board was said to be insisting that the Chinese should buy chippings/aggregates from a supplier based in Sunyani (over 60km) at a price likely to add a further $50million to the original project cost.

As it stands now, the former CEO of the BPA said the project would be completed in the year 2013 instead of 2012 with further cost implications.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that since there were about four other companies operating there, everybody was free to sell blocks and that others even brought blocks from as far as Kumasi to the project site.

According to him, the system at the project site was a free market, noting that “because of their quality, my blocks are a little more expensive than the others. So those who want it, come to buy, those who cannot, buy from the other block manufacturers.”

But this time round, General Mosquito changed his tongue and said “I have my operations in Bungase and so those who want it come to buy.”

Mills Fires 2 Ministers

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 16 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
In what looks like another musical chairs ministerial reshuffle, President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills has reshuffled his Deputy Ministers, swapping some of them while bringing on a few fresh limbs.

He also dropped two and rewarded a man who just last Friday floated an organisation to champion support for his re-election, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi.

Key among those affected by yesterday’s reshuffle are Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, the man who proclaimed Jihad during the Akwatia by-election, replacing James Agyenim-Boateng as one of the two Deputy Ministers of Information.

This was contained in press release signed by Secretary to the President, J.K. Bebaako-Mensah, sent to the media yesterday.

It is not too clear why Baba Jamal is being brought to a delicate ministry as Information considering his intemperate nature; but some believe that he was being sent there to do the government’s hatchet job which Agyenim-Boateng, who heads for the Tourism Ministry as Deputy Minister, could not do.

Just a week ago, Baba Jamal, who had hints of his possible dismissal from government, rallied Eastern Regional Youth Organisers of the NDC to drum up support for him in order for the President to maintain him.

They appeared to have succeeded, but it is not clear if he can get on well with the people at the Ministry, especially Stan Dogbe, the de facto Minister at the Information Ministry.

Mr Agyenim-Boateng, a final year student at the Ghana School of Law, is replacing Kobby Acheampong, a man noted for making unfounded allegations, who is taking over from newly appointed Eastern Regional Minister, Dr. Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi as Deputy Interior Minister.

Former Presidential Spokesman, Mahama Ayariga, who was made Deputy Trade Minister not too long ago, swaps positions with Dr J.S Annan, Deputy Minister of Education, who has been accused by the President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Anthony Abotsi-Afriyie, of meddling in typical student affairs.

President Mills however decided to bring in some fresh limbs to justify his claim of 2012 being an ‘action year’, with the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman West, Aquinas Tawiah Quansah heading for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development as an additional Deputy.

He joins Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah as Deputy Minister whilst Member of Parliament for Trobu-Amasaman, Ernest Attuquaye Armah, has also been appointed Deputy Minister of Communication and set to go and face the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting anytime soon, like his colleague Aquinas Quansah.

The President however decided to relieve two persons, Gideon Quarcoo and Betty Bosomtwe-Sam, of their jobs as Deputies for Communication and Western Region respectively.

Though the statement did not state explicitly, Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that the President has shown them the exit, but did not say why, since it is subject to the President’s personal discretion.

Typical of a job-for-the-boys scenario, the President also decided to reward Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, a Biochemistry lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and failed NDC Parliamentary candidate for Oforikrom constituency in the 2008 elections, who recently formed the ‘Get Atta Mills Elected’ group.

He has been given a juicy appointment as Deputy Eastern Regional Minister to replace Baba Jamal, whilst District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shama, Emelia Arthur, has been appointed Deputy Western Regional Minister, replacing Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, a victim of foot-soldiers’ agitation. She was accused of having poor human relations with foot-soldiers.

President Mills also made the following appointments of District Chief Executives (DCEs)- Apraku Lartey, Tano North; and Atta Bosompem, Asunafo South, both in the Brong Ahafo Region.

In the Ashanti Region, he appointed Solomon Agyei-Mensah and Samuel Asiamah DCEs for the Sekyere East and Sekyere Afram Plains respectively, whilst Reginald Asamoah Osae takes the position of DCE for Kwaebibirim District Assembly in the Eastern Region.

Drama In Court Over Lawyers’ Licence

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 16 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
DRAMA UNFOLDED in court last Friday when the judge presiding over the case in which POS Foundation has sued Fan Milk Company for selling expired products to unsuspecting members of the public raised issues about the operational licence of solicitors of the ice-cream manufacturing company.

Fan Milk was seeking to set aside the writ of summons of POS Foundation and its Chief Executive, Jonathan Osei Owusu, on the grounds that the plaintiff, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), and its Chief Executive, a human rights activist, had failed to sign the statement of claim attached to the writ of summons.

This followed a suit filed by Mr. Owusu against the company and the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) after being hospitalized for consuming supposed expired yoghurt, one of the numerous products of the company.

Justice Utter Peter Dery of the Human Rights Court questioned the credibility of the licence of solicitors of Fan Milk, Messrs Quist, Brown, Wontumi and Associates, represented by Yaw Adjei Affram with registration number 03115, quoted on the statement of conditional appearance signed by S. K. Amoah.

This, according to the judge, was because the solicitors' licence expired on January 13 while the letter was written on January 20.

He therefore ordered the solicitors to immediately renew their licence to continue with the case.

Justice Dery therefore dismissed Fan Milk’s motion, saying “this application is thrown overboard since the first defendant, Fan Milk Limited, cannot stand on this minor error to seek the court to dismiss the case."

Mr. Affram said the failure to sign the statement of claim rendered the summons void since every writ of summons should be accompanied by a statement of claim duly signed.

Mr. Affram said "In the absence of a signed statement of claim, the writ of summons cannot stand."

But counsel for Pos Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu, Denis Ofosuappeah and Isaac Aidoo of Ahmed and Co., contended that the statement of claim which was not signed could be corrected within a matter of seconds so that the case could be speedily heard and disposed of instead of dragging it to waste the court's time.

POS Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu are seeking the court’s order to get Fan Milk Company to put an expiry date on Fanyogo, one of its products, and make it legible while stopping the sale of its products carried by vendors in the hot sun.

The plaintiff is also asking the court to order the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) which is the second defendant to ensure that Fan Milk fixes legible expiry dates on the products and institutes an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure public interest and safety.

It wants the court to order Fan Milk to immediately recall all Fanyogo products on the market until the expiry dates are fixed on the products and an injunction on the production of Fanyogo until they have met all the conditions of legible expiry date and recall of the products on the market.

Furthermore, Pos Foundation is seeking an extensive health care in favour of Mr. Osei Owusu as well as general damages and cost.

Clash Over ‘All Die Be Die’

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 15 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The famous ‘all die be die’ comment by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) refuses to die a natural death, as it continues to generate heat in political circles.

The latest of these is the clash between a leading member of the NPP, who is aspiring to become the party’s parliamentary candidate in the Ablekuma South constituency, Ursula Owusu, and Presidential Aide, Stanislav Xoese Dogbe.

Ursula appeared on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ show wearing a branded T-shirt with the bold inscription ‘ALL DIE BE DIE,’ incurring the anger of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This follows calls by NDC for the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to apologise for comments he made at a meeting with party faithful at Koforidua in the Eastern region, urging them to be bold--a comment which he repeated in several other meetings in the Greater Accra. Nana Addo is now in the Upper East region, and he is expected to repeat the same message.

The wearing of the T-shirt by Ursula seemed to have provoked Stan Dogbe, a man who until recently did not have his name in the official list of presidential appointees sent to Parliament. According to him, Ursula who happens to be the vice president of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), was only trying to court what he described as cheap popularity for herself to lobby for a ministerial appointment should Nana Addo become President after the 2012 elections.

Stan Dogbe of the infamous ‘Dogbegate’ scandal told Accra-based Citi FM why Ursula Owusu should be wearing a T’ Shirt with that inscription.

“As for Ursula, she thinks that being boisterous and overly supportive of whatever Nana Addo says whether good or bad is what would give her the popularity that she requires to win her parliamentary seat or get her a ministerial appointment in Nana Addo’s government. I am sorry Nana is nowhere near the Presidency in 2012 or 2016 and she ought to realize that this country would have to remain stable before they come back to power,” he charged.

But Ursula dismissed Stan’s criticisms insisting that there was nothing wrong with the T-shirt she displayed on the programme, indicating that she wore the dress in response to the NPP presidential candidate’s call for party members to be bold and defend their right in the 2012 elections, since the NPP would not succumb to the intimidations of the NDC government.

She therefore accused Stan of rather being the person who was scheming to win cheap popularity and recognition in the Mills administration.

The NPP stalwart thus urged Stan to show some element of respect to Nana Addo who fought against the brute dictatorship of the AFRC and PNDC of former President Rawlings.

We’re ready for NDC

Adding his voice, Boakye Agyarko, Campaign Manager for Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP was more than ready to meet the NDC boot-for-boot in 2012, adding they would no longer sit in laxity for their members to be beaten by NDC goons as happened in Chereponi, Atiwa, Akwatia and Agbogbloshie.

Mr. Agyarko told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that “we should stop this hypocrisy. NDC has visited violence upon this nation many a time. We refuse to be intimidated this time round. We are going to stand our grounds. Let the NDC, given their character, do their worst, we will be ready for them but we will not run.”

He therefore turned down a request by the NDC for Nana Addo to apologise for the “all die be die” comment.

“You apologise for a wrong. The NDC has to convince us what the wrong is ethnocentrism. That is a figment of their imagination. If you listen to what Nana Addo said, he said ‘ye se yen Akan fuo.’ Do you understand that, it means somebody told Nana Addo or they say? It is not Nana Addo saying ‘Akan fuo.”

Until then, Mr. Agyarko noted, “you don’t render an apology because someone insists you render an apology. “Nana Addo is not inciting anybody. He is not asking people to jump onto the streets with cudgels and cutlasses to attack the NDC.”

Instead, he said, all the NPP leader did was to send a message to the NDC that “if they continue in the fashion they have always done in Chereponi, Atiwa and all of those areas and if they believe that we are cowards and each time they will attack us we will run away, no. They will be wrong; this time round we will not run away”.

For him, his colleagues in the NDC are upset because “now their usual victim is ready to face them, the school-yard bully, that’s all it is.”

Mr. Agyarko recalled how his younger brother and former Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), Emmanuel Agayrko, was nearly lynched by members of the NDC in the year 2008 when he stood as NPP parliamentary candidate for Lower Manya constituency in the Eastern Region.

A night before the 2008 general elections, Mr. Agyarko narrated that “seven armed men, armed with pump action guns driving the vehicle of the NDC MP, drove into his house (and) started firing.

“Luckily, my brother was not there but my sisters and other relatives who were in that house were recklessly beaten and most of them injured” he said, noting that “the attack is imminent again. They have threatened to attack him again.”

In that regard, the NPP Campaign Manager could not but say “the question I want to ask the NDC and all those who are saying that Nana Addo shouldn’t have said what he said is ‘what is the advice they should give my brother when the attack comes. What advice do they want to give my brother; that he should run away, is that what they are going to ask him to do when the next attack comes?”

He said that it would be important for those calling for the NPP presidential candidate to apologise to understand the context in which Nana Addo was speaking, stressing, “If the NDC insists on lying by taking part of the sentence away in its attempt to incriminate Nana Addo, shame on them.”

Back Off Nana

Posted: Daily Guide | Friday, 11 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Kobina Ivor Greenstreet, has asked the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to stop its hypocrisy; spare the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, their tantrums over his ‘all die be die’ comments; and concentrate on the affairs of state.

Mr. Greenstreet believed the NDC was making a case out of nothing because Nana Addo’s comments were in no way an inference to violence come 2012, stressing that what the ruling party was doing was just “an orchestration to make him appear unelectable”.

This, he said, was because the NPP presidential candidate’s comment was one directed at internal party members to prepare them for what he called ‘the metaphorical political battle’.

The CPP General Secretary was speaking on X.FM’s ‘Big Bite’ programme yesterday, touting Nana Addo as a man who hates violence and has been fighting for the rights of the individual, emphasizing that what the NDC was doing was their own way of denigrating their opponents.

Nana Addo had asked his party supporters at a forum in Koforidua on Tuesday to stand firm and not to allow themselves to be intimidated. He said they should get ready to meet the NDC boot-for-boot in the 2012 elections.

He was quoted to have said, "We need to be bold and courageous for 2012 because Ghanaians need us to come to power", stressing, “They (NDC) have intentions to intimidate us in 2012 because they believe that we are soft and cowards.

If that is the thinking, then we shall see. At least, during the Atiwa by-election, we showed a little of our colours there.”

He added, "You must understand that this party was formed by courageous people. Our leaders who formed this party that has now become the biggest political movement in Ghana were not cowards. So in 2012, we need to be courageous because all 'die be die'. All die be die," he said.

This is what has triggered leading members of the NDC including the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah to launch a series of blistering attacks on Nana Addo.

“Nana Addo’s personal political history should be able to tell Ghanaians that he does not believe in violence; he does not believe in subverting the rule of law and the constitutional provision which protects all Ghanaians.

Rather on the contrary, he has been an individual who over many years has fought for the right of Ghanaians, has fought for the opening up of the political space, for freedom of association and for freedom of speech”, noted the CPP General Secretary.

For this reason, Mr Greenstreet said, “I think that it was more of an internal matter that he was speaking to his own rank and file, trying to get them prepared and ready for the struggle ahead.”

Instead of punching holes and finding faults in Nana Addo’s comments, the CPP General Secretary asked the NDC to focus on delivering the so-called ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ they promised Ghanaians and stop building mountains out of molehills, saying, “It is clear that the incumbent NDC government has a definite strategy to try and create the impression that Nana Addo is some kind of cocaine smuggler, violent and some kind of ‘gidigidi’ human being; but I think what they need to concentrate on doing is to show Ghanaians what their strategies are and what they are working on and stop spending time trying to pick on every word Nana Addo has to say and paint it in a certain light to the public.”

NDC On Nana

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah asked the NPP to take steps to remove Nana Addo as its presidential candidate since, in his opinion, the actions and words of the opposition leader were inimical to Ghana's democracy.

He took issue with Nana Addo’s comments, describing him as a war monger who must be sacked by the NPP.

This, according to him, was because “the violence that characterized the Atiwa by-election was part of an orchestrated and a well rehearsed grand design to plunge this nation into chaos during the 2012 elections”, emphasizing that “Nana Akufo-Addo has reconfirmed his credentials as a war monger who will stop at nothing in his bid to pursue his selfish political ambition of becoming President at all cost even if it means plunging this nation into civil and tribal war.”

The NDC called on the NPP presidential candidate to withdraw what they described as “these unfortunate statements and apologise unconditionally to all Ghanaians, particularly his own party for putting them into such an awkward and embarrassing situation by these utterances.”

NPP Hits Back

In a sharp and swift rebuttal to the NDC’s press conference, NPP General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie said Nana Akufo-Addo had nothing to apologise for.

He sent a clear message to the ruling party that the NPP would not allow the democratic will of the majority of Ghanaians to be abused by intimidation, violence or electoral fraud in 2012.

Instead, he said, “Our flagbearer’s firm and uncompromising position on ensuring a clean contest in 2012 is based on the extra-electoral tactics employed by the NDC in Akwatia, Chereponi and Atiwa and the shocking inaction of the security personnel in the face of such blatant acts of intimidation, violence and electoral malpractices.”

In a statement, the NPP warned: “Let them not think that we would give them a free hand at repeating these unhealthy practices in 2012. NPP will be no rollover in 2012”, calling on its activists and supporters to stand firm and defend their democratic rights.

In that regard, the NPP has turned down the suggestion by the NDC for its presidential candidate to apologise for those comments since “the NPP is proud to be led by a man who would not stand by and allow Ghanaians to be cheated” and that “the NPP will continue to express, through both our words and deeds, that we are deeply committed to the democratic process.”

The NPP has consequently asked the ruling NDC to stop the diversionary tactics and focus on doing what is important, asking them to fix the economy and deliver on their promise of a ‘Better Ghana’ since “propaganda will not pay school fees; it will not reduce the cost of living or create jobs.”

The statement said: “It is not for the NDC to define to Ghanaians who Nana Akufo-Addo is. For over 35 years that Nana Akufo-Addo has been at the forefront of fighting the Ghanaian cause - for political freedom, human rights, democracy, opportunities and prosperity - Nana Akufo-Addo never once used any instrument of violence as his weapon.

“True to the character of the founders of our political tradition, Nana Akufo-Addo has used his courage, wisdom, words and legitimate persuasion to help bring about the kind of democratic environment that we are all enjoying today, which the NPP is committed to protecting and enhancing,” the statement said noting, “Nana Akufo-Addo's record speaks for itself.

“His contribution to both national and international peace and freedom can never be wished away by the programmed amplifiers of false propaganda. It is a hopeless endeavour destined to fail.”

The UK and Ireland branch of the NPP has also declared an unflinching support for Nana Addo’s comments.

A statement issued and signed by its Communications Officer, Nana Yaw Sarpong said Nana Akufo-Addo is also right to ask party members to remain steadfast, disciplined and focused, as well as prepare to sacrifice, and work hard for the party to come to power in 2012.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s comments raised serious concerns about the attitude and machinations of the National Democratic Congress and its leadership under President John Evans Atta Mills and the current attempts to undermine the peace and security of Ghana without honoring its numerous promises to the Ghanaian people, as well as the seeming lack of political will from civil society to address this menace, citing several instances in which members of the ruling party visited brutality on members of the NPP including those at the Kokomba market in Accra, Chereponi and Atiwa be-elections to back their claims.

Four people mainly NPP supporters were butchered by NDC goons with impunity in broad-day light in front of a Police Station at Agbogbloshie in 2009, a few weeks after NDC had assumed power, with no arrest made since then.